The Preacher's Wife by Cheryl St. John

I decided to read something completely different from my last book. Definitely a change of pace!

The Preacher's Wife by Cheryl St. John
(2009, Americana) 8/23/10
Grade: 3.5

When a newly widowed minister comes to her town with his three young daughters, Josie Randolph wants to help. She is also widowed, and yearning for a family of her own. When Samuel asks her to marry him and join their family in Colorado, Josie is eager to accept. But can a marraige born out of necessity turn into something more?

I don’t normally read inspirationals, but I made an exception for one of my favorite authors, Cheryl St. John. She is one of the few authors still writing Americana, and she always writes lovely, heartwarming stories. At first this book was promising, with an enjoyable setup and pleasant characters. But after a while, the characters started to seem a little too perfect. The heroine, in particular, is just too good to be true. She has no flaws or doubts, at least until the final chapters. I’m not sure if this was due to the religious content of the book - the Biblical passages felt like a natural part of these characters’ lives, but it made me wonder if this was why the characters felt so one dimensional, as if religious characters weren’t allowed to have flaws. Cheryl St. John always writes characters that are fundamentally good at heart, but these characters more stereotypical and not as well rounded as many of her other heroes and heroines. Although I love Cheryl St. John’s writing, I will probably avoid her inspirationals, if she writes more of them.

Surprisingly, I don't have any keepers by Cheryl St. John, even though I buy all of her books. But I can always turn to her when I want a heartwarming American historical. I hope I'm not too selfish to hope that she doesn't start writing inspirationals exclusively. I enjoyed her other books more.

Her Ladyship's Companion by Evangeline Collins

It's surprising how many books you can read when you schedule an entire weekend for nothing but books! I'm determined to cut down my TBR at least a little bit before I take the Kindle plunge (maybe in mid-October?)

Her Ladyship's Companion by Evangeline Collins
(2009, Regency Historical) 8/22/10
Grade: 3.5

After five years of marriage to an abusive husband she rarely sees, Isabella is tempted when her cousin suggests that she take a lover. But when Gideon Rosedale arrives at her door, she finds him more than a paid companion - and he finds more than a wealthy client.

This is not my usual type of read, and I was skeptical that I would enjoy it. But the story was surprisingly compelling. The characters were well drawn and interesting, and there was more to it than just sex. The author definitely knows how to write a love scene. However, the book became a bit repetitive in the second half, with a little too much melodrama. It wasn’t enough for the heroine to be sad or upset or happy, she had to be over-the-top and distraught or hysterical or ecstatic. It made the book feel less realistic. I ended up skimming quite a bit in the last third. But still, the story was unique enough to keep my reading through to the end.

I don't remember quite why I bought this book - erotica is not usually my cup of tea, but I think the plot description tempted me. It definitely had potential, but there's a reason I stick with more traditional historicals.

Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

Julia Quinn is one of those authors I love in small doses. Whenever I haven't read her in a while and pick up one, I'm completely charmed. But if I try to read too many of her books at a time, they start to annoy me. She's a nice contrast to my usual diet of angst, pain and suffering.

Ten Things I Love About You by Julie Quinn
(2010, Regency Historical) 8/22/10
Grade: 4

Annabel Winslow is expected to marry Lord Newbury, even though he’s three times her age. Her family is depending on her. But it’s his nephew Sebastian Grey who makes her laugh. Everyone thinks Sebastian is a penniless nobody, but he has a secret life as a writer of gothic romances - and he isn’t going to let Annabel get away.

As usual, Julia Quinn makes me laugh. She writes great characters and funny scenes that aren’t too silly or over the top. I loved both Sebastian and Annabel, who were interesting and well realized characters. I always like Quinn’s wise rogues - she does them so well. I wouldn’t want a steady diet of Quinn, but her books are always fun to read. My only quibbles about this one are the “Ten Things” lists which appeared in the book every few chapters. They felt out of place and a little too silly. The middle of the book also got a little slow by comparison to the rest of the book. But these are minor issues - overall this was a highly enjoyable read. It doesn’t quite have the depth of her best books, which is why I graded it down slightly, but it was definitely a fun and enjoyable read.

