Review of Eve by Iris Johansen

Only Two Days until Iris Johansen visits the B&N.com General Fiction Book club forum

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fiction-General-Discussion/Please-Welcome-Iris-Johansen-1-NY-Times-Bestselling-author/td-p/1189192

Don't miss this event or you'll be sorry Ms. Johansen will be visiting the board for one week Starting Wednesday November 2nd through Tuesday November 8th. Be There

Here's the review I did previously for the novel

Eve

Iris Johansen

St. Martin’s Press

416 pages Pub date April 2011

ISBN-13: 9780312651206

In the beginning there was “Eve” come read the first in the brand new trilogy that will finally answer all our questions.

Eve Duncan after all the efforts not to, turned out to be more like her mother than she liked when at 16 she turned up pregnant, but Bonnie soon became the apple of her eye and the sun in her morning, one day 7 years later the sun stopped rising when Bonnie was kidnapped and murdered, but her body has never been recovered. Eve became a forensic sculptor to bring other lost children home, and in the same moment of her greatest tragedy met the man who stands beside her always, Joe Quinn. But Eve has one constant dream, a dream that has often come with a price between Joe and she and that dream is to bring Bonnie home. In Eve we will relive her early years and finally be introduced to the boy who broke through that tough untouchable exterior to find the hidden Eve and fathered Bonnie. We will in fact get as close as we ever have to finding out who killed Bonnie and if Eve and Joe survive the answer they may not survive the perpetrator.

Ms. Johansen amazing teller of tales has really outdone herself this time as she reveals secrets that her characters have kept for decades. She will do it with the storyline that have kept fans coming back year after year and have garnered new fans at every episode, the real story of what happened to Bonnie Duncan. She will do it with her trademark to the point narrative that works so well with her very direct and in your face characters. Some of these characters will be new to us and some will be like family or old friends but all of them play an intricate part of this story. Is this a love story, yes, but it might be a stretch to call it a romance even though there are love scenes involved, but they only exist in the periphery, but periphery or not they will still steam the lenses of your glasses, so keep out of reach of children and on the top shelf of the bookcase. Wherever you want to file it one thing for certain is that this is a thriller from the nail biting beginning to the edge of your seat ending.

Whether you’re the biggest Eve Duncan and Joe Quinn fan or a first time visitor to their world, you will not be sorry you made the trip. And for fans of the series this is a must read.

Here's a link to her website

http://www.irisjohansen.com/

Interview With # 1 New York Times Bestselling author Iris Johansen

Read the interview and then starting Wednesday November 2 through Tuesday November 8 visit

The B&N.com Fiction General Discussion Forum

To chat with this amazing and talented author

Iris first I want to tell you what a joy it is to have one of my favorite authors visit the B&N General Fiction Forum. I have read and enjoyed you for many years first in genre romance and then on to suspense and finally collaborating with your son Roy.

Debbie - My first question is—take us back to the beginning of your career as an author, was there something particular that precipitated your wanting to write novels?

Iris-

A. I was always a voracious reader even as a child. I loved the storytelling and I suppose it was natural that I eventually wanted to tell stories of my own. From the fourth grade on I was writing as well as reading. I had no ambition to make it a career. It was just an exciting and wonderful hobby. Then after I was out of school I was too busy living life and having children and trying to make a living to continue writing. I didn’t get back to it until my children were in high school and I realized that the empty nest would soon be looming. I was going to have to make a new life for myself. So I scraped the barnacles off my brain and started writing again. To my shock I found that the wonderful hobby soon became a passion.

D -My second question is about the Eve Duncan series, which I have enjoyed every one and even more so enjoyed Eve, Quinn and now Bonnie. Where did the idea for this series come from and did you plan on it being this long lasting?

Iris

A. Eve Duncan came into being one night when I was watching a documentary on forensic sculpting on television. I’d never heard of the career and it completely fascinated me. I began to think about what kind of background would cause someone to become a forensic sculptor. It’s such a dark and sad skill that it would take someone of great strength of character and purpose to make it her life’s work. Then Eve Duncan began to come alive for me. I started to write Face of Deception and became totally fascinated by both her character and her forensic sculpting career. I did in-depth research and her world slowly became my world. I never intended for there to be more than one book about Eve Duncan but when I reached the end I knew her story wasn’t finished. I thought I’d do just one more. But after Killing Game I’d introduce other characters I loved into her world and I didn’t want to leave them. The books went on and on and I never grew tired of them. But I gradually realized that there were questions that had to be answered for both me and the readers. So I brought Bonnie out of the shadows with the trilogy. It was a fascinating, heartbreaking, curiously joyful experience.

