But mostly it’s a matter of serendipity mixed with my desire to read where no reviewer has read before. But it’s the serendipity that seems to lead me to the most interesting books. In the case of Lady Anne’s Dangerous Man by Jeane Westin, I was poking through the teetering book pile, desperately seeking something new and different to read. Not even for review. I just wanted something that would let me escape for a little while. I was aiming for disposable but interesting.

So yeah, there I was. Picking up the book every time the husband left the room, sneaking peeks at paragraphs when I had a spare thirty seconds, making excuses (“Oh, sweetie, I’ll be there in just a sec, I need to, uh, do something.”). Who knew the Restoration was so much fun?

Lady Anne, a not-so-trembling young virgin (it’s okay, Wendy, I promise), is eager to marry her beloved – well, could be beloved – paramour. Granted, one of her goals is to avoid the bed of King Charles II, a lecher of first rank, but she’s also having trouble keeping her deathbed promise to her mother; mom was a bit of a Puritan and preached the virtues of virginity.

But Edward, the could-be beloved, betrays Anne. What’s a man to do when his king has a yen for young, pretty virgins? If you guess “act like a man”, you’re wrong. Anne’s father intervenes by making a deal with the devil: the Robin Hood-esque bastard John Gilbert. Anne is whisked away to John’s hidden lair. And so the game begins.

John is not a misunderstood criminal. Okay, maybe a little. Cheated out of his rightful inheritance, he has few options, what with patronage and peerage and all. His band of merry men are rough and tumble, and John’s control over his gang is challenged by a ruthless competitor. He wants Anne, but understands the rules of the society she inhabits, in some ways more than she does.

Westin balances John’s sense of honor with human weakness. He’s idealistic, almost feminist, and runs his gang on democratic principles. He also makes some bad choices and gives in to temptation. Cursing himself all the way. It’s refreshing to encounter a hero and heroine who acknowledge the weakness of the flesh, succumb, and take responsibility for their actions. John’s choices propel him toward a life of respectability, but even a clean rap sheet won’t allow him to marry Anne. The difference in their social classes is insurmountable.

While flirtatious idylls in a robber’s lair are lovely, the real world must intrude, and the novel quickly becomes a road romance. Road romances can be fun, especially when you get to use swords. Our characters journey to London – separately, as Anne is convinced that John is in league with Edward. John is, in a manner of speaking, in said league. Going it alone isn’t the greatest decision for a woman of the Restoration era, but when you truly don’t know who you can trust, better the devil you know. Anne strikes out to find her uncle and safety.

Well, you know the story. The uncle’s not so interested in Anne’s plight, being the old fashioned sort who believes in men dominating women and all. Anne and John parry and thrust and evade, but they are fighting a determined adversary. Yeah, he has money and power, they don’t.

In retrospect, Edward proves to be a far more persistent villain than the situation dictates. Anne and John, while battling their own mutual distrust, the plague, and various betrayals, finally find themselves on the losing end of Edward’s schemes. However, Edward seems to be playing a bigger game than mere heiress-marrying, and when, after a seemingly-happy plot twist, we encounter him again, he’s moved his devious ways up several levels: he’s dabbling in what seems to be premeditated treason, making me wonder why his pursuit of Anne was so intense. At one point, he seems to remain in play only to cause trouble for Anne and John.

Westin piles on the disasters for her characters. Every time you think they’ve finally caught a break, something bad happens. About three-quarters of the way through the book, I was thinking, “Enough. It’s too much.” And it was. Disaster after disaster after bad news after horrible event. This sets up a heroic-but-over-the-top conclusion to the novel. And yes, without giving anything away, I’m saying that the biggest obstacle between Anne and John’s happiness is dismissed quite summarily.

So why am I so happy with this book? In the manner of the best Regency romances, this story relies on saucy comments and battles of wills. More importantly, Westin has a fresh, confident voice and writes with authority. She mixes humor and angst without overloading the reader with the latter. It helps that she’s mining fresh territory as well – this book could have easily been set in the Regency era, but her choice of the Restoration opens up new possibilities, even as I see similarities (ah, how often in our history will we see eras of sexual exploration bumping up against times of sexual repression?).

Yes, the continual bad breaks were a little too much, but the strength of writing and freshness of Jeane Westin’s voice kept me turning pages. For those who’ve read or will read this one, I even felt a sense of satisfaction when encountering the picture-perfect final scenes. Yes, Wendy, no birth control was employed when Anne decided her precious virginity could be lost. You know what happens when romance characters get it on mid-story…

You can find Jeane Westin here. You can buy Lady Anne’s Dangerous Man here or here.

The success of the series is balanced between Ward’s ability to write a story that envelopes and an imagination fertile enough to give birth to the six warrior vampires who make up the Brotherhood: Phury; Vishous; Zsadist; Rhage; Wrath; and Tohrment. They are over-the-top males who make standard issue alphas look like cotton candy. Their world, where the Brotherhood is pledged to protect the civilian population (non-warrior vampires) from lessers (slayers), like their names, seems ripe for the preposterous to come into play. And yet, it never does. Ward balances the deadly serious business of eliminating lessers with the levity of the Brothers’ love of hip-hop, rap, shitkickers, and designer clothes.

As a connected series, with each new book focusing on a different Brother and the female destined to become his shellan (like a wife, but more intense), it wasn’t much of a surprise that the series’ second book, Lover Eternal, set up the newest release, Lover Awakened. What was a surprise was which of Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood vampires emerged as the hero: Zsadist. As the mangled and broken twin to Phury, Zsadist has been a dark, fearsome element in the Brotherhood, the sort of character scary enough to menace a band of killers. Even still his tormented past as a sexually abused blood slave brought a humanity, however tortured, to Zsadist and a hope for his redemption.

Fate and the ruptured mechanisms of his own mind dealt Zsadist heavy blows and perhaps that’s why Ward didn’t wait to tell Zsadist’s tale and give him a path out of hell. Or, perhaps Zsadist’s story couldn’t wait because there is so much to tell, so much twisted past to unravel, so much wrapped in the Yin Yang relationship he shares with his twin. And then there’s Bella. Bella who is beautiful, and a member of the vampire aristocracy. Bella who is unblemished, unmarred, a female of worth, perfect to Zsadist’s way of thinking; so perfect, in fact, that only his antithesis, Phury, could be good enough for her. Bella who, inexplicably, doesn’t want the Yang, she wants the Yin.

It’s when Bella is kidnapped by a lesser that Zsadist begins to thaw emotionally. As Lover Awakened opens, Bella has been missing for six weeks and Zsadist has spent that time in a frenzy bordering on mania looking for Bella, vowing vengeance and bringing death to all the lessers he comes across. Oddly, Bella’s rescue doesn’t happen forthwith. The lesser who captured Bella, O, has come to “love” her, and takes great pains to assure the captive he calls “wife” stays with him and information about her stays out of the Brotherhood’s hands. Bella’s time in captivity is horrible to say the least and when Zsadist does rescue her, Bella has been beaten, the lesser has carved his human name, David, into her stomach, and stitched her eyelids shut. She’s endured the sort of physical and emotional trauma that it would likely take years to recover from. What is odd about Bella’s extended time with the lesser is that Ward doesn’t employ its aftermath to the fullest extent.

Like the two previous Black Dagger Brotherhood books, Lover Awakened is the hero’s story often at the expense of the heroine. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Zsadist’s salvation comes at the exclusion of Bella’s recovery. Her physical scars heal, she conveniently cannot remember the emotional trauma, and other than Zsadist’s repeated vows to avenge her, Bella’s ordeal seems of no impact. The downside to any series is a lot like the down side of a poorly ordered short story collection: it becomes too easy to see the author’s tricks, crutches, and weaknesses. Ward has a tendency to short change her heroines – it’s understandable when the larger-than-life heroes are hogging all the attention – and this third installment of the series shines a bright light on Ward’s discount on her female characters.

Nonetheless, Zsadist and Bella’s romance plays out in emotional starts and fits, continually running into the ghosts of brutality Zsadist endured as a blood slave. Bella’s love for Zsadist, her dependence on him are immediate, but his journey out of the misery that left him both mentally and sexually crippled is a long, slow one. At times Zsadist progress is imperceptible, the greatest thrust of changing coming in the last pages of the book.

