Blue Heaven – Joe Keenan

An amusing late twentieth century take on PG Wodehouse and the (unknown to me) Preston Sturges set in New York, Blue Heaven is the tale of how hapless Philip Cavanaugh is inveigled into playing a role in a brilliant but doomed plot, dreamed up by his friend and former lover Gilbert Selwyn.

Looking back on the whole ghastly affair, what surprises me most is that when news of Gilbert's plan first reached me I felt no sense of foreboding
whatsoever. I didn't blanch, I didn't tremble, nor did I rush to a pay phone to call an airline and enquire about low fares to the Canary Islands. My early warning system, usually so reliable where Gilbert is concerned, had completely shut down. I was at a gallery opening, you see, and cheap wine will do that to you.

Gilbert is in even more dire financial straits than the perpetually penniless Philip, and has been cut off by his usually indulgent mother on the strong advice of her second husband, Tony Cellini. It was when he attended the wedding of Tony's niece that that the perfect solution came to him – a wedding! All expenses paid for, and groaning tables of wonderful gifts. The clincher was when Gilbert discovered that it's a family tradition to open the gifts in front of the wedding party, thereby ensuring that everything's expensive. The only fly in the ointment is the little matter of Gilbert preferring men. Oh, and finding a bride. The former is glossed over as a phase, made easier by Gilbert's never actually coming out to his mother or step-father. The latter problem is solved when Gilbert discovers that the truly odious and conniving Moira Finch is in a similar situation it seems almost preordained.
What Gilbert didn't factor in was that for every step forward, the pair would find themselves in a more complicated situation than the one they'd left. Well, that and the fact that Moira's interests didn't completely align with Gilberts. Oh, and the pesky little issue of Tony being fairly high in the New York mob. And wherever goes Gilbert goes Philip, his eyes a little more open and his fear considerably greater than Gilbert's.
My copy of Blue Heaven is thick with tags where I've come across particularly amusing sections, but sitting down to write I realize that I risk reproducing half the book if I quote them all. The dialogue is crisp and funny, the plot is original yet true to its inspirations, and the characters are unique and well rounded. I grew quite fond, while maintaining a strong appreciation of her fictionality, of Moira's fashion designer friend, Vulpina, whose creative approach has to be curbed while maintaining a friendship – though we never get a clear picture of the dress she'd like to create, odd phrases like "all those wolverines" gives one enough of an impression! The supporting cast, particularly the Italian wing, is sizeable, and I didn't bother keeping close track of who related to whom, but that wasn't necessary. In any case, Keenan supplies beautiful vignettes:

Sammy Fabrizio was a large woman in her late fifties. She wore a tight strapless gown of electric blue and earrings which might, on a weaker woman, have caused spinal damage. Her hair was sculpted into a bizarre terraced beehive that made her head resemble an ancient Inca cliff dwelling. Her voice reminded me of a duck, and not a clean-living duck either but one that's been drinking gin and chain-smoking since it was a duckling.

Ah, it's the voice that tips the portrait into a masterpiece! If you like your fiction witty, funny and a little arch, Keenan is for you. I can't remember much about my first reading of Blue Heaven, some twenty years ago, in no small part because it coincided with such a large Wodehouse binge I haven't returned in the interim. I vaguely remember buying the sequel, Putting on the Ritz, which may well turn up in one of my boxes and will certainly be read. – Alex

Nick Gadd: Ghost Lines

When a disgraced investigative journalist, reduced to belting out filler stories for a local rag, is sent to cover a level crossing accident he expects nothing more than a routine tragic death story. But events conspire to drag him into a dark world of art theft, dodgy business dealings, political corruption and murder. With his health failing and his personal life in tatters the last thing he needs is to get involved but the story takes on a life of its own and no matter how hard he tries to drop it the only escape for him might very well be his death.
This is a mystery story with real depth. A number of seemingly disparate elements all weave together to form a bigger picture that is more than the sum of its parts. The main character is beautifully drawn and believably flawed. The plot is complex enough to keep the reader guessing all the way without resorting to an excess of red herrings or with held information.
There was a very slight supernatural element (that I can’t go into without spoilers) which I don’t think the story really needed. To my eye it didn’t add anything particular but neither did it detract from the story either. So while it didn’t work for me, it wasn’t a deal breaker and I’m sure the author had his reasons for adding it in.
The ending resolved all the subplots in a neat package and the local setting was a novelty I enjoyed.
For a first novel this was a fine effort and I hope to see more of Gadd in the future.-Lynn

Spindle's End - Robin McKinley

Subtitled A tale of magic and adventure, this reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty fable opens with an explanation of the magic of the unnamed land in which it's set, "so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk dust." Fairies are employed for a variety of purposes, including reversing the magic that would otherwise produce thimbles or pansies instead of tea.
After fifteen years of childlessness, the queen conceives, and the joy of a nation greets the birth of Casta Albinia Allegra Dove Minerva Fidelia Aletta Blythe Dominia Delicia Aurelia Grace Isabel Griselda Gwyneth Pearl Ruby Coral Lily Iris Briar-Rose. For fairness the queen decides to invite the whole country to the baby's nameday, in the form of lots drawn in each village and hamlet.
In the most distant region of the kingdom, where Lord Prendergast acts on the king's behalf, the lot is drawn by Katriona, the orphaned niece of the fairy Saphronia, known to all as Aunt.
The first part of the novel is told from young Katriona's perspective - from her arduous voyage to the capital through to the surprising events at the naming, Katriona demonstrates courage and endurance, a fitting trial for what lies ahead. For, in the aftermath of Pernicia's curse on the newborn heir, the queen's personal fairy Sigil gives the infant to Katriona, with the admonition to keep her safe. Katriona retraces her steps, this time hiding in shrubbery and feeding the princess with the assistance of wild animals, with whom she can communicate and who seem to grasp the importance of discretion.
Rosie is raised as, and believes she is, Katriona's niece, and the second half is told from her perspective. Adamantly ungirly, despite her godmother-endowed blonde locks and sapphire eyes, Rosie crops her hair, prefers the company of animals to people, and is devastated when she has to move into their small town, though she ends up meeting the girl who will not only be her friend for life but change her destiny.
There were many things about Spindle's End that I really liked. One aspect was the conflict, evident more strongly early in the novel than later, between the male, logical and learned magicians and the (almost exclusively) female, intuitive and more backgrounded fairies.
I enjoy reworked fables, and McKinley deservedly has a reputation in this subgenre. I liked the narrative style, the transition in protagonist perspectives, the romantic elements, and the world building.
There's loyalty, friendship, love of all kinds, suspension, tension and drama in Spindle's End but somehow it was all relatively bland. I read the novel while at an academic conference, and appreciated the contrast but reflecting on it some days later nothing in particular stands out. I enjoyed it, but left the book behind without regret. I suspect part of this is because the underlying structure of the story didn't really offer anything substantially new. Certainly there are differences, key among which is that the princess is instrumental in her own fate, but all in all I've read more engrossing variants on a theme. - Alex

