Reviewed by Anna Campbell
Publisher: Leisure Books
Release Date: March 6, 2005

I must admit when I stayed up far too late one night to read this brilliant story, I had images of gorgeous Daniel Day-Lewis running through the forests going through my head. You know, that long lean streak in his buckskins with his black hair flying behind like a banner and his steely eyes fixed unflinchingly on the heroine! Not a bad thing at all!

This book marked a number of firsts for me. It’s the first Pamela Clare I’ve ever read – and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s also the first romance I’ve read set during the Indian Wars in mid-18th century America. I’ve been saying for a while that I’d like to see some settings other than the Regency and Victorian eras in Britain – it was so refreshing to read about somewhere different.

This is one of the most powerful books I’ve read in a long time. And man, does Pamela Clare know how to torture a hero! Her guy clearly did something wrong in a previous life because he suffers in this one. And so nobly and bravely too. Sigh! Mind you, I can’t say her heroine exactly has an easy ride of it either. When these two suffering, courageous creatures come together and get their happy ending, I can tell you, it’s SOOOOO satisfying. A perfect emotional arc of a story!

Since he was captured by Indians and tortured, Nicholas Kenleigh has turned his back on his army career and his rich family. He suffers bitter survivor guilt because the two young soldiers he was attempting to save didn’t make it. He also suffers guilt over what happened to him while with the Wyandot (I won’t go into too much detail – one of the marvelous things about this story is the way Pamela Clare unfolds the back story for each character). He’s become a grim loner who traverses the wilderness, trapping to pay for supplies, and generally avoiding other people.

But his life changes forever the day he stumbles upon heavily pregnant widow Elspeth (Bethie) Stewart who has been left alone after her husband’s death in her isolated cabin on the frontier. Nicholas has been seriously wounded and reluctantly forces the frightened young woman to give him shelter and care.

Bethie has her own secrets to hide and she has no reason to like men. But gradually these two wounded souls develop a wary trust, a trust underscored with burgeoning desire. Most of the first half of the book covers Nicholas and Bethie trapped together in the cabin and it develops an intensity that is absolutely breathtaking. We watch the barriers between them begin to crumble and there’s an amazing scene when Bethie has her baby with only Nicholas to help her. What a man!

The Indians are uniting to force the Europeans from the Ohio Valley and the cabin isn’t safe for Bethie and her daughter. For the first time since his capture, Nicholas heads east towards the family and friends he abandoned after his ordeal. But for all Nicholas’s bravery and skill, they’re too late to escape war and danger and the ghosts of the past.

This book has everything – great sexual tension, an action-packed story, high stakes, compelling characters, beautiful writing and a historical authenticity that you can almost touch, it’s so vivid. But the main thing I took away from it was the emotional intensity. You really go through the wringer with these characters – believe me, get tissues, and then the bit that really made me break up was right at the end when I thought they’d come through the worst of it all! A truly magnificent story! Pamela Clare, take a bow!

Frankly, that’s all you need to know. Anyone who’s read it, read it again (I just did and I’m in awe over what a wonderful story it is). Anyone who hasn’t read it, buy it NOW!

Well, that was a nice easy review. Where’s the chocolate? More importantly, where are the margaritas?

You want more?

Sheesh!

Actually I had a feeling I started another review in a similar way – I checked and indeed, I did. Not coincidentally it was for Loretta Chase’s most recent release YOUR SCANDALOUS WAYS.

Clearly I’m a fan girl.

And as a dedicated fan girl, believe me it’s high praise when I say this is one of my two favorite LCs of all time. The other, as you’d guess, is LORD OF SCOUNDRELS which is regularly voted the best romance EVAH.

Like another of my favorites, Connie Brockway’s AS YOU DESIRE, which I reviewed here a couple of months ago, MR. IMPOSSIBLE is set in 19^th-century Egypt among all the scholars and scoundrels scrambling for a cut of the antiquities market. Our heroine, Daphne Pembroke, is a linguistic genius, like Desdemona from the Brockway book. But Daphne is older and more bruised than Desdemona.

Like Dorothea Brooke from MIDDLEMARCH, Daphne (hmm, lots of ‘D’ heroines here, I wonder if it’s significant) made an unhappy marriage to a much older man after she convinced herself he possessed a great soul. The husband, like Casaubon in Eliot, proved to be mean, possessive, small-minded and not much fun in the sack. Not that George Eliot ever says that, but it’s pretty clear that passionate Dorothea is too much for dried up old Mr. C.

