Short Takes: A Handful of Harlequin Holiday Reviews

 

Rescuing Christmas 
By Vicki Lewis Thompson, Catherine Mann, and Kathie DeNosky
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: October 30, 2012

This anthology includes three Christmas stories—“Holiday Haven” by Thompson, “Home for Christmas” by Mann, and “A Puppy for Will by DeNosky—linked by their connection to the Haven, a no-kill animal shelter and featuring one or more of the animals from the shelter. 

Thompson’s “Holiday Haven” introduces readers to the shelter and to Tansy Dexter, its director. Tansy loves her job and she’s passionate about finding the right home for the animals. She meets she’s cameraman Ben Rhodes when she’s on a local TV show to plug her holiday adopt-a-pet campaign. She thinks she’s found a kindred spirit when Ben volunteers to take pictures of the animals for the Haven’s web site, especially when a grumpy cat who is not a people person bonds with him. But Ben, whose childhood was a troubled one, has had his heart broken by the loss of a beloved pet long ago and has refused to have a pet since. Despite the chemistry between them, Tansy can’t imagine a relationship with someone who’s afraid to even love a pet. Can Ben find the courage to take a risk?

Mann’s “Home for Christmas” is a marriage-in-trouble tale that combines a returning soldier and a trio of adorable dogs. Shelby Dawson-Conrad knows that her marriage is over even if the legal formalities have yet to be completed. Infertility, miscarriages, and a husband who volunteered for combat duty rather than deal with the problems in his marriage have ended her dreams of happily ever after, but she’s still determined her husband Alex will not return home for Christmas with no one to greet him. Shelby, a volunteer at the Haven, has committed to transporting three dogs from the shelter to their new families in time for Christmas. She and Alex are both surprised when he agrees to go with her, dropping the animals with their new owners and joining Shelby’s father and step-mother for Christmas. Despite the presence of a cameraman, Alex and Shelby begin to communicate in a way they never have before. But is it in time to save their marriage?

DeNosky’s “A Puppy for Will” is a romantic comedy with some laugh-out-loud moments. Will Parker’s grandmother has convince the game designer to foster Harley, a five-month-old Saint Bernard and Bernese Mountain mixed breed puppy from the Haven, for the Christmas holidays. Harley is responsible for Will’s meeting Macie Fairbanks, a writer who has sworn off men since her former fiancé dumped her during the holidays a year ago. But Will is hot enough to melt Macie’s firm intentions, and Macie and Harley are claiming spaces in the heart that Will had marked “No Entrance.”

This anthology was one of my favorite Christmas reads. The animals are an addition guaranteed to win the hearts of pet lovers. The three couples are all appealing characters, and the authors create stories that have common ground but are distinctive in style and tone. I enjoyed all three stories and am especially pleased to have discovered DeNosky, a new-to-me writer whose backlist I will definitely check out.

A Snowglobe Christmas

By Linda Goodnight and Lissa Manley
Publisher: Harlequin (Love Inspired)
Release Date: November 1, 2012

This is a duet of Christmas stories set in a town called Snowglobe, Montana. In “Yuletide Homecoming” by Rita-winner Linda Goodnight, Amy Caldwell, with marketing degree and experience in Spokane in hand, has returned home prepared to gradually take over her mother’s gift shop. However, she had not counted on Rafe Westfield, her former fiancé, having returned to Snowglobe as well. Rafe broke Amy’s heart when he chose a career in the Marines over marriage to her. There’s no avoiding him. Friends, family, and church make sure the two are constantly being thrown together, and their insistence that the only thing linking them is their past fools no one.  But Amy’s fear of abandonment runs deep, with its roots in her father’s leaving when she was a child. Will her faith in God and her love for Rafe be enough to allow her to trust in their future together?

“A Family’s Christmas Wish” by Lissa Manley features single parents Sara Kincaid, owner of the Snowglobe Bed and Breakfast, and Owen Larsen, contractor. Both Sara, whose husband left her when she was eight months pregnant, and Owen, who was widowed a year ago, have three-year-old daughters. A friendship develops when they agree to exchange Owen’s completing some much needed repairs on the inn for Sara’s home cooking and babysitting services. As they spend time together, the children bond and Sara and Owen begin to fall in love. But can these two wounded people find a happy ending when Sara can’t leave Snowglobe and Owen is convinced God is leading him to another town?

