The second in Rachel Grant’s Fiona Carver series, Crash Site is the sequel to 2021’s Dangerous Ground, and it picks up around nine months after the events of the first book. Although the mystery/suspense plot here is self-contained, the central relationship between the two leads was left unresolved at the end of Dangerous Ground, so…
I’ve read more than a few category romances (mostly Harlequin Presents) set in lush, tropical locales. However, many of those books featured Western tourists discovering themselves and finding love in a beautiful, foreign place. In this novel, the fictional island of St. Eustace is where the lead characters live, and they work at a hospital,…
Many AAR reviewers, including me, have been buzzing about the good things coming out of Harlequin lately. I haven’t read a book from the Harlequin Medicals line before, so it seemed like a good time to give one a try. Tina Beckett is a prolific Medical author, and her latest, How to Win the Surgeon’s…
Island Queen is a very good novel about a very extraordinary woman that feels like a return to epic sagas about strong women persevering against the impossible popular in the 1970s – think A Woman of Independent Means or The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. But Island Queen is based on the real life of…
In The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, author Chanel Cleeton shines light on a period in Cuban history many Americans know little to nothing about. Through the eyes of three very different heroines, Cleeton allows us a glimpse into a war-torn Cuba and a New York City poised to take the world by storm. It’s…
I loved Float Plan! This is my first book by Trish Doller and I’m looking forward to reading through her past releases. Anna Beck needs to run away from her life. Less than a year earlier, her fiancé committed suicide and left Anna alone and spinning from the fallout. For the past ten months, she’s…
Find Me in Havana is a difficult book to grade. Startling, original, frank and powerful, it spellbinds and breaks a reader’s heart. The book tells the tale of Estelita Rodriguez, a Cuban actress whose time in the spotlight led to a supporting role in Rio Bravo and a series of Roy Rogers films. Estelita had…
Looking for a damn good, wonderfully steamy, thoughtfully constructed romance? Look no further – here comes Adriana Herrera with her terrific American Sweethearts. Priscilla – Pris – Gutierrez and her best friend since childhood and on and off boyfriend Juan Pablo – J – Campos had always planned to join the police academy together and…
These Ghosts are Family is a spellbinding, beautifully written story about the way generational trauma can harm, form or save a person – and how the ghosts of the past always loom over one’s shoulder. Stanford Solomon is facing down the end of his life with a heavy sense of responsibility. His beloved wife Adele…
In the Carla Kelly tradition of holiday shorts that make you smile, these three sweet short stories (set in the Edwardian Caribbean across Christmas, New Year, and Reyes Magos) are a lovely addition to any holiday romance fan’s library. These are gentle, realistic stories about the holidays of ordinary or even poor historical people; it’s…