Two Hanukkah Tales

Yesterday two review sites featured my reviews.  Today The Romance Reviews is featuring two of my reviews of Hanukkah stories.  Both are by Dreamspinner Press, and I'm still trying to figure out why these stories are included in Dreamspinner's Advent Calendar.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Advent is a purely Christian concept.  So why are Jewish holiday stories included?  Or why isn't the Advent Calendar called something like the Holiday Calendar?

Anyway, the two novellas that I review on the TRR site are both nice, "awwww"-inspiring tales.

In Bashert by Gale Stanley, a Jewish Penn State freshman is having religious doubts and meets up with a Jewish grad student who celebrates Hanukkah with him.  The word bashert translates as "destiny" or "soul mate" which I think is a little presumptuous for this particular story.  Just because two people click for eight days doesn't mean they're destined for each other.  I don't think because someone is Jewish (or Roman Catholic, or Southern Baptist, or any other religion for that matter), he will automatically become a soul mate of a person who practices that same religion.  Isn't more necessary to make someone a soul mate?  My answer's yes.

In Another Life by Cardeno C., on the other hand, is a strange riff on It's a Wonderful Life.  Instead of seeing what life would be like if he weren't born, the Jewish 18-year-old who is committing suicide sees what life would be like if he lived.  Hanukkah is mentioned in the story, but isn't a focal point like it is in Bashert, so calling this a holiday novella is stretching the point as far as it'll go.

But the author's use of humor in an otherwise grim tale makes the story likable.  As holiday stories go, however, it falls very short, making me wonder why it was included in the Advent Calendar.

Best of the Blacktop Series

I really enjoy Lorelei James' Blacktop Cowboy series, mostly because the cowboys in it ring true.  I'm indirectly related to cowboys on a working ranch in Dime Box, Texas, and the handful of men and women who work on the ranch whom I've met line up perfectly with the hardworking, rough and tumble group James features in her books.

Her latest, Turn and Burn, however, is a cut above the rest since the main character is an award-winning rodeo barrel racer whose last competition resulted in multiple injuries for herself and even worse the death of her horse.  To city people this might not mean much, but since Tanna had traveled the rodeo circuit with her horse as her only constant companion, having to put down the horse was like having to kill a close friend.

While the book has James' signature steamy sex and a one-night stand that morphs into true love, the larger story is how this tough woman rider manages to overcome her fear of horses and get back in the saddle again.  The road is long, and it isn't pretty, which makes for an excellent ride on the reader's part.

As a reviewer, I'm happy to see such a strong series coming together in equally strong books.  And as a lover of Western romances, I'm ecstatic to see James perform at her personal best.  If there were belt buckles for authors, James certainly deserves one with this book.

Trying to Heal while in College? Not Happening for Me

Having taught at a junior college for many years, I've watched college students come and go.  Most of them have baggage, some heavier than others, but all burdened by something.  Stress is usually at the top of the heap, but often the stress is compounded by some other bits of baggage that the students struggle with as well as cope with their homework and labs.

In Left Drowning, author Jessica Park pours on the baggage and then wants readers to know that the teens with heavy emotional scars are still passing their classes, turning in their homework, and generally being successful students.  And as a former English composition instructor, I'm not buying it.

Understandably, Blythe, the main character, has emotional scars from surviving the fire that killed her parents.  Compounding that, Blythe feels guilty for ruining her brother's sports career because she dragged him out of the burning building over a piece of glass that impaired his leg.  All of that I can understand.

What I don't believe is that the reclusive Blythe, who hasn't gotten any help from extended family or friends, is still passing her classes.  In my experience, even students with less baggage than Blythe fail their classes and need help before they can concentrate enough to become successful.

That a group of equally scarred students bring her into their group is no surprise.  But that they all turn out to be successful students is.

I wish this fairytale were true.  But my experience is that it's just a fairytale, and these college students might just as well wait for their pumpkins to turn into coaches as to believe that angst equals passing grades.

Disappointing Tucker Springs Addition

I couldn't wait for the next Tucker Springs gay romance since all of the other ones I've read I absolutely loved.  Who could forget the spirited religion debates in Covet Thy Neighbor?  Or the way the atheist in that book counseled the forlorn teen?

