War of the Wives-Tamar Cohen

War of the Wives

Tamar Cohen

Mira, Jan 27 2015, $14.95

ISBN: 9780778317487

When Simon Busfield died in what looks like a suicidal leap into a river, he left behind two widows, Selina and Lottie, without divorcing either.  The late bigamist’s wives are 180 degrees different in outlook.  The deceased’s first wife of twenty-eight years Selina is sophisticated and the queen of organize; while his other spouse of seventeen years Lottie is artistic and the queen of disorganize.  Selina arranges the funeral that Lottie attends when a stalker expresses his condolences for her loss.  Thus Simon’s two spouses and their respective offspring meet for the first time at his burial.

The widows are far from merry with the shocking news of their late husband’s infidelity.  As they struggles between denial and anger, Selina and Lottie share in common a need to know why he had two families and why he committed suicide if that is he actually took his own life.  To do so they must put aside their raging War of the Wives.  Thus the depressed widows bargain with each other to forge a détente in order to uncover the secrets of whom the man each spent years with truly was.

The intriguing storyline follows the Kübler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief while rotating the lead between the two wives in each phase.  The two families have more problems than Job and myriad of secrets than the CIA possesses; both elements at times overwhelm the overall fine tragicomic family drama.

Harriet Klausner

Happy Are The Happy-Yasmina Reza

Happy Are The Happy

Yasmina Reza

Other Press, Jan 27 2015, $20.00

ISBN: 9781590516928

In Paris “Robert Toscano” and his wife Odile argue at the supermarket over the tons of sugar products she placed in the cart for the children and the wrong cheese he purchased.  Odile’s tante Lycee Spanish Professor “Marguerite Blot” looks back over the years to when her now adult children were young and her fear of becoming lonely Madame Compain before the tall female companion and the dog joined the lonely woman.  Odile’s septuagenarian father “Ernest Blot” knows love or even companionship is not why his wife “Jeannette Blot” wants them buried together as even after death his spouse needs the gossips to believe the image of a happy couple.  Meanwhile “Odile Toscano” wonders when her husband became an anxious opinionated pest instead of the the delightful relationship that Lionel and “Pascaline Hunter” share (or not with their son Jacob institutionalized because he claims to be Celine Dion.

The 21 extremely short cleverly interrelated yet brilliantly independent vignettes provide the audience with a contemplative look at the good, the bad and the ugly in the various relationships the eighteen characters have forged.  Using everyday life in Paris as a backdrop, the cast desperately seeks affection in diverse ways; deals with loneliness even when residing with a spouse or other family members; and above all else insures the proper public image.  Amusing yet melancholy Yasmina Reza asks the Peggy Lee question:” Is That All There Is?” while spinning Jorge Luis Borges: “… Happy are the happy” except frequently the happy wear a clown’s smiling face to conceal the unhappy.

Harriet Klausner

The Reluctant Groom-Debbie Macomber

The Reluctant Groom

Debbie Macomber

Mira, Jan 27 2015, $7.99

ISBN: 9780778317418

“All Things Considered.”  Judd Matthiessen found Seattle stifling so he abandoned his wife Lanni and their now four-year old daughter Jenny to run off to Alaska and overseas.  However, the wanderer returned to the Forty-eight when his dying father asked Judd to bring his granddaughter to see him in Montana.  However, Lanni has no time for her runaway husband or his father with her realtor business booming and as a single mom (with a caring helpful sister) raising a child.  Realizing he made the error of his life when he chose to live up to his dad’s mantra that he was no good; Judd prays for a second chance with his wife and offspring.

“Almost Paradise.”  Twenty-one years old Sherry White desperately needs breathing room from her smothering stepmom Phyllis.  Without informing her dad or her stepmom where she plans to spend her summer, Sherry accepts a counselor position at a camp for intellectually gifted children expected to behave like adults.  Camp Gitchee Gumee director Jeff Roarke runs a tight ship with no staff hanky-panky and keeping the campers busy with learning activity.  Whereas Jeff named the camp after the Hawthorne poem, Sherry thought it was cute to use a children’s song.  Sherry just wants her seven wizards to have fun and her boss to break his no fraternization rule with her.

These are reprints of two late 1980s romances though their themes are radically different.  All Things Considered is a typical second chance at love; while Almost Paradise provides the audience with how adults probably treated the brains of Scorpion when they were kids until Sherry proved “learning can be fun.”