I have another Julie Quinn in my "must read soon" pile but I think I should put it off for a while so I don't get Quinn-ed out.

The Right Mr. Wrong by Cindi Myers

I don't remember why I picked this up in the first place, but I wish I'd read it a few months ago during the Winter Olympics! It would have been a perfect accompaniment to the skiing events, which I love. I am a Winter Olympics junkie and watch every skiing event, even though my attempts at skiing in real life have been pretty embarrassing!

The Right Mr. Wrong by Cindi Myers (HAR 1199)
(2008, Contemporary Series) 8/21/10
Grade: 4

After an accident ended her skiing career, Maddie Alexander joined the ski patrol. She likes her new friends, except for Norwegian skiier Hagan Ansdar, who has a new girlfriend every week and keeps himself aloof from the other skiiers. But as Maddie gets to know Hagan, she discovers there’s more to him beneath the surface.

As an Olympic skiing fan, I loved the background of this book. Maddie’s struggles to get past her accident and put her dreams of Olympic gold behind her were interesting and well written. I also liked Hagan, the taciturn Norwegian who hides a painful past. Although there are a lot of secondary characters (who probably have books of their own), they added to the story without detracting from the hero and heroine. However, the book started to feel a bit repetive in the second half. There was nothing wrong, but it just started to feel predictable. An enjoyable book, but not quite a keeper.

I debated about how to rate this one, because I particularly liked the heroine and her development. But I kept putting the book down to do other things, which is a sign that it just isn't holding my attention.

Halfway to Heaven by Susan Wiggs

I decided to take a break from more recent books to read an older book set in Washington DC - not a popular spot for romances, unfortunately.

Halfway to Heaven by Susan Wiggs
(2001, 1880's Washington) 8/15/10
Grade: 4

Abigail Cabot is awkward and shy, more interested in stars than in people and the despair of her Senator father. But she harbors a secret love for handsome, politically connected Boyd Butler, who only has eyes for her beautiful sister. Somehow, she keeps falling into the arms of Jamie Calhoun, a disreputable Congressman from Virginia, who agrees to help her win Boyd - but finds himself drawn to Abigail despite his best efforts

This book had a lot of things going for it, but also had a few flaws. I loved the unusual setting. The background of politics in the 1880's was fascinating, and I also enjoyed Jamie's attempt to deal with Virginia politics in the decades after the Civil War. It's a wonderful background for a book and I wish more books were set in the U.S. during this time period. I also liked the main characters - I always like the hero who sees the true value of the heroine when everyone else can only see the surface. Both Jamie and Abigail were well drawn, interesting characters. However, one problem with the book is that Abigail spends most of it pining after someone else. At first it kept the hero and heroine together, but after a while, you started to think she was a little stupid. Secondly, the last few chapters were frustrating, with a long separation between the characters and an abrupt ending that didn't pay off the emotions that had been building through the book. The disappointing ending made me mark this one down a bit, but overall, it was an enjoyable read.

I have so many Susan Wiggs books in my TBR pile - although I don't always love her books, they are always reliably good, although I'm a bit disappointed that she's turned to women's fiction these days. At least she has a large backlist of meaty historicals.

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?

A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh

The last book in the Huxtable series. I've enjoyed revisiting Balogh, even though I haven't loved every book. I enjoyed this series as a whole much better than the Slightly series.

A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh
(2010, Regency Historical) 6/13/2010
Grade: 4

Everyone sees the Duchess of Delacorte as aloof, and gossips about her much older husband and her string of lovers. But Hannah is much different than the gossips know. Now that she is a widow, she is ready to take a lover, and settles on Constantine Huxtable - who also presents a face to the world that is quite different from the inner man.

