Shadows of the Heart by Tracy Grant

After reading Tracy Grant's Shores of Desire last year, I started looking for the sequel (which is surprisingly hard to find). Unfortunately, in the six months since I read the first book, I'd forgotten a lot, but I still enjoyed the sequel. (Oddly enough, this book was published first, although it clearly takes place after Shores of Desire.)

Shadows of the Heart by Tracy Grant
(1996, Regency Historical) 4/27/09
Grade: 4

After Sophie is attacked in an alley, she is rescued by Paul Lescaut. But she can’t remember who she is, or why she was attacked - or even why she’s pregnant. Paul has his own secrets, but he never imagined how closely he was bound to Sophie, and how their lives would become intertwined as they tried to escape their common enemies.

An exciting and compelling read. Although suspense and road romances aren’t my favorites (and this is a bit of both), the author keeps the book moving, and kept me turning the pages. The hero and heroine were both very well drawn and unique, and even the secondary characters stood out and weren’t just stock figures. (I was a little confused by references to the earlier book, which I read a few months ago but didn’t remember in detail, but it wasn’t a major issue.) The storyline did seem to pile one thing on top of another on top of another, and it became too convoluted near the end. But still, I kept reading because I wanted to know what would happen to Sophie and Paul. The author made me believe that these characters would work together despite their differences, even though the focus was often more on the mystery than the relationship.

What happened to Tracy Grant? She got tremendous buzz after The Daughter of the Game and the sequel, but the next two books in the series have been "coming soon" for years. Hmm, looking at her web site, it seems that she doesn't have a contract. Sacre bleu!

The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed

Given my ambivalence about super-sexy books, I was surprised to buy a book from Ellora's Cave. But if you're going to write a book about a male escort, it makes sense to have a lot of sex scenes - I was hoping they would fit with the characters, more than they do in a lot of other erotic books.

The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed
(2005, Contemporary) 4/20/09
Grade: 4

Billie is hoping to write a story about the notorious private club Avalon, where male escorts provide everything for wealthy female clients. But once she meets the mysterious Adrian, she wants to know more, and she can’t give up until she discovers the man behind the facade.

This book was most notable for its hero, Adrian. The author shows how his work has changed the way he thinks and acts, and his struggle to make sex more than just a meaningless job. At first, the book seemed too focused on sex (it made sense for the hero, but there were times when it seemed odd that the characters would have sex so often, when Adrian was trying to learn to relate on a non-sexual level.) The main weakness of the book was the heroine. She felt very “Mary Sue” - she’s not well rounded as a character, and her main role seemed to be to explain how great Adrian is. Because of that, I never really bought their great romance. But I had to give this book a slightly higher grade because the hero was so unique, and that made the book memorable, despite the weak heroine.

This is a book that I actually bought twice - once in ebook format, and then, when I found it too difficult to read as an ebook, I bought it (for full price!) in paperback form. Of course, it's now selling used for a couple of dollars on Amazon. For the amount of money I spent on it, its too bad it wasn't better.

The Holly and the Ivy by Elisabeth Fairchild

An odd time of year to read a Christmas book, but it jumped out at me when I was scanning my TBR shelves.

The Holly and the Ivy by Elisabeth Fairchild
(1999, Regency) 4/5/09
Grade: 4

Lord Balfour is known for being cold and especially for hating Christmas, but when he meets his charming neighbors, Mary Rivers and her elderly Gran, he begins to discover the Christmas spirit. But is he willing to take a chance and step outside his loneliness to find an unconventional love?

This was a charming and surprisingly dark book. The hero has just lost his servant Temple, who was closer to him than his parents, and his moments of grief are very moving. (Not many books have the hero and heroine bonding at a funeral warehouse.) The characters are revealed in small ways - I didn’t realize until the heroine pointed it out that the hero thinks her as “Merry” in his passages, while she’s “Mary” in hers. There are several scenes where you see how each of the characters see the same events in a different way, and it’s very well done. That made the “big misunderstanding” that comes up about halfway through the book especially frustrating. It made sense, but it seemed like a trite conflict for such delicately drawn characters, and made the rest of the book feel rushed (especially the hero’s revelation that he’s the product of an affair). The book was still satisfying, but it didn’t quite live up to the promise of the first section of the book.

As far as I can tell, Elisabeth Fairchild is no longer writing. How sad! She has a unique voice that gave her Regencies a surprising depth.