Review: "The Broken H" by J.L. Langley

The Broken H by J.L. Langley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As the sequel to The Tin Star, The Broken H features Sheriff Grayson Hunter, who played a secondary character in the previous book, and Shane Cortez, the man he's loved all his life.

Shane has been part of Gray's life since Shane was sixteen and Gray was three, when Gray's parents took an almost starving and battered Shane off the street and offered him a home to live. Despite the big age difference between them, the two boys became inseparable friends almost immediately. That changed when Gray turned eighteen, realized that his feelings for Shane went beyond mere friendship and tried to tell the older man how he felt. Shane's reaction (and apparent rejection) sent Gray running away from his parents' ranch, the Broken H, and he's stayed away from Shane since then. Fate has a way to bring lovers back together, though. When Gray's father suffers a heart attack, he's called home and there's no denying his feelings for Shane anymore. Surprisingly, it looks like Shane has something to say in the matter too...

Here's the deal: I loved Shane and Gray individually, but their relationship was a bit uncomfortable to me. The flashbacks from their past, when Shane was still a young man and Gray was a child, were filled with brotherly affection, so I had a hard time adjusting to the change in their relationship. In itself, the age gap between them wasn't the issue - Ethan and Jamie, from The Tin Star, had eleven years between them and I didn't have a problem with it - but the fact that Shane and Gray had basically grown up like "brothers". Heck, Gray's parents even treated Shane like a son!

Besides that, there were just too many editing errors in this book. I'm not the best person to point them out, since English isn't my mother language, but they were too bizarre and obvious. Sadly, they got in the way of my enjoying this read, because I found myself having to reread entire sentences to understand their meaning. That didn't happen once or twice, but several times - especially in the second half of the book.

Overall, this ended up being just an OK read to me, with likable characters, sweet and funny love scenes - I especially liked Gray's fetishes - and a bit of tension to keep the story going. It would have been a 4-star read to me if it weren't for the things I mentioned above.



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Review: "The Christmas Tree Bargain" by J.L. Langley

The Christmas Tree Bargain by J.L. Langley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


3 1/2 stars

If you've read The Tin Star, like I have, this quickie works as a very nice extra epilogue to that book. Being alreay familiar with Ethan and Jamie, you get to understand their dynamics, why their Christmas tree is so ugly and Ethan's early Christmas gift gets a new meaning. Plus, their dog Fred helping with the Christmas tree decorations makes it all sweeter as you remember how that "tradition" started.

If you haven't read that book, this quickie is nothing more than a steamy m/m sex scene between two "married" men celebrating Christmas.



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Review: "Key of Valor" by Nora Roberts

Key of Valor by Nora Roberts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This final installment in the Key trilogy was the weakest for me. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have read all three books in a row, because reading about the tale of the three demigoddesses' souls trapped in a box of glass and how three mortal women, the heroines, were destined to find the "keys" to release them got a bit stale this time around. It was pretty much the same basic thing all over again, and neither Zoe nor Brad, the couple du jour, was compelling enough to engage my full interest.

I admit I didn't like Zoe very much from the glimpses I had on the previous books, Key of Light and Key of Knowledge: she came across like this "wonder woman", larger than life and independent to the point of being too stubborn. Unfortunately, my impression didn't change after reading this book and there was a time or two when I wanted to give her a good shake to make her see reason. Her reluctance to accept Brad's love was justifiable in the beginning - after all, single mothers are, or should be, wary when considering a new romantic relationship - but I though she dragged it a little too long. If Brad was a "shady" character, I could understand it, but he was far from it.

Brad was the handsome, honest millionaire with a heart of gold, no flaws and not a single skeleton in the closet. He fell fast and hard for Zoe and, bonus points there, he also adored her son Simon. The ultimate good guy, he was perfection in flesh and bone, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him... and I couldn't care less about him. Would I love to have a guy like him in real life? Sure! But that kind of hero doesn't work for me in Romancelandia, I'm sorry to say. Hmm, maybe that's why Zoe took so long to fall for him, LOL.

As for the search for Zoe's "key", it was obvious - for me, not for Zoe - that the answer was linked to her accepting Brad's love, so the mystery part of the story didn't add much spark to make this an engrossing read. I was kind of bored halfway through the book, since neither the romance nor the mystery was thrilling. It's somewhat funny: I liked the mystery but not the romance in Key of Light, liked the romance but not the mystery in Key of Knowledge, and didn't like either the romance and the mystery in Key of Valor. Not exactly the combo I wanted.

Since this was the third and last book in the series, Key of Valor ends with a nice scene featuring only the three heroines in order to give closure to the whole quest for the "keys". While I understood the reason behind the way NR chose to end the story, I was left feeling that Zoe and Brad were "cheated": I would have liked to see them in a special one-on-one final scene, the same way their friends had in the previous books. That was the final nail in the coffin for me... Meh!