Jeaniene Frost: Halfway to the Grave

Twenty-two years ago a vampire raped a young woman resulting in the birth of a daughter who has grown up with a lot of the vampire’s abilities and all of her mother’s hate for the race. Now she’s out to stake anyone without a pulse in the hopes that one of her victims will be the louse who fathered her.
A routine hunt goes terribly wrong and she is captured by a vampire bounty hunter. To save her life she makes a deal with him: she’ll act as bait so that he can catch an elusive master vampire and in return he’ll train her to use her abilities and help her track down her dad.
Working with him she soon begins to question her hatred of all things undead. As their relationship takes a turn for the romantic she learns to accept what she is and that not all vampires are bad.
But their relationship is doomed from the start with her family’s resistance, a master vampire out to use her to get to her new lover and a covert government department determined to recruit her and kill him.
This book is the first in a series and the one thing about it that really stuck out to me was the hero. Anybody who has ever seen the TV series Buffy would recognize the hero as a version of the vampire Spike. Not only did his physical description bring the TV character to mind, he was also English (reflected by tragic inclusions in dialogue that make me think the author has never actually spoken to an Englishman) and has a single word name. At least the heroine here is nothing like her Buffy counterpart.
But if you can see past the heroic homage and the average writing, the story itself is fast paced, multilayered and includes some hot love scenes.
For me this book is the literary equivalent to kraft macaroni cheese (you know the stuff in the blue box). You know it’s rubbish and you shouldn’t eat it but you do and you love it anyway. It’s a shameful indulgence that you don’t want to give up because sometimes it just hits the spot. That’s this book, and maybe even this series, for me. We’ll see.-Lynn

Joanna Bourne: The Spymaster's Lady

A British spymaster must enter France and bring back a brilliant, dangerous and elusive French spy who knows the details of Napoleon’s plans to invade England.
When the two of them end up in the same dungeon they form an uneasy alliance in order to escape the French secret police. Once they achieve freedom the French spy wants to go her own way but the British spymaster is determined to bring her in.
The pair is hunted through France and the French spy manages to escape both her British captor and her murderous countrymen. But her freedom is short lived. She is recaptured and finds herself in Britain where the two rivals become lovers while she plans her escape.
She soon learns that the British are not the only ones interested in what she knows and that the French have issued an order for her death.
She is torn between loyalty to France and the safe haven offered by her lover for the price of Napoleon’s plans. Making the only decision she can live with she escapes the British and presents herself to the French bargaining for her life by naming traitors to the French cause.
Her lover finds her at the French spy safe house and convinces his French counterpart to release her into his custody claiming, falsely, that she has been a British plant the entire time. Deals are done.
She is free to choose her own future. Naturally it will include her British spymaster.
This story is what happens when a great plot meets fantastic characterisation and good research. I loved it.
The heroine was intelligent, competent, talented and determined. The hero was pure alpha but believably vulnerable. There was a little bit of the victor’s version of history (the British spies didn’t use indiscriminate torture like the French spies) but not so much as to be completely unbelievable of the period.
There are a number of surprise twists that are unexpected but not unbelievable. And the ending got the heroine neatly out of a seemingly impossible moral dilemma.
This is historical romance as it should be written.-Lynn

Night Fall - Nelson DeMille

Five years after TWA flight 800 fell out of the sky, cop and Anti-Terrorist Task Force member John Corey is approached by his wife, an FBI agent and also an ATTF member, about her concerns. Part of the team initial investigating the incident, she's never been convinced by the official explanation, particularly as soon many witnesses saw a fiery streak toward the plane moments before the explosion.
What follows is a fraught covert exploration of the evidence, coloured for the audience by two pieces of information we know that the protagonists don't. The first is that there was a missile, captured on video by a trysting pair of adulterous lovers. The second is the spectre of September 11, which looms over the plot. Though general impressions of time are given, the actual date is rarely mentioned, so every moment from about half way in has that additional tension. There is some fairly heavy retrospective wisdom - there are two paragraphs of Corey musing about "Mr Osama bin Laden," his wanted posters and the 45 million reward, and he mentally chastises the lack of security evident on federal facilities since the attempt on the World Trade Centre:

Washington and the news media chose to see each and every terrorist attack as a single event with little or no connection, whereas even an imbecile or a politician, if he thought about it long enough, could see pattern. Someone needed to rally the troops, or some event needed to be loud enough to wake up everyone.

For me the biggest flaw of Night Fall is that the central question of why the attack was covered up is never satisfactorily answered. I was also irritated by the use of September 11 as a deus ex machina to effectively ensure that the attack can once again be covered up, this time with all the ends tied neatly, which is somewhat unsatisfactory.
My brother-in-law, a fan of conspiracy, gave me the book with his recommendation. It was certainly an absorbing holiday read, though perhaps not wholly suitable for a trans-Atlantic flight! I'm glad I've experienced the DeMille phenomenon, but think once was enough. - Alex

J G Sandom: The God Machine

Blurb from the back of the book:

The coded journal of Benjamin Franklin. A hidden map. A legendary gospel. These are the first pieces to an ancient puzzle so powerful, it could destroy the very foundation of Christianity… in a world of secret societies, ancient conspiracies, and Masonic puzzles, locating the prize is one thing-staying alive, another.

And so it goes on. I can only assume that the hero solves the puzzles, saves the world and gets the girl but I will never know for sure because I gave up on this one at page 86 (of 468).
I’m quite fond of the conspiracy theory/thriller/mystery combination so when I discovered this on the recommended reading rack at my library I was delighted. I thought the plot sounded great, if a little Dan Brown-esque. At the point I stopped reading most of the usual suspects had been introduced or strongly foreshadowed: the wounded hero, the morally ambiguous Mason, the sinister Catholic sect, the hypocritical evangelist and the sexy intellectual woman were all there. The plot was only just being set up but it promised to be action packed. So why did I put it down with no intention to ever pick it up again?
Sadly, I quickly discovered that this writer’s voice wasn’t for me. They’d done their research, quite thoroughly too, and they were intent on sharing everything they knew. Not in a discrete seamlessly blended manner that enriches the story but more in a style reminiscent of the recorded lectures you can listen to on self guided tours of historic places.

For example:
It was the home of the Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta, commonly known as the Knight Hopitaller. The Knights of Malta.
Founded in Jerusalem in 1080 by the Blessed Gerard, the order was originally launched to provide care and relief for the poor pilgrims..etc, etc.

