The Maiden’s Revenge offers two bigger-than-life characters, an overdose of lust, and a modicum of action as pirate meets merchant, neither ever to be the same again. Although the book is competently written and possesses an intriguing story concept, the characters lack the multi-dimensional quality that lends life and appeal, and the action bogs down…
I’ve always said that a good writer can pull anything off, but some plots are harder to swing than others. One of the very hardest is the “wild child” story where one of the two main characters has been raised in a “primitive” culture. This goes double when the country of origin is imaginary. All…
Either Johanna Lindsey has changed her style of writing since 1978 or I’ve grown as a reader since the early 1990’s when I began to read her books. It’s got to be one or the other, or there would be no other explanation for why I’ve enjoyed some of her later books, in particular, Prisoner…
Check out this cover. The man with the pirate bandana on his head looks exactly like David Duchovny. He is staring up at the breasts of a woman who is bound to the mast of a ship with her arms stretched up over her head. She has a very smug look on her face. This…
Every once in a while you come across a book where the hero and heroine are brave and gorgeous but somehow you don’t quite believe in them. That’s the way My One And Only hit me. The hero and heroine should have been compelling but are not, perhaps because neither one is completely convincing. The…
Geralyn Dawson’s latest offering, Simmer All Night, is a wonderful concoction of Texas swagger and English sensibilities, with much of her trademark humor to warm up a chilly winter day. The book opens when Cole Morgan finds out that one Christina Elizabeth Delaney has just been crowned Queen of the Chili Queens of San Antonio….
On December 31, 1999, I watched the New Year celebration that took place on the Mall in Washington, DC. One of the highlights of that event was a beautiful 20-minute chronicle of the most turbulent and jubilant times in U.S. History. I consider Eva Rutland’s latest novel to be almost as worthy a chronicle of…
If you have ever found yourself wondering just what purple prose looks like in a novel, look no further. This books has all that more. You will find yourself in the midst of flashing orbs, rampaging lusts, and tenebrous – yes, tenebrous – gloom. The moon does not merely rise in the sky, it appears…
Anthologies have always been a mixed bag for me, and Christmas Kisses was no exception. There was a fairly good story, a terrible one, and one that nearly knocked it out of the park for me.
There have been authors and readers who have suggested that we at AAR should only write nice things about the novels we read. I have a few nice things to say about Whisper Always: The hero became almost likable during the final third of the book. It takes place during the Victorian times – a…