Or how about the engrossed entomology grad student in Dirty Laundry befriended the hunky, thug-like bouncer at the gay club?  And how the divide in brain power was only a superficial hang-up that once overcome became a non-issue?

Unfortunately, After the Fall while a nice enough story just doesn't live up to its predecessors.  I hope this isn't a trend in the Tucker Springs stories.  It would be a shame to see a series with so much promise just wither away.

Goode Is Great

The more books I read by John Goode, the more I enjoy his writing style and his adept depth in writing gay romances.  In Taking Chances, his latest, he's commenting on love in general, not just in love in one particular case.  He's also making a statement about whom one decides to befriend.

We all have destructive friends, and Matt and Tyler seem to be relying on exactly the wrong people for advice.  One of the many facets of this wonderful novel is the struggle both the guys must go through in order to realize how their so-called friends are holding them down and are making their lives miserable.

Recognizing and then breaking the bonds of what seems to be supportive friendship, however, is only a tiny part of a story that applies to both hetero and homosexual relationships.  And it's only a tiny reason for readers to enjoy the book.

Cloyingly Sweet Young Thing/Thang

The thang, uh, thing about Anne Tennino's Theta Alpha Gamma gay romance series is that it has such promise.  However, I was dubious about Sweet Young Thang from the get-go, even before I read it for these reasons:

The cover art: Was it the purple underwear, the guy's meh look, or the Polaroid-looking print in what seems to be a girl's hand?  Since the blurb about the book talks about gays and bisexuals in the TAG house, bombs, exploding water heaters, paramedics, and househusbands, I was having trouble reconciling a cover with purple undies and photography.  All very strange.

The title: The twangy title didn't help any in making me feel like this sequel was going to live up to its predecessor.  In fact, written across the guy's back like it is, the words have sort of a predator feel about them.  It's like the guy's been caught peeing in the woods and the wolf has crept up behind him trying to alleviate his terror by calling him a sweet young bite to eat.

So going into this book, I had misgivings.  You can read my review this weekend or anytime at AAR.

The Story Runs Through It

Sometimes the stories in one novel intertwine and twist like strands of hair in a complicated plait.  Jodi Thomas' Harmony, Texas, romances are like that.  Although there are one or two main strands, there are numerous peripheral strands that make the whole beautiful.

My review of Chance of a Lifetime went live today at AAR.  The story of why someone would want to kill a small town lawyer and why a U. S. Marshall would get involved spins around the story of an ill-fated pair whose love doesn't die with time, but who must overcome guilt to come together.

Thomas always raises the bar for rural romances with each Harmony book she writes.

In Love with a Movie Star

I read Tina Reber's Love Unscripted first when it was just available in e-book form.  I remember it being much tighter and not as nuanced as the book I reviewed for AAR.  That being said, I must add that either version of the book is very good.  My only quibble with it was what Ryan saw in Taryn other than the comfort factor.

I wanted to see more information on why Ryan loved this woman who comes across as remarkably bland.  Just because her bar is a haven and she seems "normal" to him, is that enough for a lasting relationship?  I don't know.  Do mega-stars look for mates who will ground them?  Is that what everyone is actually looking for in someone to spend a lifetime with?

That's not to say there isn't sex in this book.  There is.  But considering that part of what Ryan does for a living is creating sex scenes with hot co-stars, Reber seems to understand that sex isn't enough and portrays that, unlike other contemporary romances these days.

I still wonder, however, what the glue that binds Ryan to Taryn is.  Is "normal" (in this case, slightly boring) enough?

Fight, Bicker, Love

I've never been a fan of romances in which the couple bicker and fight their way to "love."  Love, to me, is a much more peaceful emotion, not one in which the participants must be combatants.  Obviously, this isn't true of other readers.  Some like the barbed by-play followed by bedroom moments. 

For those who do, Kate Angell's No Tan Lines, which is reviewed on AAR today, might be a keeper.  I gave it a low B grade because Angell's a slick writer, who's easy to read.  It's not until I stopped to review the book and had to come up with a plot synopsis that I realized how much of the book was sniping and angling by the couple.

Seems to me that there's enough sniping and angling in the day-to-day world that there should be a respite somewhere.  To my mind, love is kinder and gentler.  If it isn't and physical chemistry is the only thing the couple has going, is it really love?  Or is it just sex?

Fortunately, the couple in Angell's book share so many other traits that believing that they are in love isn't difficult.  What strains credulity is their attraction in the first place.