The stories are linked by setting and theme, and they are both sweet stories in which the religious faith of the characters is central.  Character development is slight, and conflict is resolved quickly and simplistically. I didn’t dislike these stories, but I wanted them to have more substance. I’ve read other stories by Goodnight that I thought had more heft to them. These are like Christmas ornaments that look pretty but are too fragile to survive close examination.

A Cold Creek Noel 
By RaeAnne Thayne
Publisher: Harlequin (Special Edition)
Release Date: November 13, 2012

Caidy Bowman is the youngest of the four Bowman siblings whose parents were murdered in a home invasion a few days before Christmas eleven years ago. The murders changed Caidy’s life forever. She gave up her dream of becoming a veterinarian and settled for staying close to home on the family ranch, she stopped singing, and she lost the joy in Christmas.

Ben Caldwell, a widower, is the new vet in Pine Gulch, Idaho, having moved there from California in search of a more peaceful life for himself and his two young children. He hopes Idaho is far enough from his former in-laws to limit their influence over his children, especially his nine-year-old daughter who has adopted some of her grandmother’s less pleasant attitudes.

Caidy meets Ben when a bull gores one of the ranch dogs. After some initial misunderstanding, the two gain a respect for one another. By their second meeting, it’s clear that the chemistry between them is potentially explosive. But Ben still has issues concerning the diabetes-related death of his wife, and Caidy blames herself for her parents’ deaths. Both of them have to resolve their pasts before they are ready for a new life.  

This is the eleventh book in Thayne’s Cowboys of Cold Creek, a series that has yielded three earlier Christmas books with a fifth one, the story of the fourth Bowman sibling, scheduled for 2013. Although I prefer Thayne’s non-category books because I like a longer, more developed story, she has a gift for creating characters that I care about. I’ve read most of the Cold Creek books and found them engaging. This one is no exception. It’s a heartwarming story of two wounded people, two believable kids, a generous serving of extended family, and lots of dogs. Add the touches of Christmas, and it’s a satisfying holiday read.

The Spirit of Christmas  

By Liz Talley  
Publisher: Harlequin (Superromance)  
Release Date: November 27, 2012
 
Mary Paige Gentry may be late for a family Christmas party, but even so she can’t ignore the homeless tramp she discovers outside a convenience store. She intends to give him only a cup of coffee, but when she realizes he’s barefooted, she gives him the novelty Christmas socks she’s just purchased as a white-elephant gift for the party. Her giving spirit changes Mary Paige’s life because the tramp is actually Malcolm Henry, Jr., a post-transformation Scrooge who rewards her act of genuine selflessness with a check for two million and a request that she become the public face of Henry Department Stores’ Spirit of Christmas Campaign to make New Orleans aware of the true spirit of Christmas.
 
Brennan Henry is a younger, still unrepentant Scrooge. He loves his grandfather, but he hears that all the changes that have occurred in the old man since a heart attack six months ago, especially his determination to give away money, are signs that he’s had a stroke or is suffering from senility. He reluctantly goes along with his grandfather’s spirit of Christmas idea because the old man is still in charge after all and because he is persuaded the campaign will prove good for the bottom line, his major concern.
 
Mary Paige and Brennan are opposites in every way. They recognize their differences, they are convinced they are all wrong for each other, but there is an attraction between them that can’t be denied. Brennan is intrigued by Mary Paige and the kindness and empathy that are so much a part of who she is, but he’s a cynic when it comes to Christmas. It will take something out of the ordinary to persuade him that life is more that the satisfaction of seeing the dollars rolling in.
 
The elder Henry and his romance were my favorite part of the story. It’s a nice Christmas tale, but it’s predictable, another variation on a story often retold. Just in case you miss the parallels to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, there are ample reminders such as this one:
 

 “Remember the children beneath the robes?”  

“Ignorance and Want,” Brennan said to himself, his mind clicking as he grasped the implications.”

“Don’t let them win.”

 
It’s a lesson that bears repeating, and it’s sweetly seasoned with romance. Not a bad choice for reading beside a Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of wine.

