I can’t recommend Red Shoes and a Diary. I tried to like it and there were brief glimpses of the book it could’ve been, but those scenes where writing sparkled or the characters were likable were limited to one or two. For the most part I was disgusted by the hero and left underwhelmed by…
Becky Bloomwood is a transplanted Englishwoman now living in Manhattan and working as a personal shopper. At the wedding of her best friend Suze, Becky’s boyfriend Luke Brandon proposes. All that remains is to plan the details of the wedding. Can Becky somehow manage to plan a successful wedding, as millions of other women have…
Poseidon’s Kiss had a lot of potential – an interesting plot, original paranormal elements, and for the most part, smooth writing. Author Crease unfortunately squanders a number of opportunities and the end result is a merely average read. Chelsea Porter is a workaholic interior designer on the edge of burnout. One night at the opening…
Based on everything I’ve read about Connie Lane’s previous books, I expected Guilty Little Secrets to be a lightweight, funny book with quirky characters. Instead it turned out to be a fairly heavy romantic suspense novel with solid and extremely serious characters. Ultimately, some elements of the novel work better than others. The suspense portion…
To say Mark DeLucca’s life wasn’t picture perfect would be an understatement. He’s the product of alcoholic parents and a broken home. Despite his older sister’s love and attempts at parenting he developed a strong dislike for authority that led to a few run-ins with the law. Given the choice of prison or the military,…
A Pair Like No Otha’ is one of those books that’s really hard to grade. There were several things that I really liked about it, but there were several other elements that kept me from enjoyint it as much as I could have. Shemone Waters and Darnell Williams were good friends in high school, but…
A Kiss to Die For is something of a rarity: it’s a historical romantic suspense novel set in post-Civil War Abilene, Kansas. It’s an intriguing combination, and the book had some aspects I really enjoyed. Unfortunately it was also quite a slow read, and I had trouble warming up to the heroine. Anne Ross has…
Feathered Serpent tells the story of the Mexican conquest and definitely has its romantic threads, particularly those concerning Hernan Cortés and his Mexica consort and interpreter, Malinali Tenepal. It’s not a romance, however, and as history tells us, there is no Happily Ever After for this couple, or for any of the conquistadores or those…
Sandra Hill has written some enjoyably humorous Viking romances, though they are not without fault. She sometimes strains too hard for humor and upon occasion has created shrill heroines. But The Very Virile Viking suffers from none of these flaws. Funny without being silly, it features a smart, funny, and likable heroine. As for the…
Barbara Samuel is a great favorite of many AAR reviewers, and here she again shows why. Her lyrical writing and her real characters create a comforting place for readers to stay a while. Luna McGraw is a recovering alcoholic struggling to fix her life. Her alcoholism allowed her ex-husband to gain custody of her daughter…
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