Pure Heat by M. L. Buchman

Apropos of my last post, here is a military offshoot; wild fire fighters book.  How do you describe fire fighters who fight wild fires?  This is just ripe for misplaced modifiers and I ain't no English teacher.

I like this book.  Carly is third generation forest firefighter and is down right prescient about how a forest fire is going to burn.  Steve was a smoke jumper who got injured and is returning to fire fighting in a new role. They are both amazingly capable and beautiful and they get together, what's not to like.  Also I feel like I am genuinely learning about an job/industry that I don't know a lot about and it's interesting.

Back to the trope discussion.  Normally in my romance I expect some sort of character or relationship arch to be a major part of the book but in this one the relationship arch is minor, (but not too stupid), and is replaced (in my opinion) by cool gadgets, death defying situations and amazingly able (in almost believable ways) characters saving lives.  I'm okay with this.  Which is clearly a bias because in almost any other setting (other than military-like) I wouldn't be.

I routinely dislike FBI/mafia/drug cartel books where the hero and heroine are on the run because the relationship isn't central enough.  Ugh.  What can I say, I guess I'm not a perfect reviewer.

Contemporary Militaryish Romance 2014: 4.5 out of 5 fixed wing spotters.

PS.  I was re-reading a bit of the book and to be fair, yes, I like the trope but this writing is also really good. "What the hell was he doing?  He didn't rescue women, and especially avoided weeping women.  But a rocking motion came from somewhere inside, like the motion of the living trees in a breeze."  

Pride and Pleasure by Sylvia Day

Jasper is a thief taker and alpha hero par excellance.  Eliza is (for want of a more subtle term) almost an aspberger'ish heir to an Earl in a family of eccentrics.  She hires Jasper to protect her from coincidental accidents that are occurring with increasing frequency and for that he must pretend to be her suitor.  When she meets him she attempts to NOT hire him because he is clearly too beautiful and muscle bound to be the sort of man she would allow to court her.  But he insists.

The plot gets dragged out just a little too long but I hardly cared with these two beautifully written characters to pass the time.  The sex is terrific.

I had not read Sylvia Day before so it's always a pleasure to find a new terrific author.

Regency Historical 2012: 4.5 of 5 horticultural experiments.

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

So despite being in a "smart" book group I still manage to avoid non-romance books, not quite like the plague, but maybe like changing my sheets.  I read "real" books when my mind gets too sweaty and grungy and I have trouble sleeping.  Oh, maybe that was too much personal information.  (Seriously, how do people change their sheets more than once a month?  It's so much work.)

But I did just finish a book that I picked up solely for the cover. The Thousand Names.  By reading the cover I know it is flintlock fantasy.  I didn't know that was a thing but apparently it is.  A thing.  Basically it's vaguely based on earth history, around Napoleon time frame with accompanying technology but it's a fantasy world with different country names and religions and some magic thrown in for fun.

It's quite long and if you don't think you will enjoy military campaigns, it's not for you.  We follow several characters jumping between them with each chapter and like most of those types of books the coincidences as the threads of the story begin to intertwine did once make me roll my eyes.  But beyond that the characters are great, there were several plot twists that I did not see coming and the strategy of the military campaign was pretty fascinating.  Big thumbs up from me.

Flintlock Fantasy 2013: 4.5 of 5 form square evolutions.

"Something About You" Julie James

Julie James can write a mean romance novel. Even given a sort of ridiculous "big misunderstanding" this book about an Assistant US Attorney heroine and a FBI hero is an enjoyable ride. He gets to be all protective and manly and she gets to be smart and brave. If you don't normally read contemporaries, you should make an exception for Julie James. It's light and funny and just right for summer.

Contemporary Romance 2010: 4.5 of 5 motions to adopt.

Sarah MacLean "Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing A Lord"

My spouse tells me title capitalization is so 1990. So I guess this should be Ten ways to be adored when landing a lord, but then I'm not submitting this to any scholarly journals for publication.