D - As I mentioned before I have enjoyed all of your novels and also enjoyed the one’s you wrote with your son Roy. I can feel the different rhythm in these novels and hear the different voice that Roy imparts even though the flow of the narrative and plot is flawless. How was working with your son? Was the process smooth or were there bumps along the way?

Iris

A. I love writing the collaborations with Roy. It’s great fun and completely different from writing my own books. I agree with you that the books are different but I think you can see the way we challenge each other. We start out with a general plot and ideas about the characters and then we go for it. Because we both write by the seat of our pants, the plot changes constantly as we trade individual chapters back and forth. Often we have to figure how to go forward and rescue a character the other one has put in jeopardy. It’s exciting and fun and an adventure to tap each other’s talents to write the very best book we can and make it totally seamless as a story. Is it difficult? Of course. It wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable if it was easy. Roy is a screenwriter who has had feature films made and written books of his own. I’ve been writing in several genres for years and I’m fairly set in my ways. We had to learn to put egos aside and do what was best for the book. He lives in L.A., I live in Atlanta, and we did most of the collaboration long distance. But we both thought it was worth any problems because the books were different and fresh and we loved doing them.

D - One of the things that I love most about your novels is the connectivity you keep with your previous protagonists. I really enjoy catching up on their lives while taking a new journey with someone else. In this respect, what’s next for Eve and her co-stars?

Iris

A. Remember Catherine Ling? I’m totally fascinated by her character and background. She’s appeared with Eve in the Trilogy and Chasing the Night but I had to give her a story of her own. What Doesn’t Kill You delves deep into her past and we get to know her better. John Gallo is also a star in that book and Hu Chang, her lethal friend, is mesmerizing. The next Eve Duncan introduces two new characters Beth Avery and Kendra Michaels and there is no way that they’ll be left behind. Kendra is so unusual…

D - Anyone who reads your novels will find a four legged friend inside many of the pages and visiting your website here can see your personal zoo as well. Has there always been animals in your home and your life?

Iris

A. I’ve had dogs in my life since childhood. I love them and I try to help them in any way I can. I have several dogs I’ve rescued and at present there are eight in my home and everyone leaves their dogs with me when they go on vacation. No problem. I have room on the farm(which also has horses and buffalo) and I’d rather they have company than be in a kennel. I also have feral cats on the property that I feed and watch over. I built a two unit Kitty condo with heat and balconies and they appear to be very happy.

D - For the last question tell us something that would surprise us to learn about you.

Iris

A. That’s difficult to answer. I’m afraid I’m fairly boring. Just your ordinary workaholic who lives on a hill and loves her family and animals. Oh, and once a year I try to get away with my best friends who are also three of the best writers in the business, Linda Howard, Catherine Coulter and Kay Hooper. We’ve known each other since we all began writing decades ago and our friendship has never faltered. In this fast paced, ever changing world perhaps that is something of a surprise.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us this month I, my members and others all over the forums are looking forward to it.

Review of Bring Me Home For Christmas by Robyn Carr

Bring Me Home for Christmas-Virgin River Series
Robyn Carr
Mira
ISBN13:9780778312710
336 pages

Just when Becca Timm thinks life is lemonade she gets a case of lemons, she’s lost her teaching job when the school shut down, and her beau of one year is showing signs of question popping. That should thrill any girl and it would Becca too if she hadn’t been wondering if maybe the right guy is her ex. When she suddenly finds herself in a fortuitous position to find out she decides to jump at the chance.
Denny Cutler has made a new life for himself from the ashes of the one he left behind, he now has the friends that he would have chosen as family and there’s only one thing missing and that’s all his fault.
These two have many unanswered questions, but there’s also many wounds that need to be healed before there’s ever any chance of second chances.

Robyn Carr brings us tale after wonderful tale of Virgin River and her residents some old some new and like all series readers endear themselves to a character above all others as the author hints and teases us about their eventual story. Well in Virgin River that character is definitely Denny, we’ve seen him from the beginning first as a stranger and now deeply ensconced into life in this bucolic community as a respected and needed member of town. Her plot is my all time favorite, a second chance Christmas romance and she brings it with the narrative to fit the town the characters and the lifestyle, easy going, easy to read and at an easy pace. Her characters are wonderful, some of which we’ve known for years and are just as close to us as our neighbors and some are brand new and are just starting their push into our lives and our hearts. Her hero is an all American boy next door, not perfect but perfect anyway. Our heroine is the female equivalent of the male, she’s the typical girl next door, the one you bring home to meet the folks and put a ring on her finger. Their romance is painful to watch sometimes and at others we will cheer with loud voices for them. The love scenes are hot and sexy and bring a new meaning to the word ‘”smokin”.

