Archive for Romance Book Reviews
The Wolf Gift: Classic Anne Rice Novel
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Title: The Wolf Gift
Author: Anne Rice
Pages: 416
Genre: Paranormal Romance / Horror
Anne Rice’s books don’t wholly fall into the romance category, although there are often romantic elements, and her her heroes are all extremely compelling. (Her sex scenes are also exceedingly hot and erotic.) It’s with this in mind that I’m doing a review of Rice’s foray back into classic Gothic horror with her new book on werewolves.
Rice’s name is synonymous with vampires, and she was at the forefront (way before Twilight or True Blood) of the resurgence of the popularity of vampires. Having done all she could with vampires, Rice is turning to that other popular paranormal creature, the werewolf. Or in the words of the Wall Street Journal, “This time, with werewolves!”
The Wolf Gift is about Reuben Golding, a reporter in his early twenties who works for a San Francisco paper who also happens to be a werewolf. In an interview with Amazon, Rice says that she named the book “The Wolf Gift” because that’s how Reuben sees it – being a werewolf is a great gift, and one that he wholly enjoys exploring.
While on assignment to write about a stately family home in Northern California that its owner wants to put on the market post haste, Reuben finds himself attacked and bitten by a beast he can’t see when he tries to mount a heroic rescue. This sparks off a transformation that gives him keen senses and other unusual abilities. The changes frighten and exhilarate him. Despite the paranormal trappings, The Wolf Gift is a coming of age story, in which Reuben wrestles not only with his new gift, but also his desire to do good by perpetrating horrifically brutal acts to achieve what he thinks to be “good”. Apart from the coming-of-age angle, there’s a love story, as well as a manhunt of sorts by the authorities and media who are going after “the Wolf Man”. Lots of things going on, but Rice ties it all together nicely.
Matt Bomer (White Collar)
Rice, as always, is the consummate writer, and draws in readers into her thoroughly believable world set in modern day Northern California. Rice’s Reuben is a man-boy whose transformation and moral struggle we follow with sympathy and compassion throughout the book. Her prose, which is lyrically descriptive, brings to mind lush visuals, and it is no surprise that Rice in fact started The Wolf Gift as a TV script. In fact, it sounds like Rice has even cast actors (at least in her mind), saying in various interviews that she would like White Collar’s Matt Bomer to play Reuben, adding that the talented actor was her inspiration for the Reuben character when she was writing the book.
The Wolf Gift is a classic Rice novel, and will remind you again why she’s the undisputed Queen of horror. Highly recommended.
Last Man Standing: Sweet End to a Great Series
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Title: Last Man Standing (Black Ops Inc.)
Author: Cindy Gerard
Pages: 368
Genre: Romantic Suspense
With Last Man Standing, Cindy Gerard brings to a close her beloved Black Ops Inc. (BOI) series that has spanned seven books, and started with Show No Mercy in 2008. It seems strangely appropriate to end the BOI series with “Mean” Joe Green’s story. Joe’s been a side character in many of the books, and the quietly enigmatic man has caught the attention of many fans.
Since early in the series, we’ve been working up to finding out who was responsible for Bryan’s death, and it’s great that all the loose ends are tied up in Last Man Standing. A team-mate to the BOI guys, a close friend of Joe’s, and Stephanie’s brother, Bryan was killed in Sierra Leone years ago, but it’s only in this book that that mystery is finally solved.
Joe finally has a lead on who the culprit is, and decides to go off to Sierra Leone on his own to investigate. Not wanting to drag his team-mates down, he goes rogue from BOI. He then breaks up with Stephanie just before he leaves, in a bid to protect her. But alas, the best laid plans will go awry, and Joe is captured and imprisoned for a murder that he did not commit. A month after Joe’s imprisonment, Stephanie catches wind of Joe’s predicament. Unfortunately, none of the BOI team are available to mount a rescue, so the NSA analyst with little field experience throw caution to the wind, and flies out to Africa, where she’s able (with a little help from some friends) to mount an escape and rescue the much-diminished Joe and bring him back home.
It’s very clear from the beginning of the book who the villain is, so the suspense is mostly in seeing Joe and Stephanie stay ahead of his evil machinations. The villain’s ultimate aim is to assume a very important post in the Administration in order to protect is financial interests in Sierra Leone, and he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his goal. When he discovers that gunning for Joe and Stephanie didn’t work, he turns his attention to Stephanie’s parents, and it’s up to our hero and heroine to save the day, as well as prevent the villain from becoming a powerful player in national security.