 

Countdown to First Night (an anthology)
By Jillian Hart, Margaret Daly, and Brenda Minton
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: January 2, 2013

This holiday anthology celebrates New Year’s rather than Christmas. The three stories are set in Snow Falls, Colorado, as the town readies for First Night, its annual countdown to the New Year.

“Winter’s Heart” by Jillian Heart is the story of Shelby Craig, a young, down-on-her-luck widow who returns with her two children to Snow Falls. Her grandmother offers her sanctuary while Shelby searches for a new job that will allow her to support her small family. But an unexpected meeting with Ronan Winters, a friend from her childhood, leads not only to a new job but also to the possibility of a new life for the new year.

“Snowbound at New Year” by Ellie Summer features Ellie Summers, author of a series of children’s books who has come to Snow Falls to meet with her new illustrator. Brody Kincaid was recommended by her former illustrator with whom Ellie had enjoyed perfect understanding, but things aren’t going so well with the new guy. Ellie hopes a face-to-face meeting will improve their communication. Brody, a widower, has retreated with his twin daughters to an isolated home atop a mountain outside Snow Falls, convinced there is no room in his heart for anything other than his love for his children and his memories of his wife. That face-to-face meeting brings a connection neither author nor illustrator anticipates.

“A Kiss at Midnight” by Brenda Minton offers the tale of Jolie Goodwin and Jake Wild, natives of Snow Falls with a history between them. Jolie is the daughter of an alcoholic who stole from Jake. Jake is the son of shallow mother who almost destroyed his legacy from his father. They are both weighed down by their pasts and wary of trusting the feelings that spark between them.  And neither can forget the kiss they shared last New Year’s Eve? Do they dare go for a replay at the ball that is the culmination of First Night festivities?

These are all sweet second-chance stories with kids as secondary characters. They are conventional stories with no surprises, but they are heartwarming and the New Year’s connection makes them a bit different.

Are you still reading holiday stories? Or have you had you fill until 2013? 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Janga’s Top Twelve Romance Novels and Other Favorites of 2012

As of December 18, I have read 447 books this year. Because I have read so many books for review and those books overwhelmingly have been romance, I have read even more romance novels and novellas this year than I typically do, more than 80 percent of the books I’ve read. Many of them I loved, but these are the twelve (in order by release date) that I loved most, that I am surest I will be rereading, that I have recommended most enthusiastically—publically and privately-- to other romance readers. Honestly, I tried for a top ten, but I just couldn’t cut two from this list. I have provided links to my full reviews that were published here, at The Romance Dish, or at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

How to Dance with a Duke, Manda Collins (January 31)

This book is a wonderful blend of romance and mystery with protagonists who not only lust after one another and fall passionately in love with one another but who also genuinely like one another and enjoy talking and laughing together. I love an HEA I can believe in with all my heart. JJ review

Rainshadow Road, Lisa Kleypas (February 28)

I loved the characters who fall in love despite their best intentions to be friends with benefits, I love the magic realism that works as it is supposed to, blurring the line between what is real and what seems magical, and I loved the mix of heat, heart, and humor. And I especially loved Kleypas’s refusal to allow the Big Misunderstanding. 

JJ review

A Week to Be Wicked, Tessa Dare (March 27)

As I said in my review back in March, “My favorite romance novels are those that involve my brain, touch my heart, tickle my funny bone, and satisfy my love for lucid, textured prose. A Week to Be Wicked satisfies on all counts.” All that and a smart, bookish heroine too—and a road trip! JJ review

The Witness, Nora Roberts (April 17)

This story of opposites who overcome all kinds of obstacles to move toward the best kind of HEA—a long, loving stable relationship--is Roberts at her best. It is romantic suspense that gives the reader edge-of-the-seat suspense and a slamming ending without sacrificing anything in the romance. And it’s her 200^th book!

