HOT ROMANTIC READS FOR A COLD NIGHT

For those of you who like to read a good romance I have some selections to snuggle up with on a cold winter night.

Holiday Man

Marilyn Brant

A Romance Over a Year of Holidays...Shannon Quinn is the small-town girl who runs "Holiday Quinn" -- a holiday-themed inn and resort based in scenic Door County, Wisconsin.

One winter evening, wealthy Minneapolis businessman, Bram Hartwick, blows into town along with the fast-falling snow. The sparks Bram and Shannon create succeed in heating up the chilly Midwestern night, not to mention plenty of holiday weekends in the year that follows...

But is their relationship reserved only for special occasions, or might it be the elusive everyday love that neither of them thought could be found? First chapter excerpt

YOURS AT MIDNIGHT

Robin Bielman 

Lyric Whetsone only had eyes for Quinn Sobel’s brother Oliver, until a car crash took Oliver’s life on New Year’s Eve. Then, a moment of shared grief between Quinn and Lyric became something more impassioned, something that frightened Quinn so much he ran from Lyric’s bed and her life, disappearing for four long years.

Now Quinn’s back for another New Year’s Eve, struggling for closure, desperate to leave his grief in the past and make amends with the girl of his dreams.

But Lyric has a secret–one that could drive Quinn from her life forever. Will Quinn run away from the love and acceptance he’s always wanted…or will he claim his New Year’s kiss and make her his at midnight? First chapter excerpt

And for those of you who like your reads really hot and sexy, may recommend a spicy holiday anthology from some of the biggest names in erotic romance.

A VERY NAUGHTY XMAS

Share Me
by Olivia Cunning, NYT & USA Today Best-Selling Author
Lindsey longs for an amazing Christmas Eve with her favorite band, Sole Regret, and spends one snowy night with two generous rock stars who love to share their gifts.

Jingle Ball 
by Cari Quinn, USA Today Best-Selling Author
This Christmas, rocking the office holiday party has taken on a whole new meaning...

Light Me Up
by Cherrie Lynn, NYT & USA Today Best-Selling Author
She’s dreaming of a little sparkle in her stocking this year. He’s planning a night that’s anything but silent…

An Indecent Proposition 
by Stephanie Julian
Two men. One Woman. Half a million dollars. One very indecent proposition. 

Christmas is Coming 
by Raven Morris
The best gifts are all tied up with a bow…

Stay tuned, I have more hot romance coming up this month. 

Friday, January 4th, my guest will be historical author, Jennifer Hudson.

MONDAY MUSINGS: THE GIFT OF WORLDS

A Friend sent me this. Isn't it great?

Reading has always been a gift and each book a beautifully wrapped window to another world. I've visited wonderful places and gone on some grand adventures. 

This past couple of weeks has been incredibly busy and rather stressful. I read more when times are rough or stressful. It’s a form escape but it’s also a way to calm my mind. Times like this I don’t accept new books for review. Reading to review is a job. You read with a different mindset than when reading for pleasure—even if it’s a book you want to read.
 
I want to share three books I bought and read for pleasure. Three different genres and very different authors but each book put me in a world I enjoyed and help me escape from the world of work, kids, chores and whatnot. My Kindle is loaded with lots of books. I buy many books when I spot deals or want to try an author I haven’t read before. Yesterday I went searching titles for something I hadn’t read and found a great one.

NEVER BACK DOWN

William Casey Moreton

John Coburn, a Harvard-trained doctor still reeling from his father's sudden death a few days earlier, wanders into a bar in New York City's Greenwich Village a few minutes before midnight. He encounters an old friend from college, a man named Brian Ripley, whom he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years. Ripley is with a beautiful young woman and is clearly in a hurry to leave. Coburn could have never been prepared for Ripley's reaction to seeing him, and he is even less prepared for what happens next. 

The following morning, the young woman with Ripley is found dead in Washington Square Park, the victim of a brutal murder. Coburn goes to the police and tells them of his encounter with Ripley the previous night. What the police tell him shakes him to his core - Brian Ripley has been dead for 15 years. 

