No River Too Wide

No River Too Wide

By Emilie Richards

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Janine Stoddard has spent twenty-five years as the wife of an abusive husband, but there is still enough spirit left in her to seize the opportunity to escape when she is offered help by Moving On, an underground highway for abused women. One night when her husband is away, she puts her carefully conceived plan into effect, leaving her luxurious Topeka, Kansas, prison in flames. Janine has refused contact with her daughter because she feared her husband would somehow discover Harmony’s location, but she longs to see her daughter and the nine-month-old granddaughter she has never met before she settles somewhere to begin a new life. Thus, she heads for Asheville, North Carolina, for what she plans to be a brief stop before moving on to New Hampshire where she hopes to be safe.

Harmony has checked the Topeka Capiatal-Journal every few weeks since her mother told her never to call home again more than a year ago, expecting to see a headline reporting her mother’s death. She’s heartbroken but not surprised when she thinks her mother has perished in the fire, but surprised is an understatement of her feelings when her mother shows up on the farm outside Asheville where Harmony works as a Jill-of-all-trades and lives in a garage apartment. Harmony’s friend Taylor Martin sees offering Jan a home as a way of repaying Harmony for all that Harmony did for Taylor’s mother. With Taylor living twenty miles away on the other side of Asheville, Jan will be away from Harmony but close enough for the Jan to see her daughter and granddaughter occasionally. When Taylor tells Jan that her being with Taylor’s eleven-year-old daughter when Taylor has to be away on school nights will be a help, Jan agrees to stay.

Richards deftly weaves together the stories of these three women and adds the mystery of Rex’s Stoddard’s disappearance to complicate things. Despite the insurance fraud thread and a romance between the cautious Taylor and Adam Pryor, a new man in town with secrets of his own, No River Too Wide is a story about growth and forgiveness, including self-forgiveness, which may be more difficult than forgiving others.

Emilie Richards is one of the writers whose books I began reading in the 1980s and have followed her from category fiction to single-title contemporary romance to mystery to women’s fiction and enjoyed each phase of the journey. No River Too Wide, the third book in her Goddesses Anonymous series, has the emotionally rich contexts and layered characters that have kept me reading this author for nearly three decades. Whether she is writing about troubled marriages, complex family dynamics, the tendrils of the past that cling to human lives, or any one of a dozen or more social issues that touch the lives of her characters--and her readers--Emilie Richards is one of the best writers in popular fiction.

Books about battered women have become common in recent years, but few show as full a portrait of a woman abused over decades as Richards offers in this book. Alternately heart-rending and inspiring, No River Too Wide reveals a woman almost destroyed by physical and psychological abuse who has the courage to accept help, one who gradually forgives herself, regains her self-respect, and acquires a new appreciation of the freedom to make choices and to grow into an independent woman.

“It didn’t matter if she was frightened by everyday things that others took for granted. It didn’t matter if she felt alone in the world, something Rex had repeatedly warned her would happen if she ever tried to leave him. It didn’t matter that she no longer knew what a woman like her could actually achieve. Perhaps it didn’t even matter that she had failed at the things she had most hoped to accomplish and was still seeking forgiveness. . . .”

Although Harmony was a lesser target of her father’s abuse than was her mother and, with her mother’s help, she escaped as soon as she graduated from high school, she bears her own scars. She loves her mother, but she also blames her for not leaving sooner. She is also suspicious of lives that seem too perfect from the outside, having experienced the horror that could be concealed behind the happy family image.

Taylor learned some painful lessons through her estrangement and reconciliation with her mother (One Mountain Away). She explains to her daughter Maddie:

“Here’s what you need to learn from everything that happened with Mom and me. We loved each other but we let our differences get in the way. I held a grudge for years, almost to the end of her life, and I was wrong to do that. Very wrong.”

But Taylor’s learning is incomplete; she still finds it difficult to forgive when people fall short of her expectations.

One of the joys of reading this book is seeing the growth that takes place in many characters from the three women who are primary to baby Lottie’s father. For readers who like a romance line even in their women’s fiction, there is Taylor’s relationship with Adam, a man who wants to do the right thing but finds it difficult to reconcile his professional responsibilities with the dictates of his conscience. I also liked Harmony’s reentry to the world of dating and her admission that Mr. Perfect may also be Mr. Not Right for me.

I’m sure it is clear by now that I loved No River Too Wide. It’s another Richards keeper for me, and I highly recommend it. I do feel I should add one caveat: this book can be read as a standalone, but readers who have not read One Mountain Away may feel as if Harmony and Taylor’s stories are incomplete. Reading the two books makes for a richer, more meaningful reading experience. The second book, Somewhere Between Luck and Trust, is also excellent, but it is more loosely connected.


