I love Christmas romances.  Every year I anticipate the new books that will be released even as I’m unpacking ones from previous years to re-read.  Nothing gets me into the holiday spirit more than feel-good, happy-ending Christmas stories.  Toss in sexy Highlanders in kilts and I’m giddy with joy!  A Highlander Christmas, which will be released November 3rd, brings us the following three stories from authors Dawn Halliday, Cindy Miles and Sophie Renwick.

Winter Heat by Dawn Halliday

“On her deathbed, Maggie’s mother had handed her daughter the brooch, saying Maggie must keep it with her always; for it possessed the magical ability to detect a MacDonald woman’s lifelong soul mate.”

This steamy historical is the story of Maggie MacDonald, a woman facing an unwanted marriage to a despicable clansman and Logan Douglas, a wounded Jacobite returning home from battle as the new laird of his clan, following his brother’s death.  A sparkling brooch in the snow leads Logan to discover Maggie, unconscious and half-frozen after escaping a kidnapping by the man her cousin, the laird, plans for her to wed.  Taking shelter in a nearby cottage, Logan and Maggie fall in love as she nurses his wounds but his responsibility to his clan and her laird’s insistence that she marry another threaten to tear them apart.  Has Maggie’s brooch really led her to her lifelong soul mate or were her mother’s words just a silly, superstitious tale?   In Winter Heat, Halliday (who also writes as Jennifer Haymore) gives us an intense, fast-paced story that, while not quite as racy as her other books, is sexy and very enjoyable.

Yuletide Enchantment by Sophie Renwick

“Be warned, miss.  Those who go into the woods at night don’t come out.”

Isobel was six years old the first time she saw the White Hart and has felt a magical bond with the stag ever since.  She has heard the tales of the Sidhe who inhabit the otherworld and has heeded the warnings to never enter the woods at night but when the stag is wounded by her brother’s arrow Isobel is drawn to the woods to make sure he is okay.  As Prince of the Sidhe and future King of Annwyn, Daegan can take the shape of both the White Hart and a human man.  Expected to wed one of his own, he has resisted as Isobel, a human woman, has held his heart from the day he first saw her.  When they finally meet as man and woman, the feelings that have grown within their hearts over the years are set free to flourish but they come from different worlds where each has responsibilities, commitments and family.  Will the sacrifices required to be together be too great for them to overcome?   I thoroughly enjoyed this sensuous historical paranormal tale and was delighted to discover that Renwick intends to return to Annwyn in 2010 with the story of Bran, one of the characters readers will meet in Yuletide Enchantment.

A Christmas Spirit by Cindy Miles

“A strange, pleasurable sensation tingled the sensitive skin, turning her lips warm, and making her heart race…She’d never felt so alive, so wanted.  All from a ghostly kiss, without any real contact.”

Determined to not spend another Christmas alone, Paige MacDonald is on her way to Inverness, Scotland when her car breaks down in a snowstorm and she ends up on the doorstep of the seemingly deserted Gorloch B&B where she is greeted by a gorgeous, but decidedly inhospitable, Gabriel Munro.  Gabriel reluctantly agrees to give her a room for the night but won’t help her with anything, making her get her own room key from the rack, carry her own luggage and even fix her own meals.  The reason for this becomes clear when Paige trips and falls…right through the man standing in front of her!  Unless the storm clears, it appears that, this year, Paige will be spending Christmas with the ghostly spirit of a centuries-old Highland warrior.  I wasn’t sure if I could suspend belief enough to accept a love story between a woman and a ghost but Paige and Gabriel’s story is so finely crafted that I had no problem.  In fact, it was my favorite of the three.  Miles did a superb job of creating a life-like man with the limitations of a spirit.  The romantic scenes in particular were simmering with sensuality while, at the same time, very poignant.  A Christmas Spirit is, by turns, a humorous, heartbreaking and heartwarming gift not to be missed.