It goes on in this vein for another three pages. At which point I stopped reading. I could have overlooked it if it had been a one off. It wasn’t.
I love history but this kind of pace dragging info dump has no place in an action thriller. Particularly in one that is already disjointed by jumping about in time.
Dan Brown’s literary efforts may have all the intellectual merit of my grocery list but at least they’re page turners. Disappointingly, The God Machine doesn’t even offer that.-Lynn

Mike Carey: Vicious Circle

Desperate for cash an exorcist takes on a seemingly insignificant case searching for a ‘missing’ ghost. But it soon becomes apparent that there is more to this than meets the eye. He is brutally encouraged to drop the case by an excommunicated catholic sect in addition to being physically and psychically attacked by a fellow exorcist.
It transpires that he and his friends have been inadvertently dragged into the middle of a satanic cult’s attempt to raise one of the fiercest demon’s in Hell and every attempt to disengage from the plot only digs him in deeper.
Eventually he manages to thwart the cult and derail their resurrection plan but at a high personal cost.
This is the second book in the Felix Castor series and I enjoyed it immensely. The main character has grown considerably since his introduction in the first novel. As do the secondary characters, albeit to a lesser extent.
The world building is good and believable (though I could do with a little less London geography), but there is no further explanation as to why there is a sudden increase in ghosts of one sort or another. This is something that bothered me about the first novel and I had hoped to see it addressed but it seems that this is something the reader will simply have to take on faith.
Carey’s confidence in these characters and this world seems to have grown and the result was a richer, deeper novel with a strong streak of dark humour that appealed to me. The plot was convoluted but easy enough to follow and it all came together nicely in the end.
I have become quite enamoured of the phrase "I can’t believe it’s not cognac". I’m very much sold on this series and will be hunting out the rest.-Lynn

The Girl in a Swing - Richard Adams

Alan Desland, a dealer and lover of porcelain figurines, is middle aged and resigned to bachelorhood. Somewhat reclusive, his self-image is highly coloured by having overheard at a young age that he was unattractive. On a routine trip to Copenhagen Alan meets Karin, a beautiful young secretary/clerical worker and is instantly smitten by every aspect of her. Filled with trepidation and precipitated by fear of not seeing her again, Alan delays his return to England and asks Karin out.
He is delighted to find her receptive and after a whirlwind romance proposes. Karin accepts, on the proviso that they marry in England, and agrees to move there with him. After a discussion with his minister, however, Alan thinks the three week wait will be too long and thanks to one of Alan's American clients the loving couple fly to Florida to wed instead. they have a joyous honeymoon in Gainesville, initially marred by Alan's inability to perform but finally consummated.
Though the wedding occurred before anyone had met Karin, she soon charms his friends and family. She is, however, reticent to discuss her own history and makes no effort to contact her own friends or family.
Though he relates Karin's intermittent crying and nervousness, Alan does not seem to see the import of these and other behaviours. He has some hinted at psychic abilities as a child, and though he manages to ignore the many signs Karin displays, Alan acknowledges, or at least senses, a spectre of darkness hanging over them, though. His concerns tragically come to fruition- an event unsurprising to the reader, for we know from the outset of Alan's narration that Karin dies. Throughout the novel we see Alan's idealisation of Karin, a vision he grimly clings to despite mounting conflicting evidence that Karin is not the alabaster figure he envisions.
A marked change from Adams's earlier, and more well known work (Watership Down and the more adult, darker themed The Plague Dogs), The Girl in a Swing is unquestionably a literary novel, with Gothic overtones. Alan is trilingual and possessed of a classical education - he and Karin quote philosophers, poets and writers in a variety of languages, which tended to break my connection with the narrative, being monolingual and clearly not the productive of an English prep school education.
The Girl in the Swing is in many ways a product of its time - the terrible price Karin paid for their love would almost certainly not be necessary now. On a related but less controversial note, I've often thought, though I think not written here, about the move from to-day/to-morrow to the conjoined form we use, and if there was debate about the transition the way there is about linguistic shifts. Anyway, Adams is of the first camp, at least in the edition I had, which was given to me when I was ten or eleven. I can only imagine that the parent of the child who gave it to me was going on the reputation from Watership because it's very much not a children's book. The darker themes, the impotent angst and the sex scenes (which are far more literary than erotic) aside, the writing is aimed at an adult, literary audience.
There's an interesting insight into impotence from a male perspective, wherein Alan compares "that great field of life dominated by Aphrodite - the area of sexual passion

to those of a miner descending the shaft or a soldier approaching the front: "the frightening realisation that here all life-long assumptions - the safety and predictability one had always taken for granted and come to rely upon - did not apply. Continuous danger and uncertainty affect the very eyes through which one saw the world and affected everything I thought and did."

It was Karin's great beauty that so affected him, combined with a sense of disentitlement, that this vision of loveliness could indeed be for him. But her tactful, gentle handling of the situation reassures him. However, the rapid, inexplicable romance and the fact that he knows virtually nothing about Karin causes Alan no alarm, and throughout the novel his beloved remains a cipher.
The title of the novel comes from a porcelain figure of intriguing provenance, which is discussed in the novel and a variation of which can be seen here.
I love the line, as Alan arrives back in London, that could have "gone chasing the hares on the grass between the runways" - it's not only indicative of his buoyant mood but also a far more bucolic image than arrivees to London see now!
Vogue is blurbed on the cover as saying of this little known work that it is "a novel of beauty, calm, sensuality, anticipation, horror and nightmare" - with all of which I concur, but I also found it overly literary, unsatisfying and anticlimactic. - Alex

Jennifer Crusie: Bet Me

After being dumped by her boyfriend for refusing to sleep with him, a woman overhears him making a bet with a handsome man that he will not be able to sleep with her either. Wanting her ex to lose the bet and needing a date to her sister’s wedding the woman agrees to have dinner with the man. The two seem incompatible and the woman decides that a wedding date isn’t worth the effort. They part pleasantly with no intention of meeting up again.
But Fate has other plans and over the course of the month they find themselves often in each other’s company. The woman finds him harder to resist than the carbs she’s not supposed to eat and he can’t understand why he can’t get her out of his mind.
The situation in complicated by their friends hooking up and their respective ex-lovers joining up in an attempt to win them back-something neither of them wants.
Being a romance the two naturally end up happy together.
Light, fluffy and sweet, this book is an easy read that demands nothing from the reader and delivers an entertaining story.
It was novel to find a plus sized heroine who was actually large and faced real issues about her size but was not whiney with it. I found her weight obsessed mother and her passion for carbs a little OTT but at least they were comic and possibly reflective of real attitudes. Best of all I liked that this heroine didn’t have to lose the weight to win her man.
The humour worked for me in the main (though the climactic scene involving most of the main characters seemed a bit silly to me) being sharp and clever.
The plot was straightforward and yet complex, the characters interesting and the pace spot on.
Crusie’s work has been a bit hit and miss for me in the past. This was definitely a hit.-Lynn

Belinda Alexandra: Silver Wattle

I just wrote a long and detailed review of this novel and my thoughts about it. Unfortunately the internet seems to have eaten it and I couldn’t be arsed rewriting. So in essence:
After the suspicious death of their mother two young girls flee Prague in fear for their lives. They seek sanctuary with an estranged uncle in Australia.
Life in 1920’s Sydney is very different to their privileged upbringing in Europe but the two talented young women grasp every opportunity that comes their way. They eventually make a name for themselves in the local film industry but success doesn’t necessarily equal safety or happiness.
Basically they overcome the many tragedies of their lives, past and present and we are left with hopefulness for their futures-though a happy ever after isn’t explicitly spelled out.
I was attracted to this book by the gothic sounding plot and the 1920’s setting. Neither played a great part in the story, which was more of a coming of age/family saga kind of tale.
Though this is not the kind of story that I would normally read I found it to be nicely written.
My initial review was somewhat more erudite but since it’s gone for good, this condensed version will have to do.-Lynn

