A Time-Travel Review by Diana (RTAnnie)

‘Just in Time Cowboy’

by Jillie Rivers

Kelsey Winters a mining engineer in present day Mule Stop, Wyoming gets struck by lightning and is thrust back in time to 1892 to the old days of Mule Stop.  She’s landed right smack in the middle of the prairie and into the hands of Pete Jackson.  They spat, fight and try to avoid the inevitable in every romance, the big four letter word Love.  Now Kelsey doesn’t just take to this time travel stuff, she’s a strong willed modern day woman and has a hard time believing and adjusting to her present where a bouts and situation. 

Peter Jackson the son of a prominent New York banker is in Wyoming just being free and doing what He wants to do.  This is the deal he made with his father before he returns to New York and picks up his position in the family bank.  When a beautiful woman pretty much drops out of a thunderstorm, his life takes a whole different turn.

This all in all is a good book and it gets better the more you read it.  I ended up liking the characters but not so much at first.  The heroine at first to me just isn’t taking her situation as serious as you would think finding herself back in time by one hundred and twenty years.  The hero, well he was followed by a bad reputation as a ladies’ man, but I just thought he was a jerk.  But the story line is really good and the more I read the more I began to like the characters and the story line just kept getting deeper and deeper.

I did have a problem with the Indian tribe in the story.  I really don’t think Indians back in 1892 especially those not on a reservation would have been able to read and speak a fluent English but this one did.  The whole story is based on an old Indian prophecy that has been told down through the generations of the Indian tribe where they are awaiting ‘The Wise One’. 

A Paranormal Book Review by Diana (RTAnnie)

'Immortal Flame'
by:  Jillian David

First off let me say that I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting and I was glued to my tablet.  The story line was a fresh take for me and I commend this author on her unique imagination and the ability to listen to her characters tell their story.

Peter Blackstone after surviving World War II comes home and marries the girl of his dreams.  But when she is stricken with a deadly illness he realizes that nothing can be done for her he is forced to watch her suffer to get life giving breath.  He realizes the horrors he faced in the war was nothing compared to the heartbreak he was experiencing.  Feeling that he has nowhere to turn with the fear of losing his beloved wife he makes a pact and sells his very soul to the devil.  He’s not dead but yet he is and now he is at the mercy of an unforgiving employer, Jerahmeel.  His sins are insurmountable and unforgivable in his eyes.  He’s no good to anyone and can never have the life he dreamed of having.  A wife, kids, a home it’s all gone for him.

Peter is in a deadly car crash and is taken to a local hospital where the ER Dr. Allison LaCroix desperately tries to save his life.  She soon realizes that there is something different about this man.  He’s healing at an astronomical rate, a man that should be dead.  But when she touches him she sees nothing but horrendous death, all these people whose lives are brutally wiped out.  You see, Allie has her own special ability, one that she has bore since she was ten years old.  When she touches someone skin to skin she sees death, most of the time the person’s own death.  She experiences gripping pain when this happens and she has no warning as to when this ability is going to show itself to her.

But what Allie and Peter don’t expect is the attraction that they have to one another.  Peter is a huge man, one of great power and strength and built like a brick.  Allie is a broken woman with shattered dreams trying desperately to find a way in her life to make up for the deaths that she believes is her fault.  Can these two come together in the midst of both their life altering abilities and find love? 

Regency Romance, A Scandalous Wager by Cassandra Samuels

As a reviewer for RRM I get books sometimes that are out of my period, and sometimes those that are within it. This happily was within it. Despite my criticisms below as to the historical nature, and certain other matters, as a romance, there are elements that many will find satisfying.

Yet as the historian in me looks at the work, set in the mid teens, I find little to place this in historical context. It is the Regency, George the Prince of Wales acting as Regent for his mad father. Though not till near the end do we have dates to put things in perspective and when we do have them, certain parts of history cut against the grain of time. The Opera cited was performed after the book’s time. Waltzes at balls prevalent instead of a novelty in the mid teens still something the historian in me and my research are at odds with. 1814 was the start of such at Almacks and before that, only the fast set of Devonshire practiced it privately.

I found less a couple items that took me out of the story aside from the historical mistakes, such as 'Time flies when you are having fun' an expression that seems very modern to my mind. And aside from spending a great deal of time thinking about the attitude of the ton or dropping the names of gentlemens clubs, I did not feel all that much that we were in the Regency. 

This was billed to us as the first work of the author, and that I think is where we could have seen something stronger. The author also, when Hero and Heroine are within a scene, jumps POV paragraph to paragraph. That is confusing as well.

We had only fictitious characters sprinkled about, none of true historical nature. One inhabiting a house on Grosvenor Square. Certainly a very expensive property for any of the time to inhabit. 

The plot device (I too have used the idea of a gambling as has Barbara Cartland so we are both in good company ;-) ) to bring our romance about. Here, the author started a little late in her tale I think. Especially as Ms Samuels  wanted to use her title effectively. Would not baiting the hook of this Scandalous Wager be more appropriate to set us up with the men at the betting book at White’s actually perusing the book and placing the wager. In addition such a scene, perhaps with Brummell at hand to make some snide comment, would have given us more true Regency atmosphere. Often we lose track that the wager is a thing between our lovers except at that last moment when a device is needed to force them apart. 