A book of some four hundred and thirty pages should provide enough space to tell a story. Lover Awakened doesn’t quite accomplish that, perhaps because Ward gives her characters story in abundance. Or, maybe the book’s focus isn’t quite tight enough. Lover Awakened is heavy with both characters and their points of view. Much time is spent with Phury as he deals with his own feelings for Bella and how those feeling create yet another avenue for him to scarifice his wants and needs to those of this stricken brother. O, the lesser who kidnapped Bella, has always had his own story arcs, but here, his continued obsession over Bella, even after her rescue, seems a misstep. O, and all lessers, raison d’etra in this series is to be an opponent of the Brotherhood, and here O doesn’t fulfill that role. The orphan boy John, a vampire who has yet to go through the change, gets a lot of page time as he negotiates his way through training for Brotherhood and finds his place in a vampire family. Then there is Rehvenge, Bella’s brother, who turns out to have a few secrets, the least of which isn’t well kept at all.

What makes this world – and by extension, the series – so fantastic is the breadth and depth of what Ward puts on the page. It’s those same qualities, however, that detract from the romance, too much time and attention are spent elsewhere. And yet, Lover Awakened is an enveloping, captivating read. The third installment doesn’t misstep so much as it creates a slight catch in the series’ stride. Ward’s ability to draw the reader in and keep them with there with every turn of the page is undiminished. Lover Awakened might be lesser to its processors, but it’s still better than everything else on the new release table.

HelenKay: The wounded hero. His presence looms in romance novels, sometimes as the actual hero and sometimes as a secondary player who shouts “future hero” every time he walks on the page. Rough and aloof on the outside, broken by a devastating event in his past that stifles his future, he wanders through life just existing. Under the hard exterior and attitude decency and honor remain, but the idea of love and true emotion is all but dead. In fiction, the idea of redeeming this lost soul is the ultimate romantic fantasy. If only the hero could find the right woman, he could then break through his shell, enjoy true love and live the life he truly deserves.
Enter Zsadist. Zsadist or Z, the most haunted and raw of the vampire warriors in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, lives a spare and dark existence. He kills without remorse, refuses affection and physical contact, shuns intimacy in every form, deprives himself of all comforts and walks the thin line between sanity and insanity. In sum, he appears irredeemable, his humanity lost forever. Kidnapped from his family when very young and separated from his twin, fellow warrior vampire Phury, Zsadist was sold first into slavery. Then his life took an even more horrific turn. His mistress, the woman who owned him, made him a blood slave – sexual slave – keeping him bound and forcing him to serve her and the various men she brought down to the dungeon to meet Zsadist. As a result, Zsadist isn’t just wounded, he’s an empty shell.

Somehow Zsadist retains a tenuous bond with the Brotherhood, the group of vampires charged with protecting other vampires. He is loyal but detached. The only person for whom he feels a spark of real feeling outside of the Brotherhood is Bella, a member of the vampire aristocracy. At the end of Ward’s previous novel, Lover Eternal, Bella is kidnapped by a Lesser. The Lessers are a society of soulless vampire hunters. Bella’s kidnapper imprisons her, worships her, beats her and calls her wife. Zsadist rescues her.

The attraction between Bella and Zsadist is not a secret. Tension radiates off the page when they appear together. There is a pulse that underlies all of their interaction. They share a bond he refuses to recognize and she refuses to ignore. Despite Zsadist’s many attempts to push Bella’s affection toward Phury, Bella remains steadfast in her devotion to Zsadist despite his scars, both physical and emotional.

Many times the tortured hero can only connect with a woman through sex. He lacks emotion and functions only on physical need. Part of the brilliance of Zsadist’s relationship with Bella is that the level of disconnect stems from Zsadist’s warped view of sexuality. He doesn’t jump into bed with her and then insist that’s all they can ever have together – a standard romance novel claim. Instead, Zsadist wants Bella but fears sexual excitement to the point of being repelled by it. He fights his natural urges and even refers to his sexual organ as “it” as a way of separating himself from the twisted sexual violations of his past. This layering of fears and dysfunction adds depth to the relationship and an honesty that is often missing in the fix-the-tortured-hero scenario.
Lover Awakened continues the fight between the Lessers and the Brotherhood started in earlier series books. The ongoing battle serves as the background for everything else that takes place. This aspect of the plot remains just that – ongoing. The battle does not end or find its completion here. Instead, the focus is on Zsadist’s re-connection with life and the unfolding romance between Zsadist and Bella. Other members of the Brotherhood play major roles here as their motivations and personalities become clearer and, in some cases, less clear. The reader is dragged deeper into the world of the Brotherhood, with a peek into the workings of the Lessers and glimpses of future heroes and books in the series.
By the end of Lover Awakened, one romance blossoms just as the world of the Brotherhood is blown apart by a shocking death. The move is a risky one by Ward, but one that fits well with the other choices she makes and with the overall mood of the series. Also, the young warrior trainee John plays a larger role here, with his murky background hinting at a significant future. This wordlbuilding is handled with an expertise and subtle hand that makes the idea of warrior vampires, drug-dealing vampires and all vampires easy to believe.

In a book that’s part buddy movie in the same vein as Band Of Brothers with vampires in the lead roles, part romance and part paranormal, Ward shapes distinct, damaged and compelling characters. The fast pace and true character growth combine with the dark overlay of the existing world to create a novel that works on all levels . The relationships unfold with the difficulties and pain felt in real-life relationships. Zsadist’s bonds with his brother, with the Brotherhood and with Bella are explored with a richness and intimacy that takes Ward’s storytelling to an inspiring level.

Wendy’s Question: What is the orphan boy John’s role in these books? Is he another avenue for Ward to world and story build? Or, is Ward employing a very long set-up for John to be the series’ hero of heroes?

HK’s Answer: At first Ward seemed to use the existence of John to show not only the humanity of the Brotherhood but also the promise of its future. Now, as his past unfolds, it is clear John will play a major role in the Brotherhood series. My guess is he is both a future hero – probably the last hero in the series in light of his current age – and either an answer to, or source of, a huge future unveiling in terms of worldbuilding. But, that’s just a guess. The good news is that while in some books the younger side characters tend to annoy because their presence appears superfluous, John is different. His role hints at a much grander scheme. Just one more reason to keep reading this series…

HK’s Final Thoughts: A unique twist on the damaged hero theme in a series that grows and improves with each book.
You can visit J.R. here and purchase this book here or here.