What new holiday romances are you anticipating?  Do you keep and re-read the ones from previous years?  Any tried and true favorites you would recommend?

Reviewed by:  PJ Ausdenmore
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
4 Stars

If you’re in the mood for laugh-out-loud humor, steamy romance, quirky characters and   sigh-worthy happy endings then this is the book for you.  So Into You goes back to the Louisiana Bayou for the story of Grace O’Brien and Angel Sabato, two secondary characters from Hill’s Jinx series.

“The angel was wild tonight…”

Grace O’Brien is stunned to learn that Angel Sabato, her long-time best friend, thinks he’s in love with her.  After running from a troubled childhood, the former nun, professional poker player and treasure hunter has finally found peace in the bayou as Tante Lulu’s folk healing apprentice.  She doesn’t want to hurt Angel and possibly lose her best friend but secrets from her past make it impossible for Grace to ever marry.  Besides, that gorgeous hunk of man couldn’t possibly love her.  Could he?

“The best-laid plans of mice and clueless men…”

Angel is tired of playing the field and hiding his true feelings for Grace.  He wants to settle down, get married and have a family.  The time has come to convince Grace to give love, with him, a chance.  He’s a big, bad, motorcycle-riding professional poker player, treasure hunter and contractor.  He even posed naked for Playgirl magazine! (though he doesn’t like to talk about that)  Surely, he can convince one little redheaded ex-nun to give him a chance.

“Even angels need a little help from above…”

When Angel strikes out, his only hope of finally breaking through the wall around Grace’s heart is to put himself into the hands of that crazy old Cajun, Tante Lulu.  With her male hope chests, “thunderbolts of love” and hundreds of St. Jude statues, not to mention her equally wacky, but highly successful, matchmaking family, Grace is sure to see the light.  He hopes.

Hill writes snappy, rapid-fire dialogue that keeps the story flowing and her characters’ internal monologues are hilarious but her books are not all humor and no substance.  Serious topics are tackled in this book, such as the devastation of Katrina, from which the residents of southern Louisiana are still trying to recover, and the secret from her past that Grace is hiding.  Both are integral to the story and written in such a way as to complement the love story, not detract from it, and while both carry an important message, they are presented with Hill’s trademark warmth and humor.

Pick up a copy of So Into You and, as they say in the bayou, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez. Let the good times roll!

Reviewed by:  PJ Ausdenmore
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
4.5 Stars

Venice, Italy is one of my favorite cities.  Beautiful during the day, Venice epitomizes romance with grand palaces, elaborate bridges and, of course, gondolas but when the sun goes down a faintly sinister atmosphere cloaks her dark alleys and canals.  When I wander through Venice in the daylight I can appreciate her history while remaining firmly in the 21^st century but when I walk her narrow, shadowy streets at night I can almost believe that I have been transported back to the 15^th century.   Those qualities make this ancient city by the sea the perfect setting for Loucinda McGary’s exciting new romantic suspense story, one with an intriguing paranormal twist.

Pretending to be the handsome Irishman’s girlfriend for the afternoon is Librarian, Samantha Lewis’s second impulsive act.  The first one was taking the 10-day tour of Italy that would have been her honeymoon if her long-time fiancé hadn’t dumped her three weeks before the wedding.  The old Sam would never have gone off with the sexy stranger, even if he does seem familiar, but the “new and improved” Sam is ready to throw caution out the window, at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.   It’s only after she’s placed herself firmly in his grasp that she realizes where she’s seen him – the night before, in her dreams about 15^th century Venice.

Black-haired, blue-eyed Irish charmer, Kiernan Fitzgerald is on a dangerous mission to locate the missing Jewels of the Madonna, the ransom necessary to rescue his kidnapped sister, and is not above using a lovely American as a temporary cover.  He’s never seen the woman before and only intends for her to accompany him on a brief tour of The Doge’s Palace before going their separate ways but when he is stabbed and left to die in a canal later that night, the person he goes to for help is Sam, the woman with whom he feels an inexplicably strong connection.

