This is book 4 in a series of which I only read books 3 & 4. This one is really unusual for romance - it's the second book about the same characters, Johnny and Kathleen Henry. At the end of book 3, With Heart, we know they will be getting married in 1938.
Now it's 7 years later, and Johnny is coming back a hero from WWII. But there's a catch - before he left, he and Kathleen had a baby girl who was born deformed and died within 48 hours. After her birth, Johnny told Kathleen he couldn't give her children and advised her to get a divorce. Then he enlisted - and the 2 didn't correspond at all during the 4 years he was overseas.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've only read one 2-book series with the same hero/heroine like that, the Marsha Canham book that takes place around the time of Culloden. (I'm not counting books like the In Death series) But the Canham book literally stops in the middle of the story and then takes up again just days later, and the 2 haven't had a falling out.
A lot of the book I was sorta torn - her writing style, perhaps meant to mimic a speaking style of the time, kept making me blink. I'm not sure how I'd describe it except to say that she always used:
"I've not got any bread"
instead of
"I haven't got any bread"
and it's such an odd way of speaking. Did people all talk like that in Oklahoma? Or is that just the author's way?? Dunno.
Also, she had more 2 dimensional bad guys, and another psycho/sicko in the mix, sorta like the previous story. I started to wonder if Kathleen was going to be Pauline in the Perils of Pauline!
Yeah, then I got to the end, and got all weepy for Johnny and Kathleen getting back together FINALLY. So I had to go and give it 4 stars.
Showing posts with label American historical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American historical. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2010
With Heart by Dorothy Garlock ****
This book is a little different from the romance books I usually read because it's historical, set in the 1930s USA during the depression. It's actually the 3rd book in a series, but worked well enough as a stand alone in a 2-book collection.
In this one, Kathleen Dolan - a writer/journalist - moves to a small town in Oklahoma where she has invested in the small-town newspaper. She meets Johnny Henry and the two of the spend the book trying to avoid falling in love. Johnny's problems are multiple -he's a "half breed" (actually, I think he's only a quarter because when his father is revealed, I recall he was a half breed). His mother was a whore and his father just a kid sowing his wild oats, who didn't even know until many years later that he had fathered a child with this woman.
In addition to the attraction between the 2, the book has a number of other memorable characters and a scary suspense story involving the town doctor. Not real scary, and I figured the mystery out pretty early on.
I liked it pretty good, and kept reading past the end so I could learn "the rest of the story" because the second book is also different. I give it 4 stars, mainly because I did care for the characters. I didn't love it though because the bad guys were really just caricatures, not fully fleshed out human beings with faults.
In this one, Kathleen Dolan - a writer/journalist - moves to a small town in Oklahoma where she has invested in the small-town newspaper. She meets Johnny Henry and the two of the spend the book trying to avoid falling in love. Johnny's problems are multiple -he's a "half breed" (actually, I think he's only a quarter because when his father is revealed, I recall he was a half breed). His mother was a whore and his father just a kid sowing his wild oats, who didn't even know until many years later that he had fathered a child with this woman.
In addition to the attraction between the 2, the book has a number of other memorable characters and a scary suspense story involving the town doctor. Not real scary, and I figured the mystery out pretty early on.
I liked it pretty good, and kept reading past the end so I could learn "the rest of the story" because the second book is also different. I give it 4 stars, mainly because I did care for the characters. I didn't love it though because the bad guys were really just caricatures, not fully fleshed out human beings with faults.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Prince Charming by Julie Garwood *****
It took a wonderful, wonderful book to make me want to blog again! This morning I finished Garwood's The Wedding, which I had been reading just a few pages at a time for several days, and since it was Sunday and I had no plans, I decided to pick up another Garwood title.
Garwood has a sort of pattern of writing - she uses similar settings and situations in many of the books I've read. Not the plot, necessarily, but similar phrasing, similar situations. She often has the heroine trying to change the hero to be more like her father - well, that's an oversimplification, but it seems the heroine is forever thinking that the hero doesn't know how to... show love, or greet his wife, or some such, and that she will have to show him how it's done, or how her father and mother were. I'm not explaining it well, but my point really is that Prince Charming took a "charming" detour off that route!