For someone who’s been following the BOI series for years, this was a very satisfying book. I loved that we finally get to see so much more of Joe, who is the quintessential strong and silent hero who is gentled by the right woman. (I did however think he was a bit too hard-headed when it came to wanting to go off and save the world all by himself…)
I particularly liked that Stephanie was such a kick-ass heroine – despite her lack of experience. It’s so rare to see the heroine come riding to the rescue – and she really does do that for Joe, since during the escape from Sierra Leone, he can hardly move, and it’s all down to her. The way she handled his ego at not being able to care for himself was truly precious.
I suppose I might have enjoyed it a little more if the other guys and gals from BOI had been a little bit more involved in the story, but it was enough that everyone turned up at the end, full of glad tidings, and many offspring – a sweet ending to a riveting series.
It’s sad to see the series end, but all is not lost for Gerard fans. We’re introduced to Mike and Ty, two extremely charming pilots, and I have it on good authority that these two will be starring in their own spin-off series. I can’t wait!
Fools Rush In Sets the Standard for Kristan Higgins
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Title: Fools Rush In
Author: Kristan Higgins
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Kristan Higgins has had a whole string of novels published, and is one of the most successful contemporary romance authors there is now. Her first book, Fools Rush In, was recently reissued. Having only read (and loved) Too Good to be True (see my earlier review) I was curious to see if Higgins was as good when she first started out, or if it had taken a few books for her to get to Too Good to be True standards.
OK. She really is that good!
Fools Rush In is set in Cape Cod. Our heroine, Millie Barnes, has finally completed her residency, and is moving back to her home town to become the local doctor. She has almost everything – a home of her own, caring family members (who have odd ways of expressing their love), a cute dog to keep her company, a loyal best friend. Hell, she even has Sam, her wonderful policeman ex-brother-in-law who looks out for her, and an unbelievably well brought up nephew in his late teens. All she’s missing is Joe Carpenter, the boy who she’s had a crush on since her early teens.
Millie devises an elaborate plan to net Joe, involving jogging, weight loss, and hiding in bushes. Yup – Millie stalks Joe. Joe’s an easygoing guy who dates eclectically, but Millie thinks her life will be perfect if she only has him. But when she finally gets Joe (after fifteen years of unrequited love, no less), Joe’s not all she thinks he is. (I think I figured that out when I found out he promotes his carpentry business with the tag line, “Joe Carpenter the Carpenter”. Ack.) Millie also starts to see how Sam’s just the nicest guy in the world, and how he really cares for her. As Millie finds out more about Joe (and Sam), she realizes that maybe Joe’s not what she needs to make her life perfect after all.
What a wonderful book this was. It’s a sweet romance peppered with witty dialogue. Written in the first person, you really get a sense of who Millie is, and what’s going through her mind. It’s nice to know that there are others just as neurotic as myself! I was really rooting for Millie all the way through – especially when she stands up for herself. I loved the way Millie interacts with her parents, and her altercations with her sister were painfully realistic. I empathized completely with Millie when she finally realizes that people sometimes aren’t who you think they are. Mind you, it’s a bit odd for Millie to fall in love with her sister’s ex-husband, but hey, all’s fair in love, and it was her sister who cheated on him and dumped him first!
A wonderful debut by Higgins that sets the standard for all her subsequent books!
Run from Fear: Not Quite as Good as the Earlier Books
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Title: Run from Fear
Author: Jami Alden
Pages: 464
Genre: Romantic Suspense
I wrote just last week about Beg for Mercy, and how much I was looking forward to Run from Fear. Now that I’ve read, it, I thought I’d share my thoughts about it with you here on Best Romance Stories.
There’s no real easy way for me to say this, so I’ll just come straight out with it. I was disappointed with Run from Fear. It wasn’t a bad book – in fact, it was a better book than many I’ve read. But it just didn’t have the dash and pizazz of Beg for Mercy andHide from Evil, the first two books in the series.
Run from Fear is about Talia Vega, who first made an appearance in Beg for Mercy. At the end of that book, she’s in a bad way. She was tortured to within an inch of her life by a serial killer, but was saved by Jack Brooks, who at the time was the Head of Security at the club where she worked. When Run from Fear opens some two years afterward, she’s finally recovered (at least physically). She’s moved from Seattle to Palo Alto with her younger sister where she’s working as a bartender while her sister attends Stanford. She hasn’t seen Jack for years, but not long after he turns up, she starts to receive little gifts that bring back horrible memories of her old life in Seattle, and her earlier horrific attack by the serial killer. It takes the rest of the book for us to discover who is stalking her, and for Jack to repeatedly come to Talia’s rescue (despite her best efforts to push him away).