The story moves at breakneck speed as John Coburn searches for the truth behind the woman's murder and whether or not he really saw his friend, or merely a ghost, that night. 

I read it in about 6 hours and finished it, reluctantly, at 12:45 a.m. this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book I literally didn’t want to put down. It grabbed my attention from the first sentence. I’m not going to tell you it was some unheard of new plot, I don’t think there is one of those, but it was highly entertaining and some serious kick-ass situations, lots of action, some questions to find answers to and a great set of believable characters.

I liked John Coburn, former military, a bit of an adrenaline junkie, with some impressive skills, and tenacious. He’s a bit of a boy scout and by choice, prefers to be in the hot spots of the world plying his trade of physician (he loves practicing medicine and patients, hates the hospital bureaucracy). This story takes a man at loose ends after the death of his father and his recent divorce and adds the premise of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and then adds jet fuel to the mix. What a ride. Good story, great tension and pacing, satisfying denouement. Moreton is on my list of authors to read. I can also recommend his story, 72 Hours.

CHANGLING DAWN—Changeling series

Dani Harper  

Kenzie Macleod has spent her whole life hiding the fact that she's a werewolf. She's not about to open up to any man, even one as powerfully attractive as wildlife expert Josh Talarkoteen.

But legend says that a Changeling cannot escape the call of her true mate, even in the wilderness of backcountry Alaska.

An isolated archaeological site, a terrified Changeling cub, a shadowy research facility - as Kenzie and Josh face the ultimate betrayal, his obsidian eyes promise untold pleasure and hint at dark secrets of his own...

  

Dani Harper offers a different take on shapeshifters hiding in plain sight and I enjoyed that. Each story, so far, uses the MacCleod family as a base and put in a strong romance coupled with suspense. Every story adds a bit more to the knowledge and background of the world and hints at other skills that might have been lost over time but are being rediscovered and alludes to other supernatural people (like wise woman Birkie with some rather special talents).  A lot of potential for some great stories in this world.

Kenzie has had to deal with the terror of being hunted centuries before and the resulting fear and distrust she lives with daily. She has to learn that making a life is more than just existing and fear, not faced and conquered, can be more confining that any prison built.

The story is a solid romance, which is fun and sexy.  Well-crafted characters with realistic careers, fears, prejudices, traumas, sprinkled with danger and mystery. Lots of action. There’s a kidnapping, the majestic backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness, old tribes with talents, and at the base, the greatest risk of all—trusting your heart to another.

I really enjoyed this series so far. It was one that I picked up because it sounded interesting and I hadn’t read this author before.

THE BACKWORLDS

M.Pax  

After the war with Earth, bioengineered humans scatter across the Backworlds. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to hoard his fortune by destroying his son. 

Cut off from family and friends, with little money, and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.

This one was just plain fun. I’ll admit, I was curious to see how she, a new to me author, told a story and I liked the idea of bio-engineered humans. Given the science of today, not all that far fetched.

I enjoyed the adventure of the story and the rich imagination of the author in creating people and worlds. But, the story deals with the very real fears of a person being cut off from everything familiar and having to use their wits to succeed. It takes courage and the ability to stand up for what you want and having an open heart to make your own family from a circle of friends. I’m looking forward to the further adventures of Craze and his band of friends/family. Plus, you gotta love a story where chocolate is precious.

• Read any good books lately that you'd like to recommend?
•  

Map of Lost Memories - Book Review

“The one thing to remember about an adventure is that if it turns out the way you expect it to, it has not been an adventure at all.”
                  ~Map of Lost Memories

Imagine if F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) had written Indiana Jones, with a female protagonist. There would be adventure, but there would also be lush, rich prose. There would be a treasure hunt (with snakes!), but there would also be seething emotional undercurrents, an exploration of twisted personalities and questionable motives.

