New Author for January: Sheila Roberts

So, I made the commitment that I would read at least one new author a month in 2013 and I am off to a good start.

Sheila Roberts has been around for a while but this is my first visit with her and her town of Icicle Falls.  After reading “Better than Chocolate” it won’t be my last. 

Why did I choose this book?  To be honest I liked the cover of the book.  The big cups of hot chocolate with floating hearts I couldn’t resist.  It just shouted sweet romance and it didn’t disappoint.

Ms. Roberts writing is similar in style to Debbie Macomber.  Her books revolve around a small town in the Northwest called Icicle Falls and the people who live there.  These are light frothy books.  While there is real conflict in the story; it is handled with a light and silver lining kind of touch.  Each story is complete in itself but is richer for reading the previous installment.

“Better than Chocolate”  features the Sterling family who run the chocolate factory.  The first chocolate candy recipe came to Great Grandma Sterling in a dream.  The rest, as they say, is Icicle Falls history.  Now the factory is in big financial trouble and eldest Sterling, Samantha needs to come up with a good plan to save her family business and the jobs of those depending on Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company.

Enter newly made Bank Manager Blake Preston, former high school football star and now by the book businessman.  The future of Sweet Dreams and the Sterling family is in his hands.  Of course Samantha resents him on first meeting and sparks fly between them. 

The story is filled in with a whole cast of supporting characters like Bill Will the swaggering dancing cowboy.  Samantha’s mom, Muriel Sterling is a writer of self-help books. Then there’s Cass, the owner of Gingerhaus Bakery.  She is one tough cookie.

The Sterling sisters throw everything they have at saving the company and that of course means a chocolate festival over Valentine’s Day weekend.  To make it even sweeter they host a Mr. Dreamy contest.  I can see you smiling.  I know I was.

There is nothing steamy in Ms. Roberts story.  Truth be told the romance between Samantha and Blake is secondary to the community of Icicle Falls.  This was perfect for a cozy weekend by the fire with bread baking and stew in the crock pot.  It was that comforting and lovely.

It was great meeting Ms. Roberts and Icicle Falls.  I will definitely be visiting again.

January’s Reads

 

My First book of the new year is Iris Johansen’s “What Doesn’t Kill You.”  It is a spin off of the Eve Duncan series and unfortunately not as good.  Catherine Ling from Eve’s series is the main character here.  Other characters like CIA Chief Venable, the mysterious Hu Chang, and John Gallo who was the father of Eve’s murdered daughter join Catherine in what should be a fast passed race against time to save a potential important figure.  There was too much thinking and talking and not enough doing.  There was one note to all the characters.  They all talked a lot about their thought processes without ever explaining anything.  Too many pages waiting for action.  It ended with a sequel in mind.  Let’s hope there’s a little less talking and a lot more satisfaction in the next one.

Next on the list of go to authors was a disappointment.  “After Moonrise”  is two short stories by P.C. Cast and Gena Showalter.  I have read both of these authors several times even though I haven’t written about them.  I enjoy them.  I can always count of Ms. Showalter to be fast paced and P.C. Cast to be pretty steamy.  They didn’t disappoint in these areas but I couldn’t finish P.C. Cast’s “Possessed.” 

I can stretch my imagination pretty darn far, almost to transparency but this was too far for me.  Psychic Detective Kent Raef, (I like the switch with Raef being the last name), gets a murder case.  A set of beautiful twins; one of them is murdered and is possessing the other in the hopes to catch her killer.  I actually like the premise.  I am totally cool with them all being beautiful and physically perfect.  What I am not ok with is Kent having sex with the dead twin and it isn’t via the living possessed twin’s body.  It is the ghost that suddenly becomes corporeal for a bout in the sack.  Really?  I realize there is a taboo for me in fiction and that is sex with dead people.  I am also not a fan of Angelic romances either but sex with dead people, even in spirit form are off the reading list for me.