Kitty Norville is a popular late night talkshow host and all-around postergirl for werewolf acceptance – her being one and a celebrity one at that. Difficulties in Denver (see: Kitty and the Midnight Hour) left her good friend dead and her pack in shambles. Rather than stick around and face additional fallout, Kitty takes to the road. Kitty Goes to Washington picks up with Kitty’s travels around the country as she brings her show to the airwaves via remote.
Thanks to Kitty’s straightforward attitude and no-nonsense talk, vampires and werewolves have a forum to ask questions. Those who believe in life other than human-DNA-only life also have a place to discuss issues. And now Congress wants answers. The U.S. Senate subpoenas Kitty to appear before a committee convened to investigate the issue of vampires and werewolves in relation to government funding for the Center for the Study of Parnatural Biology and its founder Dr. Paul Flemming.
From here Kitty enjoys the hospitality of the town’s vampire mistress, gets personal with a Brazilian jaguar named Luis, fights off her unwanted guard Leo, runs from a nasty tabloid reporter and comes back into contact with vampire hunter Cormac. Senator Duke, the stereotypical religious wacko in charge of the Committee, who is set on destroying Kitty rounds out the cast.
A lot of characters. Not much action.
This Kitty, like the first Kitty, can be fun and funny, fast and enjoyable. Unfortunately, this Kitty also suffers from a deficit of plot. Much of the first 140 pages are spent on set-up and following Kitty through her daily routine and D.C. tourist activities. Despite the charming writing and likeable heroine, the plot not so much drags, as it isn’t present. The real meat of the book comes mid-book. Much of the conflict then depends on hidden agendas and people being other than what they seem. Some plot strings tie up early and their inclusion isn’t clear to the overall story, but Vaughn’s strong voice and witty style carry the book.
Kitty Goes To Washington stands alone even though it is the secod book in a series. However, readers would benefit from picking up Kitty and the MIdnight Hour. This is true not because one book depends on the other. Rather, it’s true because Kitty and the MIdnight Hour is stronger in terms of being a fully formed and more coherent story. Kitty Goes To Washington has many strengths including a new twist on a paranormal theme, compelling voice, entertaining style, quick wit and an engaging tone. Where the book falters is in making the switch from Kitty as narrator to Kitty as an integral part of the plot. The transition takes more pages and time than it should. The result is a uneven storyline that lacks the depth and pulse of its headlining heroine.
Wendy: Expectation plays a role in fiction that cannot be qualified or quantified as concepts like conflict, plot, and conclusion can. What the reader expects from fiction is the most elusive element in the relationship between authors and readers. It starts with a glance at the cover, builds with a connection to the jacket copy, and reaches its zenith in waiting for the continuation of a multi-book series. The down time between series installments allows for overwhelming anticipation: What will be the same? What will be different? What will a favorite character do next? There is always the risk of disappointment if a protagonist were to zig, when the hope is that they will zag. What isn’t projected in the wait between books is that a series will falter not with choices that don’t live up to expectation, but that the series will come to a grinding halt on fundamental flaws like lack of conflict.
Kitty and The Midnight Hour, with its crisp, clear writing, strong protagonist, and fresh take on some very old folklore, sets up great expectations for Kitty’s continuing story. Now, Carrie Vaughn’s sophomore effort, Kitty Goes to Washington, sees the return of late-night radio D.J. and werewolf Kitty Norville; unfortunately the return doesn’t bring along all the basics that made the series’ opener so compelling and engaging.
For this story, Kitty goes to Washington, she befriends the city’s head vampire, gets cozy with a Brazilian were-jaguar, and spends a lot of time waiting to be called to testify in front of a Senate committee. What she doesn’t do is encounter the sort of book-length sustainable conflict that Kitty and The Midnight Hour had in abundance. Gone are Kitty’s pack conflicts. She’s a lone wolf now, a rogue, and, as such, the constant strife between being her own person and being part of a pack are over with little in the way of internal conflict to replace what had been a large plot point.
While the transition from underling pup to lone wolf is a logical step in Kitty’s journey, Vaughn flounders with how to handle the journey. Kitty moves through situations, like encountering Washington’s were-population–which acts as the non-pack pack–taking note, assessing, but with little action. The prose reinforces this less-than-active feeling as Vaughn’s narrative settles into dialog (both with Kitty’s radio show and the Senate hearings) that amounts to being told what is going versus being shown the action.
Kitty’s radio show acts as a connective thread bridging Kitty’s debut with this continuing story, but its purpose beyond that is limited. Where previously Kitty’s story was integrated through her show, the forward momentum of her story was tied to the show’s success and subplots were launched as outgrowths of the callers, this time The Midnight Hour is a backdrop, a follow through for Kitty’s life, but in no way integral for the story.
What remains the most interesting dynamic in Kitty’s story is the near relationship she has with bounty-hunter/werewolf hit man, Cormac. Despite their almost flirtation and Kitty’s understanding that Cormac is someone who can help when she most needs it, Kitty remains genuinely leery of Cormac. Their introduction in Kitty and The Midnight Hour was strained, at best (Cormac was hired to kill Kitty), so Kitty’s reaction is more than reasonable, but Vaughn is stingy with Cormac’s presence on the page, which is too bad. Had time been given to Kitty and Cormac, the natural conflict between a werewolf and a werewolf hunter would have bolstered the story in a way that testifying before a Senate hearing simply could not.
So much of what made Kitty and The Midnight Hour engaging and fresh is missing from Kitty Goes to Washington. Perhaps it is a sophomore stumble, perhaps Kitty’s arc is now being curved to accommodate a long series of books, or perhaps Kitty’s original appeal was sustainable for only one book.
HelenKay’s Question: When you read the first book in a new series and like it, then read the second and aren’t as impressed, how do you decide if you give the third book a try?
Wendy’s Response: Answering very specifically to this series, I’ll likely not read it. In terms of storyline and character growth, where does Kitty have left to go? What must happen to this character? What we see here with Kitty is, that as compelling and engaging a character as she was in Kitty and The Midnight Hour, without a storyline around her to match her, to keep her in conflict, she looses much of her appeal. As much as I’d like to see the Cormac storyline play out to its natural conclusion, that is the only element that would bring me back, and at this point, it doesn’t seem worth the investment.
HelenKay’s Final Thoughts: Uneven plot distracts from a strong voice and promising heroine.
Wendy’s Final Thoughts: Kitty Goes to Washington would have a difficult enough time succeeding as a stand alone title because of the lack of conflict, but coupled with what is expected after the first in this series, it disappoints.
You can visit Carrie Vaughn here and buy this book here or here.

So, yeah, when I was anticipating the flight home from Washington DC after BEA, I sorted through my loot for the perfect escapist read. Being one who found the first “Shopaholic” book quite entertaining, I chose Cocktails For Three by Madeleine Wickham aka Sophie Kinsella to be the book in my lap as we taxied down the runway. Alas, I should have recalled that the subsequent Shopaholic books were lacking that certain je ne sais quoi.

Which is to say that I found them unreadable.

Premise-wise, this book is a winner. Maggie, a Type-A editor, is about to give birth to her first child. Roxanne, a travel writer, is involved with a married man. Candice, sweet and naïve, is trying to make amends for her past. These three friends, who all happen to work for a chi-chi London magazine, faithfully get together once a month for drinks and gossip. It’s chick-lit at its theoretical best.

We meet our triumvirate just as Maggie is about to go on maternity leave. She and the girls have met for their final cocktails (no moralizing, please, they’re British). And that’s where I started to get ever-so-slightly annoyed. Our story begins after the characters have been established. The three women are already settled into their roles, so it’s like we’re picking them up late in the conversation.

Maggie is a high-powered editor, a workaholic, a serious mover-and-shaker. She’s the boss of everyone. And she’s scared spitless about giving birth. About being responsible for helpless child. About changing diapers. In order for the reader (moi!) to grasp her terror, I had to comprehend how competent Maggie is in her natural environment. Ah, yes, I needed to see Maggie in the Ordinary World.

Roxanne, the second-best character in the book, is cynical and romantic. Her affair with a married man isn’t just a fling on her part – it’s true love. Yet she understands that there’s more at stake than her personal happiness, and she’s managed to make peace with her choice. Sure, she wants more, but she’s not unhappy with what she has. She has options, and her decisions make it clear that her relationship, however incomplete, is her priority.

Then we have Candice, our, for lack of a better word, heroine. She’s sweet. She’s innocent. She’s naïve. She’s also dumb as dirt, but, you know, you can’t have it all. Candice’s father was a con artist, and the girls’ waitress in the bar that first and last night is the daughter of one of his victims. Sweet little Heather has fallen on hard times, and Candice is determined to make amends. Especially since she believes that Heather doesn’t know the truth about the past.

So Candice sets out to save Heather. She gets her a job at the magazine (working, conveniently, for Candice’s ex-boyfriend – ah, conflict, I know you well). Soon, they’re roommates, sharing manicures and meals and Candice’s generosity when it comes to bills. They are Best Friends Forever.

Of course, Heather is crazy as a loon and written with such lack of subtlety that Candice’s inability to see that the woman is trying to destroy her comes off as pathetic. Seriously, how many times do you need to be knocked down before you stop walking into the fist? (Note: Heather is also the best character in this book because she’s amoral and she doesn’t care.)

Meanwhile, on the farm (literally), Maggie has given birth and is dealing with motherhood. Badly. It’s sort of post-partum depression mixed with, I dunno, incompetence? Maybe had she attended some of the “how to be a mother” classes, things would be better? She’s in over her head and doesn’t know how to ask for help.

Had Wickham delved into this plotline, hello, great stuff. Instead she skates across the surface, shortchanging Maggie and her difficulties. I never knew Maggie-the-professional, so I never felt Maggie-the-inept-mother. This is a book I’d like to read – we tend to put motherhood on a pedestal in romantic fiction; I’d be fascinated by a story that showed real struggles with career versus motherhood – especially when the final decision is that not every woman is suited toward full-time parenting. But Maggie’s issues, from post-partum incompetence to mother-in-law jealousy to lifestyle, are so easily resolved that I felt cheated.

Likewise, Roxanne’s story – the classic Other Woman – could have been better developed. Adultery is fascinating to me, not that I’m going out seeking some for myself. But I can see how a person can cross the line and find him or herself engaged in an affair with a married person. There are morals and emotions and hormones and attraction. It isn’t black-and-white, and the emotional repercussions are powerful.

Wickham takes the emotional level a notch higher by giving Roxanne’s lover a no-win situation. He’s dying, and has to make choices about how to live out the rest of his life. What do you do when the end is near? What if the person you love is not the person you’re married to? What if there is no good choice?

I really liked this plot element, and I really wished this was the book. The whole book, with all the other stuff as periphery. I liked Roxanne. I liked her dilemma. I liked how it all played out. My only complaint iss that it didn’t occupy enough page time. Just as I wanted to read about a Type-A executive dealing with motherhood and failing, I wanted to delve into this adulterous affair, it’s genesis, and it’s repercussions. Yeah, I wanted more than this story wanted to give.