This is that book, the Map of Lost Memories, a debut historical fiction from Kim Fay. Set in 1925 in Shanghai and Cambodia, the story is about the search for a rumored hidden temple and a set of copper scrolls that will reveal the history of the lost Khmer people. I first encountered this novel many years ago when I read the first chapter of the manuscript in some contest. I was so immediately enthralled, so pulled into Ms. Fay’s premise and her rich story-telling style, that I immediately wrote and begged for the rest of the story. Sometimes you just know when you’ve touched something special. This work haunted me for years. I am so glad that Ballantine Books agreed and now the rest of the world can discover what I did.

Irene Blum, the protagonist, is a unique character—stubborn, driven, in many ways ruthless, but still with a hidden core of insecurity, of vulnerability. She is a study in control, a focused list maker. She lies with ease if it serves her goals. Early in the book is a description of Anne, an unconventional friend of Irene’s mother, a woman Irene deeply admires and has longed to emulate since her strange childhood days, growing up in a museum while her father was the night watchman:

“As teachers fretfully noted her [Irene’s] lack of interest in domestic skills or other female pursuits, the life Anne was living in Shanghai gave Irene hope. It proved that a woman could do anything she liked as long as she did not care what others thought. Every day, with her maps and books and dreams of lost treasures, Irene practiced not caring.”

This is the woman who, in 1925, dismissed from a longed-for job as a museum curator, a job for which was eminently qualified, except for the fact that she was a woman, comes first to Shanghai and then to Cambodia to prove them all wrong.

“I’m having the hardest time walking back through this” Irene says, “… Not just last night but these past days in Shanghai, the last months in Seattle, I’m trying to get back…before I lost my job, before my father died. There’s a path, there must be a path from here to there, but I can’t find it. I can’t make the connections.”

This then is the crux of Irene’s story. To find a way back to the life she’d planned, by any means, the life that was thrown so off course with her father’s death and the loss of the job she felt she’d earned. This is a book about going after a goal so hard that you lose yourself in the process, and only midway, when you’re in too deep, stopping to wonder if it is really the right goal after all. And if you are really willing to do all that it takes to achieve that, or if the price will be too high.

Her business partner in the hunt for the scrolls is Simone Merlin, a woman who often reminded me of Daisy Buchannan in The Great Gatsby. She is an intelligent woman, but she is driven solely by her emotions, which are almost always raw and on the surface, exacerbated by a mind that is frequently addled by opium or whatever other drug she can get her hands on. She’s brilliant, and Irene needs her, but she’s utterly unstable and unreliable. Simone is a study in contradictions: emotionally and physically fragile, but with a core as hard as the stone temples she seeks. She’s almost bi-polar in her mood swings. Irene describes Simone:

“Welcome to the rabbit hole. I could sit here guessing for a year and the only thing I’d know for sure is that whatever I concluded, if Simone is involved, I wouldn’t be right.”

Both women have been raised with a love for the Khmer people of Cambodia, the lost people who built the largest temple in the world, Angkor Wat, then disappeared as silently as the Mayans or the Anasazi. Each woman has a soul deep need to find their lost history, to find out what happened to them. But each of the women has an entirely different—mutually conflicting—agenda of what to do with the history— purportedly a set of the lost copper scrolls—if they find them. Irene’s and Simone’s goals align, to a point. Where they diverge, it could be deadly. As another character says,

“Both of you plan to use the scrolls to fulfill a dream. The problem is that you have such different dreams.”

There are the men in their lives as well. Henry Simms, the secretive, dying, wealthy art collector who instilled in Irene the love of the treasure hunt, who sets all the players in motion. Roger, Simone’s husband, a volatile political animal more interested in raising money for the Communists than in his wife. Louis, Simone’s former lover. And Marc Rafferty, expat, bar-owner, man of many secrets.

Unlike so many novels today, this historical fiction takes time for descriptions, brief, lush pauses that will put you into the story so fully you’ll feel the humidity on your skin and swear you smell jasmine and spices overlaying the scent of mold and rot and unwashed bodies in the dirty streets. She describes walking into a bar: “The room felt sullen with heat, Shalimar, and the masculine reek of cigars.” And just like that, you’re right there with Irene in a 360 degree immersion into the tale.