Daphne’s dried up old vicar is jealous of her intellectual achievements and spends his time trying to stop her work on the solution to reading hieroglyphs. As part of his attempts to kill her spirit, he’s convinced her that her ardent nature is unwomanly. Now he’s dead, Daphne is in Egypt continuing her research, but for the sake of her reputation, her brother Miles is the one publicly acknowledged as the scholar. When a couple of rival antiquity hunters kidnap Miles (it’s a complicated plot, don’t worry – it makes sense when you read it) because they think he’s solved the mystery of hieroglyphs, Daphne must find help to save her brother.

Enter our hero, Rupert Carsington. If you’re not totally in love with Rupert within the first couple of pages, I’ll eat my hat. Lord Hargate sends his scapegrace son Rupert to Egypt because he’s caused havoc in England. Rupert has a habit of causing havoc wherever he goes which is part of the fun of this book. Rupert treats life as an amusing game, he’s a bit like an overgrown public schoolboy. At least on the surface. There’s considerably more to Rupert than meets the eye (and what meets the eye is plenty – he’s one of the big, powerful, sexy Chase heroes like Dain from LORD OF SCOUNDRELS). He has a reputation for being as thick as two short planks. But one of the delicious running jokes is that Rupert is actually the smartest person we meet and he’s certainly got more emotional intelligence than anyone else in the book, except for perhaps the pet mongoose he adopts.

So the scene is set for a luscious clash of buttoned-up widow fighting her unruly passions and a charming, witty hero who desperately wants her to give in to her passions and put them both out of their misery. You can imagine who wins that particular battle! Most of the story takes place on a yacht traveling up the Nile as Daphne and Rupert pursue Miles’s kidnappers. Not much room to escape each other on a yacht – more fun for the reader!

As you can probably tell, I love this book. Rupert is an unusual romance hero – for a start, he’s emotionally stable! Watching him fall in love is absolutely enchanting. All I can say is, lucky Daphne! And the whole thing is told in Loretta Chase’s fabulous prose that sparkles like fine champagne.

I can only repeat – a gorgeous book!

I don’t think so! Well, maybe one or two things, but we’re talking romance fiction here, guys!

SEP’s one of those authors I tend to hoard because I know that when I really, REALLY need something that presses all the buttons for me, I can reach for one of her books and I’ll have a blissful few hours. She hasn’t let me down yet.

She’s famous for breaking the taboo on books with sportsmen heroes with her fabulous Chicago Stars series. If you haven’t read those, grab them, they’re great, absolute classics. But I want to talk today about one of her stand-alone stories, a book I only read last year, and which I’ve since re-read and loved even more second time around.

First Lady is an American version of Roman Holiday, a similarity that didn’t strike me the first time I read it (when I gobbled it up like it was chocolate) but which struck me on this last reading.

In the movie, Audrey Hepburn plays a gorgeous princess locked up in her tower, aka leading an emotionally unfulfilled life that is all duty and ceremony. She runs away to see what it’s like in the real world. In First Lady, our intrepid heroine, Cornelia Litchfield Chase, blue-blooded widow of an assassinated president, sneaks out of the White House to get a taste of a normal life, something she’s never had.

In Roman Holiday, Audrey hooks up with a down-on-his-luck, hard-bitten journalist who realizes this is the biggest story of his life. But then he falls in love with the princess on the run and his native honor battles with the demands of his career. In First Lady, you guessed it, our hero, Mat Jorik, is a journalist who’s become hardened and cynical about life, although he doesn’t realize who the unexpected passenger in his beat-up Winnebago is until well into the story.

The scene is set for a fabulous clash of opposites fueled by burning attraction on both sides. Working-class hero Mat has brought up seven sisters single-handedly and has a wonderful take on women (and that feeds into his conflict but more on that later). Nealy looks at the world that most people take for granted with a fresh joy that gradually eats away at Mat’s cynicism. And over all of this hangs the inevitable moment when he finds out who she is, whether before or after the authorities catch up with her. Great dramatic tension!

