Harriet’s Death

I am Harriet’s son, Eric Klausner. On October 15, 2015, my mother Harriet Klausner passed away in her sleep. She was an excellent and loving mother who will be missed by myself and by my father, Stan Klausner. My mother was a savant reader who enjoyed novels. She was a very intelligent woman and was a fighter nicknamed spunky. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Mistletoe Rodeo – Amanda Renee

Mistletoe Rodeo

Amanda Renee

Harlequin American Romance, Oct 1 2015, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373755899

In Las Vegas at the National Rodeo Championship, bull rider Chase Langtry feels depressed for failing to win his event even if a shoulder injury cost him the title.  As he slinks home to the Bridle Dance Ranch feeling sick; Chase knows he let down everyone at the Ride ‘Em High! Rodeo School and in his hometown of Ramblewood, Texas especially his brother; they relied on him taking the gold for a needed PR boost.

Reporter Nola West wants to interview Chase for an article on someone who lost though she finds him a difficult elusive subject even tougher to cover than Kuwait.  Though attracted to her beauty and feistiness, Chase persistently declines.  Obstinate Nola refuses to accept his refusal.  Acquiescing if she also writes an article on the Mistletoe Rodeo; he soon wants even more from the journalist.  She feels the same, but accepts they have nothing else in common as their differences are wider than Texas.

The fifth Welcome to Ramblewood (see Back to Texas and Home to the Cowboy) is an enjoyable small-town romance starring opposites in love.  Although a third party adds unneeded tension, the storyline is tremendous when the protagonists struggle with unwanted feelings both distrust.

Harriet Klausner

Teasing Her Seal – Anne Marsh

Teasing Her Seal
Anne Marsh
Harlequin Blaze, Sep 15 2015, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373798674

Their current mission abruptly aborted, US Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander Gray Jackson and his unit immediately head to Belize where they will go undercover at luxurious Fantasy Island. Their new assignment is to capture a drug runner. Gray obtains a position as a massage therapist.

Unemployed emergency room surgeon Laney Parker leaves behind her cheating fiancée and her former six days a week trauma job in San Francisco to go on her nonrefundable honeymoon alone at Fantasy Island. When the masseur massages her, Laney and Gray think of heaven. Neither expected much more than a heated fling, but love enters the equation.

This Uniformly Hot! (see Anne Marsh’s Wicked Secrets) contemporary is a heated romance, but never obtains the level of blazing scorcher anticipated from what readers learn early on about Fantasy Island (though hotter than Mr. Roarke’s version). Still the audience will enjoy the mental and physical massages between the dazed doctor and the stunned SEAL as love leaves both fantasizing about happily ever after.

Harriet Klausner

Feels Like Family – Sherryl Woods

Feels Like Family

Sherryl Woods

Mira, Aug 25 2015, $14.95

ISBN 9780778318408

In Serenity, South Carolina, she muses that perhaps it is seeing the happiness of her two best friends (see Maddie in Stealing Home and Dana Sue in A Slice Of Heaven) but divorce attorney Helen Decatur suddenly feels alone.  Her work always was enough, but now at forty two years old that reaction formation defense mechanism no longer works especially since her biological clock has abruptly set off alarms.  She decides to have a child, but has no one in her life to sire the infant.

If she was to choose, Helen would select pastry chef Erik Whitney as the father of her offspring.  The attraction between them is palpable as her buddies can sense it as well but he seems to ignore his feelings.  She begins a scheme to seduce the chef, but when she falls in love she realizes she wants to raise a family with him; Erik has personal reasons from his past to reject the love she offers that he so dearly craves.

This reprint of the 2007 third Sweet Magnolias tale is an enjoyable contemporary as series fans will delight in the often amusing witty repartee between Helen and Erik; who both have serious issues that surface while their relationship simmers before boiling.  The story line is entertaining due to the antics of the lead couple encouraged by Helen’s BFFs and their beloved mates.

Harriet Klausner

One Breathless Night – Jo Leigh

One Breathless Night

Jo Leigh

Harlequin Blaze, Aug 18 2015, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373798643

“One Breathless Night” by Jo Leigh.  At a 007 New Year’s Eve party, Boston schoolteacher Jenna Delaney in horrid disbelief watches her long time fiancé kiss someone else at midnight.  Also observing the lip locks is storm chaser Rick Sinclair whose girlfriend is the other party.  Stunned, Jenna and Rick turn to each other for solace that leads to a geographical distant relationship though neither expects anything to come of it.

“Hard Knocks” by Lori Foster.  In Japan suffering a cut that required stitches and costs him an SBC main event fight, Gage “Savage” Ringer returns home to heal and further his relationship with Harper Gates.  In love with Gage, Harper assumes he did not miss her while overseas.  Still she decides a fling can’t hurt too badly.

The main event is an enjoyable Three Wicked Nights contemporary starring two likable rebounders though the storyline drags at times.  The SBC support romance is a paper copy reprint of an interesting SBC Ultimate (see Holding Strong and Tough Love) e-novella.

Harriet Klausner

Lone Rider – B.J. Daniels

Lone Rider

B.J. Daniels

Harlequin HQN, Jul 28 2015, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373788415

In Big Timber, Montana, worried Emily Calder tells her brother Jace that her boss at the Sarah Hamilton Foundation Bo Hamilton failed to return from a night of camping.  Emily says depressed Bo arranged for auditors to look into embezzlement of foundation funds.  They were to interview her; but she failed to make the meeting.

Jace prefers to stay far away from the woman who rejected his proposal, but fears something happened to Bo.  Though in the minority, he strongly believes she did not take the money nor would deliberately miss the appointment with the auditors especially since she found the discrepancies.  In the nearby mountains, fearful Jace learns why Bo missed her session with the auditors she contacted.