Do you have a keeper shelf? What’s your most recent addition to it?

An Apology for My Absence and A Review of Vixen in Velvet

My apologies for my lengthy absence from this blog. The causes include snafus with the blog, a freelance project that threatened my sanity, and some health issues. But the freedom from bi-weekly posts has persuaded me that the time has come to end Just Janga. Since I am woefully behind on reviews, I will be posting almost daily through the end of this month, but July 31 will be my final day to post here. I’ll have more to say about my decision in that final post. Meanwhile, I hope you will forgive my silence and join me for a final flurry of reviews over the next two weeks.

Vixen in Velvet

By Loretta Chase

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Leonie Noirot is the youngest of the three sisters who own Maison Noirot, a dressmaking establishment known not only for its fabulous fashions but also for the fact that two of its owners have married into the aristocracy. Marcelline, the creative genius whose designs are breathtaking, is the wife of the Duke of Clevedon (Silk Is for Seduction) and Sophy, whose acting and writing talents are used to assure Maison Noirot of the very best publicity, is the wife of the Earl of Longmore (Scandal Wears Satin). With Marcelline suffering from morning sickness and Sophy traveling on her wedding trip, Leonie, the sister with a head for business and a remarkable facility with numbers, is in charge. Having learned that Viscount Swanton, London’s newest literary sensation whose poetry and person have the young ladies of the ton sighing and swooning, will be attending the British Institution’s Annual Summer Exhibition, Leonie decided the exhibition was the perfect spot to appear in a Noirot creation that might draw the attention of the young ladies or their chaperones and thus increase the shop’s clientele. Her fascination with one painting in the exhibit, Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, caught her by surprise. So too did the effects of her meeting with the owner of the painting.

Simon Blair, Marquess of Lisburne, has recently returned to England after a half dozen years on the Continent following the death of his father. The trip to England was supposed to be a brief one, but Swanton’s fame and angelic looks have made him the target of excessive attention. Although they are only cousins, Lisburne feels an elder brother’s responsibility for the younger man. Once he meets Leonie Noirot, Swanton is not the only reason Lisburne chooses to linger in England.

When Leonie begins the work of transforming the graceless, overbearing, physically unattractive Lady Gladys Fairfax into a woman who can attract the beau of her choice, Lisburne is convinced she is setting herself up for disaster. He believes Lady Gladys is the sow’s ear that no effort or skill will make over into silk, and Leonie’s efforts will make her ridiculous. But Leonie is confident that she can show Lady Gladys the way to social success. So the two agree on a wager. If Lady Gladys has at least six followers and one non-mercenary offer of marriage within a matter of weeks, Lisburne will pass the ownership of his Botticelli to Leonie. If Lady Gladys remains a social failure, Leonie will give Lisburne two weeks of her undivided attention.

As the two spend more and more time in one another’s company, of course they fall in love. This is a romance. One of the things that makes this story more than a charming, if predictable, wealthy lord-meets-unsuitable-heroine tale is watching the initial chemistry between Leonie and Lisburne deepen into liking and understanding of one another. Along the way, they each also come to know himself/herself more fully.

Sometimes everything in a book just works for a reader in a way that is difficult to explain. Such was my experience with Vixen in Velvet. 

I loved the characters. Leonie really believes she is all logic and business, but her feelings for Lisburne show her how incomplete that image of her is. The vulnerability the reader see when Leonie’s memories of the Paris riots, the dangers the Noirots escaped, and all they lost, her very real gifts for the work she does, and her commitment to the sisters’ charity all prove that she is more that an amusing lightweight. In a similar fashion, Lisburne may appear to be a practiced and not overly intelligent charmer, but in reality he is devoted to his family, sensitive to beauty, and possessed of a social conscience and a sense of humor as well as being handsome and wealthy.

I also loved the subplot centered around Lady Gladys. It serves to illustrate Leonie’s compassion and insight as well as reveal the sensitive, longing creature that Lady Gladys is beneath her porcupine exterior. And Brava to Loretta Chase for making Lady Gladys’s makeover less magical transformation and more education in how to make the most of her assets. One of my favorite lines in the novel was Leonie’s pronouncement: “I've dressed her … The rest she's done for herself.”

Other things I love included a description of Leonie’s fascination with the Botticelli that should strike a chord with any reader who has even been enthralled by a painting, a poem, or a piece of music, one of the best first kiss scenes, and Leonie’s poetry recitation. As much as I enjoyed these scenes, my favorite is the one when Lisburne visits the Milliners’ Society for the Education of Indigent Females. Leonie shows him the crafts the girls have created to sell, and Lisburne is visibly moved.