So come back to Virgin River, or maybe this is your first journey there, it doesn’t matter just pull up a chair in front of the fire and settle in for another must read tale from Virgin River by one of the best storytellers out there and there's no need to wait, it comes out today.
Thank you Ms. Carr for another enlightening, enjoyable and heartfelt trip to one of my all time favorite towns.

Buy the book visit the author's website here.

Review of Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins

Until There Was You
Kristan Higgins
Harlequin
ISBN13:9780373776115
384 pages

Cordelia Wiilhelmina Osterhagen aka Posey has a family who loves her, although she’s adopted, a menagerie of pets, a unique residence and an eclectic occupation, has always been on the petite side, so much that she still shops in the kids section. She wants the dream, the husband the 2.1 kids but it’s safe to say she’s been unlucky in love. She had her heart broken in high school by the local bad boy and now that bad boy is back in town.
Liam Declan Murphy found the girl of his dreams, married her, had a daughter and lost her in a tragic way. So now he’s back with his daughter to the one place he thinks she will be safe and happy and close to her grandparents. He’s not looking for nor is he ready for love, of course that doesn’t stop half the women in town most of who he’s already known biblically in high school. What he doesn’t expect is Poesy Osterhagen filling a certain void in his lonely, unfulfilled life. But is it love that’s making his heart pump too fast and his hands to sweat, is it a panic attack.

What could be better than a big dog, a bad boy and a pixie of a girl and when you put them all together they spell one heck of a romance. And who better to push the start button than Kristan Higgins who’s unforgettable love stories are the stuff of legends and this one’s no different with this one in a million love story. She brings us a plot straight out of any females worst nightmare of high school life if she happened to be like most of us on the opposing side from the popular girls. She brings it with a narrative that will perfectly instill the mania of the hero, the ecclecticness of the heroine and the goofiness of the dog, yes there’s always a dog. She gives us characters that will stand the test of time so much so that you could pick this back up in 20 years and still be wowed, amused and humbled by it. She will make sure that you really know these people so much so that you’d recognize them on the street. Her hero is the ever popular bad boy with a good heart and her heroine is the ever popular good hearted woman, yes they’re just Joe and Jane normal, no superhero, no prince or Queen just folks from next door and around the corner, people that you just might bump into at the grocery store. Then she throws in the all American doomed romance and somehow makes it all come out in the end and gives us that all too elusive happy ever after. Be ware of the love scenes, you may need to read them under a fan.
Get ready for a November must read where hopefully the weather is cool enough to offset the heat of the book.
Thank you Ms. Higgins once again for a great story, great couple and great romance.

This novel comes out tomorrow, stand in line for this one you won't be sorry. Buy the book here visit the author's website here.

Review of The Darkest Surrender by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Surrender
Gena Showalter
Mira
ISBN13:9780373775811

As the keeper of Defeat, Strider will experience incredible pain with each lost challenge and in his and his fellow keepers of Pandora’s box of demons that’s not easy in their fight against the Hunters and their constant search for the artifacts that will set them free. One challenge he has no problem with is finding the Harpy Kaia alluring, because that she is, but he also can’t give into his craving for her because she broke a golden rule of his.
Kaia has lived for centuries with tremendous guilt for the pain she’s caused her kind and for the mother’s respect it cost her. She’s wanted nothing so much as to make it right and now after so long she just may get to with the help of the one man she’s lusted after but never been able to latch on to. But in order to do this she needs several things, one Strider to fill in as her consort even temporarily, two a team that can kick the other Harpy teams butt and three a chance to show her mother that she is no longer Kaia the Disappointment, in the eyes of her family, her fellow Harpies and most of all of Strider.
Keeping their lust for each other under control is the least of their worries and they have more to worry about than Hunters because they’re finding it hard to find allies amongst any of the Harpy clans and villains coming at them from all directions. Whether by fate or destiny they will have many obstacles to overcome and even then their chances for happiness together are small.

