New to the Review Book Book Stack

Received two envelopes of books in the last couple of days, one from AAR and one from Booklist.  AAR sent along Leah and the Bounty Hunter by Elaine Levine, Healing Autumn's Heart by Renee Andrews, and Belonging by Robin Hatcher.  Having read the previous Levine books, I'm really forward to reading her newest.  The other two are new authors for me, so I'm hoping the best for both of them.

From Booklist are Virtual Virgin by Carole Nelson Douglas, The Heart of a Killer by Jaci Burton, and Baby, It's Cold Outside by Addison Fox.  Of this group, I only know Douglas whose Midnight Louie books I'd reviewed as a mystery fiction reviewer for PW.  I'm hoping her paranormal investigator series doesn't have a cute kitty attached to it.

Submitting my Booklist review should be interesting.  I "attended" the webinar on how to submit reviews to their system this week.  Now we'll see how much I actually learned!  It all sounded very easy and straight forward.  I just hope that's true.  Fingers crossed on this one.

Creed Review Goes Online

AAR posted The Creed Legacy review today.   I remember watching the YouTube video preview of this book and the Making Of... video and being blown away by Buck, the Australian model playing the Creed cousin, who thought the story was cool.  However, the best part of the second Making Of... video, for me, was listening to the model in the cover at the right talking about how he gets into "character" for the shoot.

They did get it right that he looks like he's dressed to be a rancher!  He has his shirt on and his waistband isn't riding right above his pubic hairs.  The cover manager is certainly breaking new ground in the world of cover art!

Two More to AAR

On Friday before the big storm in the Northeast, I sent my AAR editor two reviews:

The Creed Legacy by Linda Lael Miller was a real surprise since I didn't much care for Brody, the love interest, in the previous Creed books, A Creed in Stone Creek and Cree'd Honor.  That got me to thinking about redemption for the bad boys in romance novels.  Are there any bad boys that are just too bad to be turned around?  I thought so while reading one of Anne Stuart's latest, but being the veteran she is, she managed to make me change my mind about the reprobate.

Give Me a Texas Outlaw by Jodi Thomas, Linda Broday, Phylliss Miranda, and DeWanna Pace.  One good thing about anthologies is getting to test drive authors without having to buy a novel that I can't finish reading.  The best part, however, is finding authors whose work is new to me and whom I am excited to read.  I found two authors in this anthology that I want to read their backlist.

Another Review Up on AAR (www.likesbooks.com)

The review of Redeeming the Rogue by C. J. Chase is featured today on AAR.  One of my gripes about the book is its title which is far from true if the rogue in question is the male protagonist.  Poor Kit, having served his country well as a spy, is beatin himself up for doing a good job.  Spying, after all, requires lying and cameleon-like behavior.  That his boss didn't commend him in a way that he felt proud to have done the job he was hired and trained to do is a failing on the boss' part, not Kit's. 

Even though the book his Christian underpinnings, it's one that can be enjoyed by those who aren't usually attracted to books with overtly religious sentiments.

Onward to today's task:  writing a review of Miller's The Creed Legacy.  Brody Creed, the Creed in question in this third book, unlike Kit has no problems about taking credit where credit is due.  He's a rodeo champion and is proud of his past accomplishments even though he's embarking on a new career.  I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, Kit being a guy who's full of himself and all.  In fact, it's definitely going in my DIK pile.  Like they say, review to come!

Review Available at AAR Today

My review of Cheri on Top by Susan Donovan runs today and then goes into the archives tomorrow.  It's the contemporary saga of a woman trying to reconnect with her roots after being hit really hard by the real estate downturn in Florida.  While much of it is over the top, the characters are entertaining and the background of a small town newspaper was a hit for me because I started working in a newsroom.

I'm currently reading Linda Lael Miller's The Creed Legacy to review for AAR.  It's the third in the western Creed series and features Brody who was the good-time, non-serious Creed in the previous books, so I wasn't sure when I began reading the book if I'd like him at all.  I'm about halfway through reading it now, so I still haven't really made up my mind.

Three Reviews Sent to Booklist Today

Sent the following reviews to my Booklist editor:

The Spy Who Left Me by Gina Robinson:  Chick lit meets James Bond.  Not really my cup of tea, but interesting enough.  This is definitely one of those books where a reviewer must pretend to be another reader in order to do the book justice in the review.

Hot Zone by Catherine Mann:  A good beach read about para-rescue-men in the Bahamas.  The story won't do anything for tourism there, but Hugh Franco and his captain were interesting characters.  Kick-ass Amelia, however, exceeded the price of admission.  And fortunately even though a toddler was one of the characters, he wasn't cloyingly cute, but kept mostly in the background.

Wild Thing by Robin Kaye:  This was an odd one since the hero, who was awfully metro-male for being a rugged outdoorsman and wilderness guide, immediately fell in love with a Goth New Yorker, which took a while to reconcile.  But after Toni got her moxie back and stopped being afraid of abandonment in the wilderness--something that wouldn't happen since her company had paid so much for Hunter's services--the book picked up quite a bit.

Not So Good Book Reviewed Today

My review of Teresa Southwick's To Have the Doctor's Baby went live on AAR today.  At AAR reviewers get to request books to read.  I'm not sure why I requested this book.  What about the premise -- a woman asking her ex-husband to impregnate her -- seemed appealing to me?  Maybe I just wanted to see how an author would handle the premise.  Whatever my reasoning, the results were disastrous.  Is it better to review these books or just leave a void in the review world?

One Out and Four Received

Turned in a review of To Have the Doctor's Baby by Teresa Southwick this morning to AAR.  I really had high hopes for this one: A medical fundraiser, after an amicable divorce, asks her ex to have sex with her so that she can become a mother.  I was hoping this would be about what motherhood and fatherhood were really all about and how these two went from self-absorbed singles to become a caring couple.  But, no.  Hope was dashed.

My Booklist editor sent me four galleys:  The Spy Who Left Me by Gina Robinson, Wild Thing by Robin Kaye, Hot Zone by Catherine Mann, and A Soft Place to Fall by Betsy Rogers.  None of the authors' names ring a bell, which is kind of exciting.  When I get an author I've never read before, I always go into the book hoping for the best.  Wouldn't it be really exciting to find a top-notch writer who is waiting to be discovered?  Almost like opening an ordinary-looking box and finding the world's finest chocolates!

3 Reviews Submitted to Booklist

My reviews of A Place Called Home (poignant), Riptide (action-packed), and The Great Betrayal (quirky), all releasing in September and October, were emailed to my Booklist editor last night.

Now I'm reviewing Mr. Darcy's Bite for Booklist and To Have the Doctor's Baby for AAR.  The premise for Mr. Darcy is that the Pride and Prejudice hero was turned into a werewolf at age fourteen and this little hiccup in the world of literature explains some of Mr. D's odd behavior in the Austen novel.  Very interesting, and surprisingly, not badly written.  The doctor in the second book has commitment issues, and his former wife asks for a parting gift -- a baby.  This one hearkens back to the old days of Harlequin books.  And I'd thought we'd moved on from there!