Prince Joe by Suzanne Brockmann

I'm thinking that Brockmann is just plain great at what she does, regardless of the length of the book. This is the other Navy SEAL series that Brockmann writes. I discovered this talented writer when I picked up Flashpoint from the library as an audiobook.
I have read every book after Flashpoint and in truth, sometimes I feel cheated from enjoying them to my fullest because Brockmann usually explores subromances in her full length novels, so if you miss one of the first novels you tend to miss some background of the current romance. Not so with the category romance series (Tall, Dark and Dangerous).

Prince Joe is the first book of the series but it did not lay ground work for the next book, which is a relief since I don't have the next book (I have the one that follows). Anyway... Joe Catalanotto is a dead ringer for Prince Tedric, who is making a US tour and has had an assassination attempt made. Joe is brought to stand in his place until the assassins are found and Veronica St. John is the person who is going to transform this New Jersey boy into royalty.

I like how Brockmann lets the romance build without rushing it but the misunderstandings were getting to the point where they were annoying, Too much of the tension between the couple was based on the misconception each of them had about the other and their own insecurities just fed it. This really took away from a really sweet and romantic story. I loved the scene when Joe visits the sick child at the hospital and then breaks down. It gave him such a human side and made him even more adorable. The secondary characters were also well written and makes you look forward to reading their story.

Grade: B

Sterling Files: Vicious by Sherri L. King

I decided to give the Sterling Files series another chance, so I picked up Vicious' story. His 'gift' is Time chasing. He can slow down time to a point where he can weave around things and appear, to the naked eye, as just being very fast. Enya Merritt, who is of Arabian descent, is in protective custody with a pack of hit men after her. She is a witness for the government against Siren, the other organization that recruits people with 'gifts'. She use to work for them until she realized they were corrupt.

Running away from a couple of hit men she runs smack into Johnny Vicious, who cleans house very smoothly. When the police arrive, she meets John Strada who is a sexy police officer taking over her protection from the FBI, which failed her terribly. Well it seems John has a secret not even he knows, but Enya later discovers. John is Johnny Vicious.

I really enjoyed this installment in the series. A story like this is why I chose not to give up on an Author after a bad read. Everyone has a bad day. I loved the twist King gave the story by making Vicious, John's alter ego (no spoilers here, you figure it out early on in the story).

The story still has cheesy lines like: "I won't stop to ask again, Enya," he whispered. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" but the pace was slower and the romance was built nicely. I had to laugh when John's equipment was described, though. Have you ever noticed that these heroes are always HUGE! Poor John was abnormally huge and it was just too funny.

Girls, bigger is not always better! Don't get me wrong, size DOES matter and whoever says it doesn't is lying through their teeth, but too big can be a problem too. LOL!!

Anyway, not only did this story redeem this series in my eyes but it also made me want to watch out for the next installment which has to be Ryan Murdock's story. Quite an intriguing fellow.

Grade: B
Format: ebook

Sterling Files: Steele by Sherri L. King

I admit that Sherri L. King is a dastardly temptation for me. I loved her work with the Horde's War series (which is not yet finished) and I have picked up several of her single titles as well with great pleasure (no pun intended). She is very good at her art and her art is writing Erotica.

With that said it pains me to say that she missed her mark with her new series. The story behind the couple appears to be sound but this first installment left me wondering if I was reading King's work or was it some other author with no experience in giving her characters flesh (again... no pun intended).

Brian Steele is part of a government project called Sterling. He was discovered and bought into the program at the age of 13. Everyone involved in the project has some 'special' talent. His is his extraordinary physical strength. He is like a human Superman.

He is sent to recruit Marla Rivers who after being in a coma for a year, wakes up with the ability to control electrical currents. She does not know how to control these new powers and this is where Sterling can help her. That is, if their rival, Siren, will just leave her alone.

Well, within 24 hours she is already in Steele's bed and he's already gaga over her. I mean don't get me wrong, I've seen books that go this fast and honestly, it's a very short story (58 pages in PDF format), but the dialogue was very bad... to the point I found myself cringing.

Even with that, I still liked Brian Steele. He was this huge puppy dog you just wanted to take home to care for. He was all tenderness and sweetness, even when he was knocking heads. Marla... well... she did nothing for me.

I'm not one to kill a series because of one installment. I'll give the next story a try (Sterling Files: Vicious), the hero is like The Flash (super fast).