For one thing, it's set in post-Civil War America, whereas so many of the books I've read have been medievals. Apparently she has a trilogy set in the West as well, and I have read the first one in her contemporary series, but this was especially different since I had just finished The Wedding this morning.
There are some plot points in here that many romance readers cringe at - the arranged marriage to a stranger, a will that has provisions, and children. The fish out of water - rugged American hero, prissy Brit aristocrat heroine. Even a secret child, although it isn't the heroine's. But somehow Garwood made all these plausible, and wonderful, and wrote a story with depth and intrigue (well, sorta) and plot twists. Ok, some of the plot twists got solved a little too easily - but still, the story was wonderful and I enjoyed my day very much, just reading (with somes stops for a meal or 2).
Taylor is the heroine - raised by her grandmother who is now on her death bed, her biggest fear is that her uncle, who will inherit the title, the land and the funds, will find a way to take guardianship of her 2 young nieces, recently orphaned in America. Her second biggest fear is that he will also take guardianship over her. Her grandmother finagles a marriage to an American, in exchange for the sum of money he needs to pay ransom for his younger half-brother. Oh, it is all too complicated to explain here, but in the book it made a lot of sense - and the opening was brilliant.
Lucas Ross is the bastard child of an American mother and a British titled aristocrat who only cared about his actual heir, the oldest son. His bastard son, and his 3 other sons from his marriage don't matter to him, but the boys do matter to Lucas. He came to England to pay the oldest brother a ransom to let the youngest one go free. Since he's never planned to marry anyway, this marriage of convenience works well for him - escort the silly twit to Boston, and get an annulment before heading back to Montana.
Oh, if only romance writers would leave these poor heroes alone to do as they planned!! Taylor isn't any more desirous of the marriage, and looks forward to getting to Boston, getting rid of this American husband, then getting her sister's twins and heading West to hide forever from the evil uncle. But grandmother - now smiling down at them from Heaven, no doubt - managed to truly find a Prince Charming for Taylor - a man who couldn't leave her or the twins or the half-breed boy found taking care them either. Not to mention the single, pregnant woman Taylor befriended crossing the Atlantic.
I laughed and smiled and was worried and figuratively on the edge of my seat throughout the book (since I was mostly on the futon, I wasn't really on the edge, but... you know). It was a nice long book, too - over 500 pages!
I've pretty much given up on any challenges this year - I don't know if it fits in any of the ones I was involved in before fate took a twist for me, and moved me back to Houston. Working, and that damned Mafia Wars (so addictive! I cannot stop!), are both keeping me from my passion for reading. But today I indulged, and I'm glad I did. Maybe it's the first of many more reviews and challenges and reading.
5 stars and it's a Favorite too!
Garwood has a sort of pattern of writing - she uses similar settings and situations in many of the books I've read. Not the plot, necessarily, but similar phrasing, similar situations. She often has the heroine trying to change the hero to be more like her father - well, that's an oversimplification, but it seems the heroine is forever thinking that the hero doesn't know how to... show love, or greet his wife, or some such, and that she will have to show him how it's done, or how her father and mother were. I'm not explaining it well, but my point really is that Prince Charming took a "charming" detour off that route!
For one thing, it's set in post-Civil War America, whereas so many of the books I've read have been medievals. Apparently she has a trilogy set in the West as well, and I have read the first one in her contemporary series, but this was especially different since I had just finished The Wedding this morning.
There are some plot points in here that many romance readers cringe at - the arranged marriage to a stranger, a will that has provisions, and children. The fish out of water - rugged American hero, prissy Brit aristocrat heroine. Even a secret child, although it isn't the heroine's. But somehow Garwood made all these plausible, and wonderful, and wrote a story with depth and intrigue (well, sorta) and plot twists. Ok, some of the plot twists got solved a little too easily - but still, the story was wonderful and I enjoyed my day very much, just reading (with somes stops for a meal or 2).
Taylor is the heroine - raised by her grandmother who is now on her death bed, her biggest fear is that her uncle, who will inherit the title, the land and the funds, will find a way to take guardianship of her 2 young nieces, recently orphaned in America. Her second biggest fear is that he will also take guardianship over her. Her grandmother finagles a marriage to an American, in exchange for the sum of money he needs to pay ransom for his younger half-brother. Oh, it is all too complicated to explain here, but in the book it made a lot of sense - and the opening was brilliant.