Then we have Candice. She annoyed the you-know-what out me. Her sweet romance with the high-powered (natch) lawyer next door was cliché. Her inability to see Heather’s true nature was irritating. I’m big on karma balancing, but willful ignorance is inexcusable. Especially when it’s not well-developed on the page. You want me to believe that Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice are best friends? Then make sure that Candice has a brain.

As I was reading, my sense was that this was an older work by the author, marketed as something brand new. Confessions Of A Shopaholic was published in the U.S. at about the same time the original UK version of this book hit the shelves (2001) – yes, this is an old book being marketed as fairly new. “Shopaholic”, to me, was a far more polished work with a stronger voice. And funnier. The blurbs on this book suggest a great humor – and I do get British humor, except the fat guys in drag thing – yet this was not funny. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t witty.

I read “Shopaholic”. This author can be sharp and funny. This is not a sharp and funny book. This book was no “Shopaholic”.

Yeah, I ended up watching “Everybody Love Raymond.”

You can find Sophie Kinsella here*. You can purchase Cocktails For Three here or here.

* – I know. But authors who don’t have websites should be forced to listen to very long lectures about not having websites.

The Taming of the Duke, James’ latest installment in the Essex sisters’ stories, brings the difficult Imogen, Lady Maitland, together with her drunken guardian, Rafe, Duke of Holbrook. Imogen has never shied away from a little scandal, especially if she gets what she wants in the process. First, she eloped with another girl’s fiancé, only to find herself a widow within two weeks; then, she allowed the entire ton to believe she was in the midst of an affair with a notorious rake, even while he rejected her. Now, she finds herself in the unique and delicate position of being able to take a lover. Rafe finds himself in the unenviable position of playing guardian to a grown woman who doesn’t need or particularly care for his chaperonage. Imogen believes the perfect candidate for a lover is Gabe, Rafe’s illegitimate half brother. Gabe is a gentleman, yet not husband material, and possesses a good many of his brother’s physical charms—minus the potbelly—and none of his bad habits—like drinking and engaging Imogen in waspish conversations. Unbeknownst to Imogen, Gabe has his own complications including an illegitimate daughter and a hunger for Gillian Pythian-Adams, a woman his background precludes him from being with. To spare Imogen’s feelings and the sting of another rejection, a newly sober and slimmed down Rafe masquerades as his brother. Rafe begins two relationships with Imogen; one, pretending to be Gabe, wherein Rafe and Imogen engage in activities not befitting a lady, and the second, as himself, wherein he pursues Imogen’s heart.
Since Rafe and Imogen’s relationship begins as guardian and ward—with no untoward amount of respect on either side—each is familiar enough with the other to see their respective clay feet. For Rafe, that is alcohol. Much, if not all, of Rafe and Imogen’s warring and fighting stems from Imogen’s disapproval of Rafe’s drinking. It’s from this grounding of the relationship that James allows her hero and heroine to speak plainly, yet full of subtext, without the meaningless, circular prattle often found in historical romance.
Both the writing and the romance are consistently nuanced and subtle. James writes from a depth of understanding regarding emotional and physical intimacies that have more profundity than the joining of bodies. In a genre that so often mistakes physical intimacy with the building of a relationship, James allows her characters the sort of intimate knowledge of each other that comes not from sex, but from actually knowing one another. Sex is important to James’ writing and her characters, but from scenes such as the one wherein Imogen helps Rafe detox from alcohol, attending to his physical needs while never batting an eye over his vomiting, it’s clear that James understands intimacy in all its sometimes uncomfortable glory.
It isn’t at all surprising, given Mary Bly’s day job as professor of Shakespeare, that academics find their way into James’ work. The title, The Taming of the Duke , is a reference to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (though it’s a witty turn in James’ version as both the drunkard Duke and the shrew-like Imogen are tamed), the illegitimate brother Gabe is a professor of divinity at Cambridge, and the story’s delicate emotional climax takes place in front of a mural depicting Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream settling an ass’ head onto his shoulders. These, however, are only the most obvious echoes of English Literature. There are many more throughout the book and their presence serves to elevate the genre, but the bombardment of them frequently distracts from the read.
The Taming of the Duke is deftly rendered fiction, intelligent and agile, full of pathos without trumped up dramatics. James takes a great risk with Rafe as it is seldom-to-never that truly flawed heroes show up on the pages of romances; her risks pays off with a character broken and troubled enough to need redemption. While there are moments that are too subtlety delivered, and the book veers to the oblique as a result, the characters’ off-the-page emotional leaps are easily pieced together. In the end The Taming of the Duke satisfies.
You can visit Eloisa here and purchase this book here and here.