In the end this is a love story. Love that can be twisted and dark and suffocating. Love for a people and a place. Love that can save you, if you will let it, but where no one emerges unscathed or unchanged.

Irene’s mentor, Anne, says:

“I’m thankful every day for that moment of recklessness. How else would I ever have made it to the other side?”…”The place where one feels truly alive. Too many people surrender to a place of safety. That place where all they do is long to sleep so they can dream about living. Even if you don’t find what you think you’re looking for, darling, it’s the going out and looking for it that counts. That is the only way you know you have lived.”

I was so grateful to Ms. Fay for taking me along on this enticing adventure, and am looking forward to more from this wonderful author!

Tell me, do you have a book that carried you away and that still haunts you?

~Guest post by Kat Sheridan

 

Born in Seattle and raised throughout Washington State, Kim Fay lived in Vietnam for four years and still travels to Southeast Asia frequently. A former independent bookseller, she is the author of the historical novel "The Map of Lost Memories" and "Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam," winner of the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards' Best Asian Cuisine Book in the United States. I am also the creator/​editor of the To Asia With Love guidebook series. The Map of Lost Memories is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, as well as fine independant bookstores like Elliott Bay Book Company.

READING OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE—The Irish Healer

Plenty interesting topics to read today: A-Z Blogfest. Today's letter is P. You can find a list of participants Here.

Occasionally, when I can persuade her, author Kat Sheridan—lover of lush historicals—will contribute something for my readers. I love reading her reviews, articles, short stories, and I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

           In the interest of my almost pathological honesty, I should say I’m not the target audience for this book. Well, it IS romance (which I love), and every page is rich with historical detail and lush writing (which I also love), and it’s a tale of loss and redemption and yearning and passion and all those other sorts of things I ALSO adore in a book.

So why is The Irish Healer, the stunningly beautiful debut novel from NancyHerriman, not a novel I’d ordinarily read? Because it’s billed as “inspirational/Christian romance”. To the uneducated (like I was), that meant this book would be filled with the Bible, and Christian values, and I would be preached at on every page. Although I’m a spiritual person, I’m not a Christian. I’m also a published author of erotic romance. How much more “NOTD” (Not Our Type, Darling) could this book be? Therefore, this book was not for me.

            And I couldn't have been more wrong. 

Rachel Dunne—the Irish healer of the title—is running away. Although acquitted of murdering a child under her care, she’s come to London to escape the scandal of her past, vowing to give up her gift of healing, believing it’s really a curse. She finds work with Dr. James Edmunds, a man with tragedies of his own in his past, a physician who is also in the process of giving up his medical practice. Rachel vows only to work as a sort of secretary for him. She will not help him in medical matters, will not sit at the bedside of patients, will not trust or use her own special gifts.

James and Rachel have each in their own way given up on God, as they believe God has abandoned them. Here is one of my favorite scenes:

BUY:Amazon, B&N, Powells 

“I understand loss and trials and difficulties, Dr. Edmunds. I understand struggling to hold onto hope that tomorrow will be better than today. I understand how hard it is to watch a child suffer and feel powerless to help her. I understand wanting to believe that God will perform a miracle and feeling lost and disillusioned when He does not.” Old, sad bitterness tainted her words. “That is what I understand, Dr. Edmunds.”

His gaze searched her face, looked directly into her eyes, straight into her soul. “So what do we do now?”

Confused by his question, Rachel answered the only way she could. “We go forward.”

“But what if you don’t have the strength to go forward? What if you don’t have the courage?”

“Somehow, you have to find it.” (you can read an excerpt of Chapter one.)

Note the subtle way inspirational reference is woven in, without browbeating the reader with it (which was what I had feared from an inspirational romance. Again, I could not have been more wrong.) This is a book about the universal themes of loss and forgiveness, about finding redemption, and most powerfully, about finding love. It transcends a specific, single belief system. It’s about learning to forgive yourself, and love yourself; about accepting love and forgiveness from others. It is also about understanding—accepting—the always-present love and forgiveness of something—someone—greater than you.