Wonderful as the romance is, I think my favorite elements of the story are the two waifs and strays Mat is delivering to their grandmother in Iowa. He’s a very reluctant guardian but their mother has died and left the children in his care, if only temporarily. One is a beautifully depicted, tough as nails but really soft-hearted teenager called Lucy. The other is an adorable baby called Butt. Watching these four disparate people discover their true selves and gradually form a family over the long road trip is compelling and sweet and heart-wrenching. That’s one of the things I love about SEP books-she makes you laugh but she makes you cry too.

Nealy understands she has to go back to her empty shell of a life. She has obligations that she can’t avoid forever. Mat has had his fill of a house full of women and wants a chance to lead his own life, which makes him unwilling to take on the girls, and he knows he can’t possibly measure up to a woman who has been married to the president. So what happens to this ramshackle family when they reach their destination?

The solution is magical and wise and wonderful and will leave you with a big smile. Like the rest of the book. Seriously, this story is an absolute treat. I strongly recommend First Lady!

But seriously the hero of AS YOU DESIRE is on my all-time favorites list. I don’t know anyone who reads this book who doesn’t fall under the spell of the gorgeous Harry Braxton, archaeologist, Egyptologist, romantic hero.

He’s not at all your typical romance novel hero. For a start, shock, horror, he has BROWN HAIR! Yes, I know, I know, I can hear you gasping with astonishment. He’s really smart and genuinely tortured. He’s also gallant and constant and passionate. He’s a dashing scoundrel with a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor and an unshakable honor that he hides under roguish charm. Lovely!

Connie Brockway reserves some of the most beautiful descriptions I’ve ever read for Harry. Here, Desdemona, the heroine, is contemplating his looks:

Harry had a nice mouth. No, honesty compelled her to admit, Harry had a beautiful mouth. It was wide and mobile with firm lips, the upper bowing into a sensually pronounced philtrum above the full, sculpted band of the lower. Harry’s lips looked sensitive. Harry’s lips, thought Desdemona, looked like they could read Braille.

Later, Desdemona says to herself that Harry’s lips look like they can tell the difference between individual grains of sand. Oh, my!

The rest of him is equally appealing! But Harry is seriously flawed and while he loves Desdemona with a depth and a passion that you’ll love to discover, he doesn’t believe he’ll ever be worthy of her. I won’t tell you the flaw. The way Connie Brockway gradually reveals it is masterly. But it’s utterly heart-wrenching and you’ll ache for Harry as he struggles against how much he loves and wants Desdemona. He can’t declare himself because he thinks she deserves better than him.

Of course, we know he’s wrong and that there’s nobody better than Harry!

Maybe I should tell you something about the story instead of just raving about the hero? You think?

AS YOU DESIRE take place in the expatriate community of scholars and adventurers in Victorian Egypt. The setting is another thing I love about this story. It’s such fun to get away from Regency London now and again and Connie Brockway does a wonderful job of bringing the alleys and palaces and ruins and desert of 19^th-century Cairo and environs to life.

Desdemona Carlisle lives in Egypt with her grandfather, a poverty-stricken expert in antiquities. She’s something of an intellectual freak, having been paraded around Europe through her childhood to show off her skill with ancient languages. As a result, all she wants is a normal life and to her, this means returning to the England she doesn’t remember but which she’s read about in the romance novels she devours. By the way, don’t you just love a romance heroine who loves reading romance novels? Desdemona has loved Harry Braxton since she first arrived in Egypt at the age of sixteen but his mixed signals have driven her to believe that he’ll never return her feelings.

Enter Harry’s aristocratic cousin, Blake Ravenscroft, a viscount who embodies all those romantic heroes she’s been sighing over in her reading matter. Blake wants to whisk her back to his manor house in England  that sounds like it’s come from the pages of a romance novel. Desdemona, heartsick and miserable with her unrequited (she thinks!) love for Harry, is seriously tempted.

The story develops with adventure and frustrated passion and requited passion and danger and drama and a wonderfully sigh-worthy happy ending. Seriously, grab this book and I bet you end up singing “I’m Just Wild About Harry” too!

I was slow to jump on this particular craze in Romancelandia. I tend to resist reading what’s the latest ‘big’ thing. Don’t know why – maybe I’m just hard to get along with.

It could also be that I feel by the time I’ve read all the hype, I’ve already read the book. The Net was buzzing with how great the BBD books were from the moment they hit the stands, but I’d gone through a vampire story stage in the mid-90s and I was over all that blood-sucking, macho posing.