Harriet Klausner

The Morning After The Night Before-Nikki Logan

The Morning After The Night Before

Nikki Logan

Harlequin KISS, Jan 15 2014, $5.99

ISBN: 9780373179138

At Broadmore Natale in London, Harry Mitchell lectures Izzy Dean on the quality of her latest report; claiming it is flat and dull unlike her earlier work.  She sulks out of his office, but calms down until his note re the Ice Age triggers her rage again.  Izzy quits.

With plenty of vino Izzy celebrates her freedom from obnoxious Prince Harry.  However, the next morning she wakes up stunned to find she shares the bed with the Australian hunk.  As amazed and mortified as Izzy is; Harry is equally astonished but secretly pleased though also flustered with the turn of the screw (apology to Henry James) their dysfunctional employer-employee (albeit former) relationship took.

This Flat in Notting Hill contemporary (see Sleeping With The Soldier by Charlotte Phillips) is a lighthearted romance in which the two bickering stars take their battle from the boardroom to the bedroom.  Although neither protagonist is likable as he is too formal and she is too easy to enflame, this is a pleasant “love and lust in the city that never sleeps” gender war.

Harriet Klausner

Blood Wolf Dawning-Rhyannon Byrd

Blood Wolf Dawning

Rhyannon Byrd

Harlequin Nocturne, Jan 1 2014, $5.75

ISBN: 9780373009367

Sayre Murphy and Cian Hennessey knew they were mates, but he ignored her until five years ago when he abruptly left her and their Bloodrunners Pack without an explanation.  Heartbroken and confused, Sayre became a hermit while Cian a wanderer without a home.

Though he sacrificed all he desired to keep his mate and his friends safe, depressed Cian concludes that his noble deed failed as his blood enemy threatens his beloved Sayre and the pack.  Thus he comes home to confront the nightmare that sent him packing and if he somehow survives the altercation, Cian doubts he will find confession good for his soul when he tells the truth to Sayre and the Bloodrunners.

The seventh Bloodrunners werewolf romantic suspense (see the “Last Wolf” trilogy, and the “Dark Wolf” quartet) is an action-packed second chance (if he survives his personal war and persuades his Sayre) at love paranormal.  A stunning key twist re why the lead male left the pack makes this High Noon tale entertainingly electrifying, but also feels out of place in terms of the overarching saga’s theme.

Harriet Klausner

Heart Of A Hero-Debra Webb and Regan Black

Heart Of A Hero

Debra Webb and Regan Black

Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 20 2015, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373698134

Though they argue over his wearing shorts, CIA Specialists Director Thomas Casey (see Colby Agency: The Specialists – Bridal Armor by Debra Webb) hires Will Chase to work undercover as a letter carrier in Colorado due to a recent operation he did as a SEAL in Afghanistan.  Working in the Durango area of the Rockies, Will and sixth generation trail guide Charly Binali begin dating.  Though he hates lying to her re his identity, Will knows national security supersedes his desires.

Casey alerts his undercover agents that a Blackout Key cyber weapon that can breach any software program even ultra-top secret nuclear launch codes was stolen.  Meanwhile Reed Lancaster employs Binali Backcountry to lead him and his team into the mountains.  Clint Roberts and Charly escort the Lancaster contingent on the hike while Will aware of whom her customer is from Thomas’ alert follows with the added incentive besides insuring the safety of his country of keeping his beloved safe.

The second Specialists: Heroes Next Door (see The Hunk Next Door) romantic suspense is a taut drama that starts leisurely but shifts into hyperspeed once the backcountry trek begins and never decelerates until the anticipated Rocky Mountains’ final confrontation.  Ironically, the initial slow pacing enables the audience to believe in the realistic relationship between the protagonists.  Debra Webb and Regan Black provide an entertaining intrigue in which fans will feel they hike the trail with the guides and the lethal clients.

Harriet Klausner

Countermeasures-Janie Crouch

Countermeasures

Janie Crouch

Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 20 2015, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373698172

Scientist Megan Fuller felt good creating the Ghost Shell technology until she realized the fatal flaw in her logic.  She stopped her work and turned to the FBI, but the agent she contacted, Fred McNeil, betrayed her and their country.  Now the head of the DS-13 syndicate, Fred arranges to auction off Ghost Shell to the highest bidding terrorist.  Desperate the Feds plead with Megan to build a new gizmo that can destroy Ghost Shell.