H & H First Look 

A Gentleman Undone, Cecilia Grant (May 29)

Grant creates characters with whom I become totally engaged, she works within genre conventions but pushes the boundaries, and she writes the kind of prose that sends me back to reread passages that are symphonies of sound and sense. Both her books are extraordinary, but the second one, a dark story shot through with the light of intelligence and persistent love, is the more memorable for me. JJ review

Can’t Buy Me Love, Molly O’Keefe (June 26)

In her first single-title novel, O’Keefe characters who are engaged in redefining themselves and coming to believe that with all their rough edges they still can be capable of loving and worthy of being loved. Her characters are not conventional romance novel protagonists, but they are richly human and believable and unforgettable. TRD review

Ravishing the Heiress, Sherry Thomas (July 3)

One of the things that made 2012 a reading year to celebrate is that it brought three books by Sherry Thomas. I loved all three of the Fitzhugh books, but this one is my favorite, and Millie—smart, brave, and vulnerable--is one of the most remarkable heroines I’ve encountered in my years of reading romance. The book also has my favorite line of the year. Venetia, Fitz’s sister and heroine of Beguiling the Beauty says to Millie, who has paraphrased with some bitterness Byron’s claim that “Friendship is Love without his wings”: “No, my dear Millie, you are wrong. Love without friendship is like a kite, aloft only when the winds are favorable. Friendship is what gives love its wings.” TRD Review

The Ugly Duchess, Eloisa James (August 28)

This may be my favorite ugly duckling romance ever. I loved the use James made of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, loved the reverse transformation, and loved that while the world may have believed the duchess changed from ugly duckling to swan, the duke never saw her as less than beautiful. H &H First Look

 His Very Own Girl, Carrie Lofty (September 4)

This is a World War II romance in which the characters are complex and compelling, and the physical and emotional brutality of war so real that I felt disoriented when I left the world of the book. Lofty is an exceptional writer, but this is my favorite of all her books. TRD review

A Notorious Countess Confesses, Julie Anne Long (October 30)

The book is a winner on all counts, but Adam Sylvaine is my favorite romance hero of the year: a rare vicar hero who is convincing in his role as a spiritual leader but is also fully human, with a man’s passions and flaws and vanities. He is as aware of the political element of his work as he is of the spiritual. The Pennyroyal Green series is one of my favorite series, and this is my favorite among a group of cherished books that now numbers seven. H & H First Look

Barefoot in the Rain, Roxanne St. Claire (October 30)

St. Claire gives her readers her usual love story with characters that capture the heart and the imagination, she weaves in real life concerns that make this an important issues book, and she also goes a step beyond to push her readers to consider questions about the human capacity for change and for forgiveness. Are some things unforgiveable? Can people who are guilty of heinous actions change? Is harboring even deserved anger and hatred worth the prison sentence it imposes on the heart that holds such darkness? JJ review

The Importance of Being Wicked, Miranda Neville (November 27)

What happens to a young lady who elopes at seventeen? Neville’s first book in a new series provides one answer to that questions and gives her readers a delicious scandalous heroine/stuffy hero romance that in typical Neville passage is engaging and a bit different. JJ review

Other Books I’ve Loved:

Favorite Category:  Within Reach, Sarah Mayberry

An excellent romance and a powerful and moving look at grief and recovery. 

JJ review

Favorite Novella: “Seducing the Pirate,” Eloisa James

A pirate hero who seduced me in a heartbeat in my #1 fun read of the year.

JJ Review

Favorite Memoir: Paris in Love, Eloisa James

Witty and warm and wise, generous and honest--this is a book to be read and reread. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and, through its rich sensory details, it gave the sights and sounds and tastes of Paris to me. I loved it! H & H First Look

 Favorite Mystery: The Buzzard Table, Margaret Maron

The 18^th book in my favorite mystery series continues to combine a look at the family relationships, immediate and extended, of Judge Deborah Knott with a mystery that weaves current issues and questions of conscience and morality that transcend the historical moment. And Maron does all this with a Sothern accent. (PW review)

Favorite Historical Fiction: The Book of Madness and Cures, Regina O’Melveny

An unmarried woman physician in 16^th-century Venice sets out to find her father in this book that combines vivid historical background with a contemplative journey and musical prose. JJ review

Favorite Women’s Fiction: Home Front, Kristin Hannah

An extraordinary look at war, losses of various kinds, and their effects on soldiers and their families presented from the point of view of a female helicopter pilot. (Kirkus review)

Favorite General Fiction: Dear Life: Stories, Alice Munro

A collection of stories, most of them set in the 1940s and 1950s featuring rural and small-town characters in Ontario, manages to be spare, empathetic, and memorable. I, for one, am grateful that Munro continues to be productive into her eighties. USA Today review

Favorite Southern Fiction: The River Witch, Kimberly Brock

Southern in voice, style, and story, this is an exceptional debut--beautiful, haunting, and unforgettable, with a lyrical blend of past and present, natural and supernatural.

