Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

RITA Reader Challenge Roundup: Kill Me Again by Maggie Shayne

This book did not receive a submitted review for the RITA® Reader Challenge, so I have found some excellent outside reviews to supplement. I am not, however, assigning a letter grade to the review. This book finaled in the Romantic Suspense category.

Plot Summary: I’m not who they say I am. Trust me. But can she? Reclusive novelist Aaron Westhaven, a man she’s admired-and more-for years, has accepted Olivia Dupree’s invitation to speak at a local fundraiser. But the day he’s due to arrive, she gets a call summoning her to the bedside of a John Doe whose sole possession is her business card. Can this undeniably compelling man-survivor of an execution-style gunshot wound-really be the novelist the lonely Olivia has grown to think of as a near soul mate? If not, he can be in Shadow Falls for only one reason: to kill her. Olivia, too, has secrets. And discovering the truth about the man… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge Review: “Mountain Rose” by Cheryl St. John

This RITA® Reader Challenge review was written by Courtney, and this story finaled in the Best Novella category.

Plot Summary: Teacher Olivia Rose knows what it’s like to grow up alone and unwanted. But convincing reserved rancher Jules Parrish he can give his orphaned niece a real home won’t be easy—unless Olivia seizes the chance of love and motherhood she never expected….

And here is Courtney’s review:

RITA Reader Challenge Review: Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

Libraryaddict read this book for the RITA® Reader Challenge. This book finaled in the Contemporary Romance category.

Plot Summary: Maddie Moore’s whole life needs a makeover.

In one fell swoop, Maddie loses her boyfriend (her decision) and her job (so not her decision). But rather than drowning her sorrows in bags of potato chips, Maddie leaves L.A. to claim the inheritance left by her free-spirited mother-a ramshackle inn nestled in the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington.

Starting over won’t be easy. Yet Maddie sees the potential for a new home and a new career-if only she can convince her two half-sisters to join her in the adventure. But convincing Tara and Chloe will be difficult because the inn needs a big makeover too.

The contractor Maddie hires is a tall, dark-haired hottie whose eyes-and mouth-are making it hard for her to remember that she’s sworn off men. Even harder will be Maddie’s struggles… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge Review: Edge of Sight by Roxanne St. Claire

This RITA® Reader Challenge review was written by Kathleen. Edge of Sight is nominated for the RITA in the Romantic Suspense category.

Plot Summary: When Samantha Fairchild witnesses a murder in the wine cellar of the restaurant where she works, the Harvard-bound law student becomes the next target of a professional assassin. Desperate for protection the authorities won’t provide, Sam seeks help from Vivi Angelino, an investigative reporter who recruits her brother, Zach, to protect Samantha. A Special Forces vet with the scars to prove he’s equally fearless and flawed, Zach takes the job, despite the fact that he and Sam once shared a lusty interlude that ended when he left for war and disappeared from her life. Now, as they crack a conspiracy that leads to Boston’s darkest corners, Sam and Zach must face their fears, desires, and doubts, before a hired killer gets a second shot…

And now, Kathleen’s review:

RITA Reader Challenge Review: Shades of Morning by Marlo Schalesky

Author Gail Dayton reviewed this book for the RITA® Reader Challenge. This novel was nominated in the Best Inspirational Romance category.

The plot summary: Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness. Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge Review: An Unexpected Father by Lisa Ruff

Avoriana chose this book for the RITA® Reader Challenge, and assigning the grade was the hardest part for her.

Ahoy (really, ahoy, get a load of that cover): plot summary! After a decade on the road, single mom Mimi Green gives up her rock star dreams and goes home to Crab Creek, Maryland. Her troubled son needs stability. Grandparents. A good school and friends his own age. She’s not looking for a new father for Jack—but when she meets Ian Berzani she may need the handsome sailor for herself!

