The Strong Silent Type -- Yippee!

After suffering through Emma Lang's Matthew, I'm not sure why I picked Brody to review.  But I'm sure glad I did!

Brody would be a real trial for any woman since he doesn't speak much and when he does he's pretty much barking orders that he expects to be obeyed immediately.  Getting him to treat a woman better than a dog would be a challenge.

Fortunately, tough as nails Olivia is up to the task.  She has none of the girly wiles that Brody has seen used over and over again.  Olivia will never want a piano in her parlour unless she plays the piano and enjoys it.  She will never ask Brody to do something impossible to prove that he loves her.  She's practical and down-to-earth, just what's needed in the Wild West.

Reading how these two get together was a joy that I'm really happy to pass along in my AAR review today.  I just hope the rest of Emma Lang's books live up to this one.

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.

Holding the Bag

One of the more interesting, but underplayed parts of With This Kiss by Bella Riley (reviewed today on AAR) is that the real villain of the piece is Stu, the fiance who is found kissing his best friend by the bride-to-be.  Instead of manning up, Stu decamps with his best friend, leaving Rebecca not only to tell everyone the wedding is off but also to run the inn he owns and to pull off the festival he's organizing.

What a stellar fellow!

Since Rebecca was feeling that she and Stu weren't a match made in heaven, breaking off the wedding is the best thing to happen.  But to leave her with the rest of the responsibilities without a word is downright ugly.  This being fiction, Rebecca mans up.  But still, if Riley is planning a book around Stu, there's no way I'll ever read it.  Dumping on a friend like that makes him not worth the time or trouble, as far as I'm concerned.

Trust Fund Baby and Yes Man?

I'm still uneasy about Kristen Higgins' Somebody to Love even though I gave it a B grade on AAR.  Trust fund baby Parker was just so resentful of her father's right hand man, James, and was so hatefully snarky when she referred to him has "Thing One," that it was often stretched believability almost to the breaking point that they would happily get together.

I knew going in that Higgins isn't an easy writer to read.  She's like Delilah Marvelle, whose book Forever a Lady, I just read for Booklist.  Neither of them sticks to the romance ruts, so sometimes their books become messy or odd or too much to take.

But what's the point of reading the same formula over and over again?  Isn't it better to read something that might not quite work, but gives the reader an interesting ride?  My gut says yes.  The same old same old gets wearisome otherwise.

Thank you, Kristen Higgins, for taking chances and going upstream. Somebody to Love was an interesting ride.

Finishing Texas Blue and Starting Rebel with a Cause

Fortunately, Texas Blue is living up to my expectations.  In fact, I will probably end up buying it for my Kindle and making it one of my Desert Island favorites.  Author Jodi Thomas has written a nice juxtaposiion between a gambler and a woman wary of men, and has added a nice subplot with a lawyer/Texas Ranger and an abused native Mexican woman.  With about 50 pages to go, I still have high hopes for this book.

I've gotten a little over 40 pages into Rebel with a Cause and am already dismayed.  My likes for romances are so minimal: two people who are decent, likeable characters and a love story I can buy.  So far Mr. Hero isn't too likeable, so I'm getting leery about liking this one.  Really, it's difficult to wish jerks well.  But things could change.  He may be prickly and rude for a reason - but it better be a pretty good reason for me to buy his lack of manners and haughty attitude.