Anything But Vanilla by Liz Fielding

4 1/2  Columns: an excellent read
Harlequin Kiss

April/May 2013

Available for pre-order from Amazon.com

 Amazon UK

The Book Depository

Blurb
Sorrel Amery is determined to make her summer event the talk of the town, and she knows just the way into people's hearts-champagne sorbet! It's the perfect strategy... Until the ice cream parlour's owner runs off, leaving Sorrel's plans melting faster than a sundae in the summer sun. 
All Sorrel wants is to get back into her comfort zone, but when the gorgeous Alexander West arrives to help pick up the pieces her life gets shaken up more than ever before! Especially as this globe-trotting adventurer is determined that nothing in Sorrel's life should ever be boring old vanilla again...

REVIEW

When Alexander West flies halfway across the world to rescue a close friend’s ice-cream parlour, he makes three alarming discoveries – the business has been issued with an insolvency notice, said friend has disappeared and… gorgeous, sexy businesswoman Sorrel Amery is in the shop’s stockroom, raiding the freezer.

But Sorrel is no thief. As the CEO of Scoop, it’s her job to deliver ice-cream experiences to special events — like the celebrity studded tennis party currently top of her agenda. If she doesn’t get the ices she’s ordered, her reputation will be in ruins.

So when Alex announces that he wants the stock back in the freezer and her off the premises, she takes a determined step forward, intending to search the kitchen for the rest of her order.

Only, Alex won’t let her past. 

She tries pleading. But he’s adamant that nothing can leave the premises until he’s completed an inventory of the assets. In a last ditch attempt to change his mind, she offers a wide-screen, Technicolor, smile and murmurs 'Alexander.. this is important.'

Her action prompts him to ask in a low, dangerously soft voice “How important?”

The next moment he’s kissing her —and she’s making no attempt to stop him. Just the opposite in fact. Totally mesmerised, she arches towards him, lifting her arms and sliding them round his neck, “her body wanting more, wanting him.”

Abruptly he breaks the connection. Thanks to her inexplicable meltdown she’s managed to confirm his belief that she’s the type of girl who thinks she can get whatever she wants in business by flirting.

He couldn’t be more wrong. Sorrel has chosen career over romance and is totally focused on building her business. She does not do lust at first sight.

Her reaction to his kiss marked one of those rare occasions when she’d lost all sense and given into her mother’s wayward genes. A totally  uncharacteristic lapse, given that  Sorrell is determined not to be like her mother (a serial single mother with a propensity for rough-hewn travelling men.) Sorrell wants a man with drive and ambition. Somebody who’ll always be there for her – somebody like her secure, safe and totally dependable mentor, Graeme.

Alex might be overwhelmingly sexy with his “thick brown hair that brushed his shoulders and flopped untidily around his face…and the kind of skin deep tan you didn’t get from two weeks on a beach.” But how can she possibly allow herself to have a crazy fling with a man who clearly follows a beach bum lifestyle and will be gone in days?

Yet despite everything, she experiences such a strong sense of physical attraction that she’s sorely tempted to forget safe and dependable and seize the day in a “live-now-pay-later physical response.”

Seize the day is the book’s theme. Sorrel is locked into a vanilla lifestyle — seeking security and safety in everything she does. But until she learns to be less in control of her life and emotions, ditch her five-year plan and trust her instincts, she’ll never be truly happy .

And emotionally distant, detached, uninvolved Alex, who’s never had a home and is  focused exclusively on exploring distant jungles, illustrates a different side of the theme.

Unlike Sorrel, Alex has no trouble seizing the moment.  His life is full of fresh and exciting opportunities. But instead of experiencing these moments on his own, he needs to learn to open himself up to the warmth and fun of sharing them with another person.

Each leads the other towards emotional change, culminating in Sorrel giving into the attraction and seizing the moment in a night of passion with Alex.  She knows full well that he’ll leave her in a few days, but is done with playing safe with her heart and her head.

Alex proves  the more resistant one. Although he revels in Sorrel’s warm considerate emotionally connecting nature, and has come to a point where he can share confidences with openness and trust, he still backs away from emotional involvement  and returns to his work in the rainforest determined to remain heart whole.