We also have a mystery that is to be solved, but as we search for clues, it seems that none are ever found because our sleuths are interrupted by their sexual desires. So our heroes just have a list of possible suspects. That it is not shared very much with the reader forces us to realize far too early that the criminal being sought is readily apparent. We as an audience do not have enough confusion to make it not evident. No clues are found, no red herrings are presented.

Put all that aside and we delve into the romance of the piece, for often in a bodice ripper, that is what the audience is looking for. The Plot, character development secondary. 

Here, the heroine has had a few years to separate the abuse she had at her late husband’s hands aside so that when our Hero begins to make his own amorous advances, she is ready to respond. She has doubts, but the pace for her to succumb to those advances, fans of bodice rippers, and lovemaking scenes should not find themselves disappointed. The author provides titillation and an ebb and flow to this romance that should provide sustenance, though others might have seen dangling the reward of sexual congress till the resolution of the story, which is to be the vindication of our heroine.

The flaws I have noted, that detract for me, cause me to rate this as middle of the road. I think that Ms Samuels shows promise and with work on plot and regency scene setting further developed, her work could become very strong indeed.

Reviewed by David

Available at Amazon US
At Amazon UK

A Dragon Shifter Book Review by Diana (Annie@RTA)

'Only For Her Dragon'
by: Julia Mills

What can I say; I loved this book and all the Dragon’s.  Charlie (Dr. Charlene Gallagher) is a strong very open woman and Aaron is the ultimate sexy hot Dragon shifter that’s fell under the spell of the Universe and has found his mate.

Charlie losing her parents at a very young age is brought up by adoptive parents the best any child could have and is now a prominent Doctor.  She and her best friend Sam have a good solid relationship, but Sam changed after her marriage and has been holding out some deep secrets from Charlie.  When she attends a wedding and comes face to face with a real fire breathing dragon, Charlie has to have some answers and Sam is going to spill all.  After a first kiss with the handsome Aaron, Charlie’s life, thoughts and what she thought the world around her was, is all about to change.  Can she accept the truth?  Can she open her mind to possibilities of the existence of things that are only in fairy tales?

Aaron Michael O’Brien a Dragon shifter is from the Silver Dragons has lived a hundred years and has always gave his fellow Dragon brethren a whole lot of ribbing about the sappiness when they found their mates.  He’s proclaimed himself the ultimate bachelor and will never ever become the dim witted besotted fools his friends have over a mere woman.  Ahhhh, but don’t temp fate.  The Universe has other plans, plans that were foretold long ago and it will not be denied.  Aaron has fallen and is becoming the very sick little dragon in love.

Latest Historical Romance - The Chocolate House "All for Love"

Please understand this is a ‘special full’ review for a lovely anthology of which authors banded together to raise money for a very worthwhile charity. All the proceeds from this collection of Georgian and Regency stories will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

At RRM we do not ordinarily review anthologies or boxed sets of books. The time involved to review individual stories is too much to ask of my reviewers.

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Reviewed by Suzy.

A Rose by Any Other by Giselle Marks.

Ms Marks has written a classic abduction story, full of danger, romance, and intrigue. The Earl of Chisolm is a tad arrogant and although he’s a man of high principle, he lives life to the full in discreet manner. Meanwhile, the heroine is pursued by the earl’s nephew, a young man who causes Rose more grief than pleasure. The earl is thoroughly disapproving of his nephew’s ambitions to wed Rose, and sparks soon fly when he sets out to pay Rose money to simply walk away from his nephew. Neither the earl or his nephew are aware Rose is not as they had imagined – good or bad. Rose has a past and a future that is going to turn the earl’s previously contented existence into a living nightmare when Rose goes missing, and his nephew is taught a lesson in never presume too much too soon. This is a lively and entertaining story.

A Fateful Connection by Elizabeth Bailey.

Ms Bailey’s story is a delightful ‘chance encounter’ tale of love at first sight from one set of eyes, and a case of embarrassment and exposure for another. While Clarice Ryde believes employment at a young ladies’ academy is more or less in the bag, her aspiration for independence is soon curtailed and she finds herself on the street with nowhere to go. And Gervais, Chevalier de Guise, has no home to call his own. He does have friends, something Clarice doesn’t until Gervais steps across her path. Life can seem oh so simple when in fact it is far more complicated for both Clarice and Gervais. Neither is aware of the other’s past. While not all happy endings are devoid of trial and tribulation along the way, there is a happy ending to this charming tale.

The Runaway Duchess by Francine Howarth.

