Review of The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain - It's available today

The Midwife’s Confession

Diane Chamberlain

Mira – Publish Date April 2011

432 pages – ISBN 13: 9780778329862

In the blink of an eye a friend they thought they knew takes her own life and so Tara and Emerson embark on a journey to find out why. What they don’t realize is that in their mission for information about Noelle and her suicide only leads them to more questions. They find that happiness was just a mask she wore to hide a darkest of secrets that will change every life it’s touched when they learn “The Midwife’s Confession”.

Diane Chamberlain has given us a storyline that could be taken from the front pages of any news paper or from the headlines from any CNN or CNBC report, with one exception, she gives it that human touch and in doing so will take her readers on an excruciating trip down endless dark hallways of a troubled woman’s mind. She tells it in the first person from the voices of several of her main protagonists and she does this with dialogue that’s easy to read and will take her audience into the hearts and minds of her characters, characters who will become friends as you entwine yourselves into their lives. Her readers will be in awe of the intimacy she gives us into her characters especially Tara and Emerson along with their daughters Jenny and Grace and as we her readers get closer to solving the puzzle of this mystery she throws us a curve ball with Anna and Haley. Her co-stars of this drama are equally important to the telling of the story and couldn’t be done without them. At the heart of this tale we find a love story, the love between friends, the love of children and the love of a spouse, but she fills the pages with twists and turns to get us there and at the end we will let go a breath we didn’t know we’d been holding.

If you love a great mystery, a story of family drama, a drama in general and just really the telling of an incredible story by an amazing artist, mixed with angst filled scenes and nail biting edge of your seat drama, let this be your choice. You won’t be sorry you did. Put this on the top of your next “Must Read” list.

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Review of When You Dare by Lori Foster

When You Dare
Lori Foster
Harlequin
448 pages
ISBN13:9780373775712

In Tijuana to rescue the sister of a friend, Dare Macintosh gets more than he bargained for when in a separate room he finds a badly beaten and drugged American woman, his honor won’t let him leave her but what’s he going to do with her.
Molly Alexander has learned the hard way to only rely on herself, when she finds herself kidnapped and abused she still won’t let her captors break her and then she’s rescued by Dare Macintosh and he’s appointed himself her personal protector which rubs the independent part of her the wrong way now with the attraction literally causing sparks between them the fireworks begin. If they can only keep their heads in the game, their hands off each other long enough to find out who’s behind the abduction they may make it out in one piece.

NY Times Best Selling Author Lori Foster hits her adrenalin addicted fans over the head with When You Dare, the first in her Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series. It will be followed by Trace of Fever in May 2011 and Savor the Danger in June 2011, so have no fear there are more bigger than life and buffer than Greek God bad boys coming.
Her really imaginative plot for this one will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck as she takes her readers down the slippery slope of private security, so private that they’re practically ghosts. She brings us this tale with a dialogue that might surprise you with it’s at times almost modesty when compared to the characters, but have no fear you lovers of rough and tumble romance, she gives us just what we want too. And wait until you meet the characters, we’ll start with the co-stars some very good, some very bad and some in between but they all are so important to the story that she couldn’t have left even the least essential out or the tale would suffer. And that leaves us her hero Dare who is one of the most over the top and yet down to earth characters you’ll ever meet, in fact it’s his sincerity and sweetness that Ms. Foster gives him that makes him so endearing. Her heroine Molly is the most unsinkable character since, well, since the unsinkable Molly Brown, she faces her adversities head on and chin up and has that hard headed quality that makes her so real, while being incredibly vulnerable without being fragile. The romance, ah the romance is quite the adventure like rafting on rapids for the readers and while at first glance these two seem so different as you get further into the story you’ll see how those differences compliment each other and if any couple deserve their happy ever after it’s these two. The love scenes are hot enough and sensually sexy enough to scorch the paint off any surface but at the same time her readers will feel the vulnerability not only in the heroine but refreshingly also in the macho hero as well.