At this point it seems as though Alex will never change his belief about the type of life he wants or the person he is, but in wonderfully emotional final chapter, he experiences a shattering epiphany that totally changes the direction of his emotions and brings about the necessary happy ending.

This book was an absolute pleasure to review. The pacing is smooth (back story is kept to a minimum until well past the second half of the story ) the pages are packed with sizzling sexual tension, deeply experienced emotion and crisp, concise dialogue.

4 1/2  columns (I’d have liked just a hint at the start of the story that the hero’s present life felt a little empty — a suggestion of restlessness.)

Koishi

By: Annie Nicholas 

Genre:  Paranormal Romance (Erotic) Novella (appx 126 pgs.)
Series:  GateKeepers #1
Published: February 4th 2013
Publisher:  Lyrical Press
ISBN 1616504390 (13: 9781616504397)
Amazon    Barnes and Noble   iTunes
 
4 Columns – Recommended Read

Blurb

Never make a deal with a dragon.

Sandra’s sister is dying. Doctors say nothing can be done, but she refuses to give up hope. She has depleted all their resources searching for a cure, when a little bird whispers in Sandra’s ear about secret worlds, gates, and the keepers who protect them. A dragon gatekeeper, who hoards magical treasure within his volcano home in Japan, possibly owns an item capable of curing her sister.

Gates choose their keepers, and Koishi thinks his did an excellent job in picking him. Not many dare to cross, and none who try survive. However, one tiny human female with either the courage of an army or the intelligence of a gnat has arrived on the island asking for him. Curious, he waits for the locals to steer her to his human servant—actually him, in man form.

Let the games begin…

The Shamrock and the Rose 

by: Regan Walker

Genre:  Regency Short Story (appx. 14k words)

ISBN:  978-1-938876-41-7

Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group

Publication date: 2/2/2013

Amazon   Barnes and Noble

4 columns - recommended read

Blurb

Set in London in 1818, it's the story of Rose Collingwood, daughter of a baron, who wanted to play Portia in The Merchant of Venice. To accept the part at the Theatre-Royal at Haymarket, the very proper young lady assumes the disguise of Miss Lily Underwood, the actress. Who knew all of London would soon be at her feet sending her love notes? One such Valentine goes awry only to be found by the dashing Irish barrister, Morgan O'Connell. Though he would have seduced the actress, Morgan must court the lady. Given three choices much like Portia's suitors, can she resist the handsome Irish rogue?     

Burn in Hell, A Jake Carrington Mystery by Marian Lanouette

4 columns: a recommended read

Buy it at MuseItUp Publishing or Amazon

MuseItUp Publishing, January, 2013

Blurb

A botched missing person’s case.

A nervous mob boss.

Lt. Jake Carrington’s gut tells him Phil Lucci is being cagey—with good reason. Jake can see this case has been mishandled from the beginning. Sloppy police work? Or does Lucci's hand reach as far as the WPD? It’s Jake’s job to find the answers.

Then Jake meets Kyra Russell, a woman with an unusual job—she runs the local crematory. Despite the heated attraction between them, Jake becomes more and more suspicious of Kyra. Her gambling problem has already cost her a marriage and custody of her son. More than that, she also happens to be friends with Phil Lucci. Kyra assures Jake that it's just coincidence, but Jake's experience and his instincts warn him not to believe in chance. Can Kyra be burning bodies for the mob? If she is, what will Jake do about it?

Review

Having once conjugated complex Latin phrases with dedication and interest, Airmid, Lady of Speed Reading, recognizes in Burn in Hell, a wonderfully enigmatic and pleasingly difficult puzzle to be opened with anticipation and devoured with delight. The story is at once interesting and engaging, alike in many ways to the healing lore Airmid sought to learn from her father. We first meet lovely, red-haired Kyra Russell, funeral director by day, gambler by night. The addiction of gambling holds Kyra like the milky-white latex that sticks fingers together as one gathers dandelion root. Kyra could pull away easily if she were determined, but she chooses to remain, and even binds herself further by accepting an offer from mob boss, Phil Lucci, to cremate the bodies of his hits. Kyra's rationale for choosing this fate rests on her belief that her gambling debts will be erased and she will receive large amounts of cash with which to win back custody of her son, Trevor, from her vindictive ex-husband, Tom. On this same fate-filled day, Kyra first meets Jake Carrington, luscious local man-of-law and defender of vulnerable females, who is emotionally raw from recent abandonment by his fiancée, Mia.