McGary plunges Sam and Kiernan into the depths of a dark and dangerous mystery, racing against time, and unknown enemies, to find the jewels that have been lost for centuries, their only hope of saving the life of Kiernan’s sister.  In a clever twist, as the present story unfolds, so too does the 1485 tale of Nino, a poor sculptor and Seraphina, a young woman being forced by her wealthy parents to marry her dead sister’s husband.  Through Sam’s dreams we watch Nino and Seraphina struggle with their unexpected and increasingly intense feelings for one another while Sam and Kiernan travel a parallel path in the present.   As the 15^th century love story slowly unfolds will the story of the lost jewels be unveiled as well?  Has Sam been “chosen” to be the person to solve the mystery or could Sam and Kiernan really be the 15^th century soul-mates, Nino and Seraphina, destined to love for an eternity?

For heart-stopping suspense and passionate romance set amidst the historic grandeur of Venice, Italy you can’t go wrong with Loucinda McGary’s The Treasures of Venice.

The Pendragon Legacy – Book 1
Reviewed by:  PJ Ausdenmore
4.5 Stars

No children have been born on Earth for two generations.  Pollution has left her inhabitants sterile and the human race faces certain extinction but one man, archeologist and linguist, Lucan Rourke believes there is a way to reverse the sterility.  He’s heard the legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the mythical Holy Grail, a cup supposedly containing healing properties that legend says Arthur left in Avalon.  Explorers have searched for Avalon for centuries without success but now, deep in a cave in the shadow of Cadbury Castle, Lucan has found a star map, thousands of years old, yet more accurately detailed than if it had been produced with today’s space telescopes – a map detailing the path to a moon named Pendragon, King Arthur’s last name, and printed below the moon, a single word – Avalon.  All Lucan has to do to save his planet is find the Holy Grail…in Avalon…on Pendragon…on the other side of the universe.

A member of Pendragon’s scientific team, Lady Cael also is searching for the Holy Grail, hoping to use its healing properties for the good of her people and to save the life of someone very dear to her.  As her people’s healer and High Priestess, she has been set apart from others since the age of five, both feared, and revered, fated to spend her life alone, never touched and never loved.  Only Lucan, the newest member of the scientific team working to unlock the secrets of Avalon, has ever looked beyond her title and treated her as a person, as a woman, but she dare not encourage his interest for every Dragonian knows the penalty for touching the High Priestess is swift and irreversible.

When the scientific team is betrayed by those who seek the Holy Grail for corruptive personal power, it sends Lucan and Cael running for their lives.  From freezing mountain tops to blazing beaches to secret caves and tunnels, they must learn to trust one another and work together if they hope to defeat the evil forces and free the Holy Grail.   They must also deal with the blazing attraction between them.  Lucan is a “well-traveled” man and Cael is virginal but when she is finally awakened to the pleasure of Lucan’s touch she becomes a force to be reckoned with.  This is a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to demand it and Lucan is definitely up to the task. (pun intended)  The sex is hot, passionate, at times almost animalistic in intensity, yet excruciatingly tender at others.  These two seem to have been made for each other but secrets, Cael’s unique heritage,   Lucan’s desperate need to save his planet, a corrupted military and another “offworlder” who may or may not be an ally, threaten to tear them, and their respective worlds, apart.

Susan Kearney captivated me with her action-packed, emotional tale of Arthurian legend, intergalactic space travel, dragonshapers and other inhabited worlds throughout our vast, and largely unexplored, universe.  To be honest, I couldn’t turn the pages of this book fast enough while, at the same time, I didn’t want the story to end.  Luckily, LUCAN is the first book in Kearney’s The Pendragon Legacy trilogy which means I have two more to look forward to.  RION, the second book in the trilogy will be released November 24^th

“I was much, much younger then.  The beating didn’t start right after we were wed.  He set about destroying my confidence first.  I was naïve, and frightened, too, and when you are called ignorant and unworthy over and over again by someone who is supposed to love and protect you, well, in time a part of you will begin to believe some of the nonsense.”