“It would seem that your friend's poetry has infected you with excessive tenderness,” she said.

“That may be so, madame, yet I wonder how any man could withstand this.” He waved his hand at the contents of the display case. “Look at them. Little hearts and flowers and curlicues and lilies of the valley and lace.  Made by girls who've known mainly deprivation and squalor and violence.” 

She considered the pincushions and watch guards and mittens and handkerchiefs. “They don't have Botticelli paintings to look at,” she said. “If they want beauty in their lives, they have to make it.”

“Madame,” he said, “is it necessary to break my heart completely?”

If you are looking for a romance with a tightly woven plot, heavy on action, you may want to skip Vixen in Velvet. But if you want a character-driven romance with delightful dialogue and real conversations and sparkling humor that is sometimes wonderfully subtle written by a virtuoso in the genre, I highly recommend this book.

Which is more important to you as a reader, characters or plot?

Home to Stay

Home to Stay

By Terri Osburn

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: May 1, 2014

Willow Parsons thought Anchor Island would be just another out-of-the-way spot that would offer a temporary refuge in her journey to outrun her past. She never expected it to feel like home. But with the Dempseys treating her more like family than like just the assistant manager of their bar and grill and Beth Chandler and Sid Navarro teaching her just how great it is to have best friends, Will is beginning to feel as if she belongs in this place. She is even wondering if she dares to stay. Only Randy Navarro makes her uneasy. At first, it was that his size made her uncomfortably aware of things she would rather forget, but she’s has slowly come around to accept that Randy is indeed the gentle giant his sister proclaims him and poses no threat to Will’s physical wellbeing. Now it’s the effect he has on her brain, her libido, and maybe even her heart that has Will reminding herself of all the reasons she can’t afford the complications that a romantic relationship would bring.

Randy Navarro, owner of Anchor Adventures, which provides watersports instruction and equipment to tourists, and Island Fitness, Anchor’s only gym, is an adrenalin junkie, a super-size knight with a protective streak to fit, a big brother who changed his life to take care of his kid sister, and an all-around good guy. He’s straight-talking, tender-hearted, patient, and tenacious, and he uses all of those qualities to persuade Will that she is safe with him, safe enough to take down her walls and open her heart.

Just when an HEA for these two who really deserve one is within their grasp, an ambitious reporter exposes Will’s identity, and Will reverts to a familiar pattern of behavior—she runs, leaving behind Anchor Island, the friends she cherishes, and Randy. Can Will learn that some things are worth taking a stand and fighting for? Can Randy forgive that she left him with only a note?

I loved Anchor Island from my first glimpse of it, and I have only become fonder of it with each book in the series. The setting has a warmth and a realness that only the best small-town series attain, and the characters are people with whom I enjoy spending my time. Home to Stay is my favorite. Will is a phenomenal heroine who demonstrates that love can heal even the deepest wounds and give the wounded warrior the strength to fight and win the necessary battles. But Randy is the reason this book is my favorite. He is true to type and yet distinctly individual—and a testament to Osburn’s talent. Only a third of the way into 2014, and I’ve read an unusual number of books with extraordinary beta heroes. Randy tops my list. In fact, I rank him right up there with Quinn Hunter (Till the Stars Fall, Kathleen Gilles Seidel), Blue Reynard (In the Midnight Rain, Ruth Wind) “Preacher” Middleton (Shelter Mountain, Robyn Carr), and Cam Early (Red’s Red Hot Honky-Tonk Bar, Pamela Morsi) as my five favorite contemporary beta heroes.

If you like contemporary romance that blends a generous serving of sweetness with just the right amount of spice and wraps it in genuineness and likeability, you will love Home to Stay. And although readers can’t stay on Anchor Island, they can return at least one more time. I just hope Randy Navarro is around when I make that return trip.

Let’s talk betas. Do you like beta heroes? If so, what contemporary heroes are on your list of favorites? If not, I’d love to introduce you to some that I bet can change your mind.

How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days

How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days

By Laura Lee Guhrke

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: April 29, 2014

Five years ago, near the end of an unsuccessful season in London, American heiress Edie Jewell was dreading her return to New York. Edie was unsurprised that not even her father’s millions were enough to win her acceptance in New York Knickerbocker society where the nouveau riche label had destroyed the hopes of wealthy young women with far more beauty and grace than Edie possesses, but the whispers that followed her every move after the nightmare in Saratoga left her reputation in tatters. The rattling tongues and her fear of encountering the man responsible for her ruin made New York intolerable for Edie, but her father’s hope that his wealth will be sufficient to overcome the deficiencies of  his tall, ginger-haired, freckled older daughter has proved vain. Even the wiles of Lady Featherstone, the renowned matchmaker for American heiresses in London, have failed. But just when it seems that Edie must steel herself to return to New York, she meets the Duke of Margrave, who accepts Edie’s astonishing proposal: she will pay the heavy debts he has inherited and fund his expedition to Africa, and he will give her the protection of his name and her freedom, insuring the latter by never returning to England.