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Review: "Key of Knowledge" by Nora Roberts

Key of Knowledge by Nora Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Even though this is the second book in the Key trilogy, Key of Knowledge can be easily read as a stand-alone because Dana, the heroine, gives a pretty good - and funny - recapitulation of what happened in the first book, Key of Light. That said, I still recommend reading this series in order, as you get a better understanding of how things work in this PNR realm created by NR.

That certainly helped me to guess where the "key" Dana was assigned to find was hidden, because the pattern had already been established in the previous book. I had it all figured out pretty soon, and it was only Dana's stubbornness and blindness about all things involving Jordan, the hero, that prevented her from getting it too. There was a twist in the end that shifted the pattern a bit, so it was nice to be surprised and see that not everything was predictable.

As for the romantic part of the story, Dana and Jordan had good chemistry and I enjoyed reading their scenes together. Theirs was a "lovers-reunited" kind of story, and this plotline doesn't always work for me - I mean, if you couldn't make your relationship work the first time around, why rehash it? - but I think NR did a good job showing why their first time together wasn't meant to be and how they needed to go their separate ways - Jordan being the one who had left - before getting back together for good.

As it happened in Key of Light, there's a lot of talk about symbolism, coincidences and fate in this book too. All interesting, but I confess my eyes started to glaze during some parts. Thankfully, those scenes were minor bumps in a story that, as a whole, flew quite smoothly.

Now, on to the third and final book in the series...



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Review: "Key of Light" by Nora Roberts

Key of Light by Nora Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As the first book in the series, Key of Light did the job: it set the story arc up, introduced all the main characters and, in the end, wrapped up the first couple's love story in a nice HEA.

The PNR aspect of the story was interesting, with a gothic vibe that was eerie and unexpected. An old mansion named Warrior's Peak, guarded by gargoyles, sitting at the top of a hill surrounded by mist... A dark and stormy night... A woman driving alone, wondering what she was going to find at the mansion... That was on the first pages of the book and, no matter how cliché that was, I was chilled to the bone and wondering if Malory, the heroine, would turn out to be one of those TSTL blondes whose aim in life is to step willingly into the arms of death just to keep the story going. Thankfully, it wasn't like that and the story moved along quite nicely, once Malory and her newfound friends/partners Dana and Zoe, the heroines in the following books in the series, were presented with the task they were supposed to do: find the keys that would release the souls of three demigoddesses who had been imprisoned hundreds of years ago. I'm not going into details here, but the tale about their lives was very charming and romantic - regardless of the sad ending, that is.

Flynn, Dana's brother, joined the quest for the keys in no time, even though he was skeptical about the whole thing... Well, all of them were skeptical at first, but they changed their minds when strange things started to happen. Back to Flynn... He was the all-around good guy, charming, seductive and, of course, commitment-shy. Malory was soon in love with him - who could blame her? :) - and he was in too, even though it took him longer to see it that way. There was really no conflict in their relationship, and that was a problem for me. Not that I wanted them to go all angsty or start a fight just for the sake of it, but there wasn't anything that prevented them from being together and their relationship felt kind of boring to me.

On the other hand, I think NR did a much better job when it came to showing Flynn's friendship with Jordan and Brad - not coincidentally, the heroes in the next books in the series. I actually thought that Flynn's scenes with his friends were more interesting than his scenes with Malory, and that's not a good thing in Romancelandia. Malory's scenes with Dana and Zoe were less entertaining and felt a little too juvenile to me. They would have been more fitting if they had been in their early twenties, IMHO.

There's a lot of talk about symbolism and coincidences in this book: some interesting, some confusing. I thought the "key" Malory was supposed to find was only a metaphor but it turned out to be "real" - or the next best thing, since this is a PNR story. As for the ending, I was as fooled by Malory's trick as the villain: I thought Flynn would have to rescue her with a bang, but I should have known that she was smart enough to do it by herself. Girl Power, yay! ;)

All things considered, this was an overall good, although not stellar, read for a nice and lazy afternoon/evening. And, referring to the first paragraph above, it did the job: I'm interested enough in keep reading the series.



