Reviews - From A Bookbabe Point of (Re)View - Books - http://maxpages.com/readersplace/Book

. Classic
. . Highly Recommended
. . . Very Entertaining
. . . . Fair
. . . . . Don't Bother

Coming Soon: THE FLING by Elda Minger

8/27/02
BLONDE HEAT, Susan Johnson
Contemporary - ISBN 0-553-58255-0
June 2002 -

What do you get when three shallow, over-sexed friends (female) go back home for the summer and link up with three hunky, over-sexed friends (male)? An extraordinarily shallow book. It's difficult to reconcile this tremendously bad book with Susan Johnson's track record in historical romances. It doesn't seem too much to ask that she write - that anyone write - a book with a plot. Any kind of plot. There isn't much to comment on regarding the plot since it doesn't have one, but nowhere in my thesaurus does it say that erotica is another word for plotless, but Lily, Serena and Ceci have plotless lives and do plotless things with the plotless males. Do you get the idea that PLOT is just a little bit important to me? Oh, they also fight with their men, then make up, then pick fights again - seems to me so they can get together to drink, get drunk and comiserate with one another about how faithless their men are. If I lived in Ely, Minnesota I'd be embarrassed to have this book set in my hometown. I bought this book out of curiosity: so many negative comments about it and I'd enjoyed Johnson's historicals in the past so I needed to find out for myself. I bought this book used I'm proud to say - it's the only redeeming thing about it. Don't bother, or wait til it shows up at your local thrift shop.

8/20/02
TAKE ME, Cherry Adair
Blaze - ISBN 0-373-79055-4
August 2002 -

Majority ownership of their uncle's corporation will go to either Joshua Falcon or his playboy cousin - the cousin who marries first gets control. With his cousin's wedding planned for noon the next day, Joshua proposes a marriage of convenience to a waitress in a greasy spoon diner. They marry, all those nasty little financial details are taken care of, and Joshua goes on his way. Seven years later, he meets a stunning, vibrant woman at his uncle's party and they eventually begin what is to be a year-long relationship. Joshua is known at The Glacier because of his cold, no-nonsense way of dealing with life in general, including his women, but Jessie Adams is very different. Unbenownst to him she is his mousy little wife-of-convenience and for all his money and power Jessie wants but one thing from him: a child. What begins as a simple plan to get "impregnated and run" gets complicated when Joshua isn't around during the "right time", and the months pass and Joshua and Jessie become more than physically involved. The sex is HOT, there's no doubt about that, but Jessie and Joshua are far more than two horny people putting the pieces together correctly - they are immensely complicated people carrying childhood scars around with them. They are perfectly made for one another but it takes many ups and down before they realize they are each other's destiny. These are a well-developed hero and heroine; the book actually has a plot - it isn't just sex scenes threaded together with a thin storyline - and you end up caring very much about these two people. Run don't walk to your nearest book store and pick this one up. Probably the BEST Blaze published so far.

8/17/02
HOT AS ICE, Merline Lovelace
Intimate Moments # 1129 - ISBN 0-373-27199-9
February 2002 -

At an Arctic oceanographic station workers are waiting for fresh supplies. As the submarine making the delivery rises to the surface, it breaks through tossing aside huge slabs of ice one of which contains the remains of a human locked in five feet of ice.

Dr. Diana Remington, biologist and member of the crack OMEGA team, is sent to the Arctic to oversee Project Iceman, and to everyone's surprise the Iceman recovers from his 45-year deep sleep. Don't even think "this couldn't happen!" - just relax and enjoy the story of a 1950's test pilot who awakens in the 21st century, awed by what he sees, slow to accept some things, and carrying a secret he's both reluctant and fearful to share. Intimates are known for their suspense and the mystery in this one comes close to the end of the story, but the journey to the mystery is filled with the story of Charlie who is coming to grips with the years he's lost and Diana, originally assigned to be his 'handler' but who falls in love with the macho, chauvinistic flyboy. And once again we meet old friends from previous OMEGA books. Read this one before TEXAS HERO if you can.

TEXAS HERO, Merline Lovelace
Intimate Moments #1165 - ISBN 0-373-27235-9
August 2002 -

Someone is trying to scare Dr. Elena Alazar, forensic historian, to keep her from continuing her archaeological dig in San Antonio. When her hotel room is trashed, her computer stolen, and a warning message scrawled on a mirror she knows she needs help and she requests Jack Carstairs to protect her. She and Jack had had a very brief affair nine years ago, an affair which ruined the career of the young Marine, and she's felt guilty about this through the years. When Jack arrives Ellie realizes the feelings she had for him when she was nineteen have not gone away, but what she doesn't know is that far from giving Jack a helping hand by giving him a job, he is a member of the highly efficient and equally top-secret OMEGA team.

Because of her theories about the Alamo's defenders, theories which are rocking and riling Texans down to their souls, Jack and his team have their job cut out for them trying to find out who and why Ellie is being stalked. Complicating matters are Jack's revived feelings for Ellie which he fears may compromise his position as her bodyguard. This is Book 6 in Lovelace's "Code Name: Danger" series and it's every bit as tight and interesting as the earlier books, it includes meeting some old friends from previous books and hints at what story may be next. This is a Keeper as are the previous OMEGA books.