Like the vines of the Partridge Berry which intertwine as they spread over the ground, Kyra and Jake cling to one another in their duress and grief, each entering the relationship with uncommitted intentions that fail as they find in one another the light and hope that comes from the promise of healing emotional wounds. However, like an herbal remedy prepared by the untruthful or unwise, Jake and Kyra's relationship is destined to prove deadly as their enemies conspire against them. The climax of the story builds to an intense ending that is logical, unpredictable and yet disturbing as a cruel justice is served to the stubborn Kyra, and Jake is helpless to protect her from her chosen fate.

Airmid, having lost her favorite brother, Miach, to her father's anger understands the aching emptiness that Jake feels for his long-ago murdered sister. Having spent a year and a day mourning over Miach's burial place to no avail, Airmid sincerely wishes for Jake's sake that he could have found a way to reach Kyra before it was too late. As the story progresses we are also introduced to the mysterious Mia. Airmid wonders what Jake saw in the maddeningly controlling and acerbic woman, who, after a mystifying argument with Jake two months prior, held herself back from contact, as if Jake resided in a patch of stinging nettles and she had no wish to traverse them and endure the pain even though there was a simple remedy at hand for undertaking such a path with success. Not having read the previous book in the series, Airmid remains at a loss to understand Mia, or feel sympathy for the future relationship between Mia and Jake. Some solid evidence such as a flashback or a short summary with highlights and positive notes about their relationship would have helped Airmid believe in Jake's need for and possible reacceptance of Mia.

Within the same root and stem, Airmid grew impatient with waiting until halfway through the story when an actual scene between Kyra and her beloved son, Trevor was presented. Airmid had some difficulty building sympathy for a woman whose motivation for taking a dangerous path was to reunite with her son, but who forgot to call him on the phone and when she did, made but brief conversations with him, while she seemed to put grand effort into pleasing her lover and mob boss, and fighting with her ex-husband. To be placed thusly at the opposite ends of right and wrong would sober many a mother into actions to reclaim a lost child, but Kyra continued to hesitate when opportunity spread itself open at her feet like a bloom of Lady's Mantle. It would be useful in future to take care to build up a solid foundation for a relationship that a character claims as a motivation for her actions and choices. Many herbs for tea can be grown in tame conditions just outside the kitchen door, but it is the wild varieties, found only after a difficult traipse through the bogs, mosses and rocky hillsides that make for the most satisfying taste and the most emotionally true brew.

Airmid confesses that she sped read past the overly-plentiful internal thoughts and questions presented by the main characters. She wonders why the author found it necessary to use questions, dialogue, and direct internal thoughts, often one after the other, and all aimed to present the same information. Do mortal readers require such repetition? "Mortal readers must not readily comprehend what they read." I may never come to understand the minds of mortals. Airmid suggests that the author reconsider the value of using all three of these at once. The glory and the beauty of the author's prose and dialogue is present in such a high degree in this story that a modest amount of pruning would brighten the entire garden of the scene and allow the marvelous words to flourish and, like the tiny blossoms of yarrow, shine forth in glorious storytelling wonder.

Airmid was absolutely delighted with the antagonists in the story from minor but critical characters Joe Dillon and Tom Russell to major and treacherous adversaries, mob boss Phil Lucci and his partner Angelo. Each of these characters was frightening in a realistic way that set Airmid's heart going apace as if she'd sipped too much of the nectar of the Fairy's Glove. Ex-husband Tom is thoroughly disreputable, lacking any sympathy and needing none. Airmid only wished she might have been permitted to rejoice further over the extent of Tom's injuries, but she would have settled for knowing that he spent a long time in hospital, preferably with incompetent and clumsy healers.

The author presented a well-researched and enjoyable world of work from the details of funeral and cremation practices to the particulars of police procedure. Airmid questions whether this story can rightly be cast as a mystery story since the reader was in a position of superior knowledge to the investigating detective. However, that query does not make the story less enjoyable. The author has an excellent ability to build and maintain tension and to present a conflict that appears to have no possible resolution until the very last moments of the story. Above all, Airmid closed the story with a lasting empathy for Jake Carrington, a good and worthy man who is one of the few who hold the ground of justice and mercy against a world of greed, corruption and hate. Airmid plans to read the prior book in the series, If I Fail, and holds great hope of reading more about the world of Jake Carrington.