Even though a part of Johanna withered during her three year marriage to a monster and she was understandably frightened of men, she never completely lost her inner core of strength.  Knowing that to fight back verbally or physically would mean severe beatings and possibly death at her husband’s hands she chose, instead, what the book’s hero describes as “acts of quiet defiance”, such as secretly learning to read and write after being told by her husband that women were not capable of learning such skills.   And, even though she’s sure she’ll go to Hell, she refuses to believe Bishop Hallwick’s hierarchy that says women are “last in God’s love, even below dull-witted oxen.”  There’s that quiet defiance again.

I asked Julie Garwood about her inspiration for the character of Johanna and she graciously responded;

“I remember at the time I wrote that book there was a great deal in the news about domestic abuse. I had done some work for a local abuse center and saw how frightened abuse victims could be.  They were my inspiration for Johanna.  Since I wanted to set the story in medieval times, I did some research in medieval history.  I already knew that medieval women were often treated as second class citizens, but I vaguely remembered reading or hearing about a medieval church hierarchy where women were placed beneath even the lowest of animals.  I set out to find it.  With the help of a reference librarian at the university I found what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, it was written in Latin.  I knew enough Latin to tell that it was the hierarchy but not enough to translate the entire passage, so I found a Latin teacher who did it for me.  You’ll find a variation of what was translated at the beginning of Saving Grace.”

After the death of her first husband, Johanna is finally freed from her hellish marriage and, understandably, has no desire to wed again but King John orders her to marry another of his favored barons, a man just as despicable as her dead husband.  That inner core of strength again rises to the surface with Johanna using cunning and intelligence to delay the wedding until she can find a way out of the union.  The solution, proposed by her brother, is to marry her to Laird Gabriel MacBain and send her to Scotland where she will be out of the reach of King John and his devious friends.  You can imagine her fear when, after having been a human punching bag for three long years, she first sees the huge warrior to whom she is to be married.

“Her mind raced from one worry to another…Dear God, could she survive purgatory again?  The possibility that she could be marrying another monster made her weep with self-pity.  She was immediately ashamed of herself.  Was she really such a coward after all?  Had Raulf been right to ridicule her?”

“No, no, she was a strong woman.  She could handle anything that came her way.  She would not give in to the fear or allow herself to have such low thoughts about herself.  She had value, damn it…didn’t she?”

This is where her long journey back to a confident, strong, trusting and loving woman begins.  As is often the case with someone who has been abused, there are steps forward and steps back and I was glad Garwood didn’t try to rush the process but I liked that Johanna had the resolve to try to take control of her life, even while dealing with her fear, beginning with her and Gabriel’s wedding ceremony, and continuing to move forward, sometimes one small step at a time, even in the face of inevitable set-backs.

“The ceremony was going along quite nicely until Father MacKechnie asked her to promise to love, honor, and obey her husband.  She considered his request a long minute.  Then she shook her head and turned to the groom.  She motioned for him to lean down and stretched up on tiptoe so that she could whisper in his ear.  “I will try to love you, m’lord, and I’ll certainly honor you because you’ll be my husband, but I don’t believe I’ll obey you much.  I’ve found that total submissiveness doesn’t agree with me.”

“She was wringing the petals off the stems of her flowers while she was explaining her position.  She couldn’t look him in the eye either but stared at his chin while she waited for his reaction.”

