dear isobel

When it comes to Nora Roberts, she’s reliable in a number of ways. I can count on her to be releasing something near my birthday and Christmas, so I rarely have to purchase a book on my own. I can count on her to include something supernatural in just about everything and I can almost always count on her to be entertained, even if it is only mildly. She’s one of the few authors that I don’t pay attention to reviews about because her track record speaks for herself when it comes to me.

That being said, I wish this trilogy had been better. It had a wonderful premise, a strong set of characters and a lovely touch of my favorite hobby — genealogy. (Though I wish Ms. Roberts would do some research of her own — this is not the first book in which genealogy is used. In Black Rose a few years ago, she referenced the 1890 census which…doesn’t exist. It was burned in a fire and very few fragments are to be found — none of which include the portion she used. It’s a small thing but it’s something I always stumble on when I reread.) The elements were there, so why didn’t it work?

The element of surprise was gone — you knew from the moment Cybil entered the picture in Book #1 that the pairings were set in stone and there was little suspense there. When it comes to traditional romance novels, there is very little suspense. There will very nearly always be a happy ending and your characters are together. It’s the journey that keeps it satisfying, but when I know in Book #1 that the next two books will be Fox/Layla and Cybil/Gage, it left me with a little less eagerness to read it. Though this also happened in her In the Garden — I knew it would be Roz/Mitch and then Hayley/Harper, but it didn’t matter because I loved those characters so much by the end of the first book (even Mitch, who we barely knew) I wanted to see how they fell in love. In this set…I really couldn’t bring myself to care about Cybil and Gage because…I just didn’t see the chemistry between them. They were the odd people out — but I’ll get to Book #3.

So Book #1 started off with great promise. A wonderful brash heroine who obsessed about her weight and a sweet hometown boy with a great dog. They were perfect for each from the first moment and I very much enjoyed Quinn and Cal for much of the first book. Of course, their romance wasn’t the only plot. The set up of the Big Bad, which I didn’t find all that distracting. Until Roberts began to gather the main six characters and group conversations began. And continued through the next book. And the third. My God. I barely got through them with any sort of concentration on the first read and I now skip them when I reread because they just drag and I can feel my eyes start to roll back in my head.

There are some great suspenseful moments in the first entry — the Valentine’s Dance and the blizzard with Lump, and without those dreadful group moments, I probably would have rated it an A. The only reason The Hollow rates so highly with me is because I fell utterly in love with Fox O’Dell, the male lead and I found his romance with Layla unforced and very natural. It was sweet and he was utterly charming. The side plot with his sister Sage and her partner, Paula, was also wonderful and I liked seeing Roberts explore that connection, even if only briefly. David was one of my absolutely favorite characters from In the Garden, so I’m glad he wasn’t an aberration. There were more group moments in this second book, of course, and those moments dragged for me but unlike Blood Brothers, it never dragged me away from the center story — Fox and Layla.

So with those two books, I was interested in how the story would end. Where the Big Bad would go, and how Cybil and Gage were going to end up together and then as I got into the book, I found that I didn’t care. The group conversations were even more annoying. The romance was unbelievably forced and while I didn’t find the triple pregnancies very odd I found Cybil’s reaction incredibly annoying. Roberts is not an author who uses pregnancy as a device very often so it doesn’t bother me when she did the triple whammy. It made some sense, actually, and it added to the story. It just annoyed me that it was handled so…I’m not even sure how to describe it. The Pagan Stone is the only one of the three that I didn’t go back and read a second time, so perhaps my opinion will improve then.

I enjoy the trilogies — because I like to see old characters return and update, but I like it best when her trilogies work over time. The last two were compacted in a matter of months and it showed. The Circle trilogy handled it somewhat better. The first two romances were somewhat weak but the story felt somewhat strong and the third, Valley of Silence was so wonderful, it made up for them. I very much enjoyed the Three Sisters, which took place over a year and gave you a chance to see Ripley, Nell and Mia change over the books. It made that final book so much more pleasurable to read because the connection felt so real. In the Garden worked the same way for me. I adored Harper and Hayley so much that I was very eager to see their story conclude and it’s one of my favorite novels.

