HQN, contemporary romance/chick lit, 2007

This book was chosen as the group discussion book at the Lunatic Cafe. I think, without this nudge, I never would have read it...and I'm not sure I'm glad I did. I am glad I bought it used.

Maggie is in her thirties, a single diner owner in a small Maine town with a perfect sister who has the perfect marriage, and a pushy mother who constantly puts her down. When she meets an attractive man in her diner, she's so busy daydreaming about falling in love with him, she misses the fact that he's the new priest, and she ends up embarrassing herself in front of the entire town. Father Tim seems to take it in stride and takes it upon himself to play matchmaker. After a series of disastrous dates, Maggie's still secretly in love with the priest, but also feeling funny feelings for Malone, a surly fisherman who is apparently the only other single man in town.

The most basic of basics: did I like the book? I think it was a fun read in the short term, but you know what? I've already forgotten most of it, and don't actually have any desire to revisit it. I had a hard time getting into it, then it picked up and I read the rest in almost one sitting, so I liked it at the time...it just didn't stand up in the long run for me.

Maggie is a "sad sack" (thank you, Mel, for describing her that way, b/c it was right on the money). I wanted to sympathize, but her "pity poor me" schtick got old, fast. This is not someone I would have as a friend, or even have much sympathy for, once I got past the surface. Malone was a cipher, which can partially be explained by the first-person narration, but not completely, as I've read first-person books before that manage to give you a clearer glimpse of other characters than this. And even in this book, some of the other characters were more easily accessible than Malone – I'm thinking the sister, the parents, even the priest.

First person doesn't bother me, but the fact that it was written in present-tense was making my inner editor squirm. It's a really hard thing to maintain as a writer, and can come off like a "Like ohmigawd!" ditzy tone if the writer's not too careful -- Ms. Higgins sort of skirted the line, IMO.

Though it's from Harlequin and labeled romance, I definitely think this book is more chick lit. They may have been serving up diner food rather than swanky cocktails, but all the hallmarks of chick lit -- the shallowness, the helpful-but-not-helpful friends, the critical family, the hopeless and completely self-absorbed heroine -- they were all there. And these are all reasons why I hate chick lit. There was definitely not enough romance in the book. Maggie banged Malone, pure and simple. No buildup, no attraction, no nothing. And it barely got better, mainly because Maggie's obsession with the priest kept getting in the way. There were glimmers of relationship potential, but not enough.

The whole crush-on-a-priest thing was way too overdone. To decide he was "the one" based on looks and accent? Then to blab to everyone in town? Dumb, but somewhat in character and worked for the plot. What I can't forgive is Maggie's continuing to have "feelings" for Father Tim, to do all that volunteer work to be near him. That just made her pathetic, and rather unlikeable as a heroine.

I'm not sure I buy the HEA. On the one hand, Malone was showing that he was willing to try to open up, which was promising. On the other hand, Maggie is still Maggie, and I can't help but feel Malone deserves better.

If there was one thing I thought was perfectly done in this book, it was Colonel, the dog. I cried buckets. I also thought the stuff that went on with the parents' marriage was well done too -- very realistic. I honestly felt Maggie had a better relationship with her mother at the end of the book than she did with Malone.

The women at the Cafe who had read Ms. Higgins before said this was not her best effort, so perhaps I'll read another one by her to see how I like it, but I won't recommend her until I've read more of her myself.

1/2

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Bantam, historical romance, October 2007
Connections: book #2 in the Rothwell Brothers series

I'd put off reading this book because I was less than impressed with the first Rothwell book, The Rules of Seduction, so I had cold feet. I have to admit it was a bit of a struggle to get through this book too, but in the end, I liked it much better than its predecessor.

Phaedra Blair is an Original. Openly raised as a bastard by her equally independent mother, she bows to no man, striding around town in black, loose dresses without a corset (scandal!), with her red hair undressed (how uncouth!). At the opening of the book, she has inherited a small book press, and plans to publish the memoirs of her father -- a politician who knew everyone's dirty little secrets. Unlike the late owner of the press, she has no intention of taking hush money to expurgate the memoirs, so Society's pretty peeved with her. To escape some of the pressure, she goes to Italy to pursue another mystery from her parents' past.

