Washington D.C.

B
Taste for Trouble

The last Susan Sey book I read, Money Shot (2011) was set on a remote island in Lake Superior and had deadly money laundering villain, pagan ceremonies, and a smokin' ex Navy SEAL for a hero. This book, Taste for Trouble, is set in the suburbs of DC, has a scheming Martha Stewart wannabe, and a prof ...

B+
Redeeming the Rogue

As both a former resident of Washington, D.C. and a European Historical enthusiast, I was excited by the contents of Redeeming the Rogue, being set in both London and Washington. Luckily, the book did not disappoint in any respect. Lady Arianne Chambers is a consummate socialite; she is the maste ...

C+
The Icing on the Cake

I love romance (obviously, since I review for AAR) and I love listening to people's stories about how they met, so I thought the True Vows line would be a lot of fun to read. I've only read one so far, and I have to say that The Icing on the Cake just didn't do it for me. The protagonists seemed nic ...

B+
Unfinished Business

The hero and heroine of Unfinished Business couldn’t be more different: black and white, bleeding-heart liberal and ultra-conservative, urban and rural, peace activist and war hero. I admit that some personal politics made me wary of the book, as I didn’t see myself liking the hero. Erica Joh ...

B-
The Dark Gate

Pamela Palmer's debut romance The Dark Gate is the best of Silhouette's new Nocturne line that I've read so far. It benefits from having an intriguing plot that avoids most of the usual paranormal tropes (no vampires here!) as well as a genuinely unsettling villain who actually gave me the creeps. ...

B+
A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity

I haven’t made a secret of the fact that Kathleen Gilles Seidel is one of my favorite authors. She may be my favorite author, period. You have to wait a while between books, but hers are always worth it. When I heard that she was coming out with a new book, I was, of course, excited. When I heard ...

B-
Street Level

Karyn Langhorne's Street Level is an intriguing and atypical romantic suspense novel with unusual characters and a distinct point of view. While far from perfect, I found it to be a most interesting read. Thea Morris lives and works with her best friend Chandra in the District of Columbia. Th ...

B
Target

Target feels like a complete season of the TV show 24 in book form. It takes place within a single 24-hour period, and instead of chapters, the story is broken down into hours. As on the show, we follow our hero, in this case Army Intelligence officer Diana Lockworth, through a nonstop series of som ...

B
The Cinderella Rules

Though I'm not usually a huge reader of Chick Lit, I did enjoy Donna Kauffman's last book, The Big Bad Wolf Tells All. I was thrilled when I learned that her newest was set in Washington D.C., familiar stomping grounds for me. The Cinderella Rules tells the story of a lady from rural Montana who mak ...

A-
All American Girl

Books are keepers for many reasons. Some are intricately plotted. Some have fascinating, one-of-a-kind characters. Some are beautifully written with lush prose and thoughtful symbolism. And some just make you smile over and over until you sigh in happiness at the end. All-American Girl fits into the ...