Grade: C-
Format: ebook

Lord Ruin by Carolyn Jewel

Picked this one up at the recommendation of my reading buddies on my yahoo group. They kept refering to the hero as the horniest hero they had read so I just had to see what all the hoopla was all about.

The Duke of Cynnsyr carries a reputation for his womanizing ways and proves himself up to his rep when he encounters a woman in his bed while at a weekend party in his friend Aldreth's house.

The woman in question was Anne Sinclair who has captured the heart of Cyn's friend Devon. She had slipped on the stairs earlier in the evening and hurt her ankle. Having been drugged with laudanum she had no idea that Ruan (Cyn's real name) had ruined her. She thought it all a dream until she was brought to her brother in law, Aldreth's study and informed of her lack of virginity. Ruan could either marry her or lose his ambitions for a political future, since he was caught in the throws of a climax while Anne was passed out... quite disturbing actually.

The book held me but I had a love hate relationship with the hero. Ruan falls for his wife early on but it seems that his reaction to his feelings kept getting in the way of our liking him. When he is jealous he becomes hurtful, when Anne is hurt he fails to comfort her, when he has a chance to explain himself he lets it slip by. When a hero says to the woman he loves "I might have done a good deal worse than you. Left to my own devices, I would have."; you know he is just TSTL (too stupid to love).

Anne on the other hand has grown up in the shadows of her sisters (all younger and more beautiful than her) and she fails to give herself the credit and respect she deserves. And yet, she knows what is expected of her as a duchess and tries to fill the position as best she can without giving her heart to a man she can not trust. Her self doubt gets a bit tiresome but Ruan's complete idiocy overshadows her failings.

The secondary characters are very well done and at the very end we get teased with a possible romance between Emily (Anne's youngest sister and the woman who was intended for Cynnsyr) and Devon (Cynnsyr's best friend and the man who was to marry Anne). There was more spice and action in the last few pages between these two characters than in the whole book between Ruan and Anne. A well written sequel with these two characters would bring me back to reading Jewel. Overall the book was entertaining but I think Jewel needed to make Ruan more sensitive. I think that if Ruan was a stern character his mistreatment of Anne would have been more acceptable, but he was just clueless which made him unworthy of Anne.

Grade: C

The Broker by John Grisham

John Grisham is back to his old form with this book. After years of reading dreadful stuff by this author it's great to see him comeback with a book that kept you wanting more until the very end. At the end it was an edge of your seat thriller.

The Broker refers to Joel Backman who, in his prime as a Washington lawyer, rubbed elbows with the crème de la crème. He earned over 10 million a year and had the largest, most successful firm in all Washington. Then he took on as a client three young Pakistani men that had written software to manipulate a satellite that was not suppose to be in orbit. When they went after the highest bidder for the technology, they were arrested (to tell you the truth, the whole reason why Joel was arrested escaped me but since it really didn't change the story, I moved on). After his partner was murdered, Joel confesses and goes into protective custody at the Federal Prison. There he spends 6 out of his 20 year sentence in solitaire confinement, until the outgoing president gives him a pardon he has not asked for.

The CIA wants him out so they can have another country assassinate him. Seems Joel has too many secrets he is not willing to share with the USA, so the CIA would rather the secrets die with him before he has a chance to share them with anyone else. He is taken out of the prison and sent to Italy where he is supplied a new identity and a tutor to get him acclimated to the new life the US, supposedly, has bought him. He knows better and the game of Cloak and Dagger that takes place in the following months is the juice of this story.

The story reminded me of Grisham when he was at his best, with stories like The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client & Runaway Jury. Well worth picking this one up, even if you had given up on Grisham.

Grade: B+
Format: Audiobook

Color of the Wind by Elizabeth Grayson

As part of my yahoo group's (Historical Romance Chat) Author of the Month series, I selected Elizabeth Grayson's Color of the Wind as my February read. As things worked out the title also met the requirements for Angie W's TBR challenge.

These are the questions that Angie W had asked about the book selected:
Title: Color of the Night
Author: Elizabeth Grayson
Year published: 1999
Why did you get this book? As an Author of the Month selection for my yahoo group.
Do you like the cover? Yes, it's not overly cheesy.
Did you enjoy the book? Absolutely
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Grayson was a new to me author and I will definitely be looking for her work in the future.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? I will be trading this copy since I don't usually keep books.

With that said... on to my thoughts of the book.