The thing is, you don’t have to subscribe to certain beliefs in order to become immersed in a beautiful story. I can read about dragons and genies and mermaids, witches and voodoo priestesses and shamans, and if the story is well done, the characters believable and right for the tale, that writing a feast for the senses, that’s all that really matters. The Irish Healer is that kind of book.

And make no mistake, this is first and foremost, a romance, as sweet and delicious and sexy and yummy as you could ever want. There is no overt sex in this book; there’s barely a single kiss. But oh, the yearning! The longing! Ms. Herriman beautifully, powerfully builds the tension, page by page, a glance, a touch, a sigh at a time, until the reader is as wound up as Rachel and James, an ember about to burst into a conflagration. This is a truly romantic romance.

The power of faith is the backbone of this feast of a novel, but love—God’s and man’s—is the heart and soul of it. I’ve never been happier to have been wrong about something. Missing out on this wonderful book would have been a tragedy indeed.

Question: 

• Inspirational romance is way outside my usual comfort zone of reading. Have you ever read outside your comfort zone? 

• Did you find something new and wonderful?

Kat Sheridan is a recovering project manager and business analyst whose hard-bitten persona has always hidden a secret romantic. She likes her stories with a dark and dangerous flavor, so long as the villains are vanquished and true love triumphs in the end. She is inordinately fond of glitter nail polish, shiny things, bourbon, and any comestibles on which frosting can be placed. Kat splits her time between the Midwest in the summer and the South in the winter. Her peripatetic life is shared with her own real-life hero who shows her every day what happily ever after means. Connect to her on Facebook at or visit her website: Kat Sheridan 

Reading For Pleasure

Aaah, February...

February is the month of icky snow, icy cold, and the bloodthirsty desire to hunt down those blasted snow fairies.  No wait, this is supposed to be a positive view of February.

Positive...good things…don’t look at the six inches of new snow covering your blooming Daffodils, Sia…

Ah, yes, back on track. It’s the month of love, sweethearts, candy hearts, flowers, and romance in the air (providing you’re inside, where it’s warm and not outside freezing your tush off—which is probably why this is the month of love).

Anyway, I digress. So, find your favorite comfy seat, a nice snuggling blanket, grab something hot to warm you (not the hot guy on the side, ladies); I was thinking coffee, hot chocolate, or tea.

My assistants are searching high and low for list of reads that are sure to please—I sure enjoyed them! These were books I read for pleasure. I don't get a chance to do that as often as I like.

  

The Eden Prophesy  GrahamBrown  

The wisdom of faith. The power of science. The evil of man.

In the U.N. building in New York City, a U.S. Ambassador contracts an unknown virus after opening a threatening letter. In a slum near Paris, a rogue geneticist is found dead, tortured and defiled. His last message, a desperate plea for help, was sent to an old friend and fellow outcast, the ex-CIA agent and former mercenary named Hawker. His final legacy appears to be the fingerprints he left all over the letter to the Ambassador.

Consumed by thoughts of revenge but fighting to see the truth, Hawker teams up with NRI operative Danielle Laidlaw on a quest to find the killers and track down the secrets his dead friend may have lost or sold.

From the streets of Paris to an underground auction in the catacombs of Beirut to the merciless deserts of Iran, Hawker and Danielle find themselves hunting a murderous cult leader whose scientific arsenal could lead humanity to a new Eden—or unleash hell on the Earth itself.

The Turning Of Anne Merrick  — A tale of love and espionage. Christine Blevins

She spies for General Washington, betrays the Redcoats and battles for America's independence...

It's 1777, and a fledgling country wages an almost hopeless struggle against the might of the British Empire. Brought together by a fateful kiss, Anne Merrick and Jack Hampton are devoted to each other and to their Patriot cause. As part of Washington's daring network of spies, they are ready and willing to pay even the ultimate price for freedom.

