Lovely Wild-Megan Hart

Lovely Wild

Megan Hart

Harlequin MIRA, Nov 25 2014, $14.95

ISBN: 9780778316756

Mari barely survived her harrowing Pennsylvania childhood but the conditions she grew up in still haunt her in her marriage to Ryan and her parenting of their two children, (eight year old Ethan and fifteen year old Kendra); as she believes her only role in life is to help her family. For instance, traumatized Mari obsesses about insuring the refrigerator is fully stocked and makes home-made meals for them, while also hording food in concealed locations throughout the house.

With the malpractice lawsuit brought against him by Annette Sommer’s husband ruining him and already on probation, Ryan worries about money and how to hide the truth from Mari.  Feeling ashamed, Ryan would do anything for his wife since he knows her first eight years of life were so below the poverty line that few could understand.  Financially desperate he insists the family go back to the home where Mari suffered as a little girl until his dad Leon rescued her; Kendra pities her mom who always acquiesces.  Entering for the first time in years the house of her horrors, Mari goes under the kitchen table where she hid many times as a little girl.  Now memories buried for years begin to surface.

Lovely Wild is an intriguing leisurely-paced character study based on the concept that “… in every adult there dwells the child that was …” (The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly).  The present crisis is handled well while primarily serving as the mechanism to what happened to Mari in grandma’s house.  Although the climax is too neat for the dark revelations of Mari’s early childhood, Megan Hart provides a strong thought-provoking drama

Harriet Klausner

The King: The Original Sinners The White Years-Tiffany Reisz

The King: The Original Sinners The White Years

Tiffany Reisz

Harlequin MIRA, Nov 25 2014, $14.95

ISBN: 9780778315834

In New York, Kingsley Edge reflects back on his life in which he knows he has been successful in every endeavor he undertook except one.  That lone failure has left him despondent and always wondering what he could have done different to keep the love of his life Søren with him.

He travels to England where he surprises Zach and Grace Easton with a visit.  They introduce him to their child Fionn who Grace had with King’s beloved.  King tells Grace how he and Søren forged their relationship at school, his time in the Foreign Legion but mostly about the creation of the Eighth Circle thanks to Father Søren’s support while facing Reverend Fuller, a fire and brimstone preacher, and his equally caustic flock.

The second Original Sinners The White Years (see The Saint) tells the enthralling back story of how King built his BDSM kingdom.  Well-written, series fans will enjoy the early relationship between Søren and King, and the later one that led to the Eighth Circle.  Additionally, we also learn about the past of several Red Years (see The Mistress, The Angel, The Prince and The Siren) support players.  Although Fuller is too stereotyped, this is a delightful erotica.

Harriet Klausner

Broken Open-Lauren Dane

Broken Open

Lauren Dane

Harlequin HQN, Nov 25 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373779352

Widow Tuesday Eastwood emotionally struggled for five years with her paralyzing grief after her husband died, but found her footing when she settled in Hood River, Oregon where her BFF Natalie the librarian lives.  Residing nearby at the Sweet Hollow Ranch, rock star Ezra Hurley became a heroin addict but now is clean and vows to stay that way though he tests his resolve with his first Sweet Hollow Band tour since before rehab.

Tuesday and Ezra met through her BFF Natalie the librarian and his brother Paddy also a rocker-rancher being an entry (see The Best Kind of Trouble).  Attracted to each other each fears a commitment for different reasons, but simply cannot pretend their growing desire does not exist.

The second Hurley Boys Beaver State romance is an enjoyable second chance at life starring two scarred protagonists who must overcome their emotional issues if they are to forge a permanent relationship built on love.  Both leads are three-dimensional although the depth of their respective emotional tsuris each confronts is a two-edged sword with astonishing layers that makes them feel incredibly real but also slows down the storyline.

Harriet Klausner

Wolf Haven-Lindsay McKenna

Wolf Haven

Lindsay McKenna

Harlequin HQN, Nov 25 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373779031

Former Navy combat nurse 1st Lieutenant Skylar Pascal still suffers nightmares from when the Black Hawk she flew on an emergency flight crashed in Afghanistan and the Taliban captured her.  Once she was freed, she left the military, but the torture at the hands of the enemy traumatized her so she knows she cannot return to civilian duty as an ER nurse like she once planned.  Instead she accepts a position as a wildlife rescue assistant on the Elk Horn Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Her new boss veteran Grayson McCoy runs the wildlife rescue mission.  Like Sky, the former Navy SEAL struggles with PTSD from his war experience.  Recognizing the signs of a fellow tormented soul, Gray resolutely plans to help Sky heal though he has not moved on from his traumatization.  As they fall in love, both finds solace with one another; but an unknown adversary has a different concept re Sky’s health.