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

A Northern writer visits Savannah in the last 1970's and, over a period of months, gets to know some of the more colourful and influential residents of this traditional and unique Southern city. When Danny Handsford, a young hustler, is shot and killed by an influential older man, there's some expectation that it will be swept to one side, which is consistent with related events. Instead antiques dealer Jim Williams is charged and tried. As our narrator covers the subsequent events he finds himself discovering a new side of a town he's come to love.
Based on real events but tweaked, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is written in first person and presented as wholly factual. Far more a character study than murder mystery, Berendt introduces readers to a variety of eccentrics from the lauded Lady Chablis (a lounge singer who sometimes takes a break from the hormones and goes by Frank); disenfranchised Luther Driggers (who's supposed to have a vial of concentrated poison that could wipe out the town through the water supply), and voodoo priestess Minerva (who gives the book its title). The central character, though, is Georgia's Savannah, and Berendt weaves a picture of eccentric independence and the presence of the past into his narrative.
I'm surprised Midnight was such a success but suspect that, like some other surprise best sellers, it tapped into a zeitgeist that passed me by. It's certainly more a literary novel than it is murder mystery - the pace is languid, the pivotal event occurs around half way through, and if you're reading for content rather than ambiance you'll find yourself wondering what the point of much of the atmospheric writing is. Indeed, had the shooting not occured I would have been hard-pressed to find a narrative spine in the book. It didn't read to me as though the death of Handsford was in the front of Berendt's mind when he began writing, and there's nothing that flags the lead up as significant.
Yet, despite this, none of the events seem shocking or even surprising - everything unfolds at a languid, low impact pace that I suspect reflects the society he depicts. Even the unusual people seem drawn in pastel or sepia tones, removing much of the significance of even quite shocking revelations. And while we learn a little about the city of Savannah and her people, I came away from the book with no sense of the author, where he came from, why he spent so much time in Georgia, what drew him to Savannah, or even what he thought about any of it.
Perhaps that's what influenced my feelings of neutrality. Midnight is one of the many books I've had languishing about for years and have brought with me overseas to read before allowing myself to buy anything new. All I knew about it going in was that I'd had it for years, it was set in the South, had some vague connection with voodoo, was well received, and had been made into a film. I come away from it feeling much the same. I certainly didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, I wasn't connected to it, and I don't feel altered by it. I understand that some people love it, and am sure they have their reasons, but for me it will be part of the background wallpaper of my 2009 reading list. - Alex

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy - Mabel Maney

Jane Bond is tired of waking every morning with a vile hangover, lying next to some half-remembered pick up from the night before, but ever since she discovered her lover Astrid in bed with (oh the cliche) her best friend Ruth, Jane's had trouble doing anything else. Bridget's different than the other women, though - a gorgeous Powder Puff Cosmetics seller clad in a hot pink mini dress and thigh high white boots, she's every inch a 1962 moddish girl about town who takes no crap from Jane. She's also an agent for GEORGIE (Greater European Organisation of Radical Girls Interdicting Evil) which creates all kinds of problems when the Secret Service tap Jane on the shoulder to serve her queen and country. Jane's brother, the suave agent 007, is in a sanatorium but his presence is urgently required at a royal event. With a radical haircut and ingeniously tailored suit Jane may be able to pass for her twin brother, leaving the enemies of the state none the wiser.
There are subplots about a conservative group (Sons of Britain Society) plotting to kidnap the queen and reinstate the Duke of Windsor to the throne, and a spy eager to take over from 007 but failing, but you have the gist. The author of gay and lesbian parodies involving the Hardly Boys, Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless, Maney has turned her hand to one of pop cultures most iconic figures and carried of Fleming's style quite well.
The plot is ludicrously convoluted, just like some of the canon novels, the Britishness is beautifully threaded through (particularly for an American author), there's a great sense of time as well as place, and the dialogue is punchy and often comedically perfect. Like all parodies a little goes a long way, but if you're a fan of the Bond books and prepared for some tweaks this is the book for you. - Alex

John Harwood: The Seance

A young woman with few prospects is surprised when a distant relative dies and leaves her the beneficiary of a large estate. She is even more surprised by the reaction of the lawyer who delivers news of her windfall: he warns her that the house is cursed, the grounds are haunted and suggest that she might not the be natural daughter of her parents but that of a scandalous cousin accused of murdering her husband then running away with an unnamed lover never to be seen again.
Fascinated, she begins to research the history of both the house and the family. She soon comes to believe that the murder never happened, that the accused were set up and the supposed victim still alive and well.
At this point she is approached by the Society for Psycical Research, who wish to hold a séance at the house. She agrees and during the society’s examination of the premises certain evidence is found that prove her suspicions are correct.
This knowledge puts her life in danger but she finds she cannot rest until she clears the name of the supposed murderess, which might just be her natural mother, and exposes the fraud of the supposed victim, who may be her natural father.
This book, while a little slow to start, turned out to be an interesting historical novel full of intrigue.
Refusing to plod the predictable path, the story twists and turns, seemingly setting up one situation only to deliver another.
Though it wasn’t quite what I had expected, from the title and blurb I had anticipated more of a ghost story rather than a crime mystery, it did not disappoint. It kept me guessing even beyond the point when I had worked out what had actually taken place but didn’t spring a completely unanticipated culprit on the unsuspecting reader in the way of historical crime writing.
Authentic to its era and entertaining too-Lynn.

Me and Mr Darcy – Alexandra Potter

Emily Albright was born in the wrong age and on the wrong continent. Relationships with modern men have proved disastrous, and the only reliable love interest throughout her life has been the hero of Jane Austen’s most well known work. When Jane’s best friend, the much younger and considerably more outgoing Stella, invites her to come on a margarita-fuelled trip to Mexico, Emily is aghast at the prospect. Her eye falls upon a brochure that randomly appeared in the bookshop she manages, and she decides to go to England and join a Pride and Prejudice tour instead.
Most of her fellow tourers are quite old and pleasant, but journalist Spike is the exception. Spike’s writing an article about why Mr Darcy’s every woman’s ideal man. From the beginning, when he kept the bus waiting then shot their perfectly lovely driver a filthy look, she disliked him, an antipathy fuelled by overhearing him describe her as “pretty dull, average looking and even worse… American.” But a perfectly dishy actor playing Mr Darcy, who Emily first meets when touring Jane’s home, compensates for Spike’s presence. Okay, nobody else ever sees him, he meticulously stays in character, and her copy of Pride & Prejudice has somehow been misprinted with the second half all blank pages…
One of the books I read in my non-reviewing convalescence, the details are a little dimmed but here are my recollections: the contrast between the pieces of P&P Emily reads and the contemporary action (particularly her reflections on Spike while reading about how Elizabeth is lead astray by Mr Wickham about Mr Darcy’s true character) were good but a trifle unsubtle. I liked her realisation that Mr Darcy is far more interesting in theory and far too stuffy in reality – I never quite got the brooding, enigmatic hero myself.
All in all this was an agreeable enough read, but not particularly memorable. If you're smitten with Darcy it may shatter your illusions, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. - Alex