From battlefields raging along the Hudson, to the desperate winter encampment at Valley Forge and through the dangerous intrigue of British-occupied Philadelphia, Anne and Jack brave the trials of separation, the ravages of war and an unyielding enemy growing ever more ruthless.

For love and for country, all is put at risk-and together the pair must call upon their every ounce of courage and cunning in order to survive.

CassaFire Alex Cavanaugh 

CassaStar was only the beginning… 

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren's civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan's technology and strange mental abilities. 

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves, the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Shadow Highlander: A Dark Sword Novel DonnaGrant 

HE CAN FEEL HER MAGIC

Sent on a dangerous mission into the shadowy world of the Druids, Galen must find a powerful ancient relic to defeat the enemies of Castle MacLeod. But what he discovers is far more powerful—and far more dangerous. A Druid lass whose beauty is as spellbinding as any magic…

CAN HE FREE HER SOUL

Reaghan is the most enchanting woman Galen has even met—and the most enigmatic. She alone is immune to his mind-reading gifts. He alone makes her feel safe and secure. But Reaghan holds a secret power deep inside her that could destroy them both. And if Galen hopes to hold this captivating woman in his arms every night, he must defeat the darkness that draws closer around her every day….

What am I reading right now? Kathleen and Michael Gear's Searing Wind—I've been reading their books since they first published them. I'll let you know my thoughts when I finish it.

Oh, and if you see that blasted Snow Fairy? Kick her winged self far north, would you? 

Thanks

MONDAY MUSINGS: The Quiet Life—Except When Its Not

I'm in a hot spiced tea mode today :-)

My week is off to a good start. I had a quiet, house all to myself, Sunday. No TV going, which tends to drive me nuts. I could think and putter around doing various needed things. It was wonderful. I’m a person who loves my quiet time. It refreshes me.

To top it off, it was a beautiful sunny day. Mild temperatures that made me think of spring which is a good thing because I’m planning out my herb garden, a small corn field so we can be assured of corn without nasty GMOs and built in pesticides—I’ll take bugs, thank you very much. I’m also planning some vertical gardening with tomatoes near my climbing roses. I’m going to try planting my crookneck, acorn, and butternut squash vertically. Did you know that every part the squash plant may be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots, which can be cooked in omelets or made into soup?

Planning involved new rabbit hutches going in, and where; I need to prepare the area where the lambs and beef steer will be, and make the chicken laying area better and safe from possums and pesky predator types.

What can I say? I lead a rather quiet life, lol! Oh, it has its spurts of excitements, like times when I have a house full of teens, or a weekend of them (such as this past one).  Friday afternoon to Sunday at 10 am. Friday night movies and about anything they can get their hands on to eat and it gets loud and boisterous with guitar hero contests (I’m stuck on medium), water rifle battles, in January no less, I passed on it. Catch me in April, guys.

 

Picture from IMDb

Saturday, we (hubs and I) fixed popcorn and tea and watched Abduction (teens were in another room watching some scary flick). Very good movie. Good cast, great action, and probably a sequel will come to the screen. While I don’t watch a lot of movies this was one that sounded intriguing and would keep my interest and it did. I also want to see: Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, Unknown, Liam Neeson.

And now you understand why I appreciated having a quiet Sunday.

I've finished up two great reads, The Avenger, a thriller by Jo Robertson, where a very smart serial killer has to be brought down.  Getaway (not yet released), another thriller, by Lisa Brackmann, set in Mexico involving an American who inadvertently gets caught up in a battle between good guys and bad guys set around the Mexican drug cartel trade. If she could only figure out which side really are the bad guys. Both are well written and kept me turning pages.  I also started a very good book, Cassa Fire, by Alex Cavanaugh (thankfully in print form as my Kindle has mysteriously disappeared). I can tell you, I’ll be reading more of his books. I love sci-fi set around space travel and exploration. This one is feeding that love. Contented sigh. Then again, I guess it’s not a big surprise, as I love Star Trek—all except Enterprise, which I couldn’t get into. So Alex’s story fits right in. 