In the end, while this trilogy is better than a lot of romance novels I have read in my life (I can think of a few Johanna Lindsey books I’d like to clear from my mind in particular), it’s nowhere near the quality that I have read from Nora Roberts. It’s an enjoyable read, which is why I’ve rated it somewhat high, but it could have been so much more and that was the disappointment.

Title: The Lost Duke of Wyndham Author(s): Julia Quinn Purchase: Amazon Grade: B +

There’s a problem with great secondary characters. Sometimes, they take over. I enjoyed Grace and Jack’s story to be sure, but I kept hoping there’d be more about Thomas and Amelia. Which is good, because coming out in two months rather than next summer.

The Lost Duke opens with Grace Eversleigh traveling with her employee, the Dowager Duchess of Wyndham. I’ve read the companion with an annoying noble employer before, but I have to say the Dowager was on a whole other level of pain in the ass. The fact that Grace not only puts up with it, but lets it slide over her most of the time is both a testament to her character and shows that she clearly doesn’t feel like she has much choice in the world. She has to put up with the Dowager because there’s no other place for her.

Grace and the Dowager are accosted by a highwayman who is, naturally, charming and probably handsome (it’s dark, there’s a mask). Something about this man makes the Dowager sit up and look closer — his bottom features are almost an exact match for her long dead son. And so begins the story.

Jack Audrey (born Cavendish) is indeed the son of the Dowager’s middle son. His father perished at sea, and his mother died shortly after his birth. The reader is let in on this very early in the book so the suspense of that moment is done with. Will he take his place as the Duke or will he allow the current duke, Thomas, to continue as he has so ably?

I liked this book. I’m not surprised by that fact, of course. JQ’s one of my favorite authors and I don’t believe I’ve come across anything by her that I don’t love to pieces. (I even thoroughly enjoyed the last Bridgerton book, though some of my friends felt the series had run its course a few books earlier. Crazy people.) The characterizations were great, though yes, sometimes Jack was just a bit too charming. If only the men in my life had that problem, right?

I think that this book could have easily been an A grade, except I think Amelia and Thomas stole the story in a lot of places. Where I should have focused on Grace and Jack, I was more interested in what could come out of Thomas’s mouth or how Amelia might react. That’s the problem with some characters. You bring them onto the stage but then they kind of direct the action from there.

Another excellent addition to my bookshelf, of course, and I’ve already marked my calendar for September 30 and the next book, Mr. Cavendish, I Presume.

I’ve had this idea in my head for ages but I finally decided to give it ago. I’m really pleased with how this blog worked out as I’ve never customized a WordPress theme to this extent. I took the basic coding and css and rewrote it so it worked a little more. I still have to get it to validate but that’s another project for another day. But the layout used to be in a table, so I took it and put it into divs and then I played with it to make it widget ready. I’m so happy I was able to make that work.

It’s a blog for romance novels — for release dates, fanlistings, and reviews and whatever else I can think of to add to the site. There isn’t a lot there yet, it’s a work in progress but I’ll continue to add entries over the next few days.

RomanceFan.Org

Title: Agnes and the Hitman Author(s): Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer Purchase: Amazon Grade: A+

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I bought this. I love everything that Jennifer Crusie has ever written, no matter how long ago it was but I didn’t enjoy Don’t Look Down very much. A little too much action, underdeveloped secondary characters and a plot that just didn’t feel right. Plus a couple that didn’t really inspire me to root for them. The writing was good and I certainly enjoyed portions of it as it’s still lightyears ahead of some of the things I’ve read in the past.

But about a page into Agnes and I was sold. This is a heroine that I thoroughly enjoyed. She’s not perfect, she’s not sweet and special and considerate. This is a woman who has a temper and loses it on occasion. She’s got some rage and the portions where it comes out…that’s just god damn funny to read. Agnes does the things we only dream about. For example, if you came in and found your boyfriend having sex on your table, you’d certainly want to hit him with a frying pain or threaten him with a meat fork, right?

The hero was a little harder to pin down much but it’s refreshing to read about a hero that’s written by a guy. I’m not saying women authors don’t generally hit the nail on the head with their guys, but sometimes there are just things even we can’t explain and that’s when it’s nice to have a guy involved. Shane was definitely a little mysterious but it was a pleasure to watch him to try to keep up with Agnes all week. By the book’s end, he knew her better than anyone else and it’s mostly because he paid attention. Something we can dream about right?