Ballroom To Bride And Groom by Kate Hardy

4 columns: a recommended read
Mills & Boon Cherish

Mar 2013

ISBN 9780263900941
Amazon UK

Harlequin Romance

Feb 2013

ISBN: 9780373178629
Amazon US  Barnes and Noble

 

Blurb:

TV presenter Polly Anna Adams has spent a lifetime living up to her name. Suddenly single, Polly hides behind her cheery facade and enters a celebrity dance competition. Her partner? None other than gorgeous but wary professional dancer Liam Flynn.

Liam has learned the hard way to keep his heart on lockdown, but Polly's joie de vivre puts a spring back in his polished step. As the competition heats up, so does their unstoppable attraction. If only they could convince themselves their hot tango passion is just for the cameras….

Review:
 

Smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you Polly Anna Adams loves her job as a children’s TV presenter. Until her fiancé, the show’s producer, cancels their wedding and brings his new girlfriend onto the production team.  Polly can’t bear the thought of working with her replacement, so walks out of her job—even though a recession means she’s unlikely to find another one soon.

A door opens when her agent clinches her a spot on Ballroom Glitz (think Dancing with the stars/Strictly come dancing) partnering gorgeous ex-ballroom champion Liam Flyn.  Polly fears her natural clumsiness will be her downfall, but convinced the show is a stepping stone to another presenting role, she’s is determined to think positive, try her hardest — and smile her way through.

Liam is equally desperate for her to succeed. A year ago he lost his marriage, his career, his home and his dreams when he was badly injured in a car accident. Experts predicted he’d never dance again, but he’s fought to prove them wrong.  His new dream – to land a job as a choreographer on Broadway – is almost within reach, but first he needs to prove himself by taking his celebrity partner all the way to the final of Ballroom Glitz.  Cue external conflict when Polly’s lack of co-ordination and clear inability to pick out a rhythm seem certain to jeopardise his plans.

Both Liam and Polly share the same internal conflict – fear of  betrayal and  abandonment, coupled with a marked reluctance to trust

Due to his ex-wife/professional dance partner leaving him for another man shortly after the accident, Liam has decided he’s better off on his own and needs to hold himself apart emotionally. When he finds himself strongly attracted to seemingly capricious Polly, he hides his normally kind, supportive nature behind a façade of cool professionalism.

But Polly has a strong backbone under all the sweetness and light, and won’t allow him to treat her so brusquely. A clash ensues resulting Liam apologising to her and seeing her in a different light.

Liam quickly realises that Polly’s super-bright smile hides low self esteem and is a brave attempt to fake it until she makes it –in all areas of her life. She sees herself as far too girl-next-door and clumsy to be a glittering ballroom princess and this affects her ability to grasp the steps and techniques Liam needs her to learn.

He fixes that by taking their practice session to a private candle-lit ballroom in Vienna, where he presents her with a beautiful frothy dress, then whirls her round and round the dance floor in a floaty Viennese waltz, kissing her as they spin. The steps come effortlessly and for the first time ever, Polly feels like the fairy ballerina she always wanted to be as a child.

They kiss all the way back to the hotel, and Polly wanting him more than she’d ever wanted anyone in her life, can’t resist his invitation to share his bed.

 But by the next morning Polly has managed to convince herself that once Liam goes to new York, there’s no way she’ll fit into his life. To protect herself from the inevitable heartbreak, she makes the decision to push him away now before things get too complicated. Liam’s disappointment at her reaction leads him to retreat into cool detachment and re-affirm his vow to hold himself apart..

The second half of the book sees them attempting to focus on their career plans—plans that will end with them living thousands of miles apart.

Although both Liam and Polly have apparently identical emotional issues, they deal with them in opposite ways-- and it’s these differences that enable them to gradually change each other.

Liam believes he’s the only person he can rely on and he can’t trust anyone else. Although this belief gradually changes during the course of the story, he retains a strong sense of self-belief which enables him to teach Polly to have faith in herself and transform from clumsy tomboy to ‘gorgeous kittenish flirt.’