Gena Showalter brings us number 10 in her Lords of the Underwold series, a group of testosterone filled males with the exception of their one female counterpart. And as we’ve gotten to know these immortal beings we’ve learned a little more about their origins, their frailties and their strengths as well. In this installment of the life and times of the survivors of the Pandora’s box incident Ms. Showalter gives us the keeper of the demon of defeat’s story, which is ripe with the history of what made him who he is and of Kaia the Harpy who once lost everything and had suffered for it for eons and how they seem to fit together and the trouble they have to go through to get together. The plot of course is right of a DC comic book, no reality here all fantasy, but it’s the tale and the characters who rule this series and this novel as well. How can you not love a damaged hero when there’s a big question mark whether these are heros at all or really evil beings who should be erased from the face of the earth by their enemies. The hero and heroine in this novel are doomed it seems and readers will have the time of their life watching them stumble and fall toward that happy ever after, and it’s a real ever after when you’re dealing with immortal beings too. The romance is between two flawed characters and the love scenes are down and dirty while still being adoring.
Thank you Ms. Showalter for another great read about your bad boys of Olympus, and the women who choose to love them.
And of course the one everyone is waiting for is next The Darkest Seduction, Paris’ story out February of 2012 which is on my wish list already.

Buy the book here sign up for the author's fan site here

November at the B&N.com Fiction General Discussion Forum

This is an exciting month at General Fiction forum at B&N.com and I'm still pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

Drum Roll Please!!

Iris Johansen the #1 New York Times bestselling author will be visiting the forum for a week starting Wednesday November 2nd through Tuesday November 8th. She'll be with us to answer questions about her writing, her series and just to chat with us so mark your calendars so you don't miss out on this.

November's featured Read is Eve just released in paperback, the first in Ms. Johansen's trilogy focusing on the disappearance and presumed murder of Eve's young daughter Bonnie and the discussion begins Monday November 7th. The two subsequent novels in the trilogy have also been released Quinn and just yesterday Bonnie.

Also premiering Sunday October 30 at 8pm Eastern, Ms. Johansen's novel The Killing Game, based on an Eve Duncan novel of the same name has been adapted for TV and airing on the LifteTime Network so be sure to tune in.

Starring: Laura Prepon, Naomi Judd Genre: Suspense

Upcoming Airdates:

• Sun Oct 30 at 8 PM

  

  
• Mon Oct 31 at 12 AM

  

  
• Wed Nov 2 at 8 PM

  

  
• Thu Nov 3 at 12 AM

  

  

And then come on over for the discussion on Eve and the conversation with Ms. Johansen at The Fiction General Fiction Discussion forum and check back often for further updates about November's featured read. Also for more about Ms. Johansen, her novels and what's happening with her check out her website.

And be sure to check back here at the blog for my interview with Ms. Johansen on Friday and the reviews of her novels early next week.

Review of A Lawman's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller

A Lawman’s Christmas

A Lawman's Christmas

A McKettricks of Texas Novel

Linda Lael Miller

Harlequin

ISBN13:978037377614

Clay McKettrick son of Chloe and Jeb, grandson of Angus has left the homestead in the Arizona Territory to set out to make his own mark in Texas. He takes a temporary position as Marshall of Blue River while buying a large parcel of land and ordering a house out of the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. It might be 1912, but he’s still not sure he’ll install electricity. He wants it all, a home and a family and as soon as he’s settled he’ll start looking around for a suitable wife.

Dora Rose Nolan has finally run out of luck, her deceased husband and former Marshall gave her the right to stay in the little cottage provided by the town but a new Marshall is coming and that means she’ll be out on the street if she can’t find someway to provide for herself and her two small daughters.

Fate it seems has plans for these two searching people, can they make lemonade out of lemons, will there be Christmas magic or is it all just an illusion.

The Queen of the western romance takes us back in time to revisit one of her most prolific families and in doing so brings to light the many industrial miracles of the early 20^th Century, telephones, electricity and the house kits sold by Sears and Roebuck. She also brings us a timeless tale about faith about kindness and about love in the face of adversities. The plot is a simple tale of love and loss and most of all of believing. Ms. Miller always floors me how she can move so seamlessly from modern time to the past and her dialogue is a prime example as you’ll see as you read about a simpler time and very different ways than we’re used to today. Her characters are so wonderful and in addition to her hero and heroine the two little girls will rule the pages with their wistful wishes and their down to earth practicality. The romance is timeless in its simplicity and it’s heady in its sensuality and no one who loves a great romance will get through this without a tear and a smile.

You may want to add this to your list for Santa, or better yet run out and buy yourself an early gift, in this, your first must read of the Holiday Season.

Ms. Miller it is an honor to read one of your novels, there are few authors who continually wow me with their consistent excellence. Thank you for always taking me on a journey I never want to end.

Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Photo by John Hall Photography