But a lot of people whose opinion I trusted told me I HAD to read these books.

So largely to shut them up, I bought DARK LOVER, the first BBD book. It sat on the bookshelf for a long time and then Christmas, 2007, I decided to give it a go, absolutely sure I’d give up after the first chapter. But at least then I could tell those nagging people that I’d tried the stories and they just hadn’t been right for me.

Well, I basically inhaled the first book, then moved on in rapid succession to the next ones. My nagging friends had been right – this was a marvellous, tense, taut, sensual, dramatic, emotional series and I just loved them. I could see why they’d taken the world by storm – believe me, these guys do battle you into submission, no sweet beta heroes to be found in this particular vampire lair!

So it was a pleasure to re-read DARK LOVER for this review, especially in view of seeing the seeds of future developments in the overarching story. Each book has a stand-alone romance but there’s an ongoing plot related to the war for survival between the vampires and a race of soulless killers called the lessers.

In this first book, the central romance is between Wrath, the legendary blind king of the vampires, and a half-human, half-vampire woman called Beth Randall who has no idea of her heritage when the story starts. Wrath is an ultra alpha, a big powerful killing machine with a strong strain of self-hatred and self-mistrust flowing through his vampire veins. Needless to say, he’s sexy as all get-out! But reading the story again, I was impressed with how strong J.R. Ward makes Beth. With such a dynamic leading man, it would have been so easy to make the heroine just a cipher. But Beth is anything but. She’s smart and independent and brave and a true mate to this tormented king. The love scenes between these two are amazingly intense—quite sizzling, in fact! And it’s always a wonderful dynamic to watch Mr. Omnipotent knocked flat when he falls in love.

The other major strength of the book is the bond the unites the members of the Brotherhood. Rhage, Vishous, Tohrment, Zsadist and Phury are such strong and individual characters and the relationship between the warriors gives the story an unbreakable emotional backbone. By the way, the story’s so good, eventually you don’t notice the strange spellings! And the other characters in the story are equally beautifully drawn. J.R. Ward writes like an angel (well, a dark, not particularly angelic angel!) and she knows how to use words to cut to the heart of a character or a situation.

I know most of you have read these books. But honestly, if you’re holding back on them because they don’t sound like your thing, give them a go. J.R. Ward is an incredibly compelling writer and her universe is a fascinating place!

Jenny Crusie has one of the best voices in the business. You know you’re in Crusie World the minute you pick up one of her stories. She’s inimitable. The qualities I’d list as citizens of Crusie World includes snarky humor, complex plotting, compelling secondary characters, a great dog (usually of the bitzer variety), a sexy hero who doesn’t really fall into the standard romance hero type, a complicated, nervy, intelligent heroine, a story made of disparate elements that somehow twine together to create a wonderful whole, snarky humor…

Other Crusie-isms? Long sentences. Here, for example, is the first paragraph of WTT:

Sophia Dempsey didn’t like Temptation, even before the Garveys smashed into her ’86 Civic, broke her sister’s sunglasses , and confirmed all her worst suspicions about people from small towns who drove beige Cadillacs.

You wait until you read the love scenes – talk about waiting to exhale. It’s a stylistic quirk that works beautifully and lets JC develop the rhythm of her humor. I’m not sure I’d recommend the technique to wannabe writers but in the hands of a master like Jenny Crusie, reading each sentence is like hearing a Beethoven symphony. Long, complex, beautiful, packed with emotional punch, and with a huge bang at the end. Ahem, I’m not JUST talking about the love scenes here!

Something I really love about a Crusie book is that she takes an unapoletically feminist slant on romance. These are definitely modern people with a modern view of relationships—the women wonder if they need a man like a fish needs a bicycle. Her women are difficult and complicated and smart and carry reams of baggage. And her heroes either have to lump it or like it! Needless to say, they end up liking it to the benefit of their long-term happiness.

OK, enough of the intro! I don’t want to say too much about the plot of WELCOME TO TEMPTATION because one of the loveliest aspects is how the story ends up snaking in every direction like the vines growing over my back fence (I’ve just done some gardening so you’ll have to put up with the horticultural imagery!). Yet throughout the shenanigans, every element, no matter how minor, is there for an important reason and the whole comes together like a jigsaw puzzle at the end.