Stuart, Duke of Margrave kept his promise to his wife for five years. But when an attack by a lioness leaves him a few breaths away from death, Stuart knows he must break his word and return home—to England and to Edie.  His wife’s dismay at his return makes his dream of a real marriage seem impossible, but Stuart, an optimist by nature, persuades Edie to strike a new deal. He has ten days to persuade Edie that she can have a whole and happy life as his wife. If he fails, he will disappear and leave Edie to live her life without the duke.

What follows is a story of sweet seduction that offers a rare blend of serious problems, light-hearted pursuit, and genuine communication. In another reversal from the expected, Edie is the one with the power. Stuart, in his quest to win the favor of his lady, does sometimes manipulate her into situations that push the boundaries of her comfort zone, but she always has a choice. It is a measure of Stuart’s understanding that he recognizes, even before he learns the details of Edie’s trauma, that having the power of choice is essential for her.

How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days is the second book in Guhrke’s American Heiress in London series. I liked the first book, When the Marquess Met His Match, and I thought this one was even better. Edie is an intelligent woman who is using her intellect and her considerable strength to survive a devastating experience, one that leaves contemporary women, with far more resources than a woman in the late 19^th century had, battling anxiety and depression. Stuart is a heart-stealer hero with more than his share of charm, tenderness, and two undervalued qualities—patience and honesty.

I’ve been a Guhrke fan for years, but this one is special even as a book from a favorite author. I did have a quibble with the title, which suggests lighter fare than the book delivers. But that’s a minor point and certainly not enough to prevent my giving this book my highest recommendation and counting it among my top five Guhrke novels.

I really enjoy the American in England trope when it is done well. Guhrke’s Trouble at the Wedding is another excellent example of the trope, as are two of Lisa Kleypas’s Wallflower books. Do you like the trope? What’s your favorite romance with an American heroine in England?

Falling for Owen

Falling for Owen

By Jennifer Ryan

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: April 15, 2014

Owen is the older of the former Wild McBride brothers. He was the first to refuse to be controlled any longer by his past and to turn his life around. Once he had his law degree in hand, he returned to his hometown to practice and to help Rain Evans bring up his nieces (The Return of Brody McBride). Owen is happy that his brother and Rain are reunited, but their delight in one another makes him conscious of his own loneliness. Unattached but looking, Owen has his eye on Claire Walsh, new in town and the owner of a combination coffee shop and bookshop that is a favorite spot of Owen’s adored nieces. But Claire seems unaware of him.

Claire has noticed Owen. He’s the kind of man that a sane, heterosexual woman would find impossible to ignore, but Claire is cautious on two counts. First, a bad marriage to a good-looking charmer who was a chronic philanderer has left her wary of men in general and handsome hunks in particular. Second, every time Claire sees Owen, he is with two gorgeous little girls whom Claire concludes must belong to him. She also concludes there is a woman in the picture, and that makes him off limits for Claire.

Claire and Owen are thrown together when the abusive, drunken ex of one of Owen’s clients jumps to an erroneous conclusion and attacks Claire, leaving her concussed and bleeding and her home with a shattered glass door. Owen is there immediately, determined to see that Claire receives the care she needs and that the damage to her house is repaired ASAP. Claire finds him hard to resist, but trusting does not come easily for her. Owen has no doubts that Claire is the one he has been looking for, but he worries that a relationship may be dangerous for Claire.

Wounded heroes are abundant in romance fiction, but I am sometimes skeptical of how quickly and simplistically recovery from childhood traumas and other psychological damage occurs. I really like the fact that both Owen and Brody are aware that vestiges of their darkness remains and that they both have moments when their belief that they can fully overcome their past is shaken. I also love that Claire is smart enough to accept help when she needs it and to understand that enjoying a little tender, loving care after suffering a hard hit (literally in her case) doesn’t compromise a woman’s independence. Finally, I love that Rain and Owen still have a special connection and that the reader sees not only Rain and Brody’s HEA in progress but also the developing closeness between the brothers. I liked the first book in the series, but I also had some problems with it. I thought this one was a better book. I marked it a keeper, and I’m looking forward to Dylan’s Redemption, the story of a McBride cousin, scheduled for release in August.