The romance might have felt like it was all about sex to other readers, but I liked when Shane grabbed Agnes’ To Do List so he could help her with it and that he was pretty laid back about her violent tendencies (well, he is a hitman). There were no huge moments, no misunderstandings. With Shane and Agnes, it was all in the details and they were some great details.

The secondary characters were there this time around. Lisa Livia, who is f*cking fabulous. I don’t know if I could handle her as the lead in any book, but she was an outstanding supporting character as were Carpenter, Maria, Garth, Doyle and Joey.

Brenda Fortunato has to be, hands down, the most enjoyable bad guy I’ve read in a romance novel. I’ve liked the villains before. I’ve indentified with them, sympathized and loved to hate them. (Sometimes, I’ve just hated them), but I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard as I have with Brenda. She was a tour de force and just fabulous. I enjoyed every single moment she was on the page. I don’t think this book would have been as marvelous without her.

I liked that the plot didn’t feel like it was wrapped up tightly. At first, there felt like there were a lot of coincidences and catastrophes happening the same week, but when they finally realize that not only are they all connected but they lead back to the same person, I never felt like it was the convienent ending. I could only think Of course! It makes sense now! It felt right and that’s always an accomplishment when you have a complicated plot with many little threads that wraps up tightly, but not too neatly.

A fabulous effort by my favorite author and I look forward to their next project.

Title: Morning Light Author(s): Catherine Anderson Purchase: Amazon Grade: C+

I read reviews of this book before I bought it and I decided that I would wait to purchase it until I had extra money because most of the reviews were scathing and I found very few intelligent ones that had anything positive to say. Usually that would turn me off completely but I own every single Anderson novel I could get my hands on so I decided to give it a chance. I ended up having the extra money, I bought it and I read it over the next few days.

I should have spent it on something more worthwhile. It’s no surprise that Amazon is offering this book for $4.10 now. It’s not her strongest and it’s a shame because it really should have been good. I liked the concept but the execution was extremely flawed.

The older brother from Sun Kissed‘s heroine Samantha Harrigan (I just knew as soon as it was clear Sam had older bachelor brothers we’d be seeing them) Clint is the hero here and his counterpart is Loni McEwan, a girl with psychic abilities. She’s been dreaming about Clint her whole life and gets a shocking flash of a little boy she’s sure is his son lost in the woods and only Clint can save him. Of course, Clint is a stand up Catholic boy and doesn’t believe in psychics.

I was looking forward to the idea of having a hero be somewhat religious and unwilling to believe in the heroine at first. I thought it would be refreshing as a lot of authors just don’t touch on religion at all but they went from not believing to believing very fast and before you knew it, they were in the woods searching. Two days later, they’re engaged.

I have no problem with relationships that move fast. I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Crusie and almost of all her couples get together within a month’s time, if not less (two days is also her record I believe) but I guess I just didn’t believe that Clint and Loni were in love. I definitely think he wanted to sleep with her but I just didn’t get the lifetime love thing that fast.

Of course, that’s not the happy ending. Loni, like a lot of Anderson’s female protagonists, run off towards the end and the hero has to go after her. It happened in Phantom Waltz, Blue Skies, My Sunshine and probably one or two more I can’t think of. I believed it in My Sunshine. It’s my second favorite Anderson and in Phantom Waltz, I swallowed it because it made sense. I was tired of it in Blue Skies and by the time this one ran off, I was thinking, Jeez, just let her go. Find someone who doesn’t run when things get tough. Seriously.

More Anderson trademarks that have me weary are the old fashioned fathers like Clint’s father (I can’t remember his name off hand) and interfering families (Loni’s mother, sister and grandmother). It’s almost a repeat of half the books in the Coulter series and I’m hoping these aren’t around for the next ones. It just get olds after a while.

I was so disappointed in this but I hope that the next book from Catherine Anderson will restore my faith in her because she’s one of my favorite authors and I suppose everyone has a misstep. The book was still well written and there were pieces I liked like Clint’s relationship with his new found son so I didn’t hate it, hence the C+ grade. A book with a promising premise but a terribly flawed execution.