So if you like your heros on the darker side of good, your heroine with moxie out the wazoo and a story that will take you on a thrill ride that never stops, look no further. If you like love stories that are far from tame, here it is. If you like characters that carry the entire novel and then some, find it here. This is fiction to the ninth degree. Kudos to you Ms. Foster for another incredible journey thanks to your amazing storytelling talent.
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Review of Phantom Evil by Heather Graham

Phantom Evil

Heather Graham

Mira

368 pages

ISBN 13: 9789778329534

A distraught senator’s wife is found dead of an apparent suicide in the garden of her supposed haunted house. Wanting answers albeit discreetly the senator calls on a newly formed government team run by Adam Harrison and led by enigmatic Jackson Crow. This assignment may be just what the doctor order for Jackson after the tragedy that was his last case with the FBI. Now he’s teamed up with 5 specially equipped people to handle all things paranormal and what better place to test that theory and the team then The Big Easy. Angela Hawkins is a trained policewoman from Virginia who at a young age had her first experience with paranormal activity when the plane her family was on crashed killing her parents and almost herself as well. She’s learned who to trust and who to stay away from and she’s learned about love and loss, but Jackson is more than what she’s expecting and maybe more than her heart can handle. But their attraction is hard to resist and there’s enough to worry about without complications of the heart there’s something in the house something not right could it be “Phantom Evil”.

Heather Graham always does a bang up job when she expertly mixes paranormal with romance, she always comes up with likeable and believable characters and even though the plot may be quite a bit outside the normal box she somehow makes her audience believers during the read. Well Phantom Evil is no different there’s enough from both worlds to excite any fan. She gives us a storyline that could be seen on any news show or headline and then she makes it more interesting by giving it a shade of otherworldly. She will take you to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, introduce you to the characters who call it home and she’ll show you the real New Orleans through her descriptive narrative. Her characters are spot on, perfectly portrayed and infinitely important to the telling of the story from the Voodoo Priestess to the ghosts themselves. Her hero and heroine are two people in desperate need of one another and she brings them together with earth moving and fireworks and keeps them together with honesty and compassion and of course with heat, because the love scenes are as hot as the humidity is high in a New Orleans summer.

So take a stroll downtown, blow the sugar off a beignet while you enjoy a cup of pecan coffee and batten down the hatches of your emotions as this paranormal, psychological thriller will take you on a frightening journey, one that will leave you breathless when the ride is over.
Visit the author’s website here
Buy the book here or here

Review of A Creed in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller

A Creed in Stone Creek Book 1 in the Creed Cowboy Series

Linda Lael Miller

Harlequin

384 pages

ISBN 13: 9780373775552

Steven Creed needs stability in his life now that he has Matt, his newly adopted son and after a visit with Meg McKettrick-O’Ballivan his long lost cousin he decides that Stone Creek has everything he’s looking for, the one thing he’s not looking for is sexy Prosecutor Melissa O’Ballivan. Mellissa wants what her sisters and brother have, a family and someone to love forever, she’s lost at love before so she’s not sure she’d know what love is if it bit her, well she’s about to learn the hard way that when love takes it’s bite it’s sometimes painful, especially if you run into “A Creed in Stone Creek”.

Linda Lael Miller is the Queen of western romance, she gives us the action, the wide open spaces and the down home goodness of small town America and she’s given us another winner with this one. It’s a storyline that her fans will recognize as well as they recognize both the famous families represented from her series. Her characters are as big as their ranches and boisterous to boot. Her hero and heroine are superb examples of deep rooted and good hearted people who just need a little help to get together and that help comes in a very small package, a 5 year old package by the name of Matt, who’s heart is as big as Arizona and Ms. Miller did an expert job of portraying him. The romance is far from perfect in the script but perfection is what you’d call the way it all comes together under the expert pen of our author. The love scenes are hotter than Arizona in August.