JJ review

 Favorite Poetry: The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010

One of my reading resolutions for this year was to read more poetry, and I did. I particularly loved two collections: Thrall by Natasha Trethewey, the current poet laureate, and A Thousand Mornings by the wondrous Mary Oliver. Both found a permanent home on my bookshelves, but when forced to choose one favorite for the year, I had to go with this lifetime collection of an underrated poet who wrote powerfully of race and gender and change. PW review

Favorite Nonfiction: Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, Marina Warner

Reading Warner’s examination of the stories of Scheherazade (or Shahrazad, the name Warner uses), a character the New York Times called “the muse of all great fantasy writing,” made me long for the days when I would have found new inspiration for my world literature classes in its pages. PW review

What were your favorite romance novels of 2012? What other books made the reading year memorable for you?

Tuesday Review: True Love at Silver Creek Ranch

True Love at Silver Creek Ranch

By Emma Cane

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: 

December 26, 2012

Brooke Thalberg is a cowgirl, a real one who loves the ranching life. She loves her family too, but lately, even though she is living the life she always knew she’d grow up to leave, she has this nagging feeling of dissatisfaction. That feeling is intensified after Adam Desantis appears seemingly from nowhere to help her save the horses when one of the Thalberg barns catches fire. Her memories of Adam from high school are anything but pleasant. Still, there’s something about the quiet loner that he has become that makes him hard to ignore.

Adam Desantis was one of the bad boys of Valentine Valley until a high school football coach helped him turn his life around. After high school, he chose the military life. He left town a brash kid who thought he had all the answers. Now an ex-marine with battle scars on his body and in his soul, he has returned because he’s worried about his beloved grandmother, the only family he has. When Doug Thalberg hires him, Adam is happy to have something to do with his time, but he’s not sure it’s such a good idea for him to be thrown in the company of Brooke whom he finds himself thinking about far too much.

The more time Brooke and Adam spend together, the more difficult it becomes for them to control the attraction between them. Brooke tells herself that a relationship with a ranch employee is a bad idea. Adam tells himself that Brooke is out of his class and his stay in Valentine Valley is temporary, both good reasons for avoiding complications. But soon the two are involved in a sizzling, secret affair, and neither one is ready to admit that their hearts are involved regardless of all their heads keep telling them.

This is the second in Cane’s Valentine Valley series, following A Town Called Valentine (February 2012, Nate Thalberg and Emily Murphy’s story). For the first half of the story, I liked the town better than I did the romance. Brooke and Adam seemed likeable enough, but I didn’t feel as if I knew them well enough to be fully engaged with their story—not even enough to believe strongly that they belonged together anywhere outside Adam’s bed. The characters became more fully dimensional by the second half, and I ended up believing in them as individuals and as a couple. But the time it took to reach that point kept the book from being all I wanted it to be.

I was also bothered because I was aware from very early in the book that I was missing parts of the story because I had not read the first book. I found Emily and Nate an appealing couple, and I plan to read their book. Not every reader may be bothered by the shadow stories, but for me, True Love suffered as a standalone. I never lost sight of its being the second book in a series for which I had not read the first book.

What Cane does superlatively well is create a small town world people with warm, interesting secondary characters. Not just Nate and Emily, Brooke’s other brother Josh, her best friend Monica, and a few other characters who readers may expect to see front and center in other books, but also Brooke’s parents, the teenagers with whom she is involved, Adam’s old coach, and Adam’s grandmother are vivid, vital characters that give the story greater depth and meaning. Valentine Valley itself is just enough different from the run-of-the-mill small town to make in distinctive and memorable. So even though this book was a C+ read for me, its appeal is great enough to send me back to Valentine Valley for more stories.