Back to mild disappointment. This book had a lot of potential. The hero and heroine were fascinating characters, particularly the heroine who was full of contradictions, full of new layers that Constantine pulls back one by one. But the book was spoiled (at least a little bit) by the layers of sugar that Balogh piles on. There are far too many sugary-sweet reunions of the Huxtable family, too many characters who are too-good-to-be-true, and too many people sobbing on each other’s shoulders. A little of this goes a long way, and sometimes it seemed like Balogh wanted to drown us in a wave of treacle. However, the characters kept the story from completely falling apart, and I found the book very readable. Just not quite in keeper territory.

Now that I've spent a few weeks in Regency England, I think I need something completely different. I have a contemporary in my TBR pile about a country singer...

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh

Huzzah! A Balogh that left me feeling happy, not disappointed.

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/12/2010
Grade: 4.5

Lady Paget is desperate. The ton thinks she’s a scandalous murderer, but she’s destitute and her only option to to find a wealthy man and become his mistress. She chooses “angelic” Stephen Huxtable, the Earl of Merton, and his kindness makes her feel things she thought she could never feel again.

Definitely the best in the series so far. After three stories of perfect heroines, we finally get a heroine who has real problems, and who isn’t the perfect angel. (Since this is a Balogh, of course she’s not really bad, but she definitely has some hard edges, especially compared to the saintly Huxtables.) And Stephen was an interesting hero - his essential niceness forces him into situations that he isn’t quite expecting, and makes him turn his assumptions upside-down. There was real character growth for both of them. The book had nice pacing, other than a slow section in the last part of the book, and it managed to avoid most of the saccharine happy-wives-and-babies family reunions which Balogh loves so much This didn’t quite make it into keeper territory, but it’s the best book Balogh has written since Slightly Dangerous.

Right now, I don't think this is a keeper. But I felt the same way about Slightly Dangerous, and it grew on me, and became a keeper on the second reading. So this one is going on my keeper shelf for the time being, even if it's still on probation.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh

I'm enjoying this series, but I wonder if The Cosby Show was as big in Canada as it was here? I can't help associating the name Huxtable with the Coz.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/8/2010
Grade: 4

At the age of 30, Margaret Huxtable isn’t sure she will ever marry. But an impulsive lie to an old love leads her into the arms of Duncan Pennethorne, the notorious Earl of Sheringford who shocked the ton 5 years earlier by runnng off with a married woman. Duncan is desparate to marry, but is there more to Margaret than convenience?

This book had the opposite problem of the last book in this series - this one started off great but fell apart in the end. Although the plotline of a marriage of convenience was very similar to the previous book, this one came to life in the first part of the story. The characters were interesting and well written, and it was interesting that the story hinged on the opinions of the ton and the hero’s situation as a social pariah who finds his way back. Unfortunately, the book started to get a little dull once the hero and heroine married. There were some nice moments, but for the most part, it was same-old-same-old. But that wasn’t too bad. The book really went off the rails in the last few chapters, when bizarre melodramas appeared out of nowhere. Some of the characters act in strange, out of character ways, and the plot was straight out of Catherine Coulter. The author might have made this very weird plot twist work if she’d spent half the book on it, but having it show up at the last minute, just to give the characters something to do in the last few chapters? It made very little sense and it really spoiled the book for me. This book was heading into keeper territory until this very odd turn of events near the end.

Is it worse to have a book that starts slow but ends well, or a book that is great up until a bad ending? I try to evaluate a book as a whole, but it's hard to love a book that leaves you with a bad impression.

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh

Another one in the Huxtable series. An interesting dress on the cover - you rarely hear about a heroine wearing a brown dress, unless she's a governess trying to look unattractive. This one definitely doesn't look governess-like. (Not that the heroine actually wears a brown dress in this book, at least not that I remember.)

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/6/2010
Grade: 4

Even though Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a notorious rake, Katherine Huxtable finds him dangerously attractive. Their relationship begins with a wager of sex - and then one of love - and ends up with a marriage that neither expected. But will Katherine discover that Jasper has hidden depths, and he’s more worthy of love than she ever expected?