Ripe Enough – Cherry Ripe

In this frequently engaging collection of articles Ripe discusses many aspects of food, opening with an exploration of ripeness and why so many of us not only availed only of unripe, early picked and poorly stored fruit but are also unable to recognise good fruit. She moves on to artichokes, chickpeas via beef, and leaves barely a culinary arena, from seafood to rancidity, untouched. Each chapter concludes with a recipe or two, and the entries progress alphabetically rather than thematically.
This is a re-reading for me – I think Ripe Enough, first published in 1999, was the first book I read about food. Since then I’ve become acquainted with a number if food writers and enjoyed my forays into the genre, fuelling an interest in revisiting the beginning of my journey. Despite several, somewhat cursory, trolls through my boxes of books over the last couple of years, I haven’t found my copy so when I discovered that the library had it I was very pleased. I remembered the opening exposition, though no the recipes, and re-reading it was an interesting experience. Ripe writes of the Australian scene, so the produce, culture and regions she discusses are relevant and hold extra interest. The decade between publication and re-reading resulted in both differences in what she describes and contemporary situations, yet many things are not that different. I would have been interested, in her discussion about coffee (“Coffee Cherries: From Pits to Pots”), to see what she made of Starbucks opening here, and about Australia being the first location where stores of the chain closed.
Her basic thesis is worthy and well ahead of its time – buy locally, in season and when food is at its peak, consumers will pay more for better produce, the better educated consumers are about food (varieties of potatoes and their uses, the virtues of marbling in meat) the more demanding they’ll be about quality, great ingredients come from ecological and animal-friendly farming practices, best flavours (and often greater yields) come from older and rarer ‘heritage’ plants. I agree with all of that. But I found, wholly unexpectedly, that Ripe’s tone grated, the more so the further through I progressed. It wasn’t her (justifiable) distain of Anglocentric criticism of fusion cuisine or her (I imagine justified) dismissal on two occasions of famous foodie Keith Floyd’s accuracy and depth of knowledge. In fact I can’t quite put my finger on what, precisely, irritated me. I suspect it’s just that I built her writing up in the intervening years and have discovered that the book is adequate and unobjectionable, but not as absorbing as the best. - Alex

The Year of Fog – Michelle Richmond

The body of a dead seal attracts photographer Abby Mason’s attention as she walks along the beach. Pausing to photograph it, she takes her attention of her soon-to-be-step-daughter, six-year-old Emma, for just a moment. When she looks up, Emma is gone.
The search for Emma occupies all of Abby’s attention. Though the police suspect she was swept out to sea by one of the treacherous waves San Francisco’s Ocean Beach is known for, Abby knows Emma’s been abducted and is alive, somewhere. She goes over every detail of the people and vehicles in the car park, searching her memories for anyone who was interested in Emma or otherwise suspicious. As her career slides away, taking her relationship with Emma’s father with it, Abby is unable to focus on anything else. How can she waste two hours on a film when that time could be spent finding Emma?
This is a fascinating and brilliantly written book that I found, though reminiscent of both Jacqueline Michard's Deep End of the Ocean and Jane Hamilton's A Map of the World, wholly an individual work. Richmond imbues the novel, from the first line, with Abby's twinned sense of guilt and resolve. Through her first person, real time narrative, we learn about the characters but also about the huge significance seemingly inconsequential incidents can have, and how the past echoes in the present.
All of which sounds a little mystical, and it isn't really, but greater clarity would ruin the impact of much of the novel's twist. That said, I did spot the twist well
in advance, and I found the South American section a little far-fetched. But Richmond's pace and style, the character of Abby and the strength of mission, overcame these aspects and so diminished their influence of the enjoyment of my reading.
I often babysit the children of my friends and the fear of something happening to them while in my care is always quietly in the background. I still remember navigating around a supermarket with a trolley and pram containing Lynn's eldest about 15 years ago, convinced that if I left him unobserved for a moment someone would steal him (for I am a drama queen of the highest level). Richmond has beautifully articulated and expanded on this fear, and carried it through to a bitter-sweet end. I look forward to tracking down her first novels, and whatever she releases next. - Alex

Jo Goodman: If His Kiss is Wicked

Retiring by nature and the poor relative by circumstance a woman lives in the shadow of her exuberant cousin. When that cousin makes a foolish assignation behind her fiancé’s back she asks the woman to go in her place and call off the affair. The woman is found days later, badly beaten, with no memory of the intervening time and convinced somebody is trying to kill her. But nobody will believe that she is in any danger and there are whispers of madness.
In desperation she turns to a barely respectable gentleman who has made a name for himself helping people out of compromising positions and heading off scandals.
He uncovers a veritable closet full of skeletons and extracts the young woman from a web of fraud and deception falling in love with her as he does so.
This summary does no justice whatsoever to this impressive book. A book which I almost did not pick up because of the truly dreadful cover art. But I managed to look past that and I’m glad I did.
Full of suspense and a touch of the erotic, this historical romance really stands out amongst its peers.
The plot is deceptively simple. Multiple layers are peeled back revealing hints of what’s beneath without exposing the truth of the story too soon. Descriptions rich with detail somehow blend seamlessly into the background. The characters are beautifully drawn with completely believable reactions and behaviour for their time and circumstance.
I am delighted to discover Jo Goodman has an extensive back list and I will certainly be looking her up next time I am in the mood for historical romance.-Lynn

Change the Way You See Everything through Asset-Based Thinking - Kathryn D Cramer & Hank Wasiak

If you change the way you see the world, particularly how things affect you and how you interact with it, then you can change your life. The authors of Change the Way You See Everything have created a technique they call Asset-Based Thinking (ABT) which, unlike Deficit-Based Thinking (DBT) focuses the individual on success, achievement and possibility. With this, they say, anything is possible.
I agree, but only to a point. I'm not averse to self help books in principle, and believe that NLP can change the way you think. I’m also not opposed to the principles Cramer and Wasiak present, so there’s clearly something else I’m reacting to. There are exercises and success stories, but though I really, really tried I just couldn't get further than half way in. When I say I tried - I extended my library loan twice, paid a late fee, and reborrowed it, which is dedication. And I got nowhere. It seemed more saccharin and new age fluffy each time I picked it up again. On substantial reflection, I think think I would have been more convincingly swayed that they had something new to offer if the book wasn't laid out like a combination of inspirational posters and the kind of letters my friends and I would write in year ten. The book has a strong "inspirational poster” feel, complete with pithy but abstract slogans, combined with style over substance and the notion that they’re presenting a wholly new concept to the world.
The third photo, for example (after an arty black and white hazy mountain range, and an iris) is of an arm extending from the ocean with a glass angled so a rainbow appears to end in it, and it just goes on from there. The prose has selective colour highlighting particularly inspirational sections (that'd be the "year ten" part).
Opening at random I find: a glossy pastoral photo of a cow (no horns) on the left facing a business-suit-clad man holding what looks like a red curtain still attached to its rod but is supposed to be an oversized matador-style cape. The text reads:

Get a Charge Out of Conflict
Make Opposition Matter
Conflict magnifies and illuminates who you are. It seizes and startles you into seeing what makes you uncomfortable. It pushes your boundaries – intellectual, emotional, and physical. Conflict, if treated properly, offers the chance to change your mind altogether.
When faced with conflict, explore the possibility that opposing forces can both be true simultaneously. Taking this perspective immediately dissolves animosity and piques curiosity. You find yourself wondering, “What’s their truth? Where is the value on their side?” When you finally give up the belief that yours is the only truth, it changes the game forever. Now you’re in a position to see what new truth you can create together. (pp. 72-73)