Character-driven, the sixth electrifying Wyoming romantic suspense (see The Loner and High Country Rebel) is the strongest yet of a very deep series. Lindsay McKenna provides readers with harrowing descriptions of the crippling impact of PTSD on a person and their loved ones.  This powerful drama enables the audience to witness extremely disturbing flashbacks, and crippling anxiety and panic attacks that leave a person unable to function and overwhelmed with dark exit strategy thoughts as the only escape from their mental hell.  Love and patience from caring people is not easy to provide but is a critical lifeline.

Harriet Klausner

The Accidental Countess-Valerie Bowman

The Accidental Countess

Valerie Bowman

St. Martin’s, Oct 28 2014, $7.99

ISBN 9781250042088

Captain Julian Swift and Cassandra Monroe have exchanged notes as he served in the combat zone while she remained at the home-front.  They begin to fall in love, but with the Napoleonic War seemingly over, Julian returns to England engaged to Cass’s cousin Penelope, who does not want to marry the second son soldier.

To delay meeting her fiancé, Penelope pretends to be attending a house party hosted by Countess Patience Bunbury.  Aware that her relative made up Patience, Cass masquerades as the hostess so that she can spend quality time with her beloved.  Julian arrives at the gala to inform Penelope he adores someone else, but when he meets “Patience”, he feels fickle to fall in love again.

The second pleasant Playful Brides Regency (see The Unexpected Duchess) is a lighthearted zany romance as the relationships between the fascinating lead “quartet” make for a wild frolic.  The subgenre audience will relish the enchanting machinations of the not-so Accidental Countess and her real persona competing for the love of Julian while her cousin sets the stage.

Harriet Klausner

Secrets of a Thousand Beauties-Mingmei Yip

Secrets of a Thousand Beauties

Mingmei Yip

Kensington, Nov 25 2014, $15.00

ISBN: 9781617733215

Years before she or her fiancé were conceived, Spring Swallow was engaged to the son of her mom’s BFF if one had a boy and the other a girl.  As she turns seventeen, her mother and her future mother-in-law enforce the zhifu weihun ancient marital tradition though Spring Shallow finds that ghastly as her soon to be husband died before he was born.

On the day she is to “exchange” vows with her “ghost”, a horrified Spring Swallow runs away.  Martinet Aunty Peony finds her and employs her along aside other females with depressing backgrounds at her Su-style embroidery shop.  Spring Swallow struggles to adjust to the strict rules enforced even much more than usual to insure they complete a Peking order in six months.  When she can she mountain climbs where she falls in love with Shen Feng; and learns what she can about her “mentor” including Aunty was a royal embroiderer before the Revolution two decades earlier.  When she loses her position, Spring Swallow obtains work at an embroidery store and soon marries the owner’s son.  When she suffers a miscarriage losing Shen’s baby, her irate husband’s family tosses Spring Swallow out.  Missionaries give her a home and a priest his love.

Though there are too much happening to the heroine especially several fortunate and tragic events in a short period, this is an entertaining 1930s Chinese drama due to an energetic heroine who “The record shows (she) took the blows and did it (her) way” (My Way by Frank Sinatra).  Filled with captivating insight like the zhifu weihun ghost marriage, Mingmei Yip authors another delightful historical (see The Nine Fold Heaven and Peach Blossom Pavilion).

Harriet Klausner

Never Judge A Lady By Her Cover: The Fourth Rule of Scoundrels-Sarah MacLean

Never Judge A Lady By Her Cover: The Fourth Rule of Scoundrels

Sarah MacLean

Avon, Nov 25 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062068514

In 1823 Essex, teenage daughter and sister to dukes, Lady Georgiana Pearson, knows she loves Jonathan.  Expecting to elope with him, they have sex before he deserts her.  Over the next decade she survived the scandal by turning into mysterious Chase the gentleman owner of London’s most popular gambling club The Fallen Angel and sexy madam Anna.  However, Georgiana believes her semi-exile from the Ton must end so that her nine years old daughter Caroline can join Polite Society; to do so she needs a titled husband.

At a ball Georgiana and newspaper publisher Duncan West meet after he observes her lose control when one of the guests calls her and her daughter trollops; ironically unknown by him he has conducted business with her via missives with Chase and Anna.  Attracted to each other; a feeling neither desires nor plan to act on; he vows to help her find an aristocratic spouse while with Chase’s assistance identify a traitor.  As they fall in love, both fear their darkest secrets will become known.

The Fourth Rules of Scoundrels is an awesome nineteenth century romance.  Smartly done very early in the storyline, the audience will marvel over the shocking revelation of Chase being someone who would not have been listed in the London books, yet seems apropos.  Aptly titled, Never Judge A Lady By Her Cover is a fantastic finish to a stupendous series (see No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover and A Rogue By Any Other Name).