Lucas Ross is the bastard child of an American mother and a British titled aristocrat who only cared about his actual heir, the oldest son. His bastard son, and his 3 other sons from his marriage don't matter to him, but the boys do matter to Lucas. He came to England to pay the oldest brother a ransom to let the youngest one go free. Since he's never planned to marry anyway, this marriage of convenience works well for him - escort the silly twit to Boston, and get an annulment before heading back to Montana.
Oh, if only romance writers would leave these poor heroes alone to do as they planned!! Taylor isn't any more desirous of the marriage, and looks forward to getting to Boston, getting rid of this American husband, then getting her sister's twins and heading West to hide forever from the evil uncle. But grandmother - now smiling down at them from Heaven, no doubt - managed to truly find a Prince Charming for Taylor - a man who couldn't leave her or the twins or the half-breed boy found taking care them either. Not to mention the single, pregnant woman Taylor befriended crossing the Atlantic.
I laughed and smiled and was worried and figuratively on the edge of my seat throughout the book (since I was mostly on the futon, I wasn't really on the edge, but... you know). It was a nice long book, too - over 500 pages!
I've pretty much given up on any challenges this year - I don't know if it fits in any of the ones I was involved in before fate took a twist for me, and moved me back to Houston. Working, and that damned Mafia Wars (so addictive! I cannot stop!), are both keeping me from my passion for reading. But today I indulged, and I'm glad I did. Maybe it's the first of many more reviews and challenges and reading.
5 stars and it's a Favorite too!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Untamed by Pamela Clare *****
I think I'm about to start a new glom - for Pamela Clare - this was so wonderful! If she had not used " 'twas " and " 'twould " so much in her narrative from the hero's POV, it might have been perfection!! (ok, it's a small quibble, but it did get slightly old...)
OK - like the first book in the series, Surrender, this one is a swashbuckling tale that takes place in 18th century North America, during the French and Indian War. The MacKinnon brothers were raised in the Colonies after their family was evicted from Scotland following Culloden. Now adults, they have been pressed into service by the British. This puts them in an awkward position, since Scotland and France were allies, and the brothers were Catholic (like the French) in an era when the British didn't even sanction Catholic ceremonies like weddings. But the brothers led the Rangers anyway, to save each others' lives as well as those of their men and their Mohican friends.
Morgan is now the Captain of the Rangers, since Iain left the Rangers to be with his wife and child (see Surrender). On a mission to Fort SomethingOrOther (jeez, I canna keep them straight), he is shot while trying to save one of the Rangers, and taken captive. The French intend to get him well enough to torture then hand him over to the local Indians after he spills the info so they can burn him at the stake. Nice fellows all.
Amalie is a young French woman whose father is an officer there at Fort SomethingOrOther. Her mother, an Indian of that tribe wanting to burn Morgan (Ok, yeah, I should keep the book nearby for notes), died when Amalie was only 2, and she was raised in a convent. She's - what, visiting? living with Papa at Fort SOO when he is killed - by the Rangers, no less. Her guardian, another officer, wants to return her to the convent, especially since she keeps rebuffing the advances of a potential husband, Lt. Rivillieux. But for now it's too dangerous for her to return.
Morgan tries to die from his wounds so that he doesn't have to face the French torture and the Indian fire, but with Amalie's nursing, recovers. In fact, while she is nursing him to wellness, he is growing more and more aware and fond of her. But he maintains control, even when she is pushing him to kiss her - she's such a naif, she doesn't even realize what she is doing - because he realizes his dilemma - he must leave her, he's partially responsible for her father's death (she forgave him anyway) and he will have to rejoin the Rangers and continue to fight the French.
She suffers from the knowledge that she is nursing a man who may be killed - and when she learns he is Catholic, and indeed an honorable man, she falls in love with him and does what she can to save him. In fact, she convinces her guardian to allow him to join their side! Since this officer has already informed the British that Morgan actually died from his wounds, it seems he might be able to do this - at least temporarily, while attempting to both spy for the British and escape back to them as well.