This was a book that I might not have finished had I not been reading it to review. I’m glad I persisted, but it left me wondering if I sometimes give up too soon on other books. If a book is not working for me by the end of the third chapter, it generally is a DNF for me. How long do you give a book before you give up on it?

Six Lists: The Best Romance Novels of 2012

It’s that time of year when individuals and groups are looking back over the year and deciding who belongs on their best of 2012 lists. Most of you know by now that I love lists, making my own and reading those generated by other lists makers. If it’s a list of books, I always check to see how many I’ve read. With the best of romance lists, I have a particular interest in seeing how my list matches, or fails to match, the prestigious lists—the ones authors and their agents and publishers brag about having made.

The Best of the Year Season for romance readers always begins in September with Booklist, a century-old American Library Association publication that reviews books for school and public libraries. Editor and reviewer Donna Seaman notes the “smart women protagonists” in her list of this year’s top ten romances:

• Bedding Lord Ned, Sally MacKenzie                                
• Blue Moon Bay, Lisa Wingate
• Can't Buy Me Love, Molly O'Keefe
• Forever and a Day, Deborah Marville
• The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillip
• A Lady Never Lies, Juliana Gray
• The Lord of Illusion, Kathryne Kennedy
• The Night Is Mine, M. L. Buchman
• Rainshadow Road, Lisa Kleypas
• The Ugly Duchess, Eloisa James

My score on this one? I read five (the titles in bold), and I scored 50 percent.

Publishers Weekly, the most venerable of these sources with its 140-years of continuous publication, announced its best in early November. I’m not sure why, but PW limits its choices to five. I found this list especially interesting this year because it includes the reissue of a romance originally published in 1994. It’s one of my all-time favorite books, and I concur with the description of the novel as “tender and endearing.” Still, I question whether a book published in 1994 really belongs on a list of the best of 2012.

     

• The Bridegroom Wore Plaid, Grace Burrowes 
• A Week to Be Wicked, Tessa Dare
• Love on the Run, Zuri Day
• Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, Carla Kelly
• Dog Days, Elsa Watson (Tor)

I did better with this one. I read four of the five, giving me a score of 80 percent. I think I should get extra points for the number of times I’ve reread Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand.

Amazon made its list public in mid-November. Given the amount of money I’ve paid the company for filling up my Kindle in 2012, you would think I’d have a 100 percent score here. Nope. I read five of the site’s top ten romances and scored another 50 percent.

• Bared to You, Sylvia Day
• The Witness, Nora Roberts
• Darker After Midnight, Lara Adrian
• Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews
• The Recruit, Monica McCartey
• Redwood Bend, Robyn Carr
• Lothaire, Kresley Cole 
• When the Duke Found Love, Isabella Bradford 
• Forever and a Day, Jill Shalvis 
• How to Be a Proper Lady, Katharine Ashe

Library Journal, a trade publication for librarians—founded by the inveventor of the Dewey Decimal system, no less—also published its list of ten in mid-November. LJ's romance reviewer Kristin Ramsdell always has interesting, insightful things to say about romance. This is my favorite list because I’ve read nine of the ten books. A score of 90 percent gives me an A on this one. Yay!

• Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight
• Firelight, Kristen Callihan
• Scandal Wears Satin, Loretta Chase
• A Week to Be Wicked, Tessa Dare
• A Gentleman Undone, Cecilia Grant
• ’Twas the Night After Christmas, Sabrina Jeffries
• The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• The Witness, Nora Roberts
• Tempting the Bride, Sherry Thomas
• Bride of the High Country, Kaki Warner

Kirkus, a book review magazine that has been offering readers “unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust” since 1933, doesn’t have a romance list exactly. Instead, it includes six books that it considers the “Best Fiction about Love and Sex.”  With only four of the six on my have-read list, my score is a dismal 66.6 percent. Moreover, I never even heard of the two I haven’t read. I fear my reputation as a remarkable reader is in jeopardy.