Although this book was better than the last one in this series, it was very slow getting started. The setup was familiar but well done - he’s a dangerous rake, she’s a virtuous lady - but it got very bogged down in the middle of the book. It only really picked up again in the last third, after Katherine and Jasper are married. The characters definitely came alive in the last section of the book, and the story was familiar but interesting - Balogh is the best at creating heroes that are dealing with dysfunctional family backgrounds. I just wished that I hadn’t had to slog through 200 pages of nice-but-dull to get there.

Balogh has had some odd words and phrases in her last few books that seem historically inaccurate. I can't say for sure if they are - did people in the 19th century say that white was the combination of all colors, something that most people don't say now - but the word "sex" feels very anacronystic, even if it's not.

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh

I've been waiting for the last book to come out before I delved into Balogh's latest series. She's been a bit disappointing to me lately, but I live in hope!

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 5/31/10
Grade: 3.5

When Viscount Lyngate arrives in their small village, Vanessa Huxtable Dew isn’t expecting her life to change. But soon she and her family are whisked away, as her younger brother has unexpectedly inherited an Earldom. Vanessa finds herself married to the viscount, her brother’s guardian - is it just to save her family, or is there more emotion involved?

This is the first book in a new Balogh series, and a lot of time is spent introducing the characters for the next four books. This takes away from the main romance between Elliott and Vanessa - but their romance doesn’t have a lot of conflict, so the time spent with other characters doesn’t detract much from the story. She thinks she’s plain but it determined to be happy anyway, he’s stuffy and afraid of love because his father was unfaithful - it all seems like a pale copy of Balogh’s other books. Vanessa, in particular, is very reminiscent of Christine in the much better Slightly Dangerous, but this book lacks the depth of emotion that that book had. (The most moving part of the book is Vanessa’s devotion to her first husband, who died young of consumption, but even that lacks some depth of feeling.) There’s nothing terribly wrong with this book - the characters are pleasant and the book is well written - but it just doesn’t bring anything new to this nice but familiar story. 3.5 - grading on the Balogh scale, since I know how much better her books can be.

There were things I really liked about this book, and I might have given a newer author more of a pass - but I know Balogh can take a familiar story and make it sing, and she just didn't do that here. So Balogh gets graded on a curve.

Broadway Nights by Seth Rudetsky

This was great fun. It tells the story of a part-time Broadway pianist who is now the music director of his first show - and all of his personal and professional dramas. I listened to the audio version and it was hilarious. It's read by the author (with guest appearances by lots of actors and actresses) and it's full of great dish about Broadway. It might have been a little too long in book form, but as an audio it was great. Very funny, and it made my commute fly by. Since this isn't a romance, I'm not going to give it an official rating, but I would highly recommend it to Broadway fans. (This is kind of an odd picture, but I bought the unabridged audio from Audible.)

Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb

Still a fan of the J.D. Robb books, although this one was not her best.

Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb
(2010, Futuristic Suspense) 5/22/2010
Grade: 3

The latest in the Eve/Roarke series. In this installment, the head of a computer game company is killed during a holo game, but how did it happen when he was alone in his apartment? And were his three business partners as close as they appeared to be?

This was one of the weaker entries in the series. The personal interactions between Eve and her friends were nice enough (I particularly liked Peabody in this one) but the case itself was dull. The three main suspects were barely distinguishable through most of the book, and the motive seemed to appear out of nowhere in the last 50 pages. Considering Roarke is supposed to be a computer genius, it seemed odd that no one even considered the method the killer used until almost the end of the book. (It seemed obvious to me in the first chapter). Usually I read the In Death books in a few hours, even the less interesting books in the series, but I found myself plodding through this one. It did improve in the last 100 pages or so, but overall, this one just fell short.

Multi-billionaire Roarke isn't exactly a realistic hero, but I had to laugh in this book when he mentions that he works on hologames in his spare time. In between working on cases with Eve and running half the businesses on the planet, presumably.