When the guardian finds Amalie and Morgan in a compromising situation - very compromising, even though technically she was still a virgin - he forces them to marry in a Catholic ceremony.
The Rangers manage to intercept some damning evidence, however, that Morgan has joined the French, and even though when he does finally escape (with Amalie) he makes a good case for why he pretended to defect, he is branded a traitor and put in prison. So there is a lot of adventure and tension in the story all the way through.
Well, it's such a good story - lots of action, lots of tension - and man-o-man does she turn up the heat! I enjoyed it as both a good historical page-turner and a realistic romance. In fact, I consider it a true Keeper, better even than Surrender, and I'm not exactly sure why it's better! I just go with my gut feeling when I'm done.
I think this story fits the Spring 2009 Challenge in the Feuds section, since Amalie was on the French side and Morgan fought for the British. The title fits in my A To Z challenge, and it's also a series! 5 stars.
OK - like the first book in the series, Surrender, this one is a swashbuckling tale that takes place in 18th century North America, during the French and Indian War. The MacKinnon brothers were raised in the Colonies after their family was evicted from Scotland following Culloden. Now adults, they have been pressed into service by the British. This puts them in an awkward position, since Scotland and France were allies, and the brothers were Catholic (like the French) in an era when the British didn't even sanction Catholic ceremonies like weddings. But the brothers led the Rangers anyway, to save each others' lives as well as those of their men and their Mohican friends.
Morgan is now the Captain of the Rangers, since Iain left the Rangers to be with his wife and child (see Surrender). On a mission to Fort SomethingOrOther (jeez, I canna keep them straight), he is shot while trying to save one of the Rangers, and taken captive. The French intend to get him well enough to torture then hand him over to the local Indians after he spills the info so they can burn him at the stake. Nice fellows all.
Amalie is a young French woman whose father is an officer there at Fort SomethingOrOther. Her mother, an Indian of that tribe wanting to burn Morgan (Ok, yeah, I should keep the book nearby for notes), died when Amalie was only 2, and she was raised in a convent. She's - what, visiting? living with Papa at Fort SOO when he is killed - by the Rangers, no less. Her guardian, another officer, wants to return her to the convent, especially since she keeps rebuffing the advances of a potential husband, Lt. Rivillieux. But for now it's too dangerous for her to return.
Morgan tries to die from his wounds so that he doesn't have to face the French torture and the Indian fire, but with Amalie's nursing, recovers. In fact, while she is nursing him to wellness, he is growing more and more aware and fond of her. But he maintains control, even when she is pushing him to kiss her - she's such a naif, she doesn't even realize what she is doing - because he realizes his dilemma - he must leave her, he's partially responsible for her father's death (she forgave him anyway) and he will have to rejoin the Rangers and continue to fight the French.
She suffers from the knowledge that she is nursing a man who may be killed - and when she learns he is Catholic, and indeed an honorable man, she falls in love with him and does what she can to save him. In fact, she convinces her guardian to allow him to join their side! Since this officer has already informed the British that Morgan actually died from his wounds, it seems he might be able to do this - at least temporarily, while attempting to both spy for the British and escape back to them as well.
When the guardian finds Amalie and Morgan in a compromising situation - very compromising, even though technically she was still a virgin - he forces them to marry in a Catholic ceremony.
The Rangers manage to intercept some damning evidence, however, that Morgan has joined the French, and even though when he does finally escape (with Amalie) he makes a good case for why he pretended to defect, he is branded a traitor and put in prison. So there is a lot of adventure and tension in the story all the way through.
Well, it's such a good story - lots of action, lots of tension - and man-o-man does she turn up the heat! I enjoyed it as both a good historical page-turner and a realistic romance. In fact, I consider it a true Keeper, better even than Surrender, and I'm not exactly sure why it's better! I just go with my gut feeling when I'm done.
I think this story fits the Spring 2009 Challenge in the Feuds section, since Amalie was on the French side and Morgan fought for the British. The title fits in my A To Z challenge, and it's also a series! 5 stars.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Just Imagine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips ****
I have this (and every other SEP except Glitter Baby) on audio - and periodically do re-listens. Where the other pre-2008 SEPs are narrated by Anna Fields, this one has a different narrator. It works because the tone of the book is so different from any of the others. For one thing, it's her only historical, set after the Civil War, in South Carolina. For another, there's none of the trademark SEP humor - it's a straight-forward drama.