As I said - useful but nothing new or significant. I’ve discussed this book several times with long-suffering Lynn, who hears “acid-based” every time I said “Asset-Based.” That lends a quite different, and not unpleasant or inappropriate, flavour to the text. – Alex

Death by Sudoku – Kaye Morgan

Liza left her career as a PR specialist in Hollywood, and her husband Michael, for her hometown. An incognito sudoku creator for the Oregon Daily, Liza decides to enter a sudoku tournament, where she bumps into an old friend, film star Derrick Robbins. He tells her that a series of sudoku puzzles published by a paper surprised him – they didn’t fllow the usual grading of easiest on Monday to hardest on Sunday, and seemed quite random. Derrick believes the puzzles are being used to send coded messages, which Liza’s quite sceptical about. Until the next day, that is, when Derrick’s body is found in vegetation on the hillside below his home. His library has been ransacked and his niece is missing.
Though the back story is woven into the narrative, Death by Sudoku reads quite a lot like the second in a series, causing me to twice check that I hadn’t missed the first book. I am a very amateur sudokuist and while I found some of the discussion about puzzle solving technique interesting, I suspect the target audience are more familiar with the rules and gameplay than I. On occasion I’d just be getting into it when the focus would shift and I felt frequently like I was playing catch up. I also couldn’t get a handle on how a covert message could be transmitted this way, though to be fair I did lose interest and stop halfway, just as Liza and Michael are working that out. Also, to be fair, I did put Death by Sudoku down part way through and pick up another novel instead, because I was going out, only had enough room for one book, and would have finished it before getting home. This interruption in my rapport with the novel clearly didn’t help, but wasn’t the sole reason I couldn’t finish.
It’s strange – I quite like the author’s voice, the concept was an interesting twist on the more common crossword-themed murder mysteries, and the dialogue was naturalistic. I’d be interested in knowing how Morgan manages to get more mysteries out of this relatively slender concept, but suspect I won’t be reading the sequel to find out. - Alex

Katharine McMahon: The Alchemist's Daughter

In eighteenth century England a young woman whose mother died in childbirth is raised by her reclusive father on his isolated estate. An avid student of Isaac Newton, the man aims to turn his daughter into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. She is excessively intelligent and focussed, fulfilling all of his hopes for her until one fateful summer when she meets and falls in love with a charming young merchant. For the first time in her life she lets her heart rule her head-a decision that results in her being thrust into a society her sheltered upbringing has done nothing to prepare her for.
As she, at times, painfully, learns the ways of the world she also discovers that the quiet life she led with her father, the pivot upon which her life turned, was not all she believed it to be.
It is only when dealing with the aftermath of this shattering revelation that she learns to see the world as it is and to forge herself a place in it she can be truly proud of.
I was attracted to this book by its beautiful cover art, always a risk-you know the proverb-but in this case one that paid off.
This is a coming of age story that gently unfolds in an almost languid manner. Though the behaviour of a few of the secondary characters seemed questionable at times, the naivety of the heroine and her subsequent response to the events of the book are entirely believable. Some of the twists and turns of the plot were transparent; others came as a complete surprise, more so because of the obvious routes that had at times been taken. The author manages to convey the period very well with a light touch and to avoid hiding the harsher side of the era.
The ending offers hope for the heroine’s future happiness without explicitly detailing exactly where that happiness, or future, may lie. It felt a fitting end. The story was just lovely but has left me in no fervour to seek out others of the author’s works. -Lynn

Whispers and Lies – Joy Fielding

Forty-year-old Terry Painter has hopes that the son of her favourite patient might be interested in her as more than just his mother's nurse. Otherwise her life is quiet and predictable, and that’s the way she likes it. Her colleagues at the hospital where she works are friendly but not friends, and since her mother died she's moved out of the flat out back and into the main house.
Her first experience with a boarder wasn't very successful, but Terry has high hopes for Alison Simms, a young girl who rapidly becomes the only real friend she's ever had. When she reflects on it, Terry realises that she knows very little about Alison, and she has suspicions about her the relationship she has with a man they claim is her brother. But not all is as it seems, and as events unfold Terry's quiet, tranquil life changes in ways she couldn't imagine.
Fielding writes domestic horror, and though it's been many years since I read her novels, they used to be something of a staple for me about a decade ago. I was prepared to accept the really strong foreshadowing and unlikeable protagonist as stylistic choices that, though they didn't appeal might suit the work. Certainly I liked the unfolding picture of Terry's distorted relationship with her now dead mother, and the way that affected her adult life was beautifully portrayed. However the power of the book rests with the surprise twist, and sadly I spotted it very early on, leaving the unappealing central character, heavy foreshadowing and rather pedestrian plot unredeemed. - Alex

Natural Born Charmer – Susan Elizabeth Phillips

When debonair starting quarterback Dean Robillard, on a soul-searching road trip after a serious shoulder injury, happens across Blue Bailey, walking alongside the road wearing a beaver costume, he stops to help her. Blue is far from a Barbie-esque football groupie, but broke and stranded, she needs both a ride and a job, and the football all-star (driving a sexy Aston Martin) poses an interesting opportunity. As the two travel from Colorado to Dean's new farmhouse in east Tennessee, Blue resists his advances, and both athlete and vagabond struggle with deeply rooted trust and familial issues that are soon exacerbated by the unexpected presence of Dean's mother at the farm. While the verbal sparring in this textbook case of opposites attracting feels stagy at first, the rough edges come together in an alluring way. - Publishers' Weekly

I’d love to write something more individualised but due to a series of unfortunate events (well, just one but it was significant) I’ve been unable to write reviews for the better part of a month and though I’m posting them approximately in the order of when I read them, they haven’t been written contemporaneously and I can’t remember a lot of individual detail. Suffice it to say that I very much enjoyed reading Natural Born Charmer, another in the Chicago Star series.
Like the rest of the series, it possesses all the trademarks of Phillips at her best. Her characters are individualised, interesting and complex; the romance element is strong but integrated seamlessly into the plot; and the plot serves as more than an avenue for first obstacles and then love. The secondary characters and plots are well developed, the dialogue is natural, and there are deft touches of humour. -Alex