Like most paranormal romance authors, Ward takes the vampire mythology and uses parts and discards other bits in turns. In the Brothers’ world, vampires are a race unto themselves—there are no conversions, no vamping humans with an exchange of blood—and the race is nearing extinction from two kinds of population killers: enemies and high mortality rate. The vampires don’t feed on humans, but are nonetheless hunted by soulless slayers known as lessers. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a group of, now, five of the most elite warrior vampires. The Brotherhood’s mission is to eliminate the Lessening Society and protect the civilian class of vampires.
Lover Eternal, the second of the Brotherhood series, is Brother Rhage’s tale. Rhage is a deliciously complex hero. Beautiful but tortured. The most ferocious of the brothers, he is a walking metaphor for the beast within. Cursed by the Scribe Virgin—creator and keeper of the vampire race—with a literal beast that lives inside and pushes him to control his emotions, his actions, and forces built up energy to be expended. Rhage keeps himself on an even plane—and keeps the dragon-like monster from making an appearance—by fighting and having sex. That strategy works well enough until he and the beast hear the lilting, musical voice of Mary Luce. Rhage’s instant and unwavering attraction to Mary is typical of the genre, however that Rhage is compelled by Mary’s voice is a clever turn (as in, her voice is music to sooth the savage beast inside Rhage).
Mary is also dealing with a curse and a beast within, but for Mary, a human, it’s leukemia. To pair a heroine with a blood disease with a vampire hero is an inspired choice and one that is abundant with conflict given the precepts of Ward’s vampire world. Each curse, the cancer and the dragon, work to keep Rhage and Mary apart. For Rhage’s part, he doesn’t feel he can stay in control of the beast and ensure Mary’s safety; for Mary, she has limited time and that time will be spent in the most uncomfortable way possible: the treatment of her cancer. But, after being set upon by lessers, Rhage seeks to protect Mary from the slayers, even if it puts her at risk from his beast.
Ward is a nimble writer who earns the reader’s respect by avoiding the feel of pandering to the lowest common denominator (eventually, even the names Ward employs for the brothers—Wrath, Rhage, Zsadist, Phury, and Vishous—stop sounding ridiculous and come to be the only possible names for these men). The romance clichés that Ward uses somehow manage to work in her hands. For example, upon Rhage and Mary’s first meeting, Rhage presses Mary into a wall, their encounter is as sexual as a fully clothed, non-penetrating encounter could be and yet the disbelief of a hero introducing himself by way of rubbing his erection on the heroine never comes. The scene works and the need to watch these characters come together overwhelms. Ward takes risks, shatters taboos—some to heartbreaking effect—yet manages atonement for her characters. Rhage and Mary are all the more compelling because they lack perfection, they are both flawed, both tortured; they are characters that must fight for happiness.
Lover Eternal, as the second installment of the series, has large shoes to fill. By repeating some of Dark Lover’s plot elements throughout the novel—such as the hero showing up nightly at the heroine’s home until she moves into the Brotherhood’s mansion for protection, or the vampire hero introducing the heroine to a world she was previously ignorant of—Ward is able to fill much of those shoes. These are, however, small considerations. Lover Eternal exceeds Dark Lover on a craft level because Ward’s writing is tighter. The multiple view points are well handled and this time around scenes are closely cropped so that the main story never feels too far away. Ward’s familiarity with her characters has grown between books and the sense of these characters becoming real to their author is palpable. Unlike Dark Lover, which took time to establish the world the story takes place in, Lover Eternal begins smoothly without ever feeling like a party already in progress; pages devoted to back story aren’t necessary and therefore not included. This installment is all forward motion, a book that both compliments and furthers the series while standing alone. There are, however, threads left untied at story’s end, threads that point to a story about Zsadist’s redemption and the vampire that could love him.
In the end, Lover Eternal—the whole Black Dagger Brotherhood series, in fact—may well be the type of story that some readers will allow themselves to be swept into while others will not. For those that do, the ride a is breathtaking, pitch-perfect page-turner that will leave readers feeling as though the next installment, Zsadist’s story, can’t hit bookshelves fast enough.
HelenKay: Most romance heroes possess the universal and predictable characteristics – tall, handsome, strong. Words that promise protection and attraction. When the romance novel works, unseen wounds and harsh pasts tend to linger just beneath the surface of these physically appealing men. This added ingredient – the realism and potential for vulnerabiity and weakness – provides nuance and conflict, showing the hero to be intelligent and tough but limited in some way. All of these pieces work in the context of building a hero readers can connect to and a worthy heroine can love. And sometimes there’s more. Every now and then, authors treat readers to a different kind of hero, one who is all those things described – strong, handsome and haunted in some way – or, possibly, none of them. This hero is so commanding that he owns every page, rises above a host of strong and interesting secondary chacracters and pulses with life. Ward has created such a hero in Lover Eternal with Rhage. An extraordinary feat since the hero pulsing with lilfe here also happens to be dead.
In Lover Eternal, Ward sets out a world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood a small and elite group of fierce vampire warriors who protect other vampires from danger and a group known as the Lessers. Lessers are humans without souls who hunt and kill vampires. The groups are at odds and in constant battle. Into the middle walks Mary Luce. She is a leukemia survivor on the verge of another round of illness. As part of her work at a suicide hotline she has befriended John Matthews, a desperate young man who, unknown to him, also happens to be a vampire and future warrior. Mary’s neighbor, Bella, recognizes a fellow vampire when she sees one. Bella knows John is about the experience “the change” and needs the guidance of other vampires to survive the experience. She calls on the secretive Brotherhood society for assistance.
Rhage arrives and upon meeting Mary, feels a connection. This is not a I-found-my-lifemate issue. Mary’s voice calms Rhage. Ward manages to make the connection between Rhage and Mary real and confused and unsure just as actual first meetings can be. Rhage feels something for Mary, but he doesn’t know what. She soothes him. As a result, he wants to spend more time with her. Part of the connection comes from the fact that Rhage is a man in desperate need of soothing. Cursed by the Scribe Virgin, he is approximately halfway through a 200-year curse. A beast lives inside him. If Rhage (note the name) doesn’t vent his rage and keep his body steady through mindless sex or fights of fury, the desperation and anger build and the beast appears. With Mary, his attraction awakens the beast.
Rhage’s obligations are to stay away from Mary and to wipe her memory clean afte vtheir meetings. He can’t do either. She speaks to something in him. Something he doesn’t understand he even needs. He knows he should protect her and leave, but he resists doing just that. When Lessers attack one evening, the beast makes an appearance and in the fracas Mary loses her purse. With her indentification in the hands of the Lessers, Rhage moves her into the Brotherhood’s mansion for her own safety, incurring the wrath of his Brothers and the Scribe Virgin. Once ensconced in the mansion, Rhage and Mary must deal with threats from the Lessers, Mary’s illness, the varying needs of the Brothers, Bella’s kidnapping, John’s awakening and the demands of Rhage’s body and the Scribe Virgin.
Eternal Lover packs a punch. It is sensual and moving. The plot zips from issue to issue but never feels disconnected. The romance stays in the foreground, even when Mary and Rhage are off the page. Backstory and the compelling lives of the other Brothers and the attacks by the Lessers weave in and out of Rhage’s story with an expert hand. This book clearly sets up the next book and leads from the one before it, but it manages to rise above the just-one-in-a-series feel. Ward does not spend a great deal of time spoonfeeding information. She dools it out in a believable way that keeps the pace humming. The only negative may be in the difficulty for a new reader to play catch up. This is most true, possibly only true, in the role of the Lessers. The information about them is limited, keeping the group and their plans mysterious. This works in the overall context of the book, but does cause some confusion early on.
The real strength here is in Ward’s ability to draw multi-faceted male characters who never feel like just characters. Rhage is larger-than-life. Ward does not give him an easy road to redemption. He carries the burdens of his past and, in many ways, acts contrary to what readers expect from a hero. But, his behavior is consistent and well-formed, making him a deep, interesting and complex hero. He is stengthened both by his bond to his Brothers and by the manenr in which the other Brothers react to him. All of the men are full and rich and different. Their backgrounds blend, but Ward keeps dialog, speech patterns and backgrounds separate, so that each stands alone as a well-drawn character.
Rhage is so instense that it would be easy for him to overwhelm Mary. He doesn’t. Mary is vulnerable but never weak. She actually stengthens the tough warrior. He needs her. It would have been easy for Ward to fall back on the sick-woman-needs-big-guy plan that is so prevalent in romance novels. She doesn’t. Mary may be physically weaker, but it is her strength that feeds Rhage and eventually saves him. The rescue here is mutual and satisfying.
While the ends do not tie up neatly, the romance does reach climax and move forward. Some issues will carry on to the next Brotherhood book. This unresolved feeling often torments and angers readers. Here, it shouldn’t. Ward provides enough hints and stokes enough interest that it is hard not to count down the days to September 2006 when the next book in the series will be released – a book based on the most wounded of the Brothers and a male so full of conflict and pain, one can’t help but want to see what Ward has in store for him.
Wendy’s Question: Outside of poly-amorous relationships, it is ever okay for a hero or heroine to have sex with someone else? Is the action ever redeemable?
HelenKay’s Response: My presumption and automatic response on this is that it’s not redeemable. Without giving everything away, I would say Lover Eternal , in Ward’s expert hands, provides a believable exception. The key here is in having the act make sense in the overall context of the plot, not be gratitutious and not be just because the hero wants to find a quick sexual release. My guess that the real key to having something like this work – and 9.5 times out of 10 it won’t – depends on the abilities and talent of the author. Ward makes it work…somehow. I’m still not sure how she did it without alienating me of making me dislike Rhage. If anything, the scenes that came after made me love Rhage all the more.
Wendy’s Final Thoughts: Block off time for Lover Eternal, it’s impossible to put down.
HelenKay’s Final Thoughts: A bold and unique addition to vampire lore with a commanding hero, strong world-building and compelling secondary characters.
You can visit J.R. here and purchase this book here and here.

Sullivan Quinn is an Irish werewolf sent to New York as a diplomatic representative to the Council of Others. He’s there to suggest that the nonhuman population reveal themselves to the humans of the world and do it soon, in a manner they can control before the decision is made for them. What he isn’t there to do, is become obsessed with the smell of honeysuckle, but he follows the fragrant trail right to Foxwoman Cassidy Poe anyway. Cassidy isn’t at all happy to be caught in the sights of a big wolf and after a chase and a tussle, gives flight. Quinn and Cassie quickly find themselves on opposite ends of a political ideology when the girlfriend of a Russian vampire is kidnapped by a religious sect bent on gathering proof of the Others and then exposing them to the world. Quinn believes they should reveal themselves to humans immediately, Cassie, an anthropologist, believes humans will never be accepting of them and that revelation will be useless. Despite their differing views (and despite a serious lack of motivation), the Council pairs the two to gather information on the religious sect.
The dubious and trumped up reasons Quinn and Cassie have to be together are of little importance as they spend less time working together for a happy ending to a kidnapping half way around the world than they do rehashing their own brief history and filling each other in on what they learn separately. The plot breaks down between Council/kidnapping and Quinn and Cassie’s love story without a feeling of integration between the two.
The inciting incident, the drama that lends the fuel to drive the story (the kidnapping), happens off the page to characters that otherwise have no bearing on story. The problem here is that it’s impossible to be compelled by action and conflict which occur somewhere else. There is no vested interested in the Russian vampire Gregor or his girlfriend Ysabel. At best, her plight elicits some sympathy (who would want to be kidnapped for the purpose of torture?) but it’s simply too far removed from the heart of the story in New York to matter. Had the band of religious zealots begun by kidnapping a character who actually impacted the plot, it would have given the action the weight and importance that is otherwise missing.
Further, the issue of whether the Others should reveal themselves to humans—this issue is central throughout the plot—seems of little consequence. The Others, be they vampires, werepeople (animal forms of these range from rat to bear and all fur covered beings in between), witches, or gargoyles are fully functioning, fully integrated members of society (in Warren’s world even the governor of New York is a wererat). It’s difficult to buy into the threat human discovery poses when 1) the Others are everywhere, including positions of power and 2) the Others don’t pose any threat to humans. Perhaps if Wolf At The Door were set in a heightened environment wherein the Others were on the brink of discovery by an already violent population, this issue of revelation would have resonated.
Wolf At The Door is middle of the road fare, not poorly executed enough to dismiss for its multitude of shortcomings, but neither intriguing enough to hold interest nor fully enjoy. Ultimately, it fails to make the argument that there’s a reason for a hero to shape-shift into a toothless werewolf or a heroine to shift into a fox and even less reason for those creatures to be written about.
You can visit Christine here and purchase this book here or here.

