Paperback Reader

Let me tell you upfront what kind of review this is going to be. I believe all the way down to my Summer Pink toes that Stephanie Bond is a great writer. There will come a time when you pick up a book by Stephanie Bond and say to yourself, “Kassia was right. This woman is brilliant.”

This is why I implore her: stop with the Body Movers series and start writing that book!

I accidentally started this series (before it was a series, I suppose) when I picked up Party Crashers for an airplane read. Then HK and I decided to co-review the first in the series, Body Movers. Then, well, you know how this stuff goes. I said I would read the second book, 2 Bodies for the Price of One, even though I knew I'd end up right here. Telling you about the book. I am weak.

Let me recap the series as so far: Carlotta Wren and her poker-playing, supposedly really smart younger brother are barely making it because their parents skipped out on them just as Carlotta turned 18. Carlotta’s major job skill is shopping, which she puts to good use as a salesperson at a major department store (Neiman Marcus). Due to a preponderance of dead bodies in the previous book and her younger brother’s job as a “body mover”, she has three dudes chasing after her: her preppy-esque ex-fiance, Peter; a detective who couldn’t pick a decent tie if his life depended on it; and Wesley’s boss, a former coroner turned body mover.

My book buying decisions stopped being about shelf-browsing a long time ago. Instead of standing in an aisle, picking up a book because the cover catches my eye, or I’m familiar with the author, or I’ve heard buzz about the story, I’m more likely to order the title from the comfort of my sofa, laptop on lap, after reading an excerpt online.

I read these excerpts at author Websites after running across reviews or raves – even rants. I also receive newsletters from several publishers, one of those being the Hatchette Group, who tempted me recently to click on this link where I read this:

By the time I left Idaho, I’d stopped looking over my shoulder. When I crossed the Continental Divide, my heart stopped jumping every time I heard a diesel pickup snarling up the highway behind me.

I was no detective, but near as I could tell, Eric didn’t know where I was.

Four days ago, I’d waited until I knew without a doubt that he was at work, slipped out of the condo we shared, swiped his debit card, withdrew the maximum amount I could, rode the city bus as far as it would take me, and started hitchhiking. Phase one of my master plan could be summed up in three words: Get outta town. Okay, four words if you want to be precise about it.

I was hooked, and off to order. It wasn’t until the book arrived that I realized ALL IN ONE PLACE by Carolyne Aarsen is an inspirational release by Hatchette’s FaithWords imprint.

Hot-as-lava erotic romance is Emma Holly’s stock-in-trade and her ability to create passionate and lusty characters is a talent she often wields with considerable deftness and skill. Holly’s latest, Fairyville, trades her usual risk-taking, freshness for something more familiar, tired -- derivative of herself even -- with a plot that is driven by a quadrangle of lust, three love stories, and an entire nether world of ethereal creatures. The results are, as always with Holly, boldly sexual and not for the reader unwilling to follow along into taboo territory.

Some men just won't go away. Romance novels are filled with former husbands, old boyfriends and used-to-be lovers that pop up at the most inopportune times - usually when the heroine has found a new hero. These men from the past tend to shake the heroine's sense of security. Many times these fellas are the abusive sort. They haunt and harass the heroine causing the hero's protective nature, and sometimes his jealousy, to flourish. This is the sort of plot that puts the "alpha" in alpha hero.

Carla Cassidy's Paint It Red puts a new spin on an old story. The heroine's husband Jim was not the nasty sort but he also is supposed to be the dead sort. Then, as the back cover states:

"Jim's picture somehow finds its way onto the dresser, and his jacket appears on the back of the sofa. Is she going crazy? Or has her husband returned to claim her as his own?"

All good questions.

Let’s be perfectly upfront here: there is no way this is going to be a bad review. Couldn’t happen in a million years. I am a Jennifer Crusie fan from the very beginning, and, well, Bob Mayer has proven to be a worthy co-author. Not just anyone can step into the world of a treasured author. This collaboration works for me. I just wanted to be all full disclosure and stuff.