So just a teaser about the plot. Sophie Dempsey and her sister Amy, descendants of a long line of grifters and conmen, arrive in the Ohio town of Temptation to make a video that may or not be naughty. They eventually become the focus of the town’s interest, both hostile and friendly. In the case of local mayor Phineas T. Tucker and the local police chief Wes Mazur, VERY friendly. And here I come to my favorite part of WELCOME TO TEMPTATION. Yes, like every other book I’ve reviewed for RNTV, WTT has a great hero. You’ll fall in love with Phin, trust me!

Actually I’m pretty sure I’m talking to the converted here. Most romance readers I talk to have read WELCOME TO TEMPTATION and are just as enthusiastic about it as I am. But on the offchance you’ve never picked it up, it’s a huge treat and you’re in for some sparkling fun in the backwoods of Ohio!

Make a note of this – she really writes great heroes!

In recent years, Madeline has moved to writing Regency romance and her latest series centers on the mysterious and sexy Rothwell brothers and their circle. Lessons of Desire, which featured an unusual plot about a Regency feminist in the Mary Wollstonecraft mold and the very appealing Lord Elliot Rothwell, won the RITA Award this year for best long historical romance. Well deserved!

The book I’ve been hanging out for was the one featuring the head of the family, the very mysterious and  sexy (yes, I’m using those words again but they’re the right words!) Christian Rothwell, the Marquess of Easterbrook.

I’m delighted to say The Sins of Lord Easterbrook didn’t disappoint.

One of the things I love about Madeline Hunter’s heroes (I DID say she writes great heroes, didn’t I?) is that usually they’re offbeat. You don’t get your standard Regency rake in a MH book. In fact, Christian Rothwell veers towards being her most unusual hero yet!

Christian is a recluse who, because of his power, his wealth, his handsomeness and his elusiveness, is something of a legend in Regency society. His ways are eccentric – he wears his dressing gown most of the time and never puts on a cravat. He’s definitely something of a wild man. Of course, he has his own tormenting reasons for avoiding other people and those slowly become clear as the book progresses.

As we’ve received intriguing glimpses of Christian through the series, I wondered how Madeline would come up with a heroine to match him. I mean, he’s scarily smart, he’s isolated, he’s got an acid wit, he’s tortured, he’s definitely not the boy next door.

But of course Ms. Hunter met this challenge without ruffling a hair (although plenty of hairs get ruffled on our hero and heroine!).

Leona Montgomery is passionate, independent, stubborn, determined. Oh, and smart! She arrives in London from Macao where she runs a trading company, determined to continue her father’s crusade against illegal trade in opium. It’s the time when English-supplied opium was causing death and devastation in China (and elsewhere). Naturally her efforts bring her into conflict with powerful interests who decide their best strategy is to keep her quiet permanently.

For help, she is forced to turn to the man who broke her heart seven years ago, Christian Rothwell, although when she fell in love with him at the age of nineteen, he was a guest in her father’s house who masqueraded under the name Edmund. The attraction is immediate, mutual and fiery, and it’s clear that what the passion they felt so long ago is still alive and more than ready for consummation. Leona’s longing is complicated by her fairly well-grounded suspicions that this intriguing, compelling is involved in the opium trade she despises.

So you can see what great ingredients Madeline has thrown into this wonderful, delicious casserole of a book. Danger, simmering passions, the reunion of two star-crossed lovers who have never forgotten one another, a courageous heroine, a gorgeous hunk of a hero forced out of his self-imposed isolation to confront the world to save the woman he loves, a touch of exotic eastern mystery.

Needless to say, I devoured this luscious dish. And now I’m looking for dessert!

I’m really sad that she hasn’t had anything new out for a while. ANGEL IN A RED DRESS, released in 2006, was actually a reissue of her 1988 historical romance STARLIT SURRENDER (must say I like the new title better, LOL!). She wrote STARLIT SURRENDER as Judy Cuevas. Then in 1997, Avon relaunched her as Judith Ivory with an amazing book that’s still one of my favorites, BEAST. She followed this with a book I may even like more than BEAST, BEAUTY. Then in 1999, came her RITA-winning romance THE PROPOSITION.