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Review: "Dangerous Passion" by Lisa Marie Rice

Dangerous Passion by Lisa Marie Rice

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


OMG, I loved this book! The hero, the heroine, the story, the epilogue - yes, there's a very good and sigh-worthy epilogue in this book, yay! -, everything was just perfect, IMHO. I'm a devoted LMR fan but, as much as I enjoyed all her books, only the Midnight series earned 5 stars from me. Well, not anymore! Dangerous Passion has just made it too. :)

Victor "Drake" Drakovich is a dangerous arms dealer who lives a very secluded life. Due to his "profession", he has a lot of enemies who would be more than happy to end his life in the most violent and painful way, so he's very careful about not having any weaknesses that could be explored by them. Caring for someone would be a major weakness because his enemies wouldn't think twice before striking someone he cared for to get to him, so he doesn't have friends, he has extremely well-paid employees. And he doesn’t have lovers, he has sex partners. "Luckily" for him, he also doesn't have a family, since he doesn't even know where he was born and had never gotten himself emotionally attached to anyone all his life. But this solitary life of his changes when he meets Grace...

Grace Larsen is a struggling artist who's almost (but not quite) as solitary as Drake. She'd like to live to paint rather than paint to live, and the closest "friend" she has is the owner of the art gallery owner where she exposes her artwork. She doesn't have real friends, she has acquaintances. And, like Drake, she doesn't have a family either: her father left when she was nine years old, her mother let herself go after that, and there were no aunts or uncles or cousins to love her when her mother died. Grace has always felt like a misfit, and the only thing that she cares about is her art.

And it's her art that brings Drake and Grace together when, one day, he sees her paintings exposed through the window of the art gallery while stuck in traffic. He's fascinated by the paintings and, in a completely out of character behavior, goes into the art gallery to appreciate them more closely. While he's there, Grace walks in and, bam, in a true LMR fashion, he falls hard and fast for her. Only, he knows he can never be with her because that would make her a target in his enemies' eyes. So he leaves the art gallery unnoticed, and contents himself with buying (anonymously, of course) everything she paints. He also ditches his bodyguards and "escapes" from his tightly secure world to watch - okay, stalk - her from the alleyway outside the art gallery twice a month. This routine goes well for about a year, but a man full of enemies like Drake is bound to be betrayed by one of his employees sooner or later. And when one of his enemies discovers how obsessed he is with Grace and threatens her life in order to get to him, Drake knows it's time he pulled out all the stops and changed his life forever, for there's no way he'll ever let anything bad happen to her. So he takes her to his private "fortress" and pretty much stakes his claim, vowing to protect her with his life.

Grace is a bit shocked at first - seeing people die in front of you, being shot at and almost dying in the process will do that to anyone - but she senses a connection with, not to mention a strong atraction to, Drake and knows she can trust him, even though there's no doubt there's something dangerous about him. But, hey, he's a LMR hero so we all know that he's dangerous to everyone but the heroine. :)

I have to say, I didn't think Drake was hero material when I met him in Dangerous Lover, where he played a secondary role. I mean, he wasn't one of the good guys so I just dismissed him and forgot about him. That shows how clueless I am, LOL, because Drake has become one of my favorite heroes now that I read Dangerous Passion. He was strong, protective, caring, and he loved Grace so much that I was almost envious of her. ;)

Grace started out as the typical LMR heroine: beautiful, delicate, trusting, sweet and kind. But she got stronger as the story progressed, and I was pleasantly surprised to see her saving the day in the end. Very impressive! Kudos to LMR for changing her "formula" and giving us a more (sort of) kick-ass heroine.

As for the ending, I confess my eyes were a little misty (in a good way) when I closed the book. Hormones, I say! ;) This was the second LMR book in a row with a very good epilogue, so I guess she paid attention to her readers' "complaints" about the abrupt endings in her earlier books. Very well done, Ms. Rice!

All in all, this was an excellent read that only made me love LMR's writing more than I already did.



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Review: "Dangerous Secrets" by Lisa Marie Rice

Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was another enjoyable read by LMR. Strangely enough, Nick and Charity were my least favorite H/h by this author so far, even though this wasn't my least favorite book.

I don't know, I got the impression that Nick wasn't as uncomfortable as he should have been about lying to Charity and, quite frankly, he should have never agreed to let her pull that stunt in the villain's mansion before all hell broke loose - especially if you consider that he knew she wasn't a good liar and couldn't be expected to fool the most vicious criminals on Earth. I had never expected to see a LMR hero let his heroine enter into a dangerous and life-threatening situation so willingly, and that made me see Nick with some contempt.

Charity was somewhat boring to me: not a bad heroine, but nothing to talk about either. But I cared enough for her to feel a small pang in my heart while I "watched" her trying to deal with Nick's "death" (this isn't a spoiler, since his "death" is stated in the prologue).

As for the plot, this story had some uncanny similarities with Dangerous Lover, the previous book in the series, but it was better developed, IMHO. It was almost like LMR had heard all the readers' complaints and decided to dedicate more time to the aspects that were found lacking in that book. I was happy to see that, this time, there was a more satisfying ending and epilogue. :)



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