I have a bit of a reputation, among my friends. No, not that sort of reputation. A reputation for reading these books, so when we got together for my birthday, a little late, I got quite a few random romance novels. This was part of the pile and while the Harlequin were epic failures, TWTBAWLAL (I had to!) was a surprise gem.

Isabel is the daughter of the wastrel Earl and over the years she's had to take care of the manor as if she were a medieval lady of the manor trying to make it self sufficient. In addition, she seems to have taken in women with problems and hidden them from others who might be looking for them. She's finally at the end of her rope, has to sell a collection of statuary so she asks Lord Nicholas St. John to visit to appraise them. Things develop from there.

Really with this title and the completely pedestrian premise I expected very little from this book so was very pleasantly surprised. Isabel is a smart determined almost realistic character and Nicholas's arch from masterful proper lord to bewitched down to earth besotted cutie, well, it made me smile. And I can't ask for much more than that.

Historical Romance 2010: 4.5 of 5 slippery roof tiles.

M.K. Hobson "The Native Star"

If I'm anything, I'm a trendsetter. I just found this amazing book that you all should read. Okay, I went over to the Book Smugglers again and searched their top rated reads. But in case you haven't done the same, I'm gonna tell you what I thought anyway.

The Native Star is probably best described as a steam punk (historical/magical) fantasy novel with just a hint of romance. Emily lives in the Sierras of California in 1876 in an alternate US where warlocks are ascending the power structures and scientists are having a hard time proving themselves useful with magic around to upstage them. Emily gets herself into a bit of a fix when a magic rock embeds itself into her palm. Luckily there is a persnickety warlock around to help her gallivant all over the country trying to find someone who might not kill her to get the rock for themselves.

It bills itself as a romance but really it's a fantasy quest novel, and a good one. I was expecting more romance so was slightly disappointed but given the right expectations, fans of fantasy and especially those looking for steam punk themes will be very pleased with this one.

Fantasy Steam Punk 2010: 4.5 of 5 flying cockatrices.

Courtney Milan "Proof By Seduction"

Why do I enjoy the repressed powerful English lord character so much? Well, let's not make this post all about me. :) I picked up this book at the grocery store not having heard anything about it, so I had low expectations, and they were all exceeded. First Ms. Milan captures that shivery first attraction feeling perfectly, then she dives into relationship exploration for these two that if not entirely realistic, it's terribly engaging and enjoyable.

Jenny is a not very typical well educated but unconnected woman who has found an independent path for herself by telling people's fortunes. Gareth is the Marquis of Blakely who takes his responsibilities very seriously but who uses his cold demeanor to keep from caring about anyone too much.

Really the book is so good. On the scale of things, it spends more time on relationship exploration than some people might like, and it has some plot, but that's definitely not the focus. If you are looking for action, this ain't your book.

Historical Romance 2010: 4.5 of 5 dung beetles.

Megan Hart "Broken"

Megan Hart writes dirty books. True statement. Even my very free thinking girlfriend gets a we're-being-bad smile on her face when I hand her a new one. But Megan Hart does so much more. There's always an exploration of some subject that is just downright interesting, funeral directors in Dirty and in Broken it's the life of a paraplegic. But there's also exploration of the human psyche, often the human sexual psyche, granted, but that's inherently fascinating so count me in.

Our heroine is married to a paraplegic, she works, and on her lunch hour she shares a bench with a guy who, over the last year, has started sharing the stories of his one night stands with her. She fantasizes about being the one he's with. She loves her husband but over the years his depression and guilt over her care of him have done significant damage to their relationship.

Her bench partner is extremely promiscuous. He loves women, enjoys sex, and is giving about his sexual encounters but he feels they only see a possible mate, not a person, so he refuses to engage in a relationship with any of these women.