Following a two week suspension for an altercation with his Omega Sector boss Dennis Burgamy (see Infiltration), Agent Sawyer Branson feels he remains under punishment when his superior assigns him to protect Megan while she works on a nullifier.  To prevent Megan achieving the neutralizer, Fred sends lethal operatives to kill the scientist.

The second Omega Sector romantic suspense focuses on the intrigue for much of the thrilling storyline.  The attraction between the leads is there from the onset as each shakes the other’s world but kept in check by both for personal and professional reasons.  Though the climax seems abrupt and it behooves the audience to read Infiltration first as Countermeasures is a direct sequel, Janie Crouch authors a tense thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Return to Exile-Lynne Gentry

Return to Exile

Lynne Gentry

Howard Books/Simon and Schuster, Jan 6 2015, $14.99

ISBN: 9781476746364

In present day Dallas, Dr. Lisbeth Hasting struggles to prevent a possible measles epidemic that already cost the life of a young mother.  As she waits for the arrival of CDC, Lisbeth sees a note with three stick figures written and drawn by her five years old daughter Maggie to Santa asking him to help her meet her daddy.  Lisbeth knows her child will never see her daddy becasue barrister Cyprianus Thracius resides in third century Roman controlled Carthage.

Since the love of his life returned to her time, Cyprian has lost everything that matters including his belief in Christ; he wants to die.  Instead family friend Ruth persuades him to marry her.  With pregnant Ruth at his side, Cyprian finds a purpose to live.  However, learning of her mate’s deadly fate, Lisbeth, accompanied by Maggie, returns to ancient Carthage only to find she left an apparent twenty-first century epidemic to enter the middle of a third century epidemic.

The second Chronicles of Carthage saga (see Healer of Carthage) is a thrilling time travel medical romance.  The storyline starts slow when the lead couple remains eighteen hundred years apart, but accelerates into hyperspeed once they reunite as they deal with a personal crisis and a terrible disease.  Although Maggie gets away with causing too many endangerment incidents (parental discipline is lacking), Return to Exile is a winner with a surprise late twist that sets up the next chronicle.

Harriet Klausner

Hot Blooded-Donna Grant

Hot Blooded

Donna Grant

St. Martin’s Paperbacks, Dec 30 2014, $7.99

ISBN 9781250060723

After two decades of estrangement, photojournalist Iona Campbell decides enough is enough.  She plans to come to Scotland to see her father.  Instead Iona arrives in time to bury her dad.

Filled with guilt, realizing her perceptions totally wrong and obsessing over knowing who her late father was; Iona researches his life starting with his position as the Dreagan Industries estate caretaker.  Her quest leads to her to Dragon King Laith, who had given up on ever meeting a beloved mate until now.  As they fall in love, Laith must decide whether he can trust the outsider with secrets her father took to the grave.  Additionally Iona’s presence has an unknown adversary stalking her with her beloved Dragon King risking his life to protect her.

The latest Dark Kings Scottish romantic fantasy (see Darkest Flame, Burning Desire and Fire Rising) is an excellent entry as fans learn more about the centuries-long war while wondering if a rogue Dreagan or a Dark Fae targets the shocked heroine.  Laith is a magnificent male lead as he mentally debates the question whether to reveal or not to reveal while accepting that trust is the key foundation to building a permanent relationship.  Iona starts off as the stunned deer in the headlights, but adapts to what she learns about her late father and his friends while falling in love and at the same time not so simply trying to stay alive.

Harriet Klausner

Angel in Armani-Melanie Scott

Angel in Armani

Melanie Scott

St. Martin’s Paperbacks, Dec 30 2014, $7.99

ISBN 9781250040404

Though he has a phobic fear of flying since a college incident, New York Saints baseball team co-owner Dr. Lucas Angelo hires Sara Charles as his helicopter pilot to take him back and forth between the Big Apple and the Florida Spring training camp.  Lucas quickly realizes he wants Sara in his personal life too by his reaction to flying with her; since instead of abject terror and out of control panic, he feels relaxed and attracted.

Sara is elated to have a new client as she hopes to save her family business, but detests her reaction to the hunk; as he is Manhattan old money and she is Staten Island working class.  As Lucas tries to persuade Sara that their different oils blend perfectly due to love, she has doubts that what they feel can last.

The second Saints baseball romance (see The Devil in Denim) is a nice sports tale highlighted by an All-Star couple.  Although the climatic resolutions of their problems feel abrupt like how a visiting team reacts to a walk off homerun, this is a pleasant class warfare contemporary.

Harriet Klausner