Falling Star by Olivia Brynn

Two books in one day! This one is really short, though.

Falling Star by Olivia Brynn
(2009, Contemporary) 7/31/10
Grade: 3.5

Country music star Adam Nash is pleased when he meets a sexy florist who doesn’t recognize him. After the drunken binges and supermodels, he’s ready to grow up, and Jade could be the part of his new life. But will she still want him when she finds out the life he leads, full of tours and photographers and celebrity?

I’m a sucker for rock star heroes (or in this case, country star), but you rarely find them in mainstream romances. So I splurged and bought this one despite the outrageous price to get it in print. Unfortunately, it was more like a short story - and a VERY short story if you left out the sex scenes. Not that I mind sex scenes, but they were a major focus of the book, and I wanted more romance, more character development, more everything. It was a nice story but it ended just as things were getting interesting. It seemed like a waste when the author spent so much time building up these characters and their world, which was quite well written and had the potential for a lot more story.

I know a lot of romance readers don't like books with "celebrity" heroes and heroines, and don't think they can have happy endings, but we accept a lot of other improbable things, so why not a faithful musician? (They must exist somewhere.) I only see them every now and then in ebooks, which I don't mind too much except that there's a rule somewhere that says ebooks must have sex scenes every 5 pages. Not that appealing to me.

Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner

This book has been sitting on my nightstand since I won it in a Dear Author giveaway earlier this year. I started it but got bogged down in the first few chapters. But I'm glad I finally got back to it - it wasn't perfect but definitely worth reading and a refreshing change from the usual historical settings.

Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner
(2010, Western) 7/31/10
Grade: 4

Jessica Thornton has fled England, pregnant and desperate to escape a brother-in-law who wants her dead. But when her stagecoach crashes, she has to depend on Brady Wilkins, a ranch owner with a dark past of his own. On a ranch in New Mexico, she finds a new life and a new strength within herself - but will Brady put the past behind and join her?

I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was full of emotion and vivid characters. After a slow beginning with far too much plot exposition, the book took hold and the story was compelling. On the other hand, it was a bit like a soap opera, with one terrible thing after another after another. There are over-the-top evil villains, violence, death, fires, rape, torture - the tragedies just keep piling up. (Even the dog isn’t safe!) After a while it was exhausting. When the book slowed down and focused on the hero and heroine, it was well worth reading, but sometimes it was hard to find them among all the melodrama. Still, I will look for her next book and hope that the overstuffed plot was just the overenthusiasm of a first time author.

It's so nice to see a Western again, even though this one had a little too much violence and torture for my taste. I seem to be reading a lot of violent books lately, between Carla Kelly's war books and this one. I think I need a nice genteel Regency to cleanse the palate.

Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

I decided to finish out the trilogy with the most recent Carla Kelly book.

Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly
(2010, Regency) 7/30/10
Grade: 3.5

After a lonely childhood in an orphanage, Polly Brandon leaves for Portugal to live with her sister. On the trip over, she meets gallant marine colonel Hugh Junot. But he is sure he’s too old for her. But when the chaos of war leaves them in the hands of the French, they have to work together to survive, and they both see the other in a new light.

Not a very good description, but it’s hard to describe the plot in just a few lines. I was really excited by this book at first. I liked the characters, and the background of the war in Portugal and the struggles of the female victims of the French reminded me of One Good Turn, one of my favorite Kelly books. It was a little slow at first, but I was hopeful. However, the book took a detour in the second half when the hero and heroine were kidnapped by the French. It became a road romance, where the focus was more on what happened than on the development of the characters. After a while, I got tired of reading about where they went and what they ate and who they saw. The characters and their emotions felt like an afterthought. I enjoy Carla Kelly’s writing and I feel like I learned about the war in Portugal and Spain, but it just didn’t work for me as a romance.

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to feel like I enjoy Carla Kelly more in theory than in reality. I always buy her books when they first come out because I want to love them and I want to support Harlequin for keeping trads going, but I haven't really loved one of her books since One Good Turn.

The Surgeon's Lady by Carla Kelly

There's nothing like a trip to entice me to read. When I'm away from the distractions of the interwebs and the Tivo, it's much easier to pick up a book.

The Surgeon's Lady by Carla Kelly
(2009, Regency) 7/25/10
Grade: 4

After widowed Lady Laura Taunton receives a letter from her long lost sister, she leaves her unhappy life behind and heads to Plymouth to meet her new family. She visits the Royal Naval Hospital as a favor to her sister, and finds herself caught up with the injured men and the fascinating surgeon, Lt. Philemon Brittle. Phil is attracted to Laura from the first moment he sees her, but would a lady ever want a life with an overwhelmed surgeon caught up in the horrors of war?

This book was wonderful in some ways, and underwhelming in others. The background of the naval hospital, and the stories of the patients and their medical treatment, was fascinating. Each of the secondary characters came to life. Unfortunately, the limited page count of a Harlequin Historical meant that something had to give, and often, that was the characterization of the hero and heroine. Although I liked both characters, something seemed to be missing. The author threw the heroine into a new situation without really taking the time to explore who she was. This came out eventually, but I felt like it wasn't quite enough. The same with Phil - he's a great hero, but we learn very little about him beyond his devotion to medicine. The book is beautifully written (as expected from Carla Kelly) but I kept thinking it needed just a few more chapters to really sing.

As a side note, I love this cover. It didn't win the cover contest, but it was my favorite historical cover this year. So soft and romantic, and none of the annoying blurbs and logos and advertising cluttering up the image. (And you can see both faces!) To me, this is much sexier than a heroine hiking up her skirt.

Scandal's Lady by Mary Kingsley

I haven't been reading very much - no real reason, except nothing has grabbed my attention. So I decided to pull an old book from my keeper shelf and see if it held up.

Scandal's Lady by Mary Kingsley
(1994, Regency) 7/20/10
Grade: 3.5

Governess Cassandra Aldrich is surprised and pleased to discover her childhood friend, Nicholas St. John, is the new Earl of Lynton and is living nearby. She hasn't seen him since he left for sea many years ago. But she knows that her position - and the scandal in her past - will prevent her from being more than an acquaintance. But when Nicholas needs her help, will she risk it all for love?

I first read this in 1995, when I was a fairly new romance reader. (I read romance when I was in high school and college, but I didn't become a devoted reader until the early 90's when I went off to grad school and could afford to buy my own books.) Mary Kingsley was one of my favorite Regency authors, and I loved this book and put it on my keeper shelf - where it sat, unread, until now. Unfortunately, it wasn't as enchanting the second time around. The characters were nice, the Regency setting was pleasant, and I always like a second chance at love story. But it just felt boring, like I'd read the story many times before. (I didn't remember the specifics of the storyline, but what seemed fresh and new in 1995 seemed blah in 2010.) The characters just didn't come to life. I guess this is one keeper that I won't be keeping any more.

I have several more books on my keeper shelf that I haven't revisited since the 1990's. Now I'm wondering if I want to reread them or not - should I see if I'll enjoy them the second time around, or leave them undisturbed and preserve my memories?