Honey, Does This Make Me Look Fat?

Erotica seems to be branching out these days.  In the far-ago past when I first read erotica stories and novels, they were wall-to-wall sex scenes with very little binding them together.  In fact, they were what I imagine early porn movies were like: no characters, only body parts.

My review of Heavy Issues by Elle Aycart went live on AAR this morning, and as I say in the review, this is a good erotica novel for contemporary romance readers who've toyed with venturing into the erotica pool.  There are real characters and real issues in this book as well as sex, sex, sex.  Aycart is good at writing steamy scenes and personal angst, which is a real feat.

Heavy Issues is a slender book that could have been fleshed out (sorry for the pun!) to make it a viable contemporary romance.  Just a few more scenes between Cole and Christy is all I ask!

Can Buy Me Love

I gave a starred review rating for Molly O'Keefe's latest Can't Buy Me Love in Booklist a while back.  Now LinnieGayle weighs in with her take on the book.  While she didn't agree with my A grade, she did give it a stellar B+ which makes us quibble just a hair.

LG does agree that when an author can turn an unlikeable character into a likable one that the author is doing quite a feat.  To turn two such characters like O'Keefe does into likable, sympathetic ones is the hallmark of a wonderful writer, someone readers should watch.

The cover, however, is another matter since that's definitely not the body of a 30-something ice hockey player who was fabulously talented but is at the end of his career.

Let Me Pick That Out for You

Not to take anything away from automated referral systems, but I'm still trying to get my mind around services like E-Harmony and Rhapsody that take something I like and then tell me what else I will like.  Most of the time with the music services, I feel like my choices are hemming me into a small box.  Often having the same suggestions made over and over annoy me to the point of wanting to shake the service in order to get a better match.  (I haven't tried e-Harmony since I've been married 40 years and so far haven't needed to try it.)

So I was pleasantly surprised when Amazon made a suggestion for an author unfamiliar to me and I actually loved the book.  My review for About Last Night by Ruthie Knox is on AAR today.  My skepticism about electronic recommendations is lessened by this very enjoyable book.

I'm Persuaded

My review of Persuasion: A Latter Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison went live on AAR today.  I was prepared to bash the book because it's a contemporary retelling of Austen's Persuasion, only set in a Mormon community in Northern Virginia.

Instead, it turned out to be quite clever and enjoyable, proving once again that I should never start a book with a preconceived notion.  I seem to be proved wrong almost every time.
I even love the cover of the book.  Go figure!

Vacation to Virgin River

My review of Robyn Carr's latest, Sunrise Point, is running this weekend on AAR, my birthday weekend, which makes the book doubly special to me.  Sunrise is Tom Cavanaugh's story, the Tom who was featured in the book right before this one, Redwood Bend, about biker and former child star Dylan.

While I can't sit up long enough to write a lot about Sunrise, I did want to mention how wonderful it was to take a break from recovering from surgery to take a virtual vacation to Virgin River.  Tom and Nora's story helped smooth the time between pain pills and will do much, much more for readers who don't need pain relief.  'Nuf said.

What's Up with Maine

Suddenly it seems every contemporary I read these days is set in Maine.  The latest, Janet Chapman's Spellbound Falls, reviewed on AAR today, which I've put in my Desert Island Keeper pile, makes Maine seem a mystical place with delightful, down-home people.  While I only know one Maine couple, Jackie and John Tiere, Chapman would recognize them as typical Mainers (Maineites?).

I think of people in Maine akin to people from Nebraska where I grew up.  Nebraskans of my era are practical, hard-working folk.  But there is a streak of the other world in them, a streak of fantasy that helps pass the dull, cold winters--especially that stretch from the end of the football season (Go Huskers!) to the onset of spring in mid- to late May.

Since Spellbound takes place during that pseudo-springtime when the frozen lakes are starting to melt but no crocuses have hatched, the world is ripe for romance and surprises.

And isn't the cover of the book lovely?  I'd like to visit for that picture alone!

A Writer Writes about Love

Okay, I'll freely admit it:  I love Lisa Kleypas' writing.  I think I first fell in love with it when I read Suddenly You, which to this day is one of my top 10 favorite romances.  Kleypas doesn't make life easy for her lovers, and often bringing them together comes a little too close to real life.  Jack in Suddenly You isn't always the nicest of guys, but when he falls, he falls hard and will do anything for the one/s he loves.