Baird Northcross & Ardith Merritt are damaged individuals. Baird due to overindulgence and being spoiled, and Ardith due to being the ugly duckling. Baird was once betrothed to Ardith but during their engagement party he met Ariel, Ardith's half sister and fell for her beauty and passion for life. They eloped on the day he was to marry Ardith. Shamed over the scandal, Ardith abandons London and moves with her uncle to Boston.

16 years later, Baird is banished to America after his involvement in his cousin's death. He has lived his life going from exotic place to exotic place and is accustomed to luxuries that don't exist in Wyoming. Thinking to outsmart his family, he sends for Ariel and his three children but Ariel dies after her arrival in Boston. Her dying request is made to Ardith, pleading that the children be taken the rest of the way to their father. Ardith, who is now a children's author but has no experience with the real thing, honors her sister's request.

She expects to just dump the kids and get back to her life, but realizes that Baird is even more clueless as to the needs of his children than she is. So an agreement is reached where Ardith will stay until Baird can acclimate himself to his new role as a single parent.

Grayson's vivid descriptions of life on the frontier, makes the story just bounce off the pages. I admit that the book can be put down but you will carry with you the detailed images that the author has painted. I also love that Grayson doesn't rush the romance between Baird and Ardith. Instead she lets them develop a relationship based off their common need to assure the children's well being. The characters grow into people that you can admire. Baird stopped being the selfish man we meet at the beginning and Ardith is a stronger woman, more self assured. The soft transition between who they were at the beginning of the book and who they became really gives credence to the talent of this author.

Grade: B+

Summer in Eclipse Bay by Jayne Anne Krentz

It seems that I'm a down roll... The last two books have been such a disappointment. This is the third book int he Eclipse series but Krentz did a good job making it readable without having read the first two.

Nick Harte is a widow who has avoided commitment until Ocatvia Brightwell. The Art Shop owner is the great niece of Claudia, the woman who caused a huge rift between the two most powerful families in Eclipse Bay. Trying to make amends for the sins of her aunt, Octavia comes to town to try to help mend the feud between the Harte's and the Madison's but they are well on their way to harmony with the marriages between Nick's sisters and two of the Madison clan (seen in the first two books of this trilogy). Octavia is ready to pull out but gives into her attraction to Nick as a way to "live a little". She doesn't like it when after a tumble in the hay (so to speak) he picks up his cloths and leaves. He tells her that she gave him 'the talk' declaring that she was not into a long term affair so there is no reason to recriminate him. The talk is what Nick usually gave his women before taking them to bed, where he told them that there was no hope for a long term affair. When a painting goes missing from Octavia's shop, Nick's protective instincts go into high gear.

I'm not too sure if it was that I had not read the first two books (although I doubt it since this one did well as a stand alone) but the characters and Eclipse Bay never really found a spot in me. I just could care less what was happening to them and I didn't care who took the painting or why. When we finally find out who took the darn thing it was anti-climatic. It could have been the narrator of this Audiobook that made the book flat but I am not sure of it was that either. When a book doesn't resonate with me in its audio form I try to imagine the story being read. I think of myself sitting with the book and reading it. I must admit that if I was reading this book I would have stopped reading half way into it. The book just did not do it for me.

Grade: C-
Format: Audiobook

Against His Will by Trish Jensen

Wow.. This one was bad. Not completely horrendous but bad enough. I am so disappointed because I actually liked her Stuck with You book (or at least, I remember liking it).

This is the story of Jake Donnelly, an FBI agent that has just inherited his Aunt Sophie's pet bulldog. Muffin inherited everything else. If Jake cannot deal with Muffin, he can give up claim on all properties and give it all to LeAnne Crosby, psychologist to the dogs and owner of Happy Hound resort. As part of the stipulations in the will Jake has to spend two weeks at the doggie resort. Of course Jake is skeptical of LeAnne and believes her to be a fraud as well as a gold digger, that is until he meets her, then he thinks she's a hot and sexy gold digger.

The premise of the story made me think it would be a blast but there was a lot of doggie moments that just seemed out of place. There was more on how Jake fell in love with his role as a dog owner than on how he fell in love with LeAnne. There was lust but I was not convinced that he fell for her or at least why he fell for her. Then there was the lack of real sexual tension, there was an attraction but I never got the raw feelings I have perceived in other work where "if I don't have her, I'll just die". The subplot of some goons going after them because they want to get to the witness that Mark Colson and Jake were protecting just didn't fly either.

I really thought I would drop this one but I felt committed to finishing it and as I said, it was bad but not horrendous.

Grade: C-