If you’ve never read Linda Lael Miller’s McKettrick or O’Ballivan novels, aliens must have kept you for years out of the range of a Harlequin romance especially this prolific Harlequin author. If you are a seasoned fan of her this will feel like a warm fuzzy robe and a pair of comfy slippers, like coming home, when you read it. Either way fall in love with the bigger than the sky McKettrick and O’Ballivan families.
Check out the author’s website here
Buy the book here

Photograph by John Hall Photogaphy

Review of Iron House by John Hart

Iron House

John Hart

St. Martin’s Press – Publish date 7-11-2011

352 pages ISBN 13- 9780312380342

After suffering all manner of indignities as orphans Michael and his younger brother Julian must now suffer the loss of each other when a murder is committed and a culprit must be spared. Now more than twenty years have passed and Michael once again finds it necessary to shield Julian only this time the stakes are much higher for both brothers and as time progresses and the body count is mounting, damning secrets are revealed, secrets that go back to the beginning, back to “Iron House”.

This very well written thriller will leave a definite taste of noir on your tongue as our author gives us his main protagonist who’s just as much if not more villain than hero. His plot could be straight out any mob tale du jour complete with no necked body guards and no nonsense killers and beside one small plot dot that didn’t fit for me the story line was flawless. He uses a full range of dialogue that matches his mix of characters, from street thugs of New York to the indigent hill people of North Carolina to the rolling estate of a politician and his wife. Each of Mr. Hart’s characters is imperative to the story, and each play their part so well that his readers will feel the torture of Elena, the grief of Michael and the tenuous line on sanity of Julian and Abigail. This is a love story, a tragedy, a drama and a thriller all wrapped up in one and each of these themes are performed to perfection. There are scenes that are disturbing as this is not a read for the feint of heart, but they’re masked well enough to not put off any but the most squeamish of readers.

Be prepared for an adventure, an edge of your seat, nail biting, breath stealing roller coaster ride that will leave you winded to say the least, but glad you read it non the less.
If you haven’t read John Hart start now, if you have you’ll continue to rave as Iron House will be your next Must Read.
Visit the author’s website here
Pre-Order the book here or here

Photo by Abigail Seymour Photography

Already Home by Susan Mallery

Already Home

Susan Mallery

Mira

ISBN 13: 9780778329510

368 pages

Newly divorced and recently moved back home Jenna Stevens is about to embark on a new life and new career from Sous-Chef to retail store owner. Little does she know that her life has not quite stopped spinning as she’s about to have more surprises fall at her feet.

Susan Mallery has brought us many heartwarming tales and Already Home is just another in that long list, in it she presents to us a storyline that is lived for real everyday in just about every locale across the globe, someone starting over with the help and support of her family. Then our author extraordinaire throws us a couple curve balls worthy of the MLB and as the plot takes it twists and turns the audience revels in the resulting chaos. She delivers this with dialogue that’s easy to understand and easy to read and a narrative that’s descriptive enough that we can easily picture her scenes in our heads. She gives us characters that are all memorable and imperative to the tale. Her main protagonist and heroine Jenna is a breath of fresh air with all those perfect Barbie like heroines out there we finally get one with substance and errors. Now don’t fret, yes this is a romance, and Jenna does get her knight in shining armor in the package of a holistic doctor named Ellington who is another bright spot on the character horizon. Where most authors would leave things there, our Ms. Mallery takes it a step or two further by bringing in more main characters, more problems and more solutions to really get our blood flowing, which of course works to perfection. The love scenes are very shadowy and hide behind the curtain of innuendo and vagueness and would not offend any reader but those of us all in favor of hot and spicy scenes, have no fear it’s plain enough that we’ll get it with no trouble at all.

Almost Home is telling us, it’s never too late to start over and you can go home again. It tells us that blood isn’t always thicker than water and family isn’t necessarily born into but made. It tells us that just because we fail at love once doesn’t mean we should give up, look long enough for it and it’ll come. So if all of that is what you look for in your romance, look no further and definitely put Already Home on your To Be Read pile right on top.
Visit the author’s website here
Buy the book here

Review of One Magic Moment by Lynn Kurland

One Magic Moment

Lynn Kurland

Jove a Division of The Penguin Group- Publish Date May 2011

ISBN 13: 9780515149517

384 pages

John de Piaget has many secrets and so when his world is literally turned upside down by a feisty medieval historian who just so happens to live in a neighboring castle he doesn’t know whether to give into or fight the longing she brings out in him. Tess Alexander is still reeling from loosing her sister Pippa, no she didn’t die, she went to live in the past, the medieval past with a real life medieval warrior for a husband, but Tess knows that life must go on and taking her car for repair seems a good way to start. That is until she gets a good look at the owner of the shop and if he’d just exchange jeans for hose and a t-shirt for a tunic he’d be the spitting image of her sister’s new husband, but that can’t be because he lives far away like 800 years away.