The heroine is hoydenish Kit, an 18-year-old orphan, going to New York to murder the man, Caron Cain, who inherited the plantation owned by her father. Baron's mother was Kit's father's second wife. When he died, the wife inherited - when she died, she left both the plantation, Risen Glory, and the guardianship of Kit to her son. She doesn't manage to kill him, but it sets the tone for their relationship. Cain sends her off to finishing school for 3 years - and when she returns, she's grown up - a lot - and he doesn't even recognize her.
The sexual tension between them is an extension of their earlier antagonistic relationship. Once he realizes she is out to marry anyone so that she can get her inheritance earlier, and therefore buy Risen Glory from him, he does what he can to thwart her attempts. When she tries to ruin him by burning down the improvements he has made, he decides to marry her himself, so that he can have the inheritance to rebuild. Of course, given the sexual tension, it isn't just the money he's after - plus he thinks she's already sexually experienced (but she's not).
At first he's revolted by his own need for her, and decides to leave her alone after their disastrous wedding night. She circumvents that by seducing him, after weeks of no contact. What comes between them is the usual - their inability to communicate outside the bedroom. He thinks she just wants him for Risen Glory, the only thing she feels has been constant in her life. Baron has learned over time not to count on anything or anyone, so he gives away things before they become to dear to him, and Kit realizes she is next on his give-away list.
One of them has to give - and it takes a major event to bring them back together after Cain does the inevitable, leaving both her and Risen Glory.
I like this narrator's voice, her Southern accents and her character voices. The story works for me too - 4 stars, maybe even 5 now that I've listened to it 4 or 5 times.
The heroine is hoydenish Kit, an 18-year-old orphan, going to New York to murder the man, Caron Cain, who inherited the plantation owned by her father. Baron's mother was Kit's father's second wife. When he died, the wife inherited - when she died, she left both the plantation, Risen Glory, and the guardianship of Kit to her son. She doesn't manage to kill him, but it sets the tone for their relationship. Cain sends her off to finishing school for 3 years - and when she returns, she's grown up - a lot - and he doesn't even recognize her.
The sexual tension between them is an extension of their earlier antagonistic relationship. Once he realizes she is out to marry anyone so that she can get her inheritance earlier, and therefore buy Risen Glory from him, he does what he can to thwart her attempts. When she tries to ruin him by burning down the improvements he has made, he decides to marry her himself, so that he can have the inheritance to rebuild. Of course, given the sexual tension, it isn't just the money he's after - plus he thinks she's already sexually experienced (but she's not).
At first he's revolted by his own need for her, and decides to leave her alone after their disastrous wedding night. She circumvents that by seducing him, after weeks of no contact. What comes between them is the usual - their inability to communicate outside the bedroom. He thinks she just wants him for Risen Glory, the only thing she feels has been constant in her life. Baron has learned over time not to count on anything or anyone, so he gives away things before they become to dear to him, and Kit realizes she is next on his give-away list.
One of them has to give - and it takes a major event to bring them back together after Cain does the inevitable, leaving both her and Risen Glory.
I like this narrator's voice, her Southern accents and her character voices. The story works for me too - 4 stars, maybe even 5 now that I've listened to it 4 or 5 times.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Surrender by Pamela Clare ****
Wow! This was a true adventure story that takes place in America during the French and Indian wars, but stars a couple of Highland Scots, Iain MacKinnon and Annie (aka Lady Anne Burness Campbell).
Iain grew up in America, the son of an exiled Highlander after Culloden. Iain's the eldest of 3 sons, and they live on the family farm (I'm trying to recall - I guess both parents have passed on). They grew up with Mohican's as playmates, and are wise in the Mohican ways. OK, it's spelled differently but Mohican made more sense to me. They get conscripted into becoming Rangers for the British army with a threat of hanging for a murder they did not commit.
Annie was a gently bred virgin from Scotland, daughter of an Earl who died at Prestonpans, the battle before Culloden. Her family fought on the British side of the war, and she feels much fear and hatred for the dreaded MacKinnons who slaughtered her father and brothers. But she learns to fear her evil uncle even more when she realizes his fetish - strangling lovers and in some cases, killing them during sex. This is how her mother dies - which she observes. She runs away, with her mother's jewels sewn into her dress, but is caught, thrown in jail and even branded -by her uncle - as a thief. She is then sold into indenture in America.