I liked Don’t Look Down, their first collaboration, but I had much more fun reading Agnes and the Hitman, the second novel from the team. Funny, relaxed, fast-paced, and, oh yeah, filled with pink flamingos. It’s all good.

Here are the basics, as I see them. Agnes, who has found her niche writing cookbooks (“Mob Food”, which should also give you a hint where this is going), has a bit of an anger management issue. Which is fine, unless she’s holding a frying pan. One of which, oh, just happens to be handy when a man breaks into her house and tries to nab her dog.

The problem with writing a popular first novel is that the second novel will always be burdened with the inevitable comparisons. Will the dialogue be as funny or true? Will the characters be as vivid? The first novel creates certain standards which readers expect the second to meet or exceed. Such is the massive task for The Boys Next Door, by Jennifer Echols, the author of last year’s National Readers’ Choice Award-winning Young Adult novel, Major Crush. It matters not that Boys stars brand new characters, or that it has nothing to do with Crush’s band geek world, the challenge to produce a novel that surpasses the first remains.

The boys are back in town. The boys in this case being the six-foot-six hulking vampire giants who make up the Black Dagger Brotherhood. The town being every shelf in every bookstore everywhere. The hype, excitement and anticipation being palpable.

The basic ingredients in the newest installment to this popular and provocative series remain the same. The over-the-top names have not changed. The family histories of the Brothers sound more horrifying with each telling. The Brothers continue to talk in a sort of shorthand street lingo. The females weave in and out of the story but never slip into a headline spot. The read is as fast and compelling, though imperfect, as the previous books in the series.

In other words, if you did not like the Brothers before, you will not like them any better this time around. Likewise, the rabid fangirls who refuse to entertain any talk of missteps in the series likely will hold on to that loving feeling no matter what occurs. Those who live to tear down someone as successful as J.R. Ward will do so whether or not they bother to actually read the book. That leaves everyone else to read through the 500+ pages of backstory, brotherhood, worldbuilding and romance and assess the finer points of Vishous' story. The end result being a weak romance set in a fascinating and ever-intriguing world of vampire family drama.

We all know erotic romance is huge right now. Sure, we don't know exactly what erotic romance is or how to define it, but that does not stop us from using the term. One thing we can all agree on: there's a lot of it (whatever exactly "it" is) out there.

This is where you guys come in. We want you to give us the titles of a few erotic romances coming out between now and then end of 2007 that you're looking forward to reading. List them here and you'll be entered to win.

The prize: copies of Trouble by Sasha White and Return to Me by Julia Templeton.

You have until October 9th to post your choices. Good luck!

I live in the barren wasteland that is west Texas, slap in the middle of the oil patch. Scenery is not abundant. It is nonexistent. To enjoy scenery, one must drive at least two hundred miles in any direction. As one who enjoys road trips, particularly the scenic variety, I’m forced to travel those two hundred miles before I reach landscape interesting enough to warrant abandonment of a thermos of coffee and a box of No Doze. However, once that interminable two hundred miles has passed, things improve greatly and I find myself anticipating what might be further along the highway. Perhaps a surprise or two. I’m usually not disappointed. For instance, there was a diner in South Carolina called Squat ‘N’ Gobble, with a neon sign out front sporting two hillbillies, squatting, holding a plate of food on their knee. Not kidding. Or Carhenge, in Nebraska, one man’s homage to Stonehenge, complete with old cars, painted dull, stone gray, stacked and situated in an exact replica of the ancient pile of rocks in England. Never saw that one coming. Then there are those elements of a road trip that aren’t a surprise, totally expected, but delightful nonetheless. Traverse City, Michigan comes to mind. I had no idea it was so charming and quaint, and regretted we didn’t have more time to linger there.

Maya Rodale’s debut romance, The Heir and the Spare, very much paralleled my road trip experiences. It took a while to get to the good part, and once there, I was in for a few surprise gems, a few moments of “I knew this would happen, but I’m captivated anyway”, and an overall feeling of having passed this way before. Like this summer, driving around New Brunswick, thinking it looked very much like the coastal plains of Texas. Very weird. But not nearly so weird as a restaurant named Squat ‘N’ Gobble.