When Ian nabs a nine-year-old trespasser in the family boatyard, he thinks, miniature rebel without a clue. One look at the kid’s mother and Ian’s thoughts veer into dangerous, uncharted territory. Mimi was tempting him to stay. The timing couldn’t be worse for a man three months, seven days and eleven hours… read more »

Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

One of my favorite historical romances is “The Duke and I” by Julia Quinn, which started the Bridgerton series. I love that book. If I go near it, I lose two hours because I will reread it again for the three hundred and forty-seventh time. I love the friendly style of the writing, the warmth of the family - and have mercy, the depiction of a sane and loving mother and a family that actually likes one another.

So when I learned that Julia Quinn’s next book was about the Smythe-Smith family, hosts of the infamously bad musicale from the Bridgerton series, I was curious.

Honoria Smythe-Smith is lonely, as her older siblings have all married and moved on, and her house is silent and not as fun as it was when she was a child. Her next oldest sibling, Daniel, left England in disgrace some years back. Honoria’s mother is depressed about it, and Honoria would really very much like to get married and have a family of her own. She misses having a family around her - a loud, vivacious family.

I liked that about Honoria: she wanted… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge Review: The Search by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts received 54,687 nominations for this year’s RITA, so expect a few reviews of her books as we assemble all the RITA® Reader Challenge reviews. Fortunately, Black Velvet’s review today is a very positive one.

Here’s a long-mo synopsis from BN: To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life — a quaint house on an island off Seattle’s coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescue. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare.

Several years ago, she was the only survivor of a serial killer — a madman who stalked and abducted young women, strangled them, and left them buried with a red scarf on their bodies. As authorities were closing in on the Red Scarf Killer, he shot and killed Fiona’s cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge Review: “Love Me To Death” by Maggie Shayne

You guys. I have so many RITA® Reader Challenge reviews that are made of excellent with a side order of woohoo. Today’s is for a novella and is being reviewed by Valerie F.

The summary: Twenty-two years ago four teenage boys were convicted of a young girl’s murder. Now, in the form of a beautiful woman, the “victim” is seeking vengeance. And only one man dares to dig into the past to uncover its secrets… and set her free.

And now, Valerie’s review!

RITA Reader Challenge Review: Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

This RITA® Reader Challenge review was written by Steph, who is reading like a mad fiend and loading up her Kindle before she is deployed again.

The synopsis: Restless souls and empty hearts

Brooklyn can’t sleep. Her boyfriend, Lucca, died only a year ago, and now her friend Gabe has just died of an overdose. Every time she closes her eyes, Gabe’s ghost is there waiting for her. She has no idea what he wants or why it isn’t Lucca visiting her dreams.

Nico can’t stop. He’s always running, trying to escape the pain of losing his brother, Lucca. But when Lucca’s ghost begins leaving messages, telling Nico to help Brooklyn, emotions come crashing to the surface.

As the nightmares escalate and the messages become relentless, Nico reaches out to Brooklyn. But neither of them can admit that they’re being haunted. Until they learn to let each other in, not one soul will be able… read more »

Across the Universe by Beth Revis: A Guest Review by Carrie S

Hello Geeks, it is time once again for my monthly review of something geeky and romantic. 

This month I read Across the Universe, to determine whether or not it is a Romance Novel, capital R, capital N, by which I mean a story in which the love story is the main focus and a happy ever after is reached.  I was drawn to this novel for two reasons.  First, it’s a fairly new release that got a lot of buzz when it came out in January of this year.  Second, it just screams “Teen Angst Romance”.  The front cover has a dreamy picture of two people almost kissing, backlit against a background of pink and purple stars.  The back cover has two characters verbally swooning all over each other.  If, being a total scumbag cheater like myself, you peek at the end (DON"T DO IT!)  It looks like there is a HEA.  So, this is clearly being sold as a novel of Teen Angst Romance. 