• Seven Variations on a Love Story, Joan Wickersham
• Office Girl, Joe Meno
• The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Somebody to Love, Kristan Higgins
• Rainshadow Road, Lisa Kleypas
• I’ve Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella

Most recently, GoodReads, a privately run "social cataloging" website started in December 2006, announced its member-voted GoodReads Choice Awards for 2012. I blush to admit that I have read only one of the ten on this list, and even if I use the full list of twenty nominated books, I’ve read only three. So, my score here is 10 percent or 15 percent. Dreadful in either case. I guess my reading tastes must be very different from those of GoodReads romance readers, at least those who voted.

• Fifty Shades Freed, E. L. James
• Bared to You, Sylvia Day
• Lover Reborn, J. R. Ward
• The Witness, Nora Roberts
• Once Burned, Jeanine Frost
• On Dublin Street, Samantha Young
• Edenbrooke, Julianne Donaldson
• Gabriel’s Rapture, Sylvain Reynard
• Motorcycle Man, Kristen Ashley
• Lothaire, Kresley Cole

Overall, there are forty-three different books on these lists; I’ve read twenty-two. The oldest book on the list is Carla Kelly’s Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, first published nearly twenty years ago; the most recent is The Bridegroom Wore Plaid by Grace Burrowes, a December 4, 2012 release. Burrowes is the only author with two novels on the lists. Only six titles appear on more than one list. There are more than twice as many historical romances as contemporary romances on the lists, but the two that appear most often (The Great Escape and The Witness on three lists) are contemporaries. Bared to You, Lothaire, Rainshadow Road, and A Week to Be Wicked each appears on two lists. Six of my top ten are on at least one of these lists, but that’s getting into next Friday’s post. Until then . . .

Do you check out these best of lists? How many of these books have you read?

Tuesday Review: The Bridegroom Wore Plaid

The Bridegroom Wore Plaid

By Grace Burrowes

Publisher: 

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: 

December 4, 2012

Ian MacGregor, Earl of Balfour, has definite ideas about what he wants in a wife—a practical, loyal, kind woman with a sense of humor and a lusty nature, preferably a fellow Scot. But as a man with a keen sense of honor, he recognizes that his title imposes a responsibility that encompasses not only his immediate family but also all those of his blood, his clan who have been ravaged by economic depression and forced evictions.  Ian accepts that the woman who becomes his countess must have only a single quality, a hefty dowry. The land and the clan must have a healthy infusion of cash if they are to survive, and exchanging Balfour’s title for the wealth a well-dowered, English bride will bring seems to be the only means of acquiring those funds. Eugenia Daniels, the oldest daughter of Willard Daniels, Baron of Altsax and Gribbony, is a likely candidate to become Countess of Balfour.

Altsax, impressed with the Balfour estate’s proximity to the Queen’s beloved Balmoral, is paying dearly for the privilege of his family’s being the “guests” of the earl. He is also determined to see Eugenia married to Balfour. Genie Daniels, however, does not share her father’s enthusiasm for the match. Augusta Merrick, the poor relation who has accompanied the Daniels family to Scotland, finds unexpected pleasure in her surroundings and in the lively MacGregor family. Initially willing to aid Ian in his courtship of the disinterested Genie, Augusta soon finds herself falling for Ian. He returns her feelings, but love won’t provide the resources he needs to meet his responsibilities. A happy ending for everyone seems impossible. It takes a threat to Augusta’s life, the revelation of villainy, and Augusta’s own determination to win over all the odds.

Burrowes creates wonderful families. The MacGregors are as vibrant and interesting as the Windhams, and the setting in Victorian Scotland adds even more interest. The author gives her readers three secondary romances, each one sweet and satisfying. The cast of characters is large, and some may find that all the matches between members of these two families stretch credulity. But Burrowes excels at creating irresistible characters. Ian and Augusta are likeable, sympathetic characters with clear strengths that include impressive integrity. I especially appreciated Augusta’s growth and her refusal to be daunted by circumstances.

The MacGregors won’t replace the Windhams as my favorite Burrowes family, but they are a wonderful addition to the work of this prolific author. I look forward to the stories of two more Scottish earls with connections to the MacGregor clan. The next one, Once upon a Tartan, is scheduled for release in August 2013. I’ve added it to my TBB calendar.

Do you like secondary romances along with the central romance? Can you recall other romance novels that include four romances in a single book?