The Heart of Christmas (Anthology)

Seems a little odd to be reading a Christmas anthology while sitting by the pool in Florida (in May!) but somehow it worked.

The Heart of Christmas (Anthology)
(2009, Regency) 5/2/10
Grade: 3.5

Three stories: A Handful of Gold by Mary Balogh, A Season for Suitors by Nicola Cornick, This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan. The first two are reprints, the third is new.

The Balogh story is a reprint, but it's still one of her most charming. The heroine, Verity Ewing has to become a mistress to save her sick sister. Julian Dare is planning a week of debauchery before an arranged marriage. But when they are stranded in the snow at Christmas, the find love. A little schmaltzy, but Balogh always gets me even when the story is as corny as this one.

The Cornick story is also a reprint, although I hadn't read it. It feels like an excerpt from a longer book. The heroine, Clara Davenport, has been in love with Sebastian Fleet for years, but he considers her just a friend. Finally she turns to him for advice, and he starts to see her in a new light. The characters were interesting, but it felt like a badly abridged version of a full length book - a lot of important details were missing.

The Milan story was well written and unusual, but it also felt somewhat contrived. The most interesting aspect was that the hero and heroine were not wealthy or titled. They were working people on the edge of poverty. The dialogue was also well written. However, the setup was odd. The heroine sleeps with the hero because he bought up her brothers debt.. but not really. At first they seem to be strangers, but then they act like they've been deeply in love for years. The story just felt unfinished, as if the author had to leave important parts out to fit it in the allotted page length. It definitely showed promise, but it didn't quite work for me.

Writing short stories is definitely an art, and most authors are not that good at it. Too many of them try to squeeze a full length book into short story length. And yet, I keep trying, because a good short story is so satisfying!

Always Valentine's Day by Kristin Hardy

Another vacation read - I read this one on the beach and in the jacuzzi tub. Such a great place to enjoy a good book!

Always Valentine's Day by Kristin Hardy (SSE 1952)
(2009, Contemporary Series) 5/1/10
Grade: 3.5

Larkin Hayes is on a cruise to Alaska to reconnect with her father after his latest divorce. But she keeps running into Christopher Trask, a goat farmer from Vermont, and his widowed aunt, Molly. After the cruise, they all meet again in Vermont - and Larkin finds that goats are more interesting than she'd expected.

This was a surprisingly fun and charming book. The characters were interesting and well written, and had more depth than you might expect. Even though the story was a bit predictable, the author does a good job with the two settings (the Alaskan cruise and the Vermont goat farm) and creates believable conflicts between the characters. The only negative was that a lot of secondary characters are shoehorned into the first section of the book, presumably because they appeared in previous stories. But they mostly disappear once the book gets going. Overall, an enjoyable read.

I debated whether to give this a higher grade, but it wasn't that memorable. A week later and I can barely remember it. But I enjoyed it while it lasted.

The Trouble with J.J. by Tami Hoag

I always pick some older books to take with me on the plane. This one kept me entertained on my trip to Florida.

The Trouble with J.J. by Tami Hoag
(1988, Contemporary Series) 4/28/10
Grade: 3

This is a reprint of an old Loveswept from the 80's. Genna Hastings is appalled when a tacky football player moves in next door, along with his collection of pink flamingos. But J.J. Hennessy turns out to be more interesting than she expected, and when he needs her help to gain custody of his adorable daughter, Genna starts to see J.J. in a new light.

This was a cute and charming book that worked well for the first two thirds, but fell apart in the last third. The hero and heroine had great chemistry, and their banter was fun and light hearted. The story was a bit cliched but for the first part of the book, it worked. However, the book lost its charm in the last section. Once the hero and heroine got together, the author throws in a bunch of silly misunderstandings to keep the story going, and unfortunately it let me feeling a bit disappointed.

It's amazing that the publisher was able to stretch this book into 320 pages. The print was huge! I guess you have to do something to make a skinny little Loveswept look like a full length book.