In the case of Diane Whiteside’s The Hunter’s Prey, not only did Berkley’s imprint Heat mine Ellora’s Cave for an author, they have re-issued this 2001 Ellora’s Cave ebook in trade format.  The Hunter’s Prey is a collection of short fiction—twelve stories from five to thirty plus pages—that relate the erotic tales of three Texas vampires: Don Rafael Perez, Ethan Templeton and Jean-Marie St. Just.  Each story is told from the perspective of the women (and one man) whose lives the vampires enter.  Each piece is a brief encounter between human and vampire in which the greatest ecstasy is exchanged for a little blood.  The vampires stipulate that their partners can speak once of their experiences, so each tale is the one time only recounting of events.  Of the twelve stories, six are told in epistolary fashion in the form of letters, diary entries or emails, five are the first hand retelling of the tales and one is a third person overview that dips directly into memory.  The focus of each stays tightly on the erotic with the rising and falling drama mirroring the lovers’ meeting, sexual encounter, and denouement.  Whiteside doesn’t shy away from graphically erotic displays of flesh and sex, but shields the reader from explicit and deep emotions.

Whiteside shines brightest with the varied and eclectic voices of the women who star in the trysts.  The opening story, "La Paloma Blanca", is a letter penned by a narrator only identified as A.  Don Rafael Perez and Ethan Templeton come upon A and her sister, Cordelia, in Civil War era Austin.  A and Cordelia are both young, inexperienced women, and A writes of her time with Don Rafael in a voice that evokes the breathless, hushed tones of secrets shared by girlfriends on the precipice of adulthood.  In sharp contrast to A’s story, "Champagne Cocktail" is the drunken recollections of an unnamed, weary, female narrator who spills her story of a long ago crossing of paths with Ethan Templeton in a speakeasy.  Whiteside effortlessly conjures that narrator’s been-there-done-that tone and raspy voice as she tells her tale to a bartender.

With the exception of the last two stories, "Traffic Stop" and "Apex Predator", the tales of The Hunter’s Prey stand alone as short glimpses into singular events in the lives of the narrators.  The final two pieces setup ongoing relationships between first, Ethan and Steve, and then, Don Rafael and Grania.  Without the finality that marks the rest of the stories, "Traffic Stop" and "Apex Predator" feel out of place, with the latter reading more like the first chapter of a novel than short fiction. 

Throughout the collection, Whiteside varies her narrators from fresh to hardened, from seeking to happened upon, and from touched by loss to touched by nothing.  For their part, the vampires drift through time, from woman to woman, acting as catalysts for change while revealing little of themselves.   What does not change is the stories’ structure: human and vampire meet, they have sex, and the story ends within a few paragraphs of climax.  As the collection progresses this quickly becomes a predictable rhythm that begs for variance.         

Whiteside is a capable writer with a fertile imagination who proves that, in this case, New York publishing was behind the curve.

HelenKay:  The Hunter’s Prey follows the exploits of three sensual Texas vampires from post-Civil War time through modern day.  The collection unfolds through a series of twelve stories told by women who have sampled the delights of the nightstalkers – Don Rafael Perez, Ethan Templeton and Jean-Marie St. Just.  In exchange for a drop of blood, these women enjoy their deepest sexual fantasies.  Each is able to remember the lovemaking only long enough to recount the story one time.  After that, the memory vanishes. 

The subject matter is not for the sweet romance fan.  These stories are lush and graphic.  The tone sexual and uninhibited.  The romance non-existent.  The theme is one of satisfaction and passion.  The candid descriptions will not appeal to the meek.   Exhibitionism, bondage, a menage a trois and anal sex are just a few of the offerings. 

Some may be put off by the frank language or view the content as inappropriate, but the book does not hide its nature.  The subtitle of "Erotic Tales of Texas Vampires" is not an overstatement.  These stories center on sex.  The stories do not have the traditional beginning, middle and end.  The focus is on the act, need and reaction.  The vampires’  backstory winds its way through all of the stories, each one unveiling a little more about the men without saying much at all. 

If taken individually, the character development here is limited.  In part, this is due to the first person storytelling by the women who enjoyed these ventures.  However, this device does not diminish the effectiveness of the work.  Instead, the mystery and delivery of bits of information over time enhances the collection. 

The writing is vivid without being flowery or overdone.  Whiteside guides her readers down a historical  and sexually-charged path without judgment or apology.  The lovemaking scenes do not skimp on details.  The use of short – sometimes extremely short – vignettes allows the reader to fill in details.  Whiteside does not spoon-feed.  The end result can be disorienting in the sense of not fully understanding what comes next or what came before. 

Whiteside balances very erotic situations with strong writing and realistic human emotions.  Each woman’s voice is unique, as are her desires. The stories stand alone as flashes in time, but the walk through history and rising tension in the men compel continued reading.

Wendy’s Question:  Usually short story collections are marketed as, well, collections of short fiction, with the collection’s title gracing the cover as well as the demarcation: stories.  In the case of The Hunter’s Prey, in place of the typical “stories” the collection is labeled Erotic Tales of Texas Vampires.  With the popularity of anthologies in romance, erotica romance and erotica, “tales” seems to deliberately blur the line between what is a collection of short stories and what might be perceived as an anthology of novellas. Other than the fact that a collection of short stories might be considered more literary, why shy away from it? 

HelenKay’s Response:  Are these really short stories or are these separate chapters of an epic vampire novel?  I don’t know.  After two readings and hours of contemplation, I still don’t know exactly what I read.  I only know that I enjoyed it for its uniqueness and solid writing.  As a result, I would say that to the extent saying "tales" blurs the line, that likely was the right answer.  This collection defies easy definition.  It is not a conventional anthology or a conventional short story collection.  The stories are related by common male protagonists, but differ in every other way. 

Wendy’s Final Thoughts:  The Hunter’s Prey enthralls.

HelenKay’s Final Thoughts:  Not for everyone, but those who enjoy the hotter side of romance should be impressed with the erotic storytelling skills at work here.

You can visit Diane here and purchase this book here and here.

Baby-mama-drama takes on a whole new meaning in Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker’s Whatever it Takes when thirty-six year old India Parker realizes her good friend’s boy D.J. has grown into a fine young man.  Devin, as he would prefer to be called, doesn’t make any secret of his interest in India and pursues her despite their thirteen year age difference and India’s hollow protests.  India is an interesting character to follow; her constant—yet empty—threats of physical violence towards her friends are amusing, while her own self characterization as old might make readers want to issue some threats of their own.  Ultimately, the physical heat generated between India and Devin is well documented and understandable, but the emotional intimacy that springs between them is not. 

Brenda L. Thomas’ Every New Year takes a well-worn fiction construct, amnesia, and adds a surprise to it: infidelity.  Far away from the fiancé who’s waiting for her in Hawaii and the upscale neighborhood her urology practice calls home, Dr. Cynthia Lampley is caught in the crossfire of Philadelphia’s inner city warfare and then finds herself in a run-down hospital with no idea who she is.  But, she knows the doctor treating her, Alexander Strohmile, is consuming her thoughts.  Cynthia remembers who she is and that she has a fiancé just in time to push the information aside and make love to Dr. Strohmile on New Year’s Eve.  Every New Year is unevenly paced with too much time given to Cynthia’s pre-accident urology practice—including the joy she derives from working with penises all day—and not enough time to build a solid foundation for the emotional attachment Cynthia too quickly feels for Dr. Strohmile and the resulting life altering decisions she makes. The cliché of amnesia further burdens the story – short of soap operas, how often does one encounter amnesia in day to day life? – and a degree of unbelievability to a story that doesn’t need any further hindrances.