But Jack is purely Regency as were all the other books I'd read.  So I was surprised when Kleypas ventured into contemporary country.  Sometimes authors who go from one to the other show facility in one but become clunky in the other.  Not Kleypas.  Sugar Daddy begat Blue-Eyed Devil, and while neither is an easy book, both are beautifully written and worthwhile reading.

Now comes Rainshadow Road, which I reviewed for AAR.  Kleypas adds a bit of magical realism that enriches the story and makes what might have been just another women's romance tale about an idyllic small town a memorable waltz between two people who discover that love is a mystical binding agent.

Sam from Rainshadow is my newest Jack. 

Past Love Emerges

My review of On Lavender Lane by JoAnn Ross is posted on AAR today.  My husband and I just got back from a mini-vacation to the northern California redwoods and coast, and I was reminded of the rugged coastal conditions when I read this book.

I was also reminded of the proliferation of cooks and upscale eateries.  We stayed at Raymond's Bakery which not only is an eating place but also has a few cabins on the grounds.  Mark and Elizabeth, we hear, are wonderful hosts, but I don't think they were expecting us.

A redwood branch had just fallen on the bakery, so it was closed until the beginning of March 2012.  Consequently, Mark was really focused on getting it back on its feet.  This was fine with us since we'd gotten away not to make new friends but to be alone.

All of this--the redwood damage and the wind-swept loneliness of the beach--reminded me of On Lavender Lane, not because of anything overt, but just because of the mood of the book.  If long stretches of beach and time to reflect are your cup of tea (and the fantastic Mr. Trumbleys Tea Shop is near Raymond's), then give On Lavender Lane a try.

Off on a Tangent

One of the nice things (among many nice things) about reviewing for AAR is the ability to go off on a tangent now and again with the daily blog or the daily After Hours blog.  Today I roll with the lie I used to tell myself about what kind of romances I prefer.

I do read a lot of Western romances, both historical and contemporary, as well as series and contemporary romances.  On my personal Top 100 book list are a smattering of everything as the top 10 books illustrate:

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: classic
2. Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh: Regency
3. The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh: Regency
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: time-travel / fantasy
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: classic
6. Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas: Regency
7. The More I See You by Lynn Kurland: time-travel / Medieval
8. The Older Woman by Cheryl Reavis: contemporary
9. She's Got It Bad by Sarah Mayberry: contemporary
10. A Reason to Live by Maureen McKade: Post Civil War America

So no one type of romance really rules, which I hadn't realized until I sat down and looked at my list.

Just in Time for Valentine's Day

My review of Emma Cane's A Town Called Valentine was posted on the AAR site yesterday, and is there today as well.

Shortly after my husband I got married in Texas, we moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado, near the town of Loveland, which is where the Valentines cancellation stamp originates each year.  Cane's fictional Valentine, Colorado, sounds like it could partly be Loveland, but moved into the mountains close to Aspen instead of on the Front Range like Loveland is.

This is a light, happy romance with a minimal amount of angst.  I didn't appreciate that fully at the time I read it, but I do now that I've just finished reading Sasha Campbell's Scandals and Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster, both of which are so angst-ridden.  I'll definitely be more appreciative of light romances in the future.

5 Reviewed in Booklist's latest

The November 1, 2011, issue of Booklist carries a whopping five of my reviews:

* Demons Like It Hot by Sidney Ayers, a sequel to her Demons Prefer Blondes that I reviewed for the June 2011 edition of Booklist.  Book two follows closely on the heels of book one, so it's more of a squeekquel.

* Silver Sparks by Starr Ambrose, a cautionary tale about taking on the popular press and one of its icons.  This one asks the question, "What's truth go to do with it?"

* A Place Called Home by Jo Goodman that I read and wrote the review in August, but the publication date got pushed back until December.  It's been so long ago that I had to read the review to remember what the book was about.

* The Heart of a Killer by Jaci Burton, which is a cautionary tale about childhood love and trust.  I thought another character would have made a better killer, but the one Burton picks isn't totally unbelievable.

* Briar Patch by Linda Sole, which is melodrama writ large.  I couldn't believe what glowing reviews her other books have gotten.  This one was pure soap opera.