Which leads me to my tangent of the hour. Promiscuity. Is it possible to have a healthy self image and be promiscuous? Is this an entirely different question for men than for women. Since having children this question has become more than academic to me. Are men promiscuous simply because of evolutionary biology or (as Ms. Hart explores) can there be more to it. Can women be promiscuous simply because they enjoy the pleasures of sex and be otherwise healthy psychologically. Obviously some small percentage of women can be promiscuous and be perfectly well adjusted and certainly men are more prone to promiscuity because of their role in human evolution, but beyond that where do we go.

Thanks Ms. Hart for making me think. Always a bonus when I'm reading a dirty book.

Contemporary Erotica 2007: 4.5 of 5 one night stands.

Sherry Thomas "Delicious' and "Not Quite A Husband'

I really enjoyed Private Arrangements for it's non traditional twists on the historical romance and it's clever yet tortured characters; so I was eager to read her other books. I wasn't disappointed. Delicious is the story of a master cook who inspires lust with her cooking. I liked the fact that the hero was more developed in this story. Both the hero and heroine are people you wished you knew, who have lost true love and struggle to find a way to bring it back into their lives. Wonderfully written.

When I picked up Not Quite A Husband two days later I was worried I was overindulging but well, that's never stopped me before. Bryony is a woman doctor, Leo is a mathematical genius and an intrepid explorer. But Bryony is brittle and when something goes wrong in their marriage it shatters her. This is the story of their recovery. Again, two wonderful characters who are smart, fully developed and tortured. But what actually improves this book is the addition of some suspenseful plot. Normally I'm complaining about too much plot and not enough character, this book pointed out to me again that it's a balance. A bunch of character and relationship exploration (done well) is great but breaking it up with a little plot made this book rise above the first two.

Overall, Sherry Thomas is terrific. Auto buy for sure.

Historical Romance 2008 Delicious: 4.5 of 5 madeleines. Historical Romance 2009 Not Quite: 5 of 5 emergency cesareans.

Sherry Thomas "Private Arrangements"

Lady and Lord Tremaine have the perfect English aristocratic marriage, he lives in New York and she lives in London. But for some reason after ten years of perfect harmony, she wishes to divorce and marry another. He returns to London to respond to her divorce petition and to extract an heir before he lets her go. Yes, well.

Ms. Thomas has a wonderfully ironic writing voice which is amusing and appropriate to our intelligent, ironic heroine and to a hero that appreciates this aspect of her personality. I especially appreciated how her writing voice shifted when we moved to our heroine's mother's story. There were things I could quibble with; our heroine's mother's shift from scheming to strangely honest is abrupt and feels disjointed; but overall the characters are witty and interesting and believably tortured. The plot turns are not typical historical romance fodder which is refreshing and the sex is engaging and believable. Even the historical context of the novel, although not entirely central to the story, works.

I will be looking for more Sherry Thomas books soon.

Historical Romance 2008: 4.5 of 5 contraceptive caps.

Judith James "Broken Wing"

This book has gotten all sorts of accolades from other reviewers, for good reason. It's lovely, well written and definitely not run of the mill (without resorting to any superhuman sexual appendages). Most of us know the premise, Sarah finds her lost brother in a brothel, but unharmed because of the direct protection of a male prostitute. She offers to take him to her home in recompense for what he did for her younger brother.

The two of them eventually fall in love, but Gabriel decides he must leave to make his fortune as a pirate. She assures him this is unnecessary but he goes anyway. Bad things happen. I'm trying to not spoil the book here, but my main beef is with this section of the book. Those of you who have still not read this book, just skip ahead to the next paragraph. After he claws his way back to civilization, couldn't he have just written her a letter? If he really thought she was better off thinking he was dead, it's pretty shitty of him to go anywhere near England in my humble opinion.

It's a sign of a very good book when I have a major beef, not with how the author characterized the main character, but with the actions of that main character, showing how real this character became for me. Liked it a lot. And to those of you following the recent posts, I did finish this a while ago, before school started this fall. :)

Historical Romance 2008: 4.5 of 5 kisses right on the lips.

