Don’t you love it when you pick up a book, and it turns out to be an unexpectedly delightful surprise? That was my experience with Taming the Scotsman. Eleanor (Nora) ingen Alexander is desperate. Betrothed to Ryan MacAren, a man she doesn’t love, she seeks out Ewan MacAllister, a man universally feared. When Nora finds…
Love and a Bad Hair Day is 282 pages long, costs $13.95, and took me well over a week to read (and I was immobile for two of those days). It has a deceptively cutesy cover featuring an adorable brunette twenty-something chick wearing a big smile and a big floral hat. (To cover up bad…
I admit to a streak of sentimentality. I want the characters in my books to reconcile with their estranged families, forgive their enemies, learn from their mistakes, and live happily ever after behind a white picket fence (or turreted battlement, as the case may be). So I don’t mind when a romance gets a little…
I did not like this book at first. It features the kind of family situation that only occurs in romance novels – four beautiful adult sisters who spend a lot of time drinking wine and eating pasta in the bosom of their boisterous Italian family at the scenic ancestral vineyard. It also has the kind…
This is my own observation from my part-time Waldenbooks job: men will not read cozy mysteries. Men like hard-boiled mysteries and they don’t mind the sex of the author. They read Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell as well as Robert Parker and Ed McBain. Women like hard-boiled mysteries too, but they also enjoy cozy mysteries…
Meg Chittenden’s More Than You Know is more of an old-fashioned detective story than what is generally considered romantic suspense, but that’s a mark very much in its favor, since it is exceedingly well executed. Though an intelligent read, it lacked sufficient romance and passion to fully engage my emotions. And “intelligent” is a good…
The Butler’s Daughter is the first in the two part The Collingwood Heirs series. It’s a suspense/mystery/marriage-of-convenience story featuring a heroine who is a silky little bit of fluff (but she’s not afraid to pack a Glock) and a tall, dark, tortured, and taciturn hero. If you want the short review, here it is: Not…
The Photograph is a sweet, if lightweight, World War II melodrama about one woman’s struggles on the homefront during the war. I almost wrote “two women’s experiences during the war,” which is what the story initially seems to be, but while it has two narrators, this book is only the story of one of them,…
Finally! I’ve learned not to get my hopes up when it comes to Silhouette releases that promise tough heroines and great action. Too often it seems like those “tough” heroines have to wind up teary-eyed and wobbly-lipped to prove their femininity before the end of the book and the “action” frequently falls flat. The Femme…
I was very happy to get the opportunity to review A Girl’s Best Friend because I so enjoyed Young’s last book, A Promising Man (and About Time, Too). While Young’s books aren’t exactly a break from the Chick Lit mold, she writes about heroines you can empathize with, friends you’d like to spend time with,…
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