One of the families trying to stop or change the publication is the Rothwells -- the memoirs are rumored to contain a damning rumor about their late father. Lord Elliot Rothwell, who already finds Phaedra fascinating, elects himself to deal with the issue, and when word reaches him that Phaedra has been put under house arrest for outrageous behavior in Naples, he senses an advantage and hastens to Italy to press his cause.

What follows is one of the most angst-ridden courtships I've seen in ages. They're attracted, but they don't talk beyond verbal fencing, refusing to give an inch on their agendas. When things come to a head and they are forced to marry, it's still a matter of two steps forward, three back. It's not until Phaedra reveals why she's in Italy and Elliot tells her that he fears the rumors about his late father are true that the book really picked up for me. By the last hundred pages, I was finally hooked. Which is what makes Lessons of Desire a more successful read than The Rules of Surrender, because the latter never really grabbed me. I never felt sympathetic towards Alexia, but even though Phaedra's stubborn clinging to her unconventional lifestyle irritated me for much of the book, I eventually got to see the roots of her motivations. She made sense to me and she gained my sympathy and care as a reader. Elliot too seems less a cypher than Hayden. Though still not my favorite of Ms. Hunter's books, my experience was better than the last time, enough to make me get the rest of the series.

1/2

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Jove, paranormal romance, December 2008
Connections: concludes the Sign of Seven trilogy

I am going to proffer a suggestion to Ms. Roberts and her publisher with regard to trilogies: stop. Not that these stories don't deserve to be published, but, to be perfectly honest, I think they would work much better as single-volume novels. As trilogies, they're coming off a bit thin.

In the case of The Pagan Stone, it's the relationship aspect that suffers. Actually, this is the problem in all three books. The moment we meet the characters in Blood Brothers, we know Quinn and Cal will be together, and Layla and Fox, and Gage and Cybil. There's no buildup and barely any tension. This is especially true for Gage and Cybil. Both are "free spirits," not wanting to be tied down to a location or relationship, both have problem relations...really, they're almost the same person, except Cybil is not quite as cynical as Gage. Similar personalities or not, I totally didn't buy their HEA. Though they pay lip service to wanting kids and family and all that happy stuff, so much time had been spent stressing how much they don't want those things, that I just can't believe it. I can't help but picture that years down the line, they'll either be together and miserable or apart and content, but either way, making some poor child's life hell.

It sounds like I hated this book, but I actually didn't. While Gage and Cybil left me cold, the plot itself was intricate and interesting, and I had to keep reading to find out how the Big Evil Bastard would be defeated. While the romances fell flat, the teamwork was seamless. Interactions between the six characters could be fun, even at the most tense of times. About the only thing about the demon plot that bugged me was the ridiculous symmetry of all three women getting knocked up. That was a little too schmoopy for me.

I'll probably still keep reading Ms. Roberts's trilogies, like the sucker I am, because they are good storytelling, but a tiny part of me is always going to be whispering that they would work better in a single volume.

1/2

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

I was, at first, very excited to hear of this serial ebook. Readers had already been treated to a confident and sophisticated tantraiiken Selene, in an established and devoted couple with Prime Nichtvren Nikolai, in the Dante Valentine series. The picture painted in “Brother’s Keeper” was vastly different: a scared and sullen Selene, one who hated Nikolai as much as she needed him. The story didn’t have a resolution, or even an identity of Selene’s brother’s killer, so the ebook was most welcome. At first.

The ebook contained the lush yet stark prose I have come to expect from Ms. Saintcrow, bringing Saint City to vivid life. Unfortunately, the story also had something else I recognized all too well: the exact same characters I’ve read before, in the form of Dante and Japhrimel. Both Dante and Selene are emotionally scarred women of power with massive trust issues who whine all the livelong day, and Japh and Nikolai are mysterious paranormal beings who broke ties with their more powerful boss/maker, beings who, while mysterious, have never done anything to harm their lovers, who only ask one thing: to trust them for now and be patient for full disclosure.