I also liked that she hadn’t lost her kindness or her belief that there might be good men in the world – that they weren’t all monsters like her dead husband.  She had learned through hard experience to be cautious but she hadn’t completely closed her heart to the possibility of love.  She hadn’t lost her ability to laugh either and, as she becomes more secure and more confident, her quirky sense of humor becomes more evident in her interactions with Gabriel and the members of his clan.  She’s small, blonde and beautiful, with a bruised spirit, leading her new husband to initially believe that she’s fragile and weak though he never doubts her intelligence or determination.  But, as her heart and spirit gradually heal, her confidence grows and when she’s tested we see that she is strong and courageous, with the heart of a lion.  It’s a pure pleasure to see her come into her own by the end of the book.  She not only wins the heart of her hero but also the hearts of his clan, as well as the heart of this reader.  Gabriel says it best toward the end of the book.

“She was telling Alex the truth.  It was a fact that maidens could rescue mighty, arrogant warriors.  Johanna had certainly rescued him from a bleak, cold existence.  She’d given him a family and a home.  She was his love, his joy, his companion.  She was his saving grace.”

Saving Grace is my go-to comfort read.  I’ve read the book so many times since its 1994 release that I am now on my third paperback copy and this one is starting to look a little ragged around the edges.  I hope that you will enjoy Saving Grace as much as I do each time I read it and that you will like Johanna and be as proud of her as I am.

If you have read Saving Grace, what did you think of Johanna?  Who is your favorite Julie Garwood heroine?  What makes her special?

Tell us about your favorite historical heroines.  I’m always happy to add to my historical tbr mountain!

Reviewed by PJ Ausdenmore

I enjoy historical western romance and, for my money, Linda Lael Miller’s books are some of the best on the market.  Her latest release, The Bridegroom, is the fourth book in her Stone Creek series and tells the story of Lydia Fairmont and Gideon Yarbro.  Lydia and Gideon were first introduced to readers two years ago in A Wanted Man and although they were only eight and sixteen, respectively it was apparent that a strong bond had formed between the two.  Fate separated them when Lydia’s wealthy aunt arrived to take her orphaned niece to Phoenix to live but Gideon couldn’t turn his back on the frightened little girl even though he knew chances were good he would never see her again.  He gave her a sealed envelope, addressed to him, with a single sheet of paper enclosed that said, “Please come and get me right away” and told her to send it if she was ever in trouble and needed him.  The next ten years passed with no communication between the two but Gideon never forgot Lydia and Lydia never got rid of the letter.

1915 – Phoenix, Arizona

Forced to accept smarmy Mr. Fitch’s proposal of marriage in order to save her family’s home and prevent her two elderly aunts from being turned out into the street by the crooked banker, Lydia Fairmont impulsively mails the letter Gideon Yarbro gave her ten years ago.   She has no idea if he will come or if he even remembers her but he’s her last hope of avoiding a miserable marriage to a repulsive man.

Gideon is on his way home to Stone Creek to complete a secret mission for his employers when he receives Lydia’s letter.  He loves his life traveling the country as a Wells Fargo agent and has no desire to settle in one place but when he responds to Lydia’s plea for help and spirits her away to Stone Creek, his brothers quickly convince him that the only way he can protect her from Fitch is to marry her himself.  Knowing he will no longer be welcome in Stone Creek once the residents find out the real reason he has come home, he agrees but tells Lydia that their marriage will be in name only because the day will come when he will have to leave her, and their marriage, behind.  Will he stick to his vow or will Lydia’s growing confidence, Gideon’s growing desire, well-meaning family and an interfering housekeeper help this couple uncover their true feelings for one another and forge a permanent relationship?  Or, will someone determined to remove Gideon permanently take the decision out of his hands?

Miller has a talent for bringing the old west to life and drawing the reader into the lives of her characters.   Fans of this series should enjoy Gideon and Lydia’s journey as well as catching up with Gideon’s brothers, Rowdy and Wyatt and their families.

Reviewed by PJ Ausdenmore
Publisher: Random House
5 Stars

One lucky poster will win The Dangerous Book of Excerpts by Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan, which contains excerpts from Tessa’s first three books and from Courtney’s debut novella (10/09) and debut single title (1/10), plus other goodies from the RWA conference.