Do you sometimes find that a series that you began with mixed feelings gets better with successive books? Have you ever almost cut a series off with the first book, only to be happy you did not after reading the second one?

Tuesday Will Be Postponed Until . . .

My Tuesday review will become a Friday review this week. I'm about seventy-two hours from a deadline for which I still have to write two lengthy articles, and I write--and type--slowly. So I'm chaining myself to my computer until Wednesday evening. No reading, no Facebook, no reviewing until I finish this project. I expect to be freed from the Deadline Dungeon around 11:55 Wednesday night and collapse and recover Thursday, but I will be back on Friday. I hope you will be here too.

Taken with You

Taken with You

By Shannon Stacey

Publisher: Carina Press

Release Date: March 25, 2014

Hailey Genest may think longingly of the shops, restaurants, and other perks of city life, but she loves her hometown of Whitford, Maine, and her job as librarian in the small town’s only library. But the sudden rash of weddings and babies among her friends have made her newly conscious of her single status and the limited dating pool Whitford offers for a woman who just hit 40. When a new, single friend suggests they celebrate their singleness by joining a wilderness adventure expedition, Hailey, who is so not an outdoors type, stays calm and buys hiking boots. She’s not really surprised when she and her friend get lost, but she is unprepared for the bearded, dirty, smelly Grizzly Adams type who shows up to lead the two lost women back to civilization. He might offer an excellent rear view, but he is the very opposite of the man Hailey is looking for.

Matt Barnett is enjoying the final days of his vacation before moving to Whitford and taking up his new position as game warden for the area. He’s much more interested in the beer waiting for him back at his cabin than he is in playing savior for two lost women, but he’s too much good guy to ignore their plight. The pretty blonde catches his eye, but he recognizes that a woman who wears full makeup and new hiking boots for a trek through the woods is definitely not his type. That feeling is reinforced by her obvious distaste for his unkempt appearance. Matt has had his fill of women who turn up their noses at the dirt and sweat that are an inevitable part of his outdoors vocation and avocation.

Neither Hailey nor Matt think they will ever see one another again, so the reluctant attraction each feels toward the other is not an issue. But when Hailey sees Matt in her library teaching an ATV safety course, she knows that she’s going to see more of him than she’s comfortable with, and when Matt finds out that his new next-door neighbor is the blonde from the woods, he knows she is not going to be so easy to dismiss from his mind. Despite the chemistry between them that is too powerful to ignore, Matt and Hailey know they are too different for the long term, but they agree to enjoy the moment with each other, exploring all the facets of their incomprehensible connection with no promises for tomorrow. They forget that the heart is no organ of reason, and soon what was supposed to be just a lusty friendship turns into love. But those very real differences exist, and they may be too great for even love to overcome.

I’ve been addicted to Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski series since I read Undeniably Yours and upon finishing it, immediately bought Exclusively Yours, the first book in the series. Taken with You is not a true Kowalski book since neither of the lead characters belongs to that family, but it takes place in the Kowalski world, and most of the Whitford branch makes an appearance. More importantly, these characters have the same genuineness, humor, and layered lives that made me a fan of the earlier books.

Anyone who has ever been in a long-term committed relationship learns that compromise has a necessary role, but it’s not an element given much attention in romance. I really liked seeing Hailey and Matt learn that love doesn’t melt essential differences but that, as the old Diamond Rio song says, “ain’t no road too long when we meet in the middle.” I also loved that Hailey is an unabashed forty and still believing in the possibility of Prince Charming—and that when he arrives, he is so unprincely and uncharming that she almost fails to recognize him.

Although Taken with You is officially Book 8 in the Kowalski Family series, it can easily be read as a standalone. If you like your contemporary romance with a generous serving of heat, likeable characters whose lives and loves have an appealing verisimilitude, and connections of family and friendship that plausibly bring former characters into new stories, Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski series is among the best. I highly recommend it, and Taken with You can serve as an introduction. Once you read it, I bet you’ll look for Stacey’s backlist. After eight books, my addiction is still going strong. I’m now eagerly anticipating Falling for Max (July 29, 2014); it’s the story of the mysterious Max Crawford and Hailey’s wilderness adventure partner, Tori Burns. I’m hoping to see more of Hailey and Matt in it and, of course, more of the Kowalskis.

The attraction of opposites is a popular theme in romance fiction, but it is one that often fails to convince me of the HEA. Taken with You is an exception because it shows the role of compromise. Do you believe opposites attract? What is necessary for you to believe in the HEA of opposites?