Annie escapes her owners when they are slaughtered by Indian and French scouts - and manages to land, barefoot and battered, at the very feet of Iain and his Rangers. He has 2 choices: shoot the bastard that's getting ready to rape her and let their position be known, or skulk away, leaving her but keeping his men safe. Of course, honorable guy, he shoots the Indian and French scouts, then sends his men back to Fort Whichever while he and Annie take the scenic route. Ok, that's not exactly right, but he's doing it to keep both Annie and his men safe.
He manages to get her back to the fort relatively unharmed, never knowing she's lied to him about her name and position both as a lady and as indentured slave. She lets him believe she was living with a sister and brother-in-law as her only living relatives and her name is Annie Burns. She's afraid if he finds out, he'll take her back to Albany where her indenture papers are. She also doesn't want him to find her thief brand, placed high on the inner thigh so that no man will want her.
This is really a terrific adventure story, and the heat level is very, very high, along with some unusual scenes. Apparently the AAR reviewer found at least one of them not to her taste, but I wasn't put off. This same reviewer also felt Iain was a little too alpha, but I guess I missed that part. I felt it was more in the spirit of Marsha Canham's Robin Hood stories - so swashbuckling and fast-paced, old fashion adventure that his actions seemed to be appropriate to his character and the time and the spirit of the story. After all, maybe if he made some decisions for the heroine it was because he was older, a lot more experienced and had a better fix on the situation than an 18-year-old Earl's pampered but spirited and courageous daughter! He can make some decisions for me any day!
4 stars
Iain grew up in America, the son of an exiled Highlander after Culloden. Iain's the eldest of 3 sons, and they live on the family farm (I'm trying to recall - I guess both parents have passed on). They grew up with Mohican's as playmates, and are wise in the Mohican ways. OK, it's spelled differently but Mohican made more sense to me. They get conscripted into becoming Rangers for the British army with a threat of hanging for a murder they did not commit.
Annie was a gently bred virgin from Scotland, daughter of an Earl who died at Prestonpans, the battle before Culloden. Her family fought on the British side of the war, and she feels much fear and hatred for the dreaded MacKinnons who slaughtered her father and brothers. But she learns to fear her evil uncle even more when she realizes his fetish - strangling lovers and in some cases, killing them during sex. This is how her mother dies - which she observes. She runs away, with her mother's jewels sewn into her dress, but is caught, thrown in jail and even branded -by her uncle - as a thief. She is then sold into indenture in America.
Annie escapes her owners when they are slaughtered by Indian and French scouts - and manages to land, barefoot and battered, at the very feet of Iain and his Rangers. He has 2 choices: shoot the bastard that's getting ready to rape her and let their position be known, or skulk away, leaving her but keeping his men safe. Of course, honorable guy, he shoots the Indian and French scouts, then sends his men back to Fort Whichever while he and Annie take the scenic route. Ok, that's not exactly right, but he's doing it to keep both Annie and his men safe.
He manages to get her back to the fort relatively unharmed, never knowing she's lied to him about her name and position both as a lady and as indentured slave. She lets him believe she was living with a sister and brother-in-law as her only living relatives and her name is Annie Burns. She's afraid if he finds out, he'll take her back to Albany where her indenture papers are. She also doesn't want him to find her thief brand, placed high on the inner thigh so that no man will want her.
This is really a terrific adventure story, and the heat level is very, very high, along with some unusual scenes. Apparently the AAR reviewer found at least one of them not to her taste, but I wasn't put off. This same reviewer also felt Iain was a little too alpha, but I guess I missed that part. I felt it was more in the spirit of Marsha Canham's Robin Hood stories - so swashbuckling and fast-paced, old fashion adventure that his actions seemed to be appropriate to his character and the time and the spirit of the story. After all, maybe if he made some decisions for the heroine it was because he was older, a lot more experienced and had a better fix on the situation than an 18-year-old Earl's pampered but spirited and courageous daughter! He can make some decisions for me any day!
4 stars
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