I headed toward the 2nd short story.  “Haunted” by Gena Showalter was only a little better.  Sorry Gena.  At least this time all the people having sex were ghosts.  This story had more of a  “Sixth Sense”  to it.  There was a fairly decent crime to solve and the characters were interesting.  It was a straight up romantic suspense except for the 2 main characters.  There is actually a fun little character/plot twist to this story that worked well.  As you may have surmised I finished this one.  My problem with both of these stories is I personally believe that death is death.  There may be a hereafter but it doesn’t include bungalows in Oklahoma where spirits are shacking up.  Even worse I don’t think I would want that to be real.  Somehow it implies an earthly future and that offends me a little.  I want to move on to something higher.  Don’t get me wrong.  Sex is great!  I love it but I am thinking the hereafter has more for me than a physical act.  I don’t know what it will be but I guess that will be part of that adventure.   I have steered away from these kinds of stories in the past and after these two I am convinced I will stay clear in the future.  Please P.C. and Gena come back from the heavenly plane and stick with the paranormal and romance.

Stephanie Bonds didn’t disappoint with “6 Killer Bodies”. I like these characters.  I see a lot of myself in Carlotta.  She is a caretaker and loves her charges and yet longs for the day when they can take care of themselves.  Her brother Wesley reminds me of a young man I know.  He wants to do the right thing but his compulsions and insecurities are always getting in the way. Obviously this is the 6th book in Ms. Bond’s series and I like them.  There is a nice love triangle tension thing going on.  The mystery of the Charmed Killer played well across the last 3 books and I am rooting for Carlotta to pick the right guy.  I also want to kick her father’s ass.  Sorry for the profanity.  This has a Stephanie Plum feel to it without the tongue in cheek humor of Janet Evonavich’s writing.  Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of light moments in Ms. Bond’s writing but I never laughed out loud at anything either.  Finally, there are 2 great plot twists at the end which, for me, made the whole book worth it.  One spoiler, it isn’t the discovery of who the Charmed Killer is either.

So this is it for my familiar authors.  Tune in for my review of a new to me author, Sheila Roberts’. 

Catching up on my reading and other stuff

 

Happy New Year!!  Can you believe it?  It is 2013?  Wow!  This has been a busy year.  I know, I know.  It’s been a while since I last posted.  I am sure all 8 of my readers have wondered where I went.  Well, to be honest I got distracted with travelling, wine making, gardening and crocheting. 

I know, that’s pretty busy, right?

All that fun didn’t mean I wasn’t reading.  It was just having too much fun with the other stuff to be writing.   My journal is chocked full of writing.  I just didn’t get it on the blog.  That was wrong of me. It’s not that I have a ton of readers but I love to write.  I want to share my thoughts with whoever is reading my writing.  The other problem is I am in a rut.  I have been reading the same nine or ten writers for a while now and while I am enjoying the books it isn’t enough to write about.

Recently, as I was travelling to North Carolina for Christmas,  I read J.D. Robb’s “Delusion in Death”.  It was a fun fast paced read.  Someone was murdered in a seemingly impossible way but Eve Dallas along with her crew, especially Roarke, solved the crime in less than 72 hours. 

I also read Sherrilyn Kenyon’s new Dark Hunter offering, “Time Untime”.  Again it was a fun read.  Lot’s of “End of the World” excitement but it wasn’t new.  Artemis’ Dark Hunter finds the love of his life, they save the universe and                                           she immediately gets pregnant and they live happily ever after.  Now I love happy endings and I love my series books but I cannot tell a lie, they start getting old and I worry that you, my readers, are getting bored with my one note scribing.

So I have decided to change things up a bit.  First, I am going to post twice a month.  I know, all the “Build your Blog Websites” say “Post baby Post.”  My plan is to give you a consistent blog to visit rather that 20 posts in a month and then nothing for 3 months. One post is going to be an author I have never read before.  The other post will be a run down of my usual faves with shorter reviews.  If a book comes along my way that is just beyond fantastic I will add a review then. 

Another change I am making is the launching of mamejane.com.  Here you will find a collection of my writing about…well…everything.  Here you will find my blog gulpclub.com which is a wine pairing group.  I will shortly be adding my notes and thoughts on living a more creative life.  Sure that sounds kind of hokey but I have found out in the last few years I like growing things, cooking them up and sharing them with friends.  I also love making things from jewelry to afghans to wine.  I am creating a place I can keep track of it all and I thought it would be fun to invite you into my crazy world of being Mame.