Sadly, like Dante, Selene doesn’t trust. She spends half the story in whiny mental anguish, running from Nikolai as much as she runs to him, and wallowing in self-hatred. OK, her brother just died, very violently, and his death is directly related to some business of Nikolai’s, so she’s entitled to a little angst. But it struck me that she never stops to think clearly or to do the one thing Nikolai asked of her: to simply trust. Even after the point where she has some sort of revelation about her feelings for Nikolai, she still pushes them aside for the “poor me” routine. There was no character growth on her part -- she was just as self-destructive and angst-ridden at the end as she was in the beginning. Beautiful prose or not, it became increasingly difficult to tune in for each update once it became apparent to me that Selene wasn't going to change.

I’m very glad, at least, that the mystery surrounding the brother’s murder was cleared up, so I got a smidge of closure. The rest, I’m still pretty impatient with, and I’m not entirely sure I have the fortitude to follow Selene into print form. I’m not giving up on Ms. Saintcrow yet -- I do have Night Shift and The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance in my TBR -- but I will say that if I continue to encounter the same characters again and again, well...

1/2

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews

Berkley, paranormal romance, September 2006
Connections to: first in a series

A few weeks ago, I asked everyone's advice about this book: I just couldn't get into it; should I keep trying? Two people said yes and one said no. Well, I did finish it, and my ultimate opinion lies somewhere in-between.

Ms. Singh's world is a near-futuristic earth inhabited by Psy, who are humans who have evolved psychic powers and have been ruthlessly trained to be unemotional, and Changelings, who are humans who have evolved the ability to shapeshift. Psy see Changelings as primitive and Changelings see Psy as cold. As with most generalizations, they're both right and both wrong.

Sascha is a Psy who thinks she's flawed. She has all the traits of a "cardinal," ie, a top-ranking Psy, but she's too low on the power scale. Since Psy who are branded as defective get their powers stripped, their minds wiped, and are sent to work as drones, Sascha is terrified to let her flaws show. And there's the first flaw -- she's got emotions. Anyway, Sascha's been sent by her mother, a member of the Psy Council, to broker a building contract with Lucas Hunter, the head of the leopard Changeling pack known as DarkRiver. Sascha's also supposed to ferret out information about the Changeling race and feed it to her mother and Enrique, a sinister fellow Council member. But all these pesky emotions keep getting in the way, particularly reactions to Lucas.

A friend of mine was pointing out in the course of our discussion about this book that it's a very thin line for an author to tread when you initially state a character or race has no emotion and then show them clearly emoting. Sascha's allowed to emote, to some extent, since she's supposedly flawed, but what about her mother and Enrique? They show an awful lot of anger, annoyance, and other negative emotions for beings who are supposedly emotionless.

Lucas has forged the building contract for a similar purpose: there's a serial killer hitting Changeling women, and Changeling trackers have determined the culprit is a Psy. But Psy control most of the infrastructure in this world, so the Changelings have to bring the killer to justice with no legal support. Lucas is trying to do so without sparking a full-out Psy/Changeling war. But of course Lucas didn't take into account his attraction to a Psy.

So there's the basic setup, and it looks really good in theory. But this fascinating world was dragged down so far by the angsting of the two main characters that I kept being able to put the book down in favor of something else. Sascha reinforcing her shields and fighting back panic and wondering why she's flawed. Lucas agonizing over his pack responsibilities and his animal's insistence that Sascha is his mate. I'm sitting there screaming to the pages, "Will you GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?! Tell me the key to Sascha's flaw, let the two of them bloody mate and get it over with!"

They did eventually get on with it. But it was only at about chapter 20 that I got the answers I wanted and suddenly was unable to put the book down. I'm glad I finished the book, b/c I hate to leave loose ends, but at the same time, I'm not sure that I'll continue with the series. But who knows, someday morbid curiosity and boredom might get the better of me.