The plot was pretty generic to romantic suspense novels. It was fine, but felt a bit flat and failed to hold my interest – probably because it was fairly clear right from the start who the villain was. Despite my best efforts to like her, I was also constantly annoyed by Talia. She’s strong, she’s rebuilding her life, and she’s determined. All good qualities, but she takes things to the extreme, pushing people away, and acting incredibly paranoid. Yes, – she’s had a bad experience in the past, and wants to assert her independence. I get that. But there’s a point when the need to assert independence becomes foolhardy, and she crossed that line several times, thereby necessitating last-minute interventions by the very put-upon Jack. Speaking of Jack, I thought he was the saving grace of this book. The long-suffering former Green Beret has mad fighting skills, has been pining for Talia for two years, and is willing to put everything on the line for Talia. Incidentally, Jack works for Gemini Security, which allows Alden to tie this trilogy up with The Gemini Men, another series of books that she’s written.
If you’ve read the first two books in the series, you’ll want to read this one to see what happens. Who knows, you might like it more than I did. If you haven’t read the first two books, I’d suggest starting with those instead. Alden really is an excellent writer who knows how to do romantic suspense, and Run from Fear just isn’t her at her best.
Sweet Release: Another Masterpiece from Pamela Clare
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Title: Sweet Release (Kenleigh /Blakewell Series)
Author: Pamela Clare
Genre: Historical Romance
If you’ve been reading some of my book reviews, you’ll know that I’ve been on a bit of a Pamela Clare kick recently. You know how it is when you find an author that you love, and you have to read every single one of her books – sort of like when you drill for oil, and feel the need to tap the well dry? Well I’m proud to say I’ve almost tapped the entire Pamela Clare well dry. I’ve read nearly all her books and loved every single one. The one exception is Ride the Fire, but I’m getting it the moment it’s re-released for Kindle – I hear it’s sometime this year, yay!
I thought today I’d share my thoughts on one of Clare’s earlier series – the Kenleigh/Blakewell family saga. The first book in the series, Sweet Release, was also Clare’s debut novel. And what a debut it was! The books first came out in 2003, but it was re-issued for Kindle late last year, and boy am I glad it was.Clare wrote on her blog that she spent more than two years researching this book, and seven years writing it. All that effort’s certainly borne fruit. Like her MacKinnon’s Rangers books, Sweet Release is historically accurate, and full of rich detail that add to, rather than detract from the book.
Alec Kenleigh is a wealthy man, the master of a shipbuilding firm headquartered in London, and an experienced man about town. But Alec also an enemy who want him out of the way, and that’s how he finds himself abducted, badly beaten, and sent off to the Colonies in chains as Cole Braden, a “ravisher and defiler of women”. Although opposed to the slave trade, Cassie’s a realist. Her Viriginia plantation needs labor, and slaves and indentured laborers are the only option. When Alec, half-dead from his injuries, and barely coherent, is brought to Cassie’s Viriginia plantation by a slave trader as “merchandise”, Cassie knows that he’ll die if she doesn’t purchase him. He’s hers for five pounds, but he’s more trouble than the cheap price is worth. For one thing, the man she calls Cole keeps insisting that his name is Alec, and that he has to return to London. For another, he’s attractive, incredibly competent and bright, and Cassie can’t help but be attracted to him. The attraction is mutual, but Alec knows that he needs to find the culprit behind his abduction, and prove his identity, before he can have a future with Cassie.
If you enjoy history, and you enjoy romance, then you’ll love Sweet Release. The sweeping historical backdrop of plantation life and theme of integration add a wonderful layer of complexity to the romance between the Alec and Cassie, and the intrigue of a mistaken identity. The characters were wonderful – and that includes everyone in the cast, from our hero and heroine, to the supporting cast of other plantation landowners, slaves and indentured labor, and the characters back in London.
Sweet Release is another historical romance masterpiece from Ms Clare!
Beg for Mercy: Romantic Suspense at its Best
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Title: Beg for Mercy
Author: Jami Alden
Pages: 448
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Run from Fear, the final book in Jami Alden’s trilogy of romantic suspense novels, comes out on Kindle today, Feb 28. I’ve been dying to read it, and it’s been on my Amazon wishlist for forever. But today’s review isn’t for Run from Fear, but for Beg for Mercy, the first book in the series – and the very one that got me hooked onto Alden’s books. I’ve been re-reading the first two books in the series (the second is called Hide from Evil) in preparation for the release of Run from Fear, and I was reminded of how much I enjoyed both books. Enough certainly, to want to share my discovery of these great books with you!