The de Piaget’s are one of Lynn Kurland’s prolific families in her series which switches between the modern day and UK in the middle ages. So in this plot you won’t be surprised to find people lurking in times not their own, and yes it’s fantastical but she brings believability to the table too by bringing us an up close and personal look at that time. Her dialogue is a mix of modern narrative with just a smidgen of aye’s and nays and arses to make it more enjoyable. Her characters are refreshing in their modesty and innocence in an otherwise very sexual orientated genre and yet she still emphasizes lust, love and all the things that go with them. Her hero John and heroine Tess are exquisite examples Ms. Kurland’s creative mind and will not let you down in their ability to keep us turning pages. Her romance is at once improbable at the worst impossible but somehow they pull it off. The love scenes are chaste and demure and yet even the most unyielding romance lover will not be disappointed with the lack of physical love.

If this is your first journey provided by Ms. Kurland my suggestion would be as soon as you read the last page visit Lynn Kurland’s website here and start from the very beginning find out where they all came from and where they ended up.
If you are a tried and true Lynn Kurland fan then this is your heaven, finding out the next chapter in this long lasting series. Stop by, pick a comfortable chair by the fire and read til your heart’s content.
Buy it here

Review of The Scoundrel by Claire Delacroix

The Scoundrel

Claire Delacroix

Kindle edition - AISN-B004WBJ6PS

File Size 467 KB

Gawain Lammergeir is a thief and a scoundrel, he’s been driven out of many places even his own brother’s keep so when he’s totally and entirely seduced by who he thinks is a woman of ill repute he looses more than a night’s sleep.
Fifteen years ago a thief came to Inverfyre and took not only it’s hospitality but it’s most cherished and treasure relic, one that has cost Inverfyre everything and Evangeline is willing to do anything to get that relic back and if that means seducing the scoundrel, so much the better because maybe she may get more than just the relic.

Welcome back to medieval Scotland and welcome back to the Lammergeir family of scoundrels and rogues. This is the story of Gawain the Scoundrel and Evangeline of Inverfyre his lady fair and what a tale it is with all the pageantry and pain that was the era. Ms. Delacroix is most accurate in her recounting of the simplicity as well as the enormousness of the period. With her storyline set in medieval Scotland where her readers will revel in castles and lords and ladies she continues her saga of the Lammergeir family in splendid detail. Her characters are also period accurate in their manner, speech and attire as well as the dialogue which is hard to understand at first but totally necessary and quite enjoyable after you get into the read. Her hero Gawain and heroine Evangeline are two exceptionally developed characters very in depth and detailed. Their romance is however at times a comedy of errors and at times a true tragedy for their seemingly unattainable love. The love scenes are sensual, sexy and sizzle on the page and at times are quite naughty for your reading pleasure.

If it’s been a while since you’ve read a historical romance or a while since you read Claire Delacroix, now’s the time to get reacquainted with her, her characters and her beautiful tales as two of her historical series are being re-released for the Kindle and there will be others to follow so stay tuned.
Ms. Delacroix, I only have one thing to say, well okay two things, Thank You and keep them coming.

By the Kindle edition here
By in used here
Visit the author’s website here

Review of Darkfire Kiss by Deborah Cooke

Darkfire Kiss

Deborah Cooke

Penguin Group- publish date May 2011

416 pages

ISBN-13: 9870451233493

The one thing that Rafferty Powell longs for is his firestorm, but when it comes it comes with an ancient omen, darkfire, an omen of change. The question is will that change be for the better or the worse. Melissa Smith is used to disappointments but she’s vowed to rise once again like the phoenix from the ashes, only it’s not a phoenix that she sees but dragons, honest to God fire breathing dragons and as she’s taking photos she tells herself what any self respecting journalist thinks, a picture is worth a thousand words. But she and Rafferty have much to do because with the darkfire comes the uncertainty of not only their future but the future of the entire planet.