The second Montana Hamiltons romantic suspense (see Wild Horses) is an exciting rustic thriller.  The lead couple and the villain make for an interesting potentially deadly triangle in which the life-threatening danger rightfully supersedes the romance.  Although there are too many subplots started for future entries (in fairness there are six Hamilton siblings and their mom back from the grave after a two plus decade vanishing needing a scorecard), Lone Rider is a wonderful second chance, if they survive, contemporary.

Harriet Klausner

Small-Town Secrets – Pamela Tracy

Small-Town Secrets

Pamela Tracy

Harlequin Heartwarming, Jun 1 2015, $6.50

ISBN: 9780373367276

In Scorpion Ridge, Arizona, Twice Told Tales used bookstore owner Yolanda Sanchez follows the smoke to a woman puffing on a cigarette days before her grand opening.  The seasoned smoker states she seeks proof that can only be found in an old history book on the town; Yolanda says she has not unpacked all the books yet.  Yolanda thinks of her pragmatic mom who’s frugal and all business-like lifestyle she emulated.  Just before her mom died, she advised her daughter to follow her dream.  Thus with her inheritance she converted the family Victorian into a bookstore.  The smoker explains she is staying with relatives, the Ventigmila family who along with the Moore clan founded the town.

Although radically different in demeanor than his employer whom he knew in school, Adam Snapp also left Scorpion Ridge to come home for a parent.  He returned when his dad became ill and obtained work renovating Yolanda’s home into Twice Told Tales.  They become engrossed in the smoker’s mystery especially when it shockingly agitates their grandparents and the other elderly who insist the smoking customer died decades ago.

The love subplot takes a backseat to the intriguing enigma of whom the first customer is, the history of the town, and a historiographer’s theory of relativity when each person interviewed provides a different perspective to what happened years ago.  Leisurely-paced, Pamela Tracy’s return to Scorpion Ridge (see What Janie Saw, Katie’s Rescue and Holiday Homecoming) is an entertaining romantic mystery.

Harriet Klausner

One Wish – Robyn Carr

One Wish

Robyn Carr

Mira, Feb 24 2015, $8.99

ISBN: 9780778317722 (MM); 9780778317937 (HC)

Following the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Izzy Banks left behind figure skating and her martinet mother Winnie to become Grace Dillon the florist in Thunder Point, Oregon.  She still enjoys skating at Jake Galbreath’s rink, but has no plans to go back on the circuit as either a performer or coach.  Grace also is attracted to high school history teacher Troy Headly, but he treats her as a friend not interested in romance having just ended a long-term relationship.

However, Troy begins to realize he still wants Grace as a friend but also needs her as his lover.  As they become a loving team, each judges what they have as a 10.  That is until her mother arrives in Thunder Bay with new but needy demands of her daughter that shakes up Izzy and leaves confused Troy no longer confident in them as a duet.

The seventh Thunder Point Oregonian romance (see The Homecoming, The Promise and The Chance) is a moving entry starring a superb female and a bland but okay male.  The return of previous leads adds depth to Grace’s story as she fears the serpent entered her Eden.

Harriet Klausner

The Tell-Tale Heart – Jill Dawson

The Tell-Tale Heart
Jill Dawson
Harper Perennial, Feb 10 2015, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062348807

Fifty years old university lecturer Patrick spent decades of debauchery until his doctor tells him he has no more than six months to live due to a severely damaged heart. Patrick receives a second chance when a healthy fifteen years old boy dies in a tragic accident. At Papworth Hospital using the beating heart technique, doctors successfully transplant the lad’s organ inside Patrick.

Once recovered from the surgery, Patrick finds what pleasured him for years now leaves him ennui. He discusses this with his doctor who insists no evidence exists that cellular memories from the donor comes with the organ. Needing to know about the lad, Patrick learns he has Littleport resident Drew Beamish’s heart beating inside him. With an obsession to learn who was this teen who gave him a second chance, Patrick looks into Drew’s life and that of present and past relations including the early eighteenth-century relative Willis involved in a bread riot.

The engaging Tell-Tale Heart is an enthralling story that provides readers with perspectives from the recipient, the donor and the ancestor. There are two intriguing overarching themes: that the austere Fens has a thriving beautiful ecosystem for those looking beyond the bleak; and whether it is cellular or not a transplant changes the recipient’s outlook (think of Ghost Whisperer’s episode Mended Hearts) in many ways including a degree of separation to the late donor as close of not more than twins share. Although the Willis subplot adds depth to the premise of expanded memories beyond one’s experiences; it also interferes with the more appealing contemporary subplots.

Harriet Klausner

Amherst – William Nicholson

Amherst

William Nicholson

Simon & Schuster, Feb 10 2015, $26.00

ISBN: 9781476740409

Wannabe screenwriter Alice Dickinson finds information on the nineteenth century married brother of Emily Dickinson.  She leaves her English flat traveling to Amherst, Massachusetts to learn more about then fiftyish Austin’s affair with his married neighbor; twenty-something Mabel Loomis Todd.  Alice plans to write a script on the illicit duo abetted by Emily the enabler whose home served as the rendezvous haven between her sibling and a professor’s spouse.  As Emily and Mabel get to know each other, they also connect in a way that survives the death of the poetess.

Friends arrange for Alice to reside at the home of Professor Nick Crocker.  They soon begin a tryst that mirrors the older man younger woman entanglement of whom the visiting Englishwoman is researching.

The absorbing historical subplot provides captivating glimpses into a little known part of the late poetess’ life with the addition of written documents augmenting this segue but also slowing down the pacing.  The present day tryst comes across as intrusive since readers want more Emily, Austin and Mabel, and much less Alice and Nick.

Harriet Klausner