Dead Sexy – Tate Hallaway

It’s been almost a year since Garnet Lacey changed unimaginably, on that Halloween night a year ago when her coven was slain by six Vatican-sponsored witch-hunters, leading her to invoke the Goddess Lilith and execute the men. Though she thinks of the women often, particularly in the lead up to Halloween, she has created a new life as the proprietor of Mercury Crossing, the ‘premier occult book store and herb emporium’ of Madison, a Midwestern college town. Sure, not everyone has a two hundred year old vampire living in their home, let alone one that’s a secret from their thousand year old, artificially generated and therefore sun-immune vampire boyfriend, but Garnet’s life is mostly normal. Okay, Lilith dwells within her, and her cat’s allergic to magic, and all of a sudden there seem to be a lot of zombies about, but otherwise it’s all rather mundane.
Until FBI Special Agent Gabriel Dominguez enters Mercury Crossing, looking for her. The photo he has shows Garnet when she was living in Minneapolis. Then a typical midwestern prairie flower with blue-eyes, long fair hair and everything but a bonnet, her innocent coven name of Meadow Spring suited her. Madison Garnet has short-cropped black hair, loads of makeup framing her Lilith-purple eyes, and went extra heavy on the face powder, so she passes herself off as an employee. From his aura she can tell than Dominguez is a strong psychic, a power he can’t tap into because he doesn’t know he has it.
I’m not sure if it’s Hallaway’s style or just that this series is only two books in, but I found the exposition considerably less intrusive than has been the case with some paranormal books recently encountered. It’s been a while since I read Tall, Dark and Dead, which opens on the night of the murders, and there was just enough detail to refresh me without bludgeoning me over the head.
There were a few thinks that briefly interrupted my flow, including the reference to thousand-year-old Sebastian dying “before universities were invented,”* and an irritating tendency to tell with looks (eg “I gave him the I-hope-this-is-some-kind-of-fetish-and-not-the-real-deal look”) that, once noticed, grated (though I’ve seen worse). But otherwise the writing was better than average, the plot was believable within the confines of the genre and not too convoluted, and there were some moderately surprising twists.
Unfortunately, as I re-read this review I see that most of my praise amounts to Dead Sexy being better than the less good novels of this genre, and that’s fairly accurate. I wouldn’t run screaming from a sequel, and will certainly read it if I happen to some across it, but I don’t think I’ll be tracking it down. - Alex

Addit: please note that, as mentioned in the review above, I read Dead Sexy quite some time before writing the review, accounting for the rather generic summation. However, In fairness to the author I will seek out the next in the (four part this far) series and write a contemoraneous review.

* When I read this it jarred, as I was fairly sure universities had been around longer than that. As it happens I was both right - the world's first university opened (China's Nanjing) in 258AD, the first degree-granting ones opened in the 9th century, the oldest continuing university (Cairo's Al-Azhar) was founded in 969AD - and wrong. Europe's first university (Bologna) opened in Sebastian's lifetime, and Britain's shortly thereafter (1167). However, having enlisted the services of Google and Wikipedia to check all this I grant you that "before universities were invented" is actually a fair enough statement and I take it back

Markway & Markway: Painfully Shy

Subtitled How to Overcome Social Anxiety and Reclaim Your Life, this book provides not only an academic overview of social anxiety, but also offers detailed explanations as to what treatments are available and exactly what they involve.
One of the authors suffers from social anxiety herself and clearly understands just how debilitating this disorder can be. The book contains examples and anecdotes from both her personal experience and professional practice. Its pages offer validation, coping methods and hope to those suffering from social anxiety and a thorough and accurate picture of the disorder for those who have not experienced this extreme form of shyness themselves.
As a self-help book I feel this one has limited value. From my own experience I think anyone in the grip of social anxiety would have a very difficult time applying the techniques supplied in this volume. However, for those who are actively seeking to overcome their social anxiety this book gives hope in the form of examples of people who have successfully done so; provides a starting point for seeking treatment; and to my mind, most importantly, reassures the sufferer that they do have a ‘real’ problem and are not alone in it.
The chapter on recognising the symptoms of social anxiety in children and helping the painfully shy child to cope may be particularly useful to parents-especially those who have lifelong problems with the disorder themselves.
If you just don’t ‘get’ social anxiety this book will help you to understand what it feels like to be exceedingly shy. If you understand only too well, this book gives a good jumping off point in your search for help.-Lynn

The Peshawar Lancers – SM Stirling

In the late 1870’s a string of meteors hit Earth, destroying cities, changing the environment and reversing the course of history. Acting on the advice of her Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria authorised the evacuation of as much of London as possible, relocating in India. A hundred and fifty years later England is a backward wasteland of cannibalistic savages, and technology has for decades taken a back seat to survival, so boats are steam powered, cars are a novelty, and flight is only by dirigible. The British Empire, now centred in India, rules over most of the globe, while the Imperial Czar heads Russia and is the other major world leader. Eventually there will be a significant conflict between the two super powers.
His Majesty King John II has a loyal army, with no more dedicated soldier than Captain Athelstane King. As a chain of events unfold, Captain King will play a pivotal role in the outcome of not only a covert plot against the British Empire but also in the lives of the royal family.
I’ve enjoyed all of Stirling’s alternate history novels, preferring his Change series to the Massachusetts trilogy but finding all of them quickly absorbing. This is unusual for me – I have most often found alternate history fantasy overly militaristic and dull. While neither of these qualities apply to The Peshawar Lancers, I did find it considerably less accessible than Stirling’s other work. Part of this is undoubtedly because of the more significant world building required - the other series consist of present day Americans either going back in time and changing events themselves, or going forward after the world is changed for them, whereas this novel is set in a world that has diverged from ours at a significant point in history.
There are several interweaving narratives and I found it difficult, particularly at the beginning, to keep track of when we were, what was happening, and how the characters and plots connected. I think some of this would have been eased had Stirling written a prologue then jumped forward instead of having the nineteenth century events and response appear as the vision of a twenty-first century psychic. Similarly, while it makes sense within the context of the novel that place names would have changed, a table of comparisons and perhaps a map of who controls where, would have been helpful, along with a glossary of Indian words – while some of them were evident from the text others weren’t, and I’m sadly monolingual. Stirling has included a list of the King Emperors of the post-Fall British Empire and five appendices – a detailed description of The Fall and its effects, a timeline of the exodus and post-Fall aftermath, a description of the Angrezi Raj/British Empire, some notes on Imperial English and other languages (focusing on pronunciation), and an explanation of technology and the economy. Some of this information would have been more useful at the beginning rather than in retrospect, and some of it I found irritating – I appreciate thorough and internally consistent world building but (like sausages and laws) don’t want to be aware of how it’s done.
Perhaps it was that my expectations of Stirling were a little too high. Certainly I enjoyed The Peshawar Lancers, at least for the most part, and I did finish it with a smile, but for the first half of this ~460 page (plus notes) book it was something of a struggle and on a couple of occasions I persevered primarily because I had no other books available. Fortunately I’ve found two more novels in the Change series, so this will not be my last Stirling experience. - Alex

Carolyn Hart: Ghost at Work

A woman bored by Heaven decides to join the Department of Good Intentions-a kind of afterlife outreach program that offers a helping hand to people in dire straits.
Her first assignment is a little rushed but in her old home town the pastor’s wife has found a dead man on her porch and without immediate help the pastor and/or his wife will become a suspect in his murder.
In life she’d always liked a mystery and being dead puts her in a unique position to solve them and help those who need it most along the way.
This book opens with the sentence-

Incandescent dashes of pink and gold spangled the fluffy white clouds that arched over the entrance to the Department of Good Intentions.