Megan Hart 'Stranger'

Can I say that I loved a book if I skipped about 80 pages in the middle. I suppose if I'm worth my salt as a reviewer I'm going to have to analyze it. I will apologize slightly for the fact that my reading choices lately have felt like catch-up with the rest of romancelandia (or the small part of it I allow myself to follow so as not to neglect my family entirely.) I apologize only because as Jessica discussed lately, it feels like I'm just following and not really adding anything new or interesting to the romance review world out there. So here I go again with the "following" thing.

I love, love, love the premise of Stranger. The heroine has decided that she doesn't want to put out the effort for a real relationship (for a lot of reasons) and so has developed the habit of paying for her dates and her sex. She has a reliable service, she's had some reliable providers from that service so why mess with a good thing. But one night she mistakes Sam for her latest 'date' and the convenience of what she's doing comes into question. If she's doing this, it doesn't just take the place of a conventional relationship, it acts in many ways to prevent her from having a conventional relationship.

I skipped the Sam chasing her part. I have to guess that there were some important moments in there since the author is definitely a character driven writer/thinker. But I came back in where they get together and with the characters' discussions of their relationship, I didn't feel like I needed to go back to fill things in. Am I a very bad, bad, reader or should I conclude that the author could tighten up the book a bit. I suppose a little of both (like on most moral dilemmas I come down in the boring middle).

I read all the rest of the book, I loved them together, I loved the author's strong actualized woman throw ins and I liked Sam a lot. Their struggle felt basically realistic and I was glad they got together in the end. :) This author can write some awesome sex and the characters really jump off the page. If I had to nitpick, I'd say the character flaws are a little simple. Interesting and thought out, but what stops this from being a work of literature (which is not usually a standard I even bring up) besides the genre rules, is slightly simplistic character flaws. Overall, awesome book if you don't mind having to hide it from your kids.

Contemporary Erotic Novel 2009: 4.5 out of 5 embalmed bodies.

Joanna Bourne 'The Spymaster's Lady'

Yes, yes, I loved this book. I loved Annique, the little intrepid hoyden, I loved Grey, because Gerard Butler would be perfect as him in the movie. I loved the author's ability to write french in english. I loved the tub scene, I loved the secondary characters who say the things I want to say to the hero. It's a great book.

*mild spoiler/rant alert*

Okay, here's the rub. She really didn't recognize him for a fourth of the book? I don't want to give away too much, but really. He's trying to avoid touching her but they ride on a horse together.....

Fine, fine, I'll let you go back to your starry eyed enjoyment of the book. I made my best friend from college read it, and she said, "What does he do exactly? He doesn't seem to really do anything! And why the hell does she keep leaving Henri alive, that seems very stupid if you ask me." Yes well, we don't want to have to invent new bad guys for the end of the book, do we. :)

Historical Romance 2008: 4.5 of 5 sloshing tubs.

Lara Adrian "Midnight Awakening"

Do you think the hardest part of writing a series is coming up with the titles? Well, maybe not. The third book in the Midnight Breed Series is my favorite so far. I've decided I like my alpha hero's more inscrutably powerful and less woman hating (due to some terrible betrayal of course). Tegan fits the bill. He's cut off emotionally after the love of his young life was brutally abused and returned to him as a minion of a rival vampire.

Elise is similarly tortured after her son was lured into turning rogue by a drug propagated by a bad vampire. Her brother-in-law had to kill her son in front of her when he attempted to attack his own mom. Not fun. She has decided to leave the safety of the enclave she lives in and start killing the human minions of this bad vampire. Unbeknown to the Warriors, Elise has joined their little war against the rogues. Tegan is not amused that this unskilled breed-mate human woman has put herself in so much danger. And then, he's strangely attracted to her too, go figure!

I expected not to like Elise even if I was already caught up in Tegan story, so the surprise for me was how much Elise developed as a character. I liked the references to her attempt to train her body in prep for this undertaking, and her poise in Berlin. It all won me over. When Tegan finally gives in to his love for her, I believed she deserved it.