1/2

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

Dell, historical romance, October 2006
Connections to: first book in a new series

In this book, Madeline Hunter introduces us to the most one-dimensional, boring, unrelatable characters ever. I always thought hell would freeze over before I met a Hunter book I didn't devour and adore, but I don't see little demons on ice skates, so I guess I was wrong. But I digress...

Alexia Welbourne is a "poor relation" who lives with her banker cousin Timothy and his sisters, and pines after the memory of her late cousin and sweetheart, Tim's brother Ben, who died on his way home from fighting in Greece. Younger son Lord Hayden Rothwell was friends with Ben, and when he discovers that Tim has been embezzling from the bank, he fixes it so that Tim can step down with his honor intact, rather than going to the gallows. Of course, Tim has his honor and his life, but no more money, which means Alexia is on her own. Hayden gets her a job as a companion to his aunt and finishing governess to her daughter. She takes the job, but hates him for his part in her family's downfall (greatly exaggerated by Tim in a saving-face move). He is so intrigued by her that he breaks the "rules of seduction" about well-bred young ladies. Marriage and further conflict ensue.

As I said, this is the first Hunter book I've felt "meh" to "bleah" about. I never really warmed up to any of the characters. Hayden I did marginally, given all that he sacrificed for the sake of a dead friend and later for his wife. But I still couldn't help but compare him to other Hunter heroes and have him come up lacking, more of a cypher. And as for Alexia...well, there's one scene in particular, when Hayden gifts her with a necklace as a preface to a proposal (which she thinks is a proposition), and when he kisses her, she reflects that kissing a man who just gave you an expensive bauble is more exciting. Well, bleah. How mercenary can you get? I understand that Alexia has had to deal with financial ruin not once, but twice, and perhaps she would have a different view of assets than I would, but still...she struck me as grasping at worst and cold at best -- Hayden could have done better. Together, they were rather lackluster, apart from the scene in which Hayden tells her he loves her -- I actually started to buy it, although it no where near approached the passion that The Romantic and Lady of Sin did for me.

I was more interested by the secondary characters of Rothwell's brothers and Alexia's friend. Hopefully, their stories will find me in a happier state. As for now, I'm still shaking my head over the very concept of being disappointed in a Madeline Hunter book.

1/2

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

Berkley Sensation, paranormal romance, February 2006
Connections to: follows Carved in Stone

In Flesh and Stone, gargoyle Connor Rihyad fakes the murder of congregation member Nathan Cross in order to gain entrance to the rogue congregation that raided the Chicago congregation’s stronghold and tried to kidnap their young (see Carved in Stone). This congregation, it turns out, is more cult than community. Women have been kidnapped for breeding purposes, and are also used as servants until they become pregnant. Connor has to fight every protective gargoyle instinct he has to keep from wrecking the op.

Mara Kincaide is one of the women, a new arrival who has not yet been claimed by one of the brutish congregation. She’s actually there on purpose (read as: moron with a savior complex), to search for her friend who disappeared. When Connor stops her from being abused at the hands of one of the other congregants, he claims her as his own, thereby assuaging some of his need to stop the atrocities going on in the compound. Together, they work to save the women and track down the mysterious leader of the group.

Connor was a bit of a typical brooding hero, and his I’m-not-worthy schtick at the end was annoying, to say the least. Mara could have been a very interesting heroine, but falls far short of it by landing in the sacrificial lamb heroine that one usually sees in historical romances and who are generally ludicrous in a modern-set story. Mara is an ex-con, having killed a rape-intent social worker in self-defense as a teen. She did time for it and is presented as a tough cookie. But, alas, her toughness is told but not really shown. And her willingness to just leave Connor at the end bugged me as well.

Though I love the concept of the gargoyles’ world that Ms. Taylor created, in terms of the romance between the main characters, both books are somewhat lacking in delivery. I like larger story arc of the gargoyles and their origin, and will read the third book to gain more of that story. But as paranormal romance, this didn’t quite cut it for me.

1/2

Review ©2006 by Riley Merrick