Welcome to the new and improved Besotted Bookworm.  I wish everyone a wonderful, successful and most of all happy 2013!

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, From the past comes new beginnings

I was left with a cinematic cliffhanger in Ms. Harkness’ first book, “A Discovery of Witches”, when Diana and Matthew headed into the past .  Now in “Shadow of Night” they are in a race against time hoping to find answers for the future in secrets of history.  One of the biggest secrets to be  revealed is how does Diana access her witchy powers.  The other secret is Ashmole 782.   Where are the missing pages and who removed them?  Ms. Harkness leads our hero and heroine on a fantastic chase from the countryside of Elizabethan England to Matthew’s home in France, (it is a very different place in the 1500’s).   They travel to London and the Queen’s Court filled with intrigue and betrayal, then to Prague and an Emperor’s obsession with magic and Diana.  One more trip back to London where more questions than answers pop up before finally returning to face the future together.  Ashmole proves to be as mysterious in the past as in the present.

What I loved about the first book is very present in this second book, “Shadow of Night”.  Ms. Harkness has stuffed this story with historical accuracy and wonderful literary license!  Christopher Marlowe, the great Elizabethan playwright who is credited with influencing Shakespeare, plays a large role in the life and history of Matthew Clairmont.  He was considered a shady character in history and Ms. Harkness uses said suspicious tales to great advantage in this story.  Sir Walter Raleigh, another great historical figure, gets a clever twisted backstory that makes him so very interesting, sexy and star-crossed.   Queen Elizabeth even has a moment with Matthew, her “Shadow”.   This story is dense with historical references so well weaved into the fiction I found myself shocked to Google characters and find out they really did that!  I can’t tell what those things were, I will let you have your own discoveries.

While the story was awash in history and vampires Ms. Harkness didn’t ignore the witches.  Again using the foundation of research and history she creates a world filled with religious superstition, ignorance and magic.  She balances charlatans with true practitioners  so much so, it is shocking to find out who is real and who is not.  Diana finds out much about her “powers” but in this book she really has a “Discovery of Witches”.  Where they came from, how they functioned in the community, and how they were depended on and reviled at the same time and who her family really is. She learns about her magic and learns to be proud of who she is.  I loved the witches!  I loved the historical girl power!  Ms. Harkness does an amazing job of drawing a picture of this close knit group of women and why they are so protective of their culture in the future.  These women did what they did at the cost of their lives and most gave of their talents freely and with bravery.  Bravo Ladies!

Then there was the romance.  Not only did I feel like I was chasing Ashmole 782 through the entire book I got as frustrated as Diana over Matthew’s 1500 year old case of angst.  I wanted to do a Cher in “Moonlighting” on him; slap him upside the head and tell him to “Snap out of it!”  Matthew’s father does a pretty good job to beat the guilt and shame out of his vampire son but it will be Diana who brings him the greatest peace.  I know you want me to tell you if they finally consummate their love, well…….. you will just have to find out for yourself.  Their love leads to much trial and tribulation in the past just as it did in the future and it will take a strong bond to sustain them.  The very future of paranormal creatures may depend on the seed planted in the past. There are definite bumps on that particular romantic road.

A few words about the time traveling.  As you may already know I am not a fan of this literary vehicle.  I appreciated Ms. Harkness’ handling of a tricky thing.  It was just another part of her world.  It was accepted in the past as it was in the future, rare but not unheard of.  Every once in awhile throughout the book she bounced to the future where Ysabeau or another character would find a note or picture that let them know the past was being affected.  It worked. 

“Shadow of Night” is 590+ pages long.  It is chocked full of history, food, characters and action.  It is wordy but I felt every word was necessary.  I felt the beginning was slow but by page 30 the action took off.  There is a lot of place and history setting but it has to be, so I the reader, understand the choices the characters are making. There are also a lot of satisfying surprises.  I was disappointed with the lack of wine but hey it was the 1500’s.  When the book comes to a skidding halt back in France once again I am left on a cliff hanging by my fingers wanting more.  This was totally worth the wait and I feel confident the final installment, Book III, will satisfy as well.  Hopefully there will be more wine!