But, (and this is really cool, BTW) the reverse side of the book jacket has a blueprint of a spaceship and no pink in… read more »

Blaze Wyndham by Bertrice Small

I have so many memories wrapped up in this book. There’s the time when I was 15, and it was one of two romance novels I took with me when I was an exchange student. And there’s that other time, a few years ago when I journeyed out to a booksigning hosted by the Dunes & Dreams Chapter of RWA (it’s on eastern Long Island. To get there, drive until you’re just about in Europe, then stop), and met Bertrice Small - who then, I am not even kidding, invited me into her home to see the original etchings for the cover of this book. Her office is amazing, with original cover art on the walls and sketches that went on to become book covers framed all over the place. Her reference book collection would make a historical romance author shiver.

I have so many recollections of reading this book that, after a few years of having experienced it, I was a little worried it wouldn’t stand up to a re-read, that it wouldn’t work for me anymore.

Ha.… read more »

Forbidden Desires by Rebecca Sinclair, a Guest Review by RedHeadedGirl

RedHeadedGirl is back, reading wayback romances of crazysauce so you don’t have to!

This was a request- this was Maggie’s first romance, and I got it, and read it, and I think I’m in the midst of finals induced delirium, because this read kind of like a post-modern play.

    So the story goes that Emilee is on the run for people thinking she murdered her husband.  Cade is both the dead guy’s brother and a bounty hunter AND the supplier of the $2500 price on Emilee’s head (but…wants the kill himself, so…. Why would he post a price on her head?  The logic escapes me.)

    Anyway, Cade is hunting down Emilee (“you killed my brother, prepare to die” and all that), and has become totally obsessed with the ink drawing of her on the Wanted poster.  He finds her in a town in Nebraska where she’s managed to land a job as the schoolteacher, and is about to snipe her, but just can’t pull the trigger.  So he tracks her to her house on the edge of civilized Nebraska and busts in and finds… read more »

The Tokaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson: A Guest Review by Red Headed Girl

This is another I Read This To Push It On The Unsuspecting Bitchery.  It’s older, and not totally a romance, but it is a favorite of mine.  It takes place in Feudal Japan, and is a version of the story of the 47 Samurai.  I remember someone in the comments of… something… asking if both characters in Impulsive were Asian, and that’s it’s rare to get both main characters to be a minority.  So here we are (although I planned to do this one long before that conversation even happened).

    Cat is the daughter of a daimyo and his “outside wife” (acknowledged mistress).  Her father, Lord Asano, had committed ritual suicide after a rival of his, Lord Kira, insulted him in front of the Shogun and Asano drew his sword.  It is Very Very Bad to draw your sword in front of the shogun, hence the suicide.

    Cat sold herself into prostitution to support her mother (who was left with nothing- acknowledged mistresses are not protected in the death of their lovers, especially when the wife is cranky), but dreams of getting revenge on Kira.  So… read more »

Adora by Bertrice Small, A Guest Review by RedHeadedGirl

RedHeadedGirl is back, this time with a book reviewed by request: Bertrice Small’s 1981 book, Adora. Small is one of my absolute favorite old-skool authors. I have a soft spot for “Blaze Wyndham” like you wouldn’t believe. But I’ve never read this one.

I tried, you guys.  I really tried.  It doesn’t help that the copy I got smells to high heaven (It must have been owned by a smoker and it is moldy) and I have an aversion to bad smells, especially in books.  (Seriously, the first time I read Watchmen, the copy I borrowed was ever so slightly moldy, and the mold smell while reading the Tales of the Black Freighter?  I can’t even read that part now, in my new, ink-y smelling copy.  The associations are just so intense and gag-inducing.)

Anyway, this is the second Small book I’ve read and I’m not too terribly inclined to read more. I know this is “I read this shit so you don’t have to” but honestly.  Limits, I has them.

Adora is Theadora C-something, the daughter of the Arch Duke/Chamberlain/Grand Vizier (I don’t remember… read more »