When I heard Kristen Callihan was writing a new series, I might have mentally (actually) high-fived myself. When I heard the stories are set in the music world, I was initially wary because I’ve recently been spoiled by excellent books about musicians by Mercy Brown and Erika Kelly, and I worried there wasn’t room in…
Books that create a balance between the familiar and the surprising often rocket to the top of my recommendation list. If a story makes me feel like I have my footing in its world, but also keeps me rapidly turning pages – that book has my allegiance. Take Me Home Tonight is that sort of…
As a musician and opera lover, the story and background to this new novel from Miranda Neville are right up my street. Nineteenth century opera and theatre are things that have long been of particular interest to me, and some of the best things about Secrets of a Soprano are undoubtedly the accuracy and richness…
I always think of Farrah Rochon’s books as being romances about grownups. Her heroes and heroines are together human beings who have reached a good place in their lives and are ready to share that spot with someone special. They may hit some speed bumps on the road to their HEA but they are able…
Don’t fuck anyone in the band.This is rule number one of being in a band, and it’s especially true when you’re the only girl. Which means whatever I’m doing with my guitar player’s face between my legs goes from Oh God, oh yes, oh please at five a.m. to Oh no, oh shit when I…
Brilliant in piano and violin, Chiaki Shinichi aspires to be a conductor, but his career will be limited as long as his fear of travel traps him in Japan. After he breaks with his professor and his girlfriend on the same night, he gets drunk and wakes up in the squalid apartment of his next-door…
Romantic suspense is one of the most “difficult to do well” sub genres in romance. If the romance works the suspense is often weak. If the suspense is fabulous, the romance is often unbelievable. But those of us who like romantic suspense got lucky in 2013. Carolyn Crane published two books in her The Associates…
I find that books are like expensive boxed chocolates—they all look delicious, but there’s really no telling what’s inside each. Some look normal but have hidden inside a strange neon green substance that doesn’t taste all that good. Others hide a caramel or truffle filling that’s just delicious. Faking It was a book of the…
Although Let it Be Me is billed as the fifth in a series of books and features the Forrester family from If I Fall, I don’t think it’s necessary to have read that book or the others in the series in order to enjoy this one – and enjoy it, I did. The heroine of…
There’s a line in Jeannie Lin’s novella, Capturing the Silken Thief, that evokes the effortless, lyrical beauty of her tale. A man – a scholar – and a woman – a musician – meet at night. Ms. Lin writes, “The moon was high and round, with that faint harvest gleam that marked it as a…