A RECKLESS BARGAIN, Elizabeth Powell
Signet Regency - ISBN 0-451-220551-9
August 2002 -

Katherine Mallory, daughter of a disreputable gamester and widow of a Cit, meets and is befriended by the Dowager Duchess of Wexcombe on the long trip from India to England. One day the Dowager comes to visit Kit and requests she travel with her to visit her grandson, the current Duke, at his country estate. Unbeknownst to the Dowager, the Duke, believing Kit to be an adventuress who has attached herself to his grandmother for nefarious reasons, has attempted to buy her off and they parted on less than friendly terms. Because she loves the Dowager Kit reluctantly agrees to accompany her to the country. Meanwhile the Duke has requested that his cousin, Lord Bainbridge, also visit that week in order to flirt with the infamous Mrs. Mallory, to reveal her for the adventuress she is.

The week in the country doesn't turn out quite the way everyone has expected. Kit, treated to cold suspicion by the Duke and his family, is surprised by the warmth from Nicholas, Lord Bainbridge. Believing herself to be a plain little sparrow, she doesn't understand why the handsome rake would be paying her so much attention, and Bainbridge himself finally comes to terms with many of his own doubts and demons.

Though the book is a relatively fast read, it has its plot twists and the characters are interesting, even the uncivilized ones, and I found the book to be a page-turner. After a (Regency) drought I started this book for the CHAT on the Regency List and surprisingly found myself immediately drawn into the story, liking the characters very much, and when I brought it to work with me I put my job in jeopardy, so to speak, by closing my office door because I had to read "just a little bit more". This is only the author's second book - what a welcome addition to the traditional Regency genre. Can't wait for Powell's next book.

THE BACHELOR - Carly Phillips
Warner Books - ISBN 0-446-61054-2
August 2002 -

Raina Chandler wants grandchildren but her sons are not being cooperative. The Widow Raina needs to get a life and not interfere in her kids' lives. She's faking heart trouble - NOT a spoiler, this is in the prologue; it's also not very funny. Her sons have to decide which one will give up his freedom to marry and father a grandkid. Roman, globe-trotting journalist who has been everywhere, seen everything, loses the coin toss and is not eager to marry but happily anticipates marrying the "lucky" woman, getting her pregnant, then hightailing it out of town to return to his former lifestyle. Back home in Small Town USA because of his mother's "illness" his erstwhile childhood friend, Charlotte is drawing him in. She wants no part of another foot-loose man but - well you get the drift. This book was tough going - I found my mind wandering throughout the book, having to reread many pages I didn't remember reading, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters or the plot. Anticipation is a fine thing. Disappointment is another thing. This was a category romance plumped up to fit a contemporary romance slot and it didn't work for me. I was anticipating a tidy, slick contemporary; what I found was a well-padded romance that should have been pared down and tightened up. Leave out the extraneous secondary characters, both real and mentioned, the unnecessary scene with the kids in the Chinese restaurant, leave out the other brothers; it was overkill having them pop in and out throughout the book. We know they're going to have their own story - there's no mystery about them when they're in every chapter. And the "thief" story was kind of hokey. The next book in this trilogy doesn't come out until the end the year, giving the reader a chance to forget everything they've read in THIS one. Gave this one but 2 stars on spec - hope this the weakest of the trilogy.

STILL LAKE - Anne Stuart
Mira Books - ISBN: 1-55166-908-0
August 2002 -

Sophie Davis, the ordinary woman's Martha Stewart, buys an abandoned farm in upstate Vermont with the hope of opening an inn and putting all her Stewarty talents to good use. It's also a way of getting her troubled teenaged half-sister out of the city, and a quiet place for her on-the-edge-of-Alzheimer's mother.

She covets the rundown cottage on the adjoining property but it's been rented by John Smith, a mysterious loner, with whom Sophie clashes verbally. He's tall, rangy, and is a man of few words. He's also the young man who was arrested for the murder of a young woman there twenty years ago. The conviction was overturned and he's back to try to discover exactly what happened that fateful night. But he's also sexy as hell and it isn't long before he and Sophie are involved. He's not interested in a relationship - he just loves sex; Sophie hides her womanly features beneath long, flowing, flowery dresses, she eats too many of her homemade muffins and peach pie and can see the fat growing on her body as she eats. She has no idea of how sexy and attractive she really is and how those very womanly curves are driving Mr. Smith crazy.

But while they're alternately verbally sparring and discovering each other in the dark (everywhere but in bed) the murderer is preparing to strike again. I figured out who the killer was almost from the start but the identity of the bad guy was really of secondary importance to the often sharp-as-Vermont-Cheddar dialogue between Sophie and John and their growing relationship, a tenuous coming together of a man with demons in his past and a wish to move on to the future, and a woman with her own fears and insecurities who takes on responsibility for others, is trying to make a future for herself. After not being able to warm up to Stuart's previous suspense novels - far too dark for me, some with heroes that scared me - STILL LAKE was a pleasant surprise, a throwback to the Anne Stuart I used to love to read and thought I'd never find again.

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