The most stylistically rendered of the quartet is Dangerously in Love by Crystal Lacey Winslow.  Told in first person narration through both the female protagonist, Jovie, and the male protagonist, London, Dangerously in Love spins a tale of love, betrayal, and insanity through the use of flashbacks and a flashward.  Jovie and London briefly meet one New Year’s Eve and are reunited nearly a year later.  Theirs is not a love story to root for.  Nor is it intended as such.  Jovie is damaged in such a way that her stability is constantly in question and London has monogamy issues.  The inevitable train wreck of their relationship is something that can never be saved.   Jovie’s quirky personality nuances escalate into a pattern of madness which drags the reader toward a conclusion that fails in its attempt at a twist. The difficulty in making a twist ending sustainable is that it can’t feel like a trick – the sentient reader should be able to piece the clues together themselves without an expositional info-dump as resolution (it’s not quite like those “And I would have gotten away with it except for those meddling kids!” soliloquies, but it’s close) – and in that regard Winslow’s story fails.    

Daaimah S. Poole’s My Boo follows the ups and downs between long distance lovers Gina and her boo Chris.  A year into their relationship, Gina is completely over not having her man around as much as she’d like him to be.  With Chris in the D.C. area and Gina in Philly, the distance and Chris’ busy work schedule seem to conspire to keep the pair apart.  Angry, hurt and frustrated, Gina enters into a relationship with Khalil—a neighborhood cutie—and is thrilled with the time and attention he lavishes on her.  But, unlike Chris, Gina isn’t the only woman on Khalil’s mind.  The voice here is young and true even if Gina’s wandering eye makes for a less than sympathetic character.

As a group the stories almost read like romance.  Almost.  They are filled with girls meeting boys, then loosing those boys and in a couple of cases winning them back.  There are even happy endings.  But don’t be fooled.  Kiss the Year Goodbye is appropriately labeled and shelved as fiction.  The stories in this collection venture into territory never seen in mainstream romance including a mentally ill protagonist, infidelity (present, not long buried in the past, and perpetrated by women) and a frankness and honestly about sex that lacks the false coyness even the most hardcore erotic romances seem to cling to.   

Kiss the Year Goodbye sizzles with sexuality but offers little else. The anthology, while spirited, never rises to a memorable level due in large part to a uniform amount of expository dialogue in each story, a fixation with literally opening and closing every door in a scene by scene basis, and characters more notable for their flatness than their roundness. The stories themselves offer much in the way of possibility – save for the amnesia issue – and it makes one wonder what might have been if the authors had taken as much time on their craft as they did on their creativity.

HelenKay:  Kiss The Year Goodbye consists of a four-pack of holidays stories.  The stories are diverse in theme and tone, and include a tale about the dark and twisted side of love, two tales which purport to be about love but say more about infidelity, and one tale focused on an attraction to a younger male.  The book’s tag line promises: Four sizzling tales to spice up your night.  To the extent a reader goes in expecting this promise, that reader is likely to feel cheated as none of the novellas rises to keeper status and few of the authors’ risks pay off.

In Whatever It Takes by Tu-Shonda Whitaker, a thirty-something woman searches for a little holiday fun and, instead, finds love in the arms of her friend’s twenty-something son.  India Parker has been searching for Mr. Right for quite some time.  Her tendency is to end up with Mr. Very Wrong.  She is accustomed to being disappointed by the men in her life.  And the men in the lives of her female friends don’t appear much better.  While running an errand for one of those friends, Joan, India runs into Joan’s college graduate son Devon.  Devon makes a not-so-subtle pass then refuses to take no for an answer.  Before India knows it, she’s sleeping Devon and trying to figure out how to tell Joan, all while waiting for Devon to move onto someone else.  In her haste to convince him he can do better, she nearly loses him.

Whatever It Takes is the most traditional in terms of what readers expect of novellas in a romance anthology.  It is a boy-meets-girl, girl-almost-blows-it tale with the added twist of a thirteen year age difference between the hero and heroine.  The tone is light and the conversation between the women plays as realistic, even if it can be a bit hard to follow.  The dialog is accessible while maintaining a street feel.  For example, readers hardly ever see phrases such as: "Let me be the first to tell you, when I’ve been blessed to get my freak on, my brick-house hips have turned tricks, don’t get it confused!"  Here, it works.

What falters is the plot.  The quick move from attraction to love by Devon, and later by India, happens in fast forward and does not feel intrinsic to the novella.  The story may have been better served with a slower build up and an ending that provided satisfaction, but not a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

In Brenda L. Thomas’ Every New Year, Dr. Cynthia Lampley’s plans for a Hawaii vacation with her fiancee Terrell are derailed when she drives into the middle of a shoot-out and lands in the hospital with a case of amnesia.  Enter a handsome doctor who sparks life into her ho-hum romantic life.  Dr. Strohmile meets her, and despite her condescending attitude and nasty personality, manages to fall for her.  Immediately.  Throwing aside all standards of ethics, he begins to court her and ends up making love to her in the hospital while she’s still recuperating.  Cyn’s memory returns right about the time Terrell finds her.  The choose-between-two-guys set-up bumps along thanks to a limited plot and an unlikable heroine.

Cyn’s fault not only lies in her sense of entitlement and easy venture into infidelity, but also in how she deals with her work.  There is a significant "ick" factor here in that Cyn is a urologist who loves her job.  This would not be a condemning feature, except that what she loves is touching her patients’ penises.  Since readers have doctors and certainly don’t want to think those doctors are getting turned on during intimate examinations, this trait is hard to accept and inpossible to ignore.

Crystal Lacey Winslow’s Dangerously In Love is a different kind of love story.  One based on unhealthy love and mental illness.  Here, sweet and innocent Jovie gets mixed up with London, a real player and professional bodyguard to the stars.  London leads a life of fun and extravagance.  He enjoys women and has a problem with fidelity, starting with his extracurricular activities back when he dated a woman named Su.  When Jovie enters the picture, London thinks he has found someone he can trust.  Jovie’s twin sister Jada has other ideas.  She lures London into bed by pretending to be Jovie.  And the infidelity does not end there.  London hooks up with Su, continues to sleep with Jada and tries to build a relationship separate from all that with Jovie.

Only, Jovie isn’t what she seems.  Jada isn’t what she seems. In a twist that is telegraphed from the beginning of the novella, London learns the hard way that infidelity has a price and that sometimes mental illness and romance are a very dangerous mix.  The result is a novella that never feels romantic and that ends in the least romantic way possible.  Dangerously In Love starts out in a convoluted manner and ends dramatically.  The novella, despite it’s unlikable hero, works in some levels but only in a Fatal Attraction way.  However, it’s inclusion here seems misplaced and decidedly unromantic.

Daaimah S. Poole’s My Boo rounds out the anthology.  Here, a successful business owner in Philadelphia is trying to balance a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend Chris with the rest of her life.  Feeling lonely and frustrated in not seeing Chris, Gina gets sucked into her roommate’s social lifestyle and the sweet-talk of Gina’s last sexual conquest Kahlil.  Kahlil sweeps Gina off her feet with good sex and empty promises.  But once Gina has left Chris behind, she’s not so sure that’s what she wants.

My Boo is an example of a woman wanting  one thing and thinking she wants another.  Gina is a realistic portrayal of a woman caught between the fun guy and the one she really wants.  She makes bad choices.  Dumb choices, but real choices, even though they can be uncomfortable to read.  What feels rushed and hurried is Chris’ reaction to Gina’s infidelity and Kahlil’s change without explanation.  With more time and a greater rise in conflict, the ending would have felt more satisfying.  As is, the novella charts a familiar theme but gives it less attention than it needs.

Wendy’s Question:  Whatever It Takes ventures into May-December relationship-land with a thirteen year age difference between the hero and heroine.  Whitaker takes a risk in that the hero is younger than the heroine.  This scenario has long been taboo in women’s fiction (or largely rejected by readers, at least), but as society becomes more accepting, that change will like show up more often in fiction.  What do you think?  Is it time for younger heroes?  Or, is the opportunity for the ick factor the same as it for historicals where the hero is 30+ and heroine a teenager?

HelenKay’s Response:  The older-man-younger-woman mix will always work in historicals because, even though it may be annoying, it is historically accurate.  Books like How Stella Got Her Groove Back and others have diped into what is traditionally believed to be the forbidden world of younger-men-older-women romance.  The problem may be, and why this may not catch on or feel as intriniscially satisfying, is that there is a common and general perception that men take longer to mature.  So, if we want our heroes to have life experience (as well as sexual experience) and maturity, that may always be tied to our theory that they need to be older to gain those aspects.  In the real world, older men can be as immature as younger ones.  No question.  But until the younger-man-older-woman romance catches on in the real world as ceases to be thought of in terms of school teachers getting pregnant by their middle school students, this is going to be a tougher sell. 

Wendy’s Final Thought:  Save your kisses.

HelenKay’s Final Thought:  The anthology starts off with promise but none of novellas reach their potential.

