I had pretty high hopes for this Madeline Hunter book since I’d read and enjoyed her medieval romances. Additionally, the back cover alluded to a buttoned-up hero – one my favorite kinds. However, The Saint had a lot of my not-so-favorite elements of romance, and those elements added up to a rather mediocre reading experience….
While Diary Of A Blues Goddess features many standard plot devices, it also boasts a freshness of writing and spirit that makes it a fast, fun, and breezy read. That it features a heroine who is likable even when making mistakes speaks to author Erica Orloff’s ability to write a good story. Georgia Ray Miller…
I’ve wavered several times on what grade to give this book. It’s a quick and easy read with a likable heroine but the content is depressing and I’m not sure there’s enough substance to make it worth its hardcover price. Bess Stallone (no relation to Sylvester) is our narrator and heroine. She is a working…
Kathleen Gilles Seidel is amazing. Why she is not better known and more widely read is a complete mystery. Her books are masterpieces of characterization and storytelling, filled with clever observations and the flavor of real life. Till the Stars Fall is my favorite book by her yet. It showcases all of her considerable talent…
The Nightingale’s Song is author Kathleen Eschenburg’s debut book, and as debuts go it is quite encouraging. Taken as a whole, though, it’s no more than average; the pacing is off, especially in the first half of the book, and the hero and heroine engage in some aggravating behavior towards the end. Still, there are…
After a hellish marriage that ended three years earlier, Leone Weathers has come into her own as the owner of Soul to Soul, a successful jazz nightclub. Her teenage daughter, Raven, has weathered the divorce and is doing well despite her absentee father. Cole Fleming, Leone’s bandleader and club manager, has filled those shoes admirably…
When Venus Fell is one of the best books I’ve read all year. Venus Arinelli, former child prodigy and concert pianist, now plays in dives all around the country, lives in an RV and avoids the government. She also protects her fragile sister Ella. Venus distrusts the government because her father felt that it had…
Eddie Berlin is a tortured hero with a difference. Haunted by the past, he drinks too much, he meets with prostitutes in a neglected farmhouse, and he is agoraphobic (agoraphobia is literally fear of the marketplace). Yet he is also sensitive and quietly heroic. Maddie Smith, the product of a dysfunctional upbringing, is the perfect…