Every year there seems to be one debut author who bursts upon the scene and absolutely knocks my socks off with her superb writing skill.  This year, that author is Tessa Dare.  In her debut book, Goddess of the Hunt, Dare showcases her command of the English language with exquisite prose that sings across the pages with a lyrical quality that is a joy to read.  Her characters are so vividly drawn that they practically leap from the pages and her story unerringly hits all the right notes.

Irrepressible Lucy Waltham has fancied herself in love with Sir Toby since the tender age of eleven, when her older brother’s friend dubbed her his “Diana, Goddess of the Hunt”.    She has bided her time, knowing in her heart that one day Toby would awaken to his real feelings for her, but now, eight years later, her brother’s friends have arrived for their annual gathering and, for the first time, Toby is exhibiting a serious interest in someone.  Lucy has no choice but to seduce him and show him that she is the woman of his dreams and the one he is meant to marry, not Miss Sophia Hathaway.  Unfortunately for Lucy, she has never even been kissed but she has a book that explains everything.  All she needs now is someone with whom to practice.

“Lucy! What the devil do you think you’re doing?”  “Shhhh.”  Her eyes darted to either side, scanning the darkened corridor.  Then her gaze tilted back up to his, narrowing with a disturbing intensity, and Jeremy fancied briefly – absurdly – that someone had painted a target on his face.

Jeremy Trescott has always treasured his visits to Waltham Manor, the home of his good friend, Henry Waltham.  It’s the only place where he has ever been able to relax and be himself.  Growing up with parents who showed neither love nor appreciation for their son, Jeremy learned to close off his emotions years ago.  In truth, the only person who has ever been able to get a rise out of him is Lucy, his friend’s exasperating younger sister and in Jeremy’s own words, his “personal version of a biblical plague.”   Now she shows up at his bedroom door in the middle of the night with the crazy idea that she is going to seduce Toby…after honing her skills with him!  If only she wasn’t proving to be such a fast learner.

Jeremy swore inwardly.  What had he done?  He’d opened the door to an awkward virgin, and not a half-hour later, he was sending away a temptress.  It was as though he’d been handed an unloaded gun, only to pack it with powder and buckshot and – dear God – damn near pull the trigger.  Scant minutes ago, she’d been harmless.  Now…

I have always enjoyed the “brother’s best friend” storyline and I was intrigued by Dare’s unique spin on the concept.  Lucy does indeed fall for her brother’s friend, just not the one that she, and everyone else, expected.  But the self admission of her feelings isn’t the end of this story but, rather, the beginning of the second half of the book for her greatest challenge, winning Jeremy’s love, is still to be achieved and this is one hero who doesn’t make it easy.

His hands balled into fists.  How dare she?  How dare she burst into his room and kiss him and dive into a river and invade his dreams and make him go shopping and throw herself headlong into danger and lean back against a pear tree in a dress the exact color of her hair kissed by fading sunlight?  How dare she make him forget?  Damn it all.  Damn her for making him care.

That perhaps is Dare’s greatest talent as a writer.  Aside from the scintillating banter, the lovely, lyrical prose, the humor and angst of young and unrequited love, this is an author who made me care about her characters – all of her characters.  Goddess of the Hunt is the first in a back-to-back trilogy that will be released in August, September and October.  I’ll be counting the days!

Reviewed by PJ Ausdenmore
Publisher: Penguin
5 Stars

London, 1816

What happens when Lady Sarah Cole loses her heart to the dashing Marquis of Vane while trapped in a painful marriage?  That’s the dilemma facing the heroine of Wicked Little Game, a brilliantly written, powerfully emotional book from 2009 RITA-nominated author, Christine Wells.

“She lifted her chin with proud disdain.  She mustn’t reveal the slightest hint of weakness.  He’d show her no mercy if he sensed how susceptible she was, how fiercely she longed for him in the night.  She’d never acted on that yearning, never allowed Vane the slightest liberty, not even a chaste kiss on the cheek.  But the shame of lying in her husband’s bed while she ached for another man’s touch was slowly corroding her soul.”