You can visit Brenda here, Tu-Shonda here, Crystal here and Daaimah here.  You can buy the book here or here.

One boring night during her midnight music show, Kitty turns off the music and asks her audience to weigh in on whether or not vampires and werewolves really exist.  The switchboard lights up.  From that night forward, the supernatural world calls Kitty with a list of questions and problems.  The popularity of the show leads to syndication offers and a whole host of trouble for Kitty.  Kitty tries to hide her secret – her four-legged furry side.  When a hired assassin attempts to kill her during her live show, Kitty ends up revealing that she is, indeed, a werewolf.

With her secret now in the open, Kitty’s life begins to spin out of control.  Carl, the leader of her pack, and his mate Meg do not approve of Kitty’s very public coming-out or the threat her notoriety is to their power. The local vampire leader Arturo isn’t too pleased with her either.  With everyone turning against her and trying to convince her to give up her show, and the assassin Cormac still hanging around, things only get worse.  A series of brutal murders suggest a rogue werewolf is in the area and possibly out of his mind.  The police, armed with a new belief in the supernatural world, enlist Kitty’s help to track down the killer. 

Along with all this activity is a mysterious religious leader who insists he can cure whatever makes a vampire a vampire and werewolf a werewolf, as well as a battle for power within the pack which carries with it a sexual twinge.  Somehow Vaughn manages to weave all these threads together without tying up the plot in an overly simplistic bow.  She lets the subplots unfold with slow precision even as the pacing clicks away in a steady almost hypnotic rhythm. 

Vaughn’s success here is due, in large part, to the strength and realism of Kitty.  She may be part wolf, but she is all woman in her mixture of insecurities, fears and hopes.   The focus of the book is Kitty and the subplots winding around her.  Kitty views herself as physically weak in relation to other werewolves, but the truth is that she holds her own against every other character in the book.  She doesn’t back down or capitulate to what everyone else wants for her.  Her submission in wolf form plays as realistic and true to character in the clever world Vaughn has created.   

While the novel lacks any of the hallmarks of a romance, there is a sexual vibe that underscores Kitty’s relationship with Carl.  This strange association does slip into an uncomfortable squirm-in-your-seat zone, but the scenes with them together work in the overall setting of the pack as the pack mentality is defined in the book.  Kitty’s attraction to Cormac is a bit harder to understand in light of the way they met and the relatively light character development of Cormac, but the flaw is forgivable and easy to overlook in comparison to the remainder of the book.

The tone of the books isn’t light, but it isn’t heavy either.  The voice is easy to connect to and very endearing.  Despite the murders and pack problems, there is an underlying charm.  The radio show excerpts range from funny to poignant, and the mix of radio callers and other subplots strikes a perfect balance.    

There are some negatives here, including society’s instantaneous and unexplained acceptance of Kitty as a werewolf, secondary characters that lack depth and subplots that serve only to set up future books in the series.  All of these weaknesses, while noticeable, are easy to dismiss thanks to skillful writing and a relatable heroine.  This may be the first in a series, but you’ll be wanting more.

Wendy:  The trouble with werewolves, in addition to the bothersome transformation and killing people, is they don’t often make for great fiction.  In the pantheon of paranormal creatures and things that go bump in the night, werewolves have never had the sexiness of vampires or the cachet of poltergeists.  Warren Zevon gentrified werewolves when he noted that they often find themselves drinking at Trader Vic’s, their hair perfect, the world oblivious to the beast sitting just adjacent to them.  John Landis humanized werewolves with the perfect balance of humor and horror in the moors of England.  But Zevon did that in song and Landis on film; so, what of fiction?  The werewolf legend is ripe with conflict, sex and violence and the beast within the man metaphor is so easily accessible, it would seem even the most paint-by-numbers writer could work magic with it.  Frustratingly, that magic happens infrequently.  But, when a fresh voice and a creative recasting of the werewolf does come along, it seem nothing short of remarkable.

Carrie Vaughn is such a fresh voice and her debut, Kitty and The Midnight Hour, is a clever and engaging werewolf tale that envelops with a subtle seduction.  On the surface, it is the story of a woman adrift, coming into her own…who is also a pup of a werewolf growing up and finding her footing.  Underneath, Vaughn employs the werewolf metaphor as a not-so-understated cover for social commentary on bigotry, religion and government.

Kitty Norville comes to host The Midnight Hour, a late night call-in radio show, quite by accident.  A DJ at Denver’s KNOB, Kitty arrives at a midnight shift ready to play The Clash and Concrete Blonde, but also bored.  She asks her listeners what they think the real story is behind tabloid darling Bat Boy.  The phone lines light up with callers eager to talk about vampires and werewolves.  And there it begins, a radio show unlike any other, with a host unlike any other.  Of course, only Kitty, her werewolf pack and the local Family of vampires know just how unlike any other host Kitty is.

As interesting a conceit as a werewolf hosting a radio call-in talk show is, the meat of Kitty’s story is the fallout from the show’s rising popularity.  After the success of the impromptu first show, The Midnight Hour is born and is soon in syndication, giving humans who would like to speculate about what goes bump in the night a forum, as well as the creatures who make the bumps. Off the air, Kitty is no lone wolf, nor does she exist in a vacuum.  In her pack, Kitty is a lowly pup in the hierarchy.  Her Alpha, Carl, and his mate, Meg, protect Kitty from the rival Family of vampires and the other werewolves in the pack.  Carl keeps Kitty as a pretty play thing: he’ll feed her, he’ll care for her, he’ll protect her and in turn she’ll follow his orders.  With the show’s success, Kitty gains confidence that manifests even in her Wolf form and the role of submissive begins to chafe and eventually becomes intolerable. 

Vaughn gives Kitty plenty of conflict and action to work through with subplots that fold nicely back into one another.  When Kitty ignores both the vampires’ warnings and Carl’s demands that she give up the show (the vampires don’t like the publicity and Carl wants to control Kitty completely), a silver bullet shooting werewolf hunter, Cormac, shows up in Kitty’s radio booth ready to hold up his end of the contract on Kitty’s life.  Cormac is a man of few words, but clear-headed enough to investigate Kitty’s claim that, perhaps, he’s been double crossed by whoever hired him for the job.  It is a tenuous start for any relationship, not that Kitty and Cormac’s is a romance (the possibility of one sweetens the plot), but rather a mutually beneficial “I owe you one,” acquaintance.  As Kitty breaks with her pack and Carl, it is Cormac to whom she turns for help when one of her own pack attacks her and again when a rouge werewolf turns serial killer.

Kitty and The Midnight is the beginning of Kitty’s adventures.  As such, some characters and conflicts introduced and lightly brushed up against are left unresolved in this first installment.  Through a vampire friend, Rick, Kitty learns of a Reverend Elijah Smith who travels with a tent revival and claims to cure vampirism and lycanthropes.  The Reverend, while interesting, amounts to groundwork laid in this book to be, hopefully, built upon in the next.  With the large cast of characters and numerous subplots, the preview of the Revered and a hint of the mystery surrounding him are all that this story can bare. 

Kitty’s first person narration connects, save for a stumble as Vaughn attempts an action scene that Kitty is not present for and only hears over the phone.  And, at times the narrative is more stage direction than free flowing prose.  Even still, Vaughn has created a world – and a character– as compelling as either Landis’ or Zevon’s and one that promises a series of books with potential to engage in a way few sequels ever do. 

Wendy’s Question:  Sections of chapters 5 and 8 originally appeared in short stories.  That makes for an interesting story-behind-the-story regarding Kitty and The Midnight Hour’s evolution and road to publication.  However, knowing this made me hyper aware of those chapters: was the tone consistent, were the seams apparent, did they have a place in the story as a whole?  Were you likewise affected?  Did knowing these scenes had a life before this book enter into your reading experience?

HelenKay’s response:  I did know this book arose out of a series of short stories.  I wasn’t sure of the chapters and actually had to go back and review the parts of the books you referred to in the question.  I’m guessing since I had to look, the chapters didn’t hit me as different or out of place at the time.  In hindsight, these chapter relate mostly to the assassination attempt and deal more with the radio calls.  But, I think they fit.  Everything fits.  Vaughn took many subplots and twisted them together.  She did so with an expert hand. While a few seemed superfluous, it all worked for me. 

HelenKay’s Final Thoughts:  Not a romance, but this Kitty’s got bite.  Run and get this one.

Wendy’s Final Thoughts:  Kitty and The Midnight Hour stands out from the pack.

You visit Carrie Vaughn here and purchase this book here or here.