I've bought into the series, and enjoyed these characters more than the average duck.

Vampire Romance Series 2007: 4.5 of 5 crescent moon marks.

Lara Adrian 'Veil of Midnight'

As you have probably guessed from my last review, I liked Veil of Midnight, book five in the Midnight Breed Series.

I'm a total sucker for ass-kicking heroine's (see above title picture), although I seem to be more addicted to the movie versions of said, than the literary versions. Something about this genre works so well for me in the visual and works less well for me in the written. Enough about me....

Renata is another orphan who has gotten snared in the world of vampires when a nasty Gen One picks her up for a little human-hunting party. In the process she inadvertently uses her unique telepathic anti-vampire power. So the Gen One decides not to kill her, but to use her as a body guard.

Nikolai is one of the Breed warriors whose been sent to alert the Gen One in Montreal that some one is offing Gen One's lately in the vampire world. He finds out that this particular Gen One is pretty yucky, things go south and he and Renata gang up to clean things up.

With such a stereotypical character framework these two are enjoyable and distinct. Good read.

Paranormal Vampire 2008. 4.5 of 5 glimpses of the future in a small child's eyes.

Patricia Briggs 'Bone Crossed'

This is book four in the much touted Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a coyote shape shifter, her boss was a fae metalworker (who sold her his auto repair garage), she was raised by werewolves, her neighbor is the Alpha for the local werewolf pack and her favorite customer is a vampire.

I'm not sure I can objectively review this book. I've been well and truly sucked into the Mercy Thompson fan club so telling you that the fourth installment in her story is really, really good, probably won't mean a lot. I can say that the plot clips along as usual and Mercy continues to be a ridiculously decent person. I do wonder when she is going to go into full system shut down with all the trouble she keeps digging up, but then I don't want the stories to end any time soon, so....

If by some chance you haven't read any of the Mercy Thompson books, and you like fantasy at all, even remotely, pick up Moon Called. You won't be disappointed.

Spoiler Alert: I like Stephen and thought Mercy was a bit hard on him with the killing innocents thing, but why are all these boys still pining for her as she and Adam solidify things?? And was Amber just a little too convenient of a character?

Fantasy Novel 2009: 4.5 of 5 animated corpses.

Pamela Clare 'Unlawful Contact'

This author writes highland romances as well? I'm not usually much for contemporaries, but I do have a soft spot for ex-military protector type hero's (are there any other contemp hero types? No, don't answer that, my TBR pile is daunting enough as it is).

Sophie is a journalist following the story of a convict who had a baby while in the big house. She's cleaned up, gotten paroled to a half-way house and is finally getting visitation rights when she breaks parole and takes off with the baby. Sophie has gotten to know this girl and smells something fishy, so when the girl's also imprisoned older brother contacts her for an interview, she agrees.

Marc Hunter actually knows Sophie, they had an encounter in high school (the one sex scene in the book I totally snorted at) that was good for both of them, and now that's he's desperate about his younger sister, he needs to use Sophie to break out of jail and find her.

The break-out scene/scenes are really amazingly believable, unlike the high school sex scene. The plot bogs down a bit in the second half but it's hard to argue too much, as it gives our couple a bit of time to get to know each other. I especially enjoyed these characters internal voices, which took Marc out of the ridiculously gorgeous, studly, wonderfully caring, self sacrificing, skilled at protection perfect man realm and put him in the ridiculously gorgeous, studly, wonderfully caring, self sacrificing, skilled at protection, perfect man who thinks badly of himself realm. Just enough of a shift for me to keep my romance novel fantasy bubble pretty much intact, thank you very much. And even if I did think, "Are you guys just going to uk like bunnies, or are you ever going to find his sister already?" the ukking was hawt. Okay, except for him bringing her vibrator into hiding with them. Whatever.

With the small exceptions of the aforementioned high school sex and the vibrator, this book was good. Really good. I liked it a lot. I'd say this was a step above most of the 'on the run, have to prove our innocence and solve the crime' contemps that I've read. I'm no expert in the field but there you have it.

