Featuring reviews, author biographies, and special features, Romance Reviews is designed as a guide to romantic reading. While primarily covering romance novels, it also delves into mysteries and other types of fiction, but all works rated include some romance. Reviews of romance novels are designed to help you make a choice in romantic reading that is right for you. A new edition will appear the first of each month.
1.) It Happened One Night, by Lisa Dale.
Special Mentions
Here are highlights of some stories I felt were worth singling out.
"'Please just let me say this one thing. Then I'll go.'
She laughed. pain shot through her, deep and low. She grabbed for her stomach uselessly, and she felt her belly harden under her hand. This wasn't a backache. She put her free hand on the shelf beside her for balance, breathing out to let go of the cramping. The force of the pain made her angry enough to lash out. 'All these years later and now you can't wait anymore?'
'I think I should have handled things differently,' he said. 'I wasn't good to you girls. I know that now. And it bothers me. I won't be able to go on with my life until I set things right.'
She couldn't speak. A hot sting slid through her abdomen, a knife slicing a crescent into her lower half. She tried to tell him, to say help. But her breath came in short fast pants. She bent forward, cradling the ache."
2.) An Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon.
This will feature 5 different special scenes as the book is centered around 4 different individuals who are connected to one another and whose lives intertwine thruout the story, but I wanted to show a 5th scene as well.
"'Show me this arm,' he said, and without waiting for William to comply, picked up his wrist and pilled up the sleeve of his shirt. William nearly passed out.
When the black spots stopped whirling in front of his eyes, he saw that Murray and two more Indians had come to join the first. All of them were looking at his exposed arm in open consternation. He didn't want to look, but risked a glance. His forearm was grotesquely swollen, nearly twice its normal size, and dark reddish streaks ran from under the rightly bandaged poultice, down his arm toward the wrist. "
and
"The light was fading now, but I saw Jamie as soon as I came over the edge of the next rise. He was lying on his face in the hollow, one arm flung out, the other curled beneath him. The shoulders of his dark coat were nearly black with damp, and his legs thrown wide, booted heels askew.
The breath caught in my throat, and I ran down the slope toward him, heedless of grass clumps, mud, and brambles. As I got close, though, I saw a scuttling figure dart out from behind a bush and dash toward him. It fell to his knees beside him and, without hesitation, grasped his hair and yanked his head to one side. Something glinted in the figure's hand, bright even in the dull light.
'Stop!' I shouted. Drop it, you bastard!'"
and
"We made it to the edge of the wood, heaving and gasping, and I fell at once to my knees beside Rollo, feeling frantically over the huge shaggy body, hunting for the wound, for damage.
'He's not dead,' I panted, 'Shoulder . . . broken.'
'Oh, God,' Ian said, and I felt him turn to glance in the direction from which pursuit was surely headed. 'Oh, Jesus.' I heard tears in his voice, and he reached to his belt for his knife.
'What are you doing?' I exclaimed. 'He can be healed!'
'They'll kill him,' he said, savage. 'If I'm no there to stop them, they'll kill him! Better I do it.'"
and
"He began to hear them long before he reached the crest. It was three days before Samhain, and the stones knew it. The sound that wasn't a sound at all vibrated through the marrow of his bones, made his skull ring and his teeth ache. He gritted his teeth together and kept on. By the time he reached the stones, he was on hands and knees, unable to stand upright.
Dear God he thought, God preserve me! Keep me alive long enough to find him!"
and
"I had no memory whatever of the brief ceremony, conducted in the parlor of Lord John's house. The only memory I retained of the entire day was the sight of William, standing soberly beside his father - his stepfather - as best man. Tall, straight, long-nosed, his slanted cat-eyes resting on me with uncertain compassion.
He can't be dead, I remember thinking, with unusual lucidity. There he is. "
3.) Dark Summer, by Iris Johansen.
"Devon moved slowly toward the bedroom door. What was she going to do? There was no way she was going to let that bastard get away with this. Two more steps and she would be within a yard of where Lincoln stood.
'Devon.' Bridget was staring at her expression. 'No.'
Devon was close enough now. 'Go to hell.' She threw her shoulder purse at Lincoln's gun and dove for his knees.
'Shit.' Lincoln was on top of her, swinging the butt of the gun viciously at her head.
Pain.
Darkness."
4.) The Queen's Command, by Maggie Osborne.
"'If the casket is opened, if the letters are read - by anyone including yourself or Lady Nellanor - you are to kill Lady Nellanor at once. That is a direct command. Do you understand?'
Will Steele stared at her.
'Do you scruple to kill a woman, Lord Brampton?
'No,' he said slowly. To refuse would constitute treason. 'I'm sure there's good cause for this command.'
The queen's smile did not touch her eyes. 'Princes don't justify or explain.' Subtly leading, she turned along the path toward the gate. 'You will meet Lady Nellanor tonight at supper.'
'I anticipate the meeting with pleasure,' he said through his teeth. He hoped to Christ Lady Nellanor was as ugly as a Scot's toad and not of a type a man might grow fond of. Baywick's price had risen considerably since the conversation had begun.
'When you succeed,' Elizabeth said before they rejoined the court, 'Baywick and its surrounds will be yours.' He nodded, wondering who would kill him if the letters were read. The answer was forthcoming. 'But if you fail - we will hang you. You will not be beheaded as fitting your rank; you will be hanged for treason. Then disemboweled before your eyes. And drawn and quartered.' Briefly Elizabeth touched his dark moustache and laid her palm against his cheek."
5.) Chosen by Desire, by Kate Perry.
Warning - this contains some violence.
"He slammed her into the metal. 'You know what I want.'
Ow. She winced in pain. 'Refresh my memory.'
Her attacker shoved her again and then punched her in the kidney. 'Refreshed enough?'
She gasped as the pain shot through her. It would have been so satisfying to Jackie Chan this guy across the alley. 'My wallet is inside. If you -'
Grabbing her shoulder, he dragged her around to face him. Her back arched involuntarily as it hit something protruding on the Dumpster. She hissed, except it was cut off by the arm that lodged itself across her neck.
'I want to know where to find the Scrolls of Destiny.'
She shook her head. 'The scrolls are myth -'
A fist punched her in her gut, making her jerk forward. Only the arm barring her throat caught her,"
6.) Sins of the Flesh, by Caridad Pineiro.
With each piece she removed, it became apparent just how badly Mick's guest had been abused.
"Her tall body had previously been lean, Liliana suspected, but now was even thinner, the edges of her ribs and hip bones prominent. Assorted bruises marred her body. Fearing her brother's reaction, Liliana worked quickly to remove the clothes and cover Caterina with a light sheet before his return. She would take care of sponge bathing her once she had finished dealing with the wound to her shoulder."
7.) Digging Up Otis, by T. Dawn Richard.
"The door to the precinct opened very slowly. A beautiful woman walked through, the epitome of grace and sophistication. She wore a long tweed jacket, an expensive scarf, and delicate pumps. She released the knot at her throat and the scarf slipped off of her long, blonde hair and came to rest on her delicate shoulders. Then she let the coat fall.
Ida sneezed sending tissue wads a good six feet. Then she found her voice. 'Sandy?'
You could have blown her over with an atomizer. My jaw dropped like my face joints had just come unhinged.
I couldn't blame Bob, Ted and Grady. Sandy was, after all, beautiful, and . . . she was stark naked. The guys just stood there salivating and stuttering."