Deborah Cooke can tell a story, let’s say a story about fire breathing, shape-shifting dragon people and have her audience not only believe her but want one for themselves. Okay that was me talking. She gives us story lines that comes straight from Marvel comics or from the pages of an Arthurian legend , but then she takes it one step further, she gives them heart and soul and makes it a romance to boot. Now if her story line is over the top how could you possible describe the characters, well that’s the easy part, they’re Awesome, Stupendous, and best of all handsome devils, uh I mean dragons. The main characters in this episode of the life and times of the Pyr. Rafferty and Melissa make a perfect pair and unlike some of the previous firestorms we’ve witnessed they don’t try to avoid or negate it, in fact they jump in with both feet and darn the consequences and consequences there are. The romance is almost painful to watch because these two really deserve their Happy Ever After and there’s so much against them, but when fate prevails you’ll be cheering along with the others while drying your tears of joy. The love scenes are, well they’re as hot as the fire the dragons breathe, it’s lusty and sexy and earthy and yeah you’ll need to lower the thermostat to get through it.

If this is your first dragon experience, have no fear this reads pretty well on it’s own, but then do yourself a huge favor and get the rest, find out where they came from and in the process you’ll find out where they’re going as well. Don’t wait until it comes out in May, pre-order it now. You won’t be sorry.

Here's a link to Deborah's Website http://www.deborahcooke.com/

Review of Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Lover Unleashed

J.R. Ward

New American Library a division of Penguin Group

512 pages - ISBN 13: 9780451233165

In case you’ve been raised by wolves, or for some other reason have never read J.R.’s fabulous series this intro is for you, for her fans, well read it anyway. Welcome to Caldwell NY, home of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, ancient order of warriors bonded together to protect their species, oh you didn’t know. They’re vampires. Now don’t go picturing Béla Lugosi, these are modern day males right up to the head thumping rap music they prefer, and forget about the pale skin and slight frame, these guys are huge with a capital H and there’s nothing pale about them, except maybe the faces of the humans they unexpectedly meet.
Payne, twin of Vishous and daughter of the Scribe Virgin has suffered a horrible injury while sparring with Wrath, and her only hope is the very human Dr. Manny Manello. Manny has mourned Jane’s death for more than a year, but his life is about to do a 180 when she just appears to him, she has a request that is too bizarre to even consider, a request that will literally change his life forever. Manny and Payne have an instant and irrevocable reaction to each other, but sometimes lives are just too different to mesh and obstacles are too many to count.

Ms. Ward takes us kicking and screaming back to her world with this excellent next installment of her series, with her ubér-urban narrative that fits these men so well, mixed with the softly refined speak of the chosen and the everyday lingo of the rest of the gang of brothers and their posses. Her plot is as fantastic as her characters and one of the exceptional things about this series is the multi-layering of the tales. Yes this is Payne’s and Manny’s story, but in the midst of it she weaves other pertinent stories through it so we’re not just experiencing one tale but the continuation of some and the beginnings of others. Her characters will never cease to amaze me in their complexity, their vulnerability and their depth and Payne and Manny will not disappoint but will live up to every expectation. The love story is touching, is raw and it’s emotional. The love scenes are just as visceral as we’re used to, just as physical and intimate as ever. Another characteristic that I love about this series and about Ms. Ward is her unbiased and loving approach to a relationship that is not heterosexual, the way she treats it and the characters involved in it and I for one cannot wait for the culmination of this particular drama.

If you’ve lived under a rock, come out and meet the brothers here for the first time but don’t kid yourself into thinking you won’t be loading your cart with the rest of the series and for fans like me be prepared to do nothing for the entire length of the novel because this is one you cannot put down.
Ms. Ward you just keep getting better and better, thank you.
Visit her website here.