Like I said, my life isn’t exactly the most exciting to most people but it suits me fine (Hey, I did my time living in cities, suburbia, and being on the go a lot).

Honestly, I love the country life and I enjoy peace and contentment that come with it.

• What about you? How was your weekend? 
• Any good books or movies you want to recommend?

  

Author Stalking: The Roguish Donna MacMeans

Kat Sheridan

My guest blogger, and I hope future contributor, is Kat Sheridan. She's a good friend (and writer) who recently attended a book signing at Barnes and Noble for Donna MacMeans--another very cool writer. Kat shares her thoughts on Donna's latest book and her experience at Barnes and Noble with us.

  

Let me preface this by saying that over the past year or so, Donna MacMeans and I have become friends, first via her (fabulous!) books and an online chat group for historical romance writers (waving madly at the MR Debutantes!) and then in real life. Those intelligent heroines and deliciously roguish heroes that she writes about? They all have a (more than a little) bit of Donna in them.

In her latest work, Redeeming the Rogue, the central plot is summed up nicely by the hero’s best friend (and intriguing, mysterious, delicious sidekick) Phineas Connor: “Have you considered the absurdity of it all, Rafe? That you, a son of Ireland, are traveling to America to impersonate a British minister in order to catch a fellow Irishman?”

In Redeeming the Rogue, Michael (Rafe) Rafferty is an Irishman working as an agent for the Crown to develop a peaceful, political solution to the question of Irish Home Rule. Ranged against Rafferty are the Home Rule League and the Fenians, who killed his parents and believe violence is the only way to achieve Irish independence. Rafferty, with his network of street urchin spies, is more at home in the rough alleys and taverns of London than in its ballrooms. Unfortunately, the new role he’s been asked to play requires more polish.

It also requires someone to play his hostess. And that “someone” would best be a wife.

Lady Arianne Chambers, the daughter and sister of a duke, has lived her whole life in diplomatic circles. Polish, politics, and protocol are in her blood. But like Rafferty, there are secrets in her past and she has very good reasons for wanting to escape London and head to Washington DC with her reluctant, recalcitrant, delightfully roguish protégé. 

I loved that this sensual, sexy, and slyly funny romance included a solid mystery and interesting plot to drive the story. The historical scaffolding on which Donna builds the romance doesn’t overwhelm the central love story, but provides a solid framework for it. Rafferty and Lady Arianne feel like real people. My heart broke right along with Lady Arianne’s (yes, 2:00 in the morning, I’m flipping pages as fast I can and crying my eyes out). Just as she did, I fell in love with Rafferty. And of course, because this is romance, the ending made my heart go pitty-pat. Le sigh.

I had the great fortune of attending my first ever book signing to get my autographed copy of Redeeming the Rogue. Donna’s logo/motif/signature is a peacock feather. She stamps one in every book she signs, and gives you a real one. Since I was a book signing virgin, I’d emailed her to ask what the protocol was. Donna was the Lady Arianne to my rough and unready Rafferty.  I asked Donna: “Will there be readings? Is this a white tie affair? Should I wear my tiara? Is it BYOB? Most importantly, will there be cupcakes?”

No, there weren’t readings (although I understand she thought her fellow co-signer, the delightful Susan Gee Heino would be good at that). Casual attire was fine, but since Donna is well known for her to-die-for feather Victorian hat, we decided the tiara would be fine (have you ever worn a tiara in a crowded Barnes & Noble on a Saturday afternoon? The trick is to act with aplomb, as if it’s perfectly normal, and NOT as if one is on a day pass from a nearby “facility” for the off-kilter).

We did discuss if the final “B” in BYOB stood for books (it’s tacky to bring your own from home—support your bookstore and buy your copy there), or if it stood for bourbon (sadly, liquid refreshments are frowned on in bookstores). Also sadly, the “B” did not stand for “baked goods”, in spite of my fervent hope there would be cupcakes. Because Donna always strives to please her fans, she did add a pink cupcake stamp alongside her usual green peacock feather, just for me!