Harriet Klausner

Eagle’s Last Stand-Aimée Thurlo

Eagle’s Last Stand

Aimée Thurlo

Harlequin Intrigue, Nov 18 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373698059

At the Brickhouse Tavern, his five Navaho foster brothers and their families welcome home former undercover FBI agent Rick Cloud.  Working part-time as the event’s coordinator at her uncle Frank’s tavern while going to school, Kim Nelson also greets Rick.  Attracted to each other, he especially appreciates she ignores his scar to look into his eyes as they chat.  When suddenly the party smells a gas leak, they try to leave; but find the door jammed.  Noticing a cut gas line in the kitchen, Rick lifts the unconscious half-owner Frank and with everyone else escapes the trap just before the tavern explodes.

One of the brothers, Hartley, New Mexico Detective Preston Bowman leads the inquiry.  Thinking he was the target though not by the cartel he infiltrated, Rick wonders if the disappearance of their mentor Hosteen Silver the medicine man is the link to the deliberate attempt to kill him by someone who could not care less about murdering numerous innocents.  As Kim leads Rick to a message left for him on a Copper Canyon wall by Hosteen, he will do anything to keep safe the woman he loves safe from a predator wanting him eliminated before he reads the note.

The sixth Copper Canyon romantic suspense is an excellent final novel in a quality series that showcases the talent of Aimée Thurlo, who passed away in February.  Paying homage to the late author, fans will appreciate this exciting thriller that ties up the major threads of the previous tales (see Undercover Warrior, Power of the Raven, Winter Hawk’s Legend, Falcon’s Run and Secrets of the Lynx).

Harriet Klausner

Deliverance At Cardwell Ranch-B. J. Daniels

Deliverance At Cardwell Ranch

1. J. Daniels

Harlequin Intrigue, Nov 18 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373698004

Freezing his butt in Montana, Texas Deputy Sheriff Austin Cardwell hates he promised his siblings and his cousin Dana Cardwell Savage (see Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch) he would spend Christmas with them to celebrate the grand opening of their Texas Boys Barbecue.  Used to Houston traffic and no snow, he drives to his destination while a blizzard makes the roads hazardous.  When he comes across an overturned car, Austin stops to help anyone stranded; only a crazed woman assaults him with a tire iron.  Stopping the attack, Austin asks her name and noticing a child’s car seat in her car asks where her baby is.  She cannot recall her name; insists she has no infant; and that is not her car.  Her watch says Gilliam, but her driver’s license lists her as Rebecca Stewart, but she insists she is not Rebecca.

Highway patrol arrives and takes her to a hospital in Bozeman.  Her husband Marc Stewart arrives to take his wife home; Austin observes how terrorized she is of him.  Though having doubts and challenging Marc’s claim, Austin leaves for the Cardwell Ranch feeling foolish for getting involved in a domestic dispute; yet the inconsistences haunt him.  As a family favor, Dana’s law enforcement husband Hud chats with Marc who shows him a picture of him with his wife holding their baby and her sister Gillian Cooper.  Still unable to let go of the woman’s terrorized expression, Austin investigates.

The third Texas Cardwell Cousins romantic suspense (see Wedding At Cardwell Ranch and Rescue At Cardwell Ranch) is an action-packed taut thriller with a solid lead triangle.  Series fans will appreciate Big Sky Country takes Austin.

Harriet Klausner

A Last Chance Christmas-Vicki Lewis Thompson

A Last Chance Christmas

Vicki Lewis Thompson

Harlequin Blaze, Nov 18 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373798278

Ben Radcliffe drives the icy roads from Sheridan to Jackson Hole to deliver a custom made saddle that Jack Chance commissioned as a family birthday present to his mom Sarah on her seventieth birthday.  At the Last Chance Ranch, Jack loves Ben’s artistry, which relieves the tense artisan as this is his biggest commission.

Also staying at the spread, Chance relative Molly Gallagher the genealogist works on a family tree.  When she and Ben meet, each feels a powerful uncomfortable attraction.  As they fall in love, the reclusive Ben revises his opinion about family being undesirable hemorrhoid creators since the loving rowdy Chance clan embraced him as one of them and Molly wants him.

The fourteenth Sons of Chance (see Riding Home, Riding Hard and Riding High) Wyoming ranch romance is a pleasing tale as two professionals with polar opposite views of family fall in love.  Although understandable as apparently this is the last entry, the Chance horde at times overwhelms the romantic storyline.  Still Vicki Lewis Thompson provides her appreciative audience with a nice Christmas present.

Harriet Klausner