I almost put it down right there but I decided since it is obviously the first in a series and I had heard good things about this author I would give it a chance. So I read on through to the end of chapter two before I gave up on this one.
The writing speaks for itself. Though the chapters I read were not entirely as overblown as the opening would suggest there was a definite flavour to the words. My overall impression from these chapters was one of simplicity and innocence. The voice was reminiscent of many children’s books I’ve read with a touch of what I have come to think of as late sixties/early seventies writing style. Not good or bad within itself and not usually a deal breaker for me.
So what didn’t work for me?
Hard to say exactly but I think what really put the last nail in the coffin was the heroine’s busy body, self centred attitude. Strange because I suspected what her personality would be from the synopsis, so not as if it was a surprise-still…
We all know where the path of good intentions leads us-and it isn’t to Heaven. This is one series I’ll not be pursuing-Lynn

Nobody’s Baby But Mine – Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Jane Darlington is a lecturer, physicist, and genius. This last quality has made her life a misery – raised by a disapproving father, she was a friendless outcast at school and college because of her youth. Though she’s had sex Jane has never dated, and doesn’t really know how to relate to men outside an academic context. Nearing thirty, Jane desperately wants a child. Not just any child, though – to spare it the agonising trauma of her own early years Jane is determined to find a father who is physically fit but of low normal intelligence. Combined with her staggering intellect this ought to even things out and give her child a fair chance at a normal life.
Jodie Pulanski’s a Chicago Stars groupie – she’s slept with half the football players, and has the numbered jerseys to prove it. When quarterback Cal Bonner’s team mates decide he needs to get laid for his birthday, and promise Jodie to hook her up with two Stars players who’ve avoided her thus far she seizes the opportunity. A chance meeting with Jane looks promising – without the school marm bun and glasses, and in age-appropriate clothes the dried up spinster’s almost hot. Sure, she wants a dumb guy, and Cal’s anything but, but if Jane is betrayed by her prejudice against athletes and willingness to believe Cal’s public persona that’s her look out.
Part of both the Chicago Stars series, about footballers finding love, and the Bonner brothers duology, Nobody’s Baby But Mine offers all the quality hallmarks fans of Peters have come to expect. The dialogue is natural and occasionally amusing, and Peters is a genius at showing rather than telling. All the characters, not just the leads, are three-dimensional and believable. The barriers between Jane and Cal are plausible and not merely consistent with their personalities but integrally part of them – the way they behave is the only way they could respond. Cal and Jane develop over the course of the novel, overcoming painful pasts and resolving long-standing issues while maintaining integrity of self.
This was all great and thoroughly enjoyable. However, the standout aspect for me of Nobody’s Baby was the secondary storyline about Cal’s parents – Peters masterfully portrays a long-term relationship that has fallen apart through misunderstanding, miscommunication and betrayal of an atypical kind. It is perhaps this element that separates Peters’ writing from most in this heavily populated genre – she never goes for cliché or routine when an alternative is available, but tempers this with a dedication to realism (at least within the conventions of the field), producing work that is warm, absorbing and wholly believable.
Okay, I think having the resulting baby thinking (which is how the novel ends) was a little hokey, but two paragraphs out of 374 pages are nothing, and more than compensated for the exceptional quality of every other aspect. The Stars series can be read in any sequence – you may learn about other relationships if reading them out of order, but you know going in to a romance that the leads will end up together, so that’s not a huge spoiler, and they all stand alone nicely. However a chunk of the pleasure of the Bonner brothers min-series (Nobody’s Baby, and Dream a Little Dream) is the layering, so they're better read sequentially as written. - Alex

Sharron McClellan: Hidden Sanctuary

A dowser, whose talent is refined enough to allow her to detect anything within the earth, is drilling for oil in the Nubian desert when she strikes an extremely powerful energy source. Tracing the source she discovers a cache of ancient mosaic tiles that the locals ascribe protective powers to. When the tiles are stolen she believes she is fated to find, and return, them to the villagers.
She attempts this in vain and soon realises that in order to reclaim the tiles she must trust the security guard whose job it is to report her every discovery to the company. The company that she believes not only sanctioned the theft but is willing to kill to keep the tiles in their possession.
The unlikely allies track the tiles across Europe risking their lives to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands and uncovering an unexpected love along the way.
This is the fifth book in the Madonna Key series and, I think, the weakest link in the seven book series so far.
I must be up-front and admit that of all the plots in the series this is the only one that didn’t really appeal to me as a story line. And the execution didn’t change my mind. At every pivotal point along the way I had a hard time suspending my disbelief. The cameo of characters from previous episodes felt entirely contrived. I couldn’t relate to the heroine at all. In fact, I found all of the characters to be superficial, both in their development and in their described personalities. And the romance (this is a Harlequin series, after all) was the least believable element of the plot. There was no sexual tension to speak of though there was action aplenty which made for a brisk pace. I honestly can not see what this book added to the series. I can only assume all will be made clear in the finale.
I really like the concept of this series and most of the plots presented so far piqued my interest but the quality of the individual instalments has been uneven. The series opened with a bang but is suffering from a sagging middle. If I had read this particular story earlier I would not have continued with the series. As it is there are only two books to go and I feel that I’ve invested so much time in the series I may as well follow it through to the end. Fingers crossed it’s worth the effort.-Lynn

Breathing in Colour - Clare Jay

Alida Salter's life has been, to a great extent, on hold since the tragic death of her infant daughter Kizzy thirteen years ago. When she receives a call in the middle of the night notifying her that her other daughter, Mia, has not been seen for a week and is feared dead, Alida flies to India to search for her, despite the protests of her ex-husband Ian. As she tries to find the daughter she lost the day Kizzy died, Alida discovers herself.
I was initially tempted to put Breathing in Colour aside - part of Jay's Creative Writing PhD, it was irritatingly overwritten and heavy on the shadowing, with lines like "As usual Alida tried to shift her thoughts away from the event that had destroyed their happy balance"; "the telephone shrilled; a shocking sound in the silence which caused Alida to quickly swivel around in her chair to stare at it"; "her room was steeped in expectant silence"; and "in one smooth motion she gathered her limbs and leapt from the bed." I grant you, none of these in itself is particularly objectionable but, as is obvious from the last few posts, I'm not in a particularly indulgent place right now, and these grated. I also found the notification call, which is all Alida's responses, particularly annoying. However, mindful of the unprecedented number of books I've cast aside within a few pages of late, I decided to give Breathing in Colour more time to prove itself.
I'm so glad I did. Combining Alida's present time journey with chronological snatches of Mia's memories, Breathing in Colour portrays a story of deep betrayal, loss, grief, joy, art, discovery, forgiveness and colour. India is the ideal setting, as that richly tapestried land beautifully complements the explosive assault to the senses Mia intermittently experiences - she has synesthesia, a condition where senses are cross-experienced so that noises have colour, textures are flavoured, and colours are textured.
The new setting allows Alida to reexamine her past and her relationship with Mia. This is aided by the presence of Taos (rhymed with house), an Australian artist who encouraged Mia to express her lucid dreams as collages, which is turn provide Alida with clues about Mia's location. As Alida retraces Mia's footsteps, through a combination of knowing her daughter and these clues from Mia's abandoned room, Alida begins to express her own experiences through writing.
Taos is travelling his own journey of exploration, and together they examine the weight and impact of memory and loss, grief and rebirth, patterns and numbers, the nature of self and the way we choose to view what happens to us. Vital to the narrative is art and self expression, and the role of the artist is explored in a way I both connected with myself (not an artist), and that an artist friend found resonant.
I have long been fascinated by synesthesia, and this fictionalised account of the experience added a dimension to what would otherwise have still been an interesting, albeit less engaging, novel. Maybe I ought to revisit some of those works I recently thrust aside on only preliminary exploration. - Alex