When young Lady Sarah eloped with the handsome and charming Brinsley Cole she envisioned a happy, comfortable life filled with love and many children.  She soon learned that was not to be her future.  Disowned by her family, she now secretly sells perfumes to keep a roof over their heads while trying to keep her husband from recklessly gambling away her hard earned money.  The only bright spot in her life is the Marquis of Vane, a handsome, honorable man who takes her breath away.  She lives for the occasional moments when their paths cross but is loyal to her marriage vows even though her husband has battered her heart over the years with his verbal body blows and many indiscretions.

“Brinsley was right.  He wanted Lady Sarah Cole in a way no gentleman of honor should want another man’s wife.  His passion for her was like a recurring fever, rising again and again to attack him in moments of weakness.  No matter how hard he trained and fought and conditioned his body, his soul was hers and always would be.  For seven years, the knowledge that this worthless piece of rubbish before him possessed Lady Sarah had torn at Vane with razor-sharp claws.”

Vane has been captivated by Sarah since the first moment he saw her and his heart aches with the knowledge that she will never be his.  When Sarah’s husband offers him one night with his wife for 10,000 pounds, Vane is sorely tempted but refuses to dishonor her in that way.  Yet, when  Sarah appears at his home that night believing, because of her husband’s lies, that she has no choice but to sleep with him, he is unable to turn her away.  For Vane, the night is pure magic.  For Sarah, it’s everything she has dreamed of but never experienced with her husband and that knowledge floods her with guilt.  When she returns home to find her husband dying from a gunshot she is overwhelmed by shame and vows to sever all ties with Vane.  But when she is accused of her husband’s murder, the only one who can save her is the one man who must never know how much he means to her.

Wells does an excellent job of weaving a very complex, emotional love story with disturbing undercurrents, family secrets, and a murder mystery at its core.  The author doesn’t make it easy for her hero and heroine.  Sarah and Vane have to battle both external and internal demons to reach their happy ending, putting their emotions, and mine, through the wringer in the process but the rocky journey is well worth it in the end.  I highly recommend this book.

A random poster will win a goody bag from RWA.  Post until 10 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, July 22nd to be eligible.

Angel’s Bay – Book #1
Reviewed by PJ Ausdenmore
Release Date – June 30th
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
4.5 Stars

There’s an old show business saying of “leave them wanting more”.  That’s exactly what the first book in Barbara Freethy’s new Angel’s Bay series does.  I started reading this book earlier this afternoon and just turned the final page a few minutes ago.  By the tenth page I had forgotten about everything I had intended to accomplish today and found myself fully immersed in the lives of the residents of this small coastal California town, the mystery of a 150 year-old shipwreck and the possibility of angels in Angel’s Bay.   Though I am still enjoying the afterglow of a satisfying happy ending for the hero and heroine of this book, I want more – more of the police chief and his dissatisfied wife, more of the young doctor who has returned home to a conflicted relationship with her widowed mother and an unwanted attraction to a married man, more of the high school heartthrob who has returned to fill the position of minister at the local church, more of the pregnant teenager and the unknown father of her child, more of the couple who fell in love in the 4^th grade and are now preparing for the birth of their long-awaited baby, more of the mystery that surrounds the shipwreck of the Gabriella, and more of the angels who seem determined to bring the truth to light.