Emily and I

December 10, 1830-May 15, 1886

Today is Emily Dickinson’s birthday, and I’ve been celebrating by rereading favorites from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. That book is one of the books I’d choose among my top five if I were packing for a long stay on a desert island. A short while ago, I gave myself an Emily Dickinson birthday gift by downloading the book to my Kindle (only $.99).

Dickinson is not only my favorite poet; she’s also the first poet with whom I fell in love and the one with whom I’ve been living the longest. The Christmas I was ten, a favorite aunt gave me a children’s anthology of American poetry that included “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”  (Poem #260).

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you – Nobody – too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know! How dreary – to be – Somebody! How public – like a Frog –  To tell one's name – the livelong June –  To an admiring Bog!

Reading the poem gave me my first sense of connecting with a poet in an electric moment when I felt as if he/she somehow possessed insight into my very soul. At ten, I was entering puberty early, consumed with self-consciousness over my height, my burgeoning breasts, and my suddenly boat-sized feet. I felt a million miles removed from many former friends who were still petite princesses, flat-chested and precious, pirouetting through the seasons, glorying in all the attention they attracted. I wanted nothing more than to be a nobody, fading into the background where no eyes could see me and pitying the public frogs. Emily was my friend during that period, and I read the poem so many times I memorized it.  

Many years later that time birthed one of my own poems, a personal favorite, that includes these lines:

That July I quit climbing trees

and would swim no longer with the boy cousins.

I read Jane Eyre on summer evenings,

wrote stories about stolen princesses,

and learned Emily’s nobody poem by heart.

From CustomeQuotesMaker at Etsy

I went on to read other Emily Dickinson poems, some of which touched me as powerfully as did that first one. I discovered other poets whose words sang in my head and resounded in my heart, but though adolescence and college days, through party phases and pondering periods, through darkness so deep I could see no glimmer of light and jubilation so wondrous I soared, through classrooms and sanctuaries and interstate commutes, Emily has been a companion of choice. 

My speech is peppered with Dickensenian phrases such as “slanted truth” and “amethyst remembrance” and “dimity convictions.” One of the books that has a permanent home on my bedside table is the old Anchor edition of Emily Dickinson's selected poems and letters. One of my daily rituals is to read a poem or a snippet from a letter. One of the things I love best is that even after half a century with this poet, I keep discovering new things that delight me and make me think long thoughts.

Around 1862, Dickinson wrote Poem #431, which contains these lines: “My Holiday, shall be / That they—remember me--” Today is her holiday, and I am remembering. May many new readers discover the wonders of Emily Dickinson’s poetry today.

Who’s your favorite poet? Do you have a favorite Emily Dickinson poem.

Christmas with Holly

I just got back from my first Christmas party of this season, a long lunch with a dozen old friends. I talked so much I now sound like a poor imitation of Lauren Becall, and I ate so much cornbread salad that I’m skipping dinner tonight. This was the beginning of the busiest time of year, that time when my reading and writing time is measured in minutes rather than hours, but in budgeting my time for December, I made sure that I blocked out Sunday night, December 9, beginning at 9:00 (EDT). The Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Christmas with Holly, based on Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas, is a must-see for me, even though I rarely watch TV.

I gave the novel a handful of stars when I reviewed it here November 2011, and I’m eagerly anticipating the movie. I’ve watched the sneak peek video half a dozen times, and each time my excitement about the movie has increased. Sean Faris, who plays Mark, is new to me, but he's so good-looking with a fantastic smile. Eloise Mumford, who plays Maggie, has a real life connection to Friday Harbor. The movie promises to be sweet and fun.

Reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies are the ways I reward myself for the cleaning, shopping, and endless gift wrapping that make up the parts of the holiday of which I’m less fond. And what could be better than a Christmas romance based on a book by one of my favorite authors? So come Sunday evening, I’ll be partying with ABC and Hallmark for a couple of hours and celebrating with a square or two of peppermint bark with dark chocolate.

You can find out more about the movie by clicking here.

And if you haven't read the book, you can find out more about it here.

What about you? Will you be watching Christmas with Holly Sunday night? What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Do you think Hallmark has plans for Rainshadow Road?

I am one of "Lisa's Divas" - a group of select fans who share info & content related to Lisa's novels and get sneak peeks & chances to win swag in return.