I always link these three superb books in my mind because they have such strong fairytale themes. BEAST is a really luscious retelling of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST with a gorgeous, ugly-interesting hero. BEAUTY is actually a courtesan book with a lovely older woman/younger man story based on SLEEPING BEAUTY although if you know your opera plots, there’s elements of LA TRAVIATA in a big way. In fact, I almost chose it as my example of Judith Ivory’s work to talk about today.

In the end I went for THE PROPOSITION. Partly because I think it’s funnier and more accessible than the other two – I’ve given it to non-romance or non-historical readers to show them how good the genre can be in the hands of a really great writer. But I also think it’s got one of the most beautifully written, most adorable heroes in fiction. More about him later.

THE PROPOSITION is a role reversal of MY FAIR LADY. Which is really a classic CINDERELLA story. See what I mean about fairytale elements?

Professor Henry Higgins is an aristocratic, but impecunious lady, Edwina Bollash, who teaches elocution and deportment to people wishing to enter society. Edwina is one of my favorite heroine types, the Ugly Duckling (oh, no, more fairytale elements!). I love it when the hero falls desperately in love with a girl who isn’t drop dead stunning but nonetheless manages to mesmerize him. There’s a lovely Anne Gracie called THE PERFECT RAKE that uses this plot element and it’s a wonderful story.

I also love books about nerdy, clever heroines who still manage to snag the prince. Edwina is both nerdy and clever and a charming mixture of insecurities and courage and smarts. You’ll love watching her as she gradually gains confidence in herself through falling in love with the least suitable man in the world.

Which takes me to the Eliza Dolittle character, the wonderful hero I was drooling, uh, TALKING about before. Mick Tremore is a Cornish ratcatcher and those are words you don’t often use when you’re reviewing a romance novel. He’s big and virile and funny and kind and absolutely gorgeous.  I kept trying to find a short excerpt to do justice to the way Ms. Ivory writes his internal monologues but it was impossible. You just fall in love from the moment you meet him, filthy, flirtatious, self-deprecating and flat on the floor trying to catch a mouse in a dress shop while he ogles the best pair of legs he’s ever seen (Edwina’s as it happens) from under a screen.

As you know, I have a soft spot for a tortured hero. That isn’t Mick! He knows who he is and he knows what he can do. That lovely straightforward self-confidence without being in any way arrogance is absolutely beguiling. It’s magical watching his transformation from gorgeous man of the people to gorgeous gentleman and it’s also magical to watch as he so quickly falls under the unlikely spell of Edwina. This book just makes you smile from the toes up!

What else can I say but if you see a copy, grab it and don’t let it go? Much like Mick Tremore and his ferrets (yes, even the ferrets have personalities in this story!) go after a rat!

The first ‘Ice’ book, BLACK ICE, came out in 2006 and there are now five in the  series. Avid fans like me hope for more! They feature agents working for a mysterious, ruthless but ultimately benevolent (in a the means justify the ends kind of way) organization called The Committee. So plenty of scope for Ms. Stuart’s trademark tormented, dangerous heroes – you’re never quite sure in these books whether the hero will kill the heroine. In fact, the hero and the heroine are never quite sure either!

BLACK ICE actually has our hero, Bastien Toussaint (isn’t that a cool name?) ordered to do just that when translator Chloe Underwood unwittingly becomes involved in an international arms deal with some seriously bad guys. Actually another Stuart trademark – one of the things that makes the sinister hero sympathetic is that the bad guys are BAAAAAAAD. But our ruthless, heartless, focused Bastien finds himself at the mercy of emotions he’s never felt before. And the Ice Man melteth.

COLD AS ICE, the second book, is my favorite in the series so far. Again it features a ruthless Committee agent completely at sea when he falls in love and reluctantly discovers that his cold, solitary existence can no longer sustain him. Although if Peter Jensen can’t keep the heroine Genevieve Spenser alive, alone is how he’s going to end up. I think what particularly appealed to me about this one is the Genevieve is smart and gutsy and far from a pushover for the sexy Peter. Although of course, both of them are helpless when love gets them in its sights. There’s some great snark in the relationship that at times had me laughing out loud, in between the bits where I hid under the covers! I’m sure I mentioned these books are terrifically suspenseful!

ICE BLUE won this year’s RITA for best romantic suspense. What more do I need to say? It features a great half-Japanese hero Takashi O’Brien and a bookish heroine, Summer Hawthorne, who’s an expert in Japanese ceramics. I love stories about nerds forced outside their comfort zone and this one was a whirlwind ride from beginning to end.