Due to a traumatic incident in her teenage years, Polly has learned to look on the bright side, hide her true feelings and  ignore the difficult stuff.  Embedded in this flaw is a great strength – her warm, optimistic nature. And it’s this  which causes Liam to eventually see that keeping himself separate and pushing people away won’t bring him happiness.

I found the pacing of this story extremely smooth – due to Kate’s short punchy sentences and very linear character thoughts. (Each and every action was beautifully motivated leaving the reader in no doubt at any time as to why the characters were behaving as they were.)

My only quibble is some of the scenes seemed a touch repetitive (practice sessions, dancing on the show, facing the judges, basic dance tuition) but considering the setting of the story it would have been very difficult to avoid this.

Overall, this is a beautiful romantic story filled with tender emotion, sparkling (and sometimes very novel) dance scenes and an ending that will make you cry.

 Athena

Time Dancer by Inez Kelley

Four Columns: a recommended read
Buy it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
84,000 words
ISBN-13: 9781426895050
Carina Press

Book three of the Eldwyn Chronicles

Blurb:
Everyone has a duty in the royal castle—everyone except Jana Haruk. Despite her promising magical bloodline, her gift is weak. As a Reminiscent Seer, she knows only what happened in the past, not what will happen in the future. When the crown prince's life is threatened, Jana vows to do everything she can to help him—including asking the queen, a powerful sorceress, to lend her some magic.

The queen summons Darach, a spell in human form. The arrogant and mysterious man soon discovers there's more to Jana than meets the eye: she's a time dancer, someone with the ability to move backward through time in her dreams. With Darach as her anchor, Jana can explore the past and try to figure out who is behind the attacks on the prince.

Despite her attraction to him, Jana knows little about the handsome warrior. The past is tying them closer to each other with every trip, but Darach is bound to return to his homeland when his mission is complete…and their time together is running out.

Review:

Eons ago, when Thoth had no interest in tans, he created a box and filled it full of tempting, precious things. Then he created a monster and set it to guard the box. To Thoth’s surprise no one tried to steal the box. The treasure was worthy; but he was the only one with knowledge of the contents. Time Dancer is such a box. It is beautifully adorned with a top-notch cover and enticing blurb. Despite being the third in a series, it is not ignorance of the other books that made it hard for Thoth to deem it a treasure beyond compare, but ignorance of a shared vision. People believe invisible words to be subtext—or the meaning beneath the narrative, but in the first third of Time Dancer the invisible words are literally invisible, as on page 31 when the heroine reacts without reason, moving a shared conversation to where none can hear.

Thoth believes the author and editor knew the reason behind Jana’s reaction, but where there is long-standing, shared knowledge, sometimes there are blind spots. As a first-time reader of the Eldwyn Chronicles, Thoth saw a sturdy, well-built keep, but heard nothing. While moving the action is a good way to include information about the Claiming Tree, a suggestion would be to flesh out the buildup leading to Jana’s actions.

Adverb confusion had Thoth searching for clarification in more than one instance although it was much heavier in the first third of the story. A thought, and one that Thoth spent much time pondering, was that perhaps the story hadn’t found its voice yet, shifting between the stylized language of fantasy and a chatty informality that came across closer to new adult. The story line solidified and grew more substantive with the arrow attack on the crown prince, which lead Thoth to consider the possibility that the awkwardness was in the repeated world-building. The decision on how much set-up to add in the beginning is always an issue in any continuing series, and created the impression that fresh eyes would add needed balance to the next book.

Despite an awkward start, Time Dancer contains an enjoyable premise and Thoth found himself admiring the almost Christmas Carol-like sequences in which Jana danced through time. Expecting something more in line with Jayne Anne Krentz’s Gift series, it was a pleasant surprise to discover a unique spin on the anchor concept.

The villain was excellent and drawn with enough angst and conflict to be an Anne Stuart hero. Thoth wanted more of him and his unique, two-sided issue. The ends were tied off neatly, but Thoth doubts this is the last of the Eldwyn Chronicles and hopes the next book includes a hero angsty and conflicted enough to challenge the current grandmaster.

--Thoth