I hope you grab your copy of Redeeming the Rogue by Donna Macmeans and settle in for a read that will have you cheering and crying and smiling and falling in love (best served with an icy Manhattan. And cupcakes).

Have you ever been to a book signing, either as an author or (slightly rabid) fan? What was it like? Most importantly, were there cupcakes?

Kat Sheridan is an aspiring author, fond of shiny things and bourbon. http://katsheridan.wordpress.com/

Monday's Musings

Usually when I return from writing conferences I’m jazzed and can’t wait to get back to my writing. Workshops or seminars by various authors inspire and energize me. Many times I’ve learn of a solution to a roadblock I’m facing in a current WIP. My fingers itch to stroke my keyboard.

I don’t know what happened to me when I attended The Romance Times Convention. I came back …tired, but a head full of information I had amassed through seminars and personal chats with authors. But instead of wanting to write, all I wanted to do was read. I can’t blame it on all the books I brought home. I always have stacks of books I’m interested in reading, books I’ve bought, books for reviews, and books from authors I will be having on my blog.

It’s not like my story bores me; the opposite in fact, it’s fun and I really like my characters and the premise. It’s exciting. Oh there are tedious parts, like the needed research to build the world I need, but for the most part I enjoy research as my inner history geek has a ball with it.

So what’s the problem? *Shrugging. I haven’t a clue. Could be having taken in so much info my mind needs time to process it. That’s very possible. My creative mind seems to have a loop separate from everyday stuff. I can feel it processing things, clicking away, arranging, and making sense of information and how to use it. When it’s happening, I tend to dream about it. Kind of how I write. The initial germ of the idea will appear and then it rattles around until all the pieces fall into place. When that happens I have to write. The green light is blinking and it needs to come out.

I’m sure periods of sleep deprivation haven’t helped but the kid is now improving in leaps and bounds and is almost back to normal. Realistically, I knew if I opened my WIP I’d want to immerse myself and that doesn’t go well with nursing a sick kid.

I still work. I’m filling June and July’s blog calendar. I’m writing all the time, just not my WIP.

So, I’ve been reading.

I admit I’ve probably read about 20 books in the past month. Whereas I used to never start another book while in the middle of another—what’s the point? If it loses my attention why go back to it? But I do have to do reviews, both fiction and non-fiction, so I usually have a non-fiction book going on the side.

Some books I can recommend:

• Rock Paper Tiger, Lisa Brackmann—fabulous book and I feel like I spent several days traipsing around China. She nails the whole culture so very well.
• 
  Black ops Inc series by Cindy Gerard—I’m reading her backlist on the series.
• 
  Dark Sword series by Donna Grant—I loved both of them and hate I have to wait several months for the next one.
• 
  The latest by Christine Feehan in her Leopard series (she’s an auto buy for me).
• 
  Kathryne Kennedy’s also an auto buy for me and I love her new series, The Elven Lords. Para-Historical is smooth and Fire Lord’s Lover is oh so worth reading.
• 
  Alexandra Ivy Guardians of Eternity series.
• 
  Christie Craig’s Shut Up and Kiss Me, which I hadn’t read before and I love her style. I’m going into her backlist now.
• 
  I’ve read and enjoyed Francis Ray’s It Had to Be You and have some of her backlist of The Grayson Friends Novels.
• 
  Patricia Sargeant’s On Fire.
  
• Donna MacMeans, The Seduction of A Duke
• 
  I’ve also been indulging in Steven Coonts Deep Black series Thrillers. Love his books.
  
  Non-fiction I’ve been reading and like (remember History geek) is My Times in Black and White. Fascinating book about Gerald M. Boyd, editor of NYTimes. Living history.

Up coming guests: Emily Bryan, Kate Douglas, Marie Force, Kathyrne Kennedy, Graham Brown, Faye Huges/Christie Craig, and many others the next two months. So be sure to check back or watch my Twitter and Facebook for announcements.

• Read any good books lately?

Have a great week!