ICE STORM features the female head of the Committee, Isobel Lambert, who is one cool dudess. Until (yes, you guessed it) passion overtakes her life when she falls into the clutches of the mysterious Serafin, aka The Butcher. Um, I’m sure I mentioned dangerous heroes! But these two hard-edged souls share a past that still holds them in thrall and adds an extra edge of peril to a wild chase through Europe. Excellent stuff!

FIRE AND ICE is the latest instalment in this great series of rollercoaster romantic suspense and I just read it as a reward for getting my latest book into Avon. Honestly, it’s like dark chocolate! Yum! This one is mainly set in Japan, a fascinating and unusual background that adds enormous resonance to this story of two people on the run and not knowing who they can trust. The hero is Takashi’s cousin, the wild and flamboyant Reno, and another bookish heroine, Summer’s half-sister, Jilly Lovitz. They’re the worst possible combination and yet perfect together. The sexual tension is fabulous – there’s a memorable scene where the two of them hide out in a capsule hotel room in Japan. A room built for one containing two people who are doing their best to fight their attraction. The result is fireworks!

So seriously grab these books. Each story will stand alone but it’s great to have the whole lot and see how the characters develop. Happy reading! Well, nervous, scary, edgy, dark reading, but you know what I mean…

I’m a re-reader, but for some reason, it’s years and years since I pulled FLOWERS FROM THE STORM from the bookcase to look at again. Perhaps because it provides such an intense experience. I tend to look at a book again when I want a comfort read so I generally reach for something light at such times. And while FFTS is many things, it is NOT light! There’s humor in it, but it’s of the blacker than black variety and every smile has a tear behind it.

So it’s been a real pleasure revisiting FFTS for this review. It’s even more of a pleasure to say that FFTS is still one of the top two or three romances I’ve ever read. If you want to read a book that shows you just how powerful this genre that the general public often dismisses as frivolous and unimportant can be, I’d highly recommend FFTS. If you want a book whose prose is so beautiful, it makes you want to weep, read FFTS. If you want a story that makes you cry and cheer and smile (even if in a teary way!), read FFTS!

Christian, the Duke of Jervaulx, is a dissolute Regency rake when the story opens. But even here, Kinsale creates a rake unlike any other. He’s a mathematical genius and for all his selfishness and charm, he has this wonderful ironic take on himself that makes you fall in love with him from the start. Then his decadent, luxurious, pleasurable life disintegrates when he falls prey to a mysterious illness (I always think of it as a stroke but like Matthew’s affliction in UNTOUCHED, it’s never referred to in specific terms). He loses everything that he believes makes him the man he is, apart from that essential core of self-awareness. Because he can’t speak and loses some of his mobility, he’s imprisoned as a madman and his mercenary family members start the process to take over his property.

In the asylum, he encounters Archimedea Timms (Maddy), our heroine who has had previous dealings with Jervaulx and while attracted, thinks he’s wicked and corrupt. Actually Maddy was the revelation of this re-reading for me. I remembered how deeply I fell under Christian’s spell in this story, but I recollected Maddy as a bit of a cipher. But revisiting the story made me see how strong and utterly right for Christian she is. She’s a Quaker and her father was Christian’s mathematical collaborator before the stroke. Her religion is the mainstay of her life and her encounter with Christian and his completely different values throws her completely out of kilter, especially as she can’t help falling in love with him (and who could blame her?). Don’t get me wrong – she’s not a sanctimonious little pawn. Well, she is sometimes and overcoming that is part of her character arc. She’s far from perfect and it’s interesting seeing how these two flawed people bring out the best in each other (eventually!).

So the themes of this book are rich and complex. There’s losing everything to gain everything (for both characters, not just Christian!). There’s the attraction of opposites to create a whole that’s greater than its individual parts. There’s redemption and self-sacrifice. There’s some amazingly passionate and tender love scenes and there’s an ending that will make you cry and wander around in a daze for a couple of hours – or at least that’s how it affected me. Just beautiful!

If you’ve read FLOWERS FROM THE STORM before, I’d really recommend reading it again. It’s like any great work of art – the more you look at it, the more you see. If you’ve never read it, grab it, settle down to not being able to put it down, and marvel at how great romance can be when a really exceptional writer is in charge. Ms. Kinsale, I’m in awe of your talent!