Court advocate Megan Flynn was having a nice dinner with Detective Cole Williams, with promises for, shall we say, a nice dessert, when Cole gets called out to a case. He makes his excuses, but not before Megan realizes that the address that he’s been given for the scene of the crime is none other than her brother Sean’s home. She rushes after Cole, and arrives just in time to see Cole arrest Sean for the cold-blooded murder of a young woman. Sean can’t remember what happened, but Megan knows that Sean, a former military officer and Ranger to boot, is innocent, but all the evidence points at him. Needless to say, Megan and Cole’s fledgling relationship comes to a screeching halt. Cole is, after all, the man who put Sean behind bars – and Cole has never wavered in his belief that Sean’s guilty.
In the two years since Sean’s been convicted, and sentenced to death by lethal injection, Megan has been working tirelessly to prove his innocence… but after several failed appeals and nearly three years in prison, Sean just can’t go on any longer. Sean refuses to launch any further appeals to stay the execution, and has just a few weeks more to live… and that’s when Megan goes into overdrive, and puts aside her dislike for Cole to work with him to try and prove Sean’s innocence. Whatever sparks were there between Cole and Megan are rekindled, although Cole remains unconvinced that Sean’s innocent. As Cole and Megan dig into the case, Megan’s conviction that Sean is innocent (and of course, Sean’s innocent!) puts her right in the path of a cold-blooded murderer who’s had his eye on Megan since the start. Then bodies start to pile up in a series of murders very similar to the one Sean was accused of, Cole starts to wonder if Megan was right all along, and that Sean was framed.
What an amazing book this was! I was hooked from the first chapter, and could not put it down until the exciting finale. There are so many things to like in this book, not least the gripping plot and the well-timed developments that keep the reader fully engaged. The characters were great, and while I liked Cole – dedicated to his job, passionate, protective, the male character who I really loved was Sean. (He gets his own book in Hide from Evil, yay.) His determination to protect his little sister Megan, his despair at being imprisoned, and his sense of rage and helplessness at not being able to help Cole and Megan are palpable. Megan too, is a likeable heroine, one whose single-minded determination to see her brother exonerated is admirable.
Beg for Mercy is romantic suspense at its best! I highly recommend this book, as well as Hide from Evil… and I’ll be sure to let you know how I liked Run from Fear as soon as I get the chance to devour it!
Too Good to be True: Witty and Charming Contemporary Romance
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Title: Too Good to be True
Author: Kristan Higgins
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary Romance
I’ve just finished Too Good to be True, and oh my, I can’t say enough good things about it! This was my first book my Kristan Higgins, and I’ve already got a couple of her other books for my Kindle – which goes to show you how much I liked it, no?
So the story goes something like this. Grace thinks that she’s met the man of her dreams… only to be told by the cad three weeks before the wedding that it’s not going to work out. To compound the sin, the cad starts dating Grace’s beloved younger sister, Natalie. Tired of being pitied, and kind enough to want to make sure her ex-fiance and Natalie don’t feel guilty about being together, Grace decides to make up a boyfriend. She tells everyone that she’s over being left at the altar, and is dating a pediatric surgeon who mysteriously never turns up at various family get-togethers because he’s so busy.
In reality, Grace fills her time with trying to get her teenage students to love history, re-enacting Civil War battles (often as a dead or dying Confederate soldier), and teaching ballroom dancing at the local nursing home with her gay best friend. Oh and did I mention her dog? Grace has an adorable West Highland Terrier called Angus McFangus (see that’s a picture of him on the book’s cover on the left!). Everyone adores Angus, except perhaps her mysterious new next door neighbor, Callahan O’Shea. Cal’s hot, sexy, and fascinating and spends his time rehabbing houses and working as a handyman. Watch out for Grace and Cal’s first meeting – it had me rolling around laughing, and I’m sure you’ll be giggling uncontrollably too.
Too Good to be True is written in the first person, and from Grace’s perspective, and while I’m not usually a fan of this style, it really worked with this book. Grace is a wonderfully imperfect but likeable character, smart but somewhat socially awkward (I can relate, especially to the latter!), a fantastic teacher to her students, compassionate to the elderly patients at the nursing home, and a loving sister and daughter. She’s not a doormat, mind you, but just very… soft. (I can also relate!) Cal’s also a fabulous hero, funny, honorable, and restrained (despite great provocation). He’s an ex-con struggling to start anew, and his dignity in dealing with Grace’s blundering efforts to deal with assumptions about him is admirable. I found myself in love with the hero and heroine in the story… but I also really liked the other characters, especially Grace’s zany (but loving) family. I especially loved Grace’s mother (whose new career as a feminist artist has her daughters and husband in a tizzy) and Julian (Grace’s gay best friend whose problem is that he has women throwing themselves at his feet).
Too Good to be True isn’t too good to be true. It was charming, light, and hugely funny. I absolutely loved this book and know you will too!