Jenna Davies and her young daughter, Lexie have been living in Angel’s Bay for two months and seem to have accomplished the impossible.  Though cordial to the people they meet, they keep to themselves and nobody in this friendly, small town where everyone knows everyone else and their business knows anything about Jenna and Lexie but that all changes the night that Jenna jumps into the cold, dark ocean and saves a pregnant teenage girl who is trying to kill herself.   Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, Jenna is terrified that that one moment of bravery will bring the danger she’s desperately trying to outrun right to her doorstep.  With their lives at risk, she hasn’t allowed herself to trust anyone since she and Lexie escaped to Angel’s Bay but as she gets to know Reid Tanner she begins to wonder if it is time to finally lower those barriers and ask for help

Hot-shot reporter, Reid Tanner has spent the past year in a bottle trying to forget the fact that his ambition caused the death of his best friend.  Nothing in life has managed to capture his interest since that fateful day, until the night he encounters Jenna Davies, the most reluctant hero he’s ever met.  Suddenly, his reporter’s radar is on full alert and all his instincts are telling him that this woman has secrets, secrets that could bring him back to life and back to the front page headlines.  Will he ignore Jenna’s plea for anonymity in his quest for a story?  Or, as he coaxes her into an unlikely friendship will he allow himself to see Jenna and Lexie as people in desperate need of someone to protect them rather than expose them?  And, as they grow closer will he finally forgive himself for his friend’s death and open his heart to the woman and child who just may be his salvation or will he need a little heavenly guidance to see the light?

Already, I can tell that Angel’s Bay is a place I’ll want to visit time and time again.  It puts me in mind of the heartwarming communities at the center of stories created by Robyn Carr and Debbie Macomber, two of my favorite authors.  Like those authors, Freethy has done a beautiful job of   weaving a compelling story while having the patience to fully develop characters who will become our friends, characters with whom we will share joys, sorrows and all of life’s adventures.  I can hardly wait!

Reviewed by PJ Ausdenmore
Publisher: Kensington
4.5  Stars

For the past five years, since the day Todd won the lottery and dumped her at the altar, Torie Hagan’s life has been cursed.  At least, that’s what she believes.  While she and Todd have found their way back to a platonic friendship, every other man who has had the misfortune of dating her has been the victim of some type of injury, almost as if they had been targeted.  Now, with the fifth anniversary of that aborted wedding just around the corner, Todd has come home for a visit but someone isn’t at all happy about his return.  Filled with hatred and more than a little unbalanced, the unknown villain murders Todd, leaving evidence at the scene that will implicate Torie.  The person then fire bombs Torie’s house in a carefully calculated plan to kill her as well.   Torie survives the attack only to discover that Todd has been murdered and she’s the prime suspect, leaving her nowhere to turn but to Paul Jameson, Todd’s lawyer, best friend and the man she has always blamed for Todd’s decision to call off the wedding.

Paul has always been attracted to Torie but buried his feelings when his best friend fell for her even though he knew in his heart that Todd wasn’t the right man for her.  Unfortunately, Torie overheard Paul encouraging Todd to not marry her, putting a strain on his friendship with Todd and ending any chance he and Torie might have had to be friends.  Now, his best friend is dead and Paul is the only person standing between Torie and a cold-blooded killer.   The two will have to work together to unravel the mystery of the killer’s identity before one of them becomes the next victim.  Will they be able to set aside their mutual animosity?  More importantly, will they be able to ignore the intense, unacknowledged attraction between them that has always simmered just below the surface or will passion explode and, if so, will it unite them in their quest for victory over the killer or leave them vulnerable to a sinister and deadly plot?

Jeanne Adams is a rising star in romantic suspense who, with her second release, has secured a solid spot on my auto-buy list.   Dark and Deadly is a fast-paced, tense thriller that hooked me in the first few pages and kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end.  It’s clear that Adams knows her subject well.  The book is well-balanced, with enough technical detail to give the crimes validity without pulling me out of the story and an emotionally satisfying romance to offset the suspense.  The characters of Paul and Torie are fully drawn with the attention necessary to understand their actions and emotions but it is the especially well-written journey into the thoughts of the killer, one very sick puppy, that had me checking the door locks more than once as I read late into the night.   Adams has hit home runs with her first two books.  I can hardly wait to see what she has in store for us next.