Oh, and special bonus points for the bitchin' title and awesome cover.

Contemporary Intrigue Romance 2008: 4.5 of 5 soggy plan b pills.

Meljean Brook 'Demon Angel'

My apologies to Stewart, avid reader of this blog, but once again I'm reaching back for a book from an author whose name I see everywhere in very glowing terms. Despite the ridiculous cover and really, not very inventive title, I now get the addiction to Ms. Brook. Her world building is extensive, consistent, and interesting. She has taken the 'show me, don't tell me' creative writing directive to heart, to the extent that occasionally the only way to figure out what's really happening is by being patient. This led me to have a little difficulty getting into the book at the beginning. But for the patient, it's well worth it.

Hugh is so good he gets recruited as a guardian (quasi-angel) after his death. Lilith is a quasi-demon who tries to keep a low profile luring murderers to commit suicide so they will swell the ranks of Lucifer's Dominion. They spend 800 years trying to ignore their attraction while Hugh tries to figure out how to save her from Hell. Finally he breaks under the pressure of watching humans misuse their free will and of not being able to have Lilith, he kills her (he thinks) and he falls from his guardianship back into human form. That's when the book takes off. The sex is late in coming but highly satisfying once they get to it.

Not a light read, terrific characters, meaty plot and good writing.

Paranormal Romance 2007: 4.5 out of 5 hell hounds.

Patricia Briggs 'Moon Called'

I read my first Patricia Briggs book this year and really dug it, and I'd seen a lot of fans of the Mercy Thompson books so I picked up this one, the first in the series. I don't know that I liked it as much as 'Steal The Dragon' which was all about the female protagonist, I barely remember the love interest in that one. Mercy is surrounded by men who love her. Older characters who are looking out for her, younger characters who have crushes on her and then the characters who outright vie for her affections, although she gives them little encouragement.

Mercy as a character is terrific, she's stubborn, smart but willing to act impulsively for things she thinks are right and worth some risk. She also thinks she knows the limits of her abilities (a smart/likable trait) but keeps finding that they might be wider than she thought (a lovely trait in a fantasy character).

There's the female teenage sidekick type character who needs to be rescued, a very convoluted bad guy plot, and a bunch of werewolves running around. I will knock the book for the overly convoluted bad guy plot, but I personally didn't mind too much as I was more interested in the character development and the world building. I have to guess that the author was as well.

The only other defect, although that's a strong word, was the number of males vieing for Mercy's affections. I mentioned I don't even remember the love interest in Stealing the Dragon, that's because that book was only marginally about love. This book spends a lot of time obliquely fixed on Mercy's possible male match-up's and while that tension drew me through a lot of the book, it's not resolved at the end. I knew this wasn't a romance novel, so I didn't feel cheated by the lack of resolution, but if it ain't a romance novel, maybe I can complain a little about the focus on (in this werewolf world) mates.

That being said, I love P. Brigg's female characters. They're tough, but use their smarts, not their brawn to get out of the trouble that their soft hearts get them into. I would highly recommend this book to lovers of urban fantasy/women protagonist fiction. This is a good one, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Naomi Novik 'Throne of Jade'

I have drunk the kool aid with these books. I've read some people are less pleased with the second book than the first. I can't imagine any series where the second lives up to the first, but I thought Novik does a credible job of keeping the plot moving along during the long sea voyage. I was transfixed by the attacking mob scene but did think the reason for the attack seemed generated out of whole cloth. Where does that expression come from anyway?

I still like Laurence, though his dogged 'serving his country' mindset, at the same time being willing to be court marshaled for Temeraire is a bit contradictory. I still like Temeraire, who wouldn't, although his naivete is making me worry for his future with the English.

I was a bit disappointed to have the political intrigue turn out to be relatively simple, but it's a second book. Bring on the third!

Historical Fiction 2006: 4.5 of 5 sea serpents.