Ms Howarth’s story starts after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo when peace across Europe is assured and many British soldiers have returned home. While young ladies promenade, young officer bucks and swains dutifully give attention to female assets. But there are young women out and about in the City of Bath, of whom one aristocratic mother refers to as trollops. How amusing then that a trollop brings the wrath of his mother upon Randolph, Viscount Somerton’s head, while for Matjis de Boviere, the trollop leads to a chance encounter with a lady from his past. The cameos in which the two cousins, Matjis and Randolph, face embarrassment, wage bets, and conduct their lives, is highly amusing until a secondary tale of spies and intrigue begins to unfold. The eventual romance of it all sweeps the reader along, but then comes a twist in the tale and Matjis is every bit the hero when a secret is revealed on the very last page. Even with a satisfying end, I think there is more to this story to come. Perhaps within a second Chocolate House anthology.

Death at the Chocolate House by Susan Ruth

Ms Ruth gives us a murder mystery and a vast cast of characters. Some are amusing. Some are erudite. Some are plain stupid. This is a classic who-dunnit with a touch of Georgian farce. Magic lantern shows are all the rage in the City of Bath, and the Chocolate House is hosting one such occasion. With a lady called Fifi, an upright General, and a hard-nosed detective, Miss Marple and or Sherlock would have felt utterly at home in this story where a man enters the ladies cloakroom and falls dead at the feet of the heroine. There are questions. Who is he? Who killed him? Then comes the added complication of a snowstorm that blows more trouble forth and seals Bath from the outside world. Under siege within the Chocolate House tempers frey, hearts flutter, and the mystery surrounding the dead man deepens. It is solved in time, but even as the story reaches its close a mystery remains unsolved as a teaser of perhaps more to come. Who can know what the future holds in store for a reader?

A Pig-in-a-Poke by Jessica Schira.

Ms Schira gives us a charming young man of business and a head for figures, and Simon Harper has a second plus point. He’s gallant and a maiden in distress cannot be ignored. But while Letty Malleson may sound like a maiden in need of help, she is a force he had not thought to encounter. Simon soon wonders if he has bit off more than he can chew. Letty does slowly warm to his kindness and his intervention in her private affairs becomes acceptable. Unpleasantness involving a business transaction has left her shaking with rage while fearing for her livelihood. But Simon proves himself a good mediator, and Letty sees the virtue of good advice. Between them they set out to uncover truth from lies, but breaking and entering premises is a crime. What if they get caught in the act? There is that and much more, and Ms Schira leads the reader into a world of shady deals, and breath-stopping moments as love blooms and cheeks become flushed. This is a tale where the author understands all that a pig-in-a-poke entails.

A Little Chocolate in the Morning by David W. Wilkin.

Mr Wilkin’s character, Charles Watkins, is young man always with an eye to a pretty face. While his thoughts are very much his own he dreams of love and romance, but how to achieve it seems to escape him. He’s a reserved and refined gentleman, an aristocratic gentleman who has a serious eye to politics and his seat in the upper House of Parliament. Though what is a seat in the Lords, or the comforts of home, when his sisters are all married except one, and his mother harangues him over his responsibilities and the need to beget an heir? Life for Charles is content enough, or is it? Determined to get his sister wed and off his hands, perhaps then he can put his mind to the seeking of a comely wife. And then along comes Lady Caroline. The life Charles has viewed as comfortable and uncomplicated in a romantic sense, can never be as it was before he set eyes on Caroline. He must do something, but how and when?



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Update from Suzy.

 

 

It's lovely to be back, and far sooner than my good friend and ally Fran had thought would be possible.  It is not all that easy switching blog ownership from one person to another, but we have finally achieved it.  I am so pleased to be back at RRM, and cannot tell you how much I appreciated all your good wishes and sympathetic understanding when my mother passed away. It has been a sad rollercoaster year and I am now looking forward to moving on.  

 

 

Suzy
 

Latest Regency Romance!

Reviewed by Francine.

 

 

Alethea is a traditional Austenesque Regency tale, in which chance encounters lead to love and romance for two cousins. Of course, there are trials and tribulations along the way for both, and while Alethea is a somewhat headstrong young lady, Eleanor is older and more reserved. Both being borne to the genteel existence of a countryside abode – Alethea is utterly naive in the ways of aristocrats who take liberties at will with unsuspecting females. But once she’s introduced to the possibilities that infamous Almack’s can afford her, the world is suddenly her oyster.

 

Warned that one man is best not trifled with, for it would seem he delights in trifling with young ladies hearts, Alethea’s heart is soon suffering from romantic flutters whilst she remains utterly determined to resist any notion of surrender to his charms. But another, by far more dangerous man is soon taking more than he deserves and trouble suddenly abounds with the mere mention of his title. After all, mystery and intrigue is all very well until it comes too close for comfort. And while Alethea stands up to the bounder as a true heroine should, he nonetheless wreaks unknowing revenge that may well destroy any hope of happiness for her future. And there I shall leave you in suspense, for I thoroughly enjoyed Alethea’s initiation from innocent country girl to that of a young socialite caught up in the darker side of London Society. All the while, Eleanor, sweetly misguided into the belief she’s destined for spinsterhood, discovers otherwise! A lovely, lovely story.

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Latest 17th century novel.

 

 

 

Reviewed by Francine.

 

 

 

Historically accurate in every detail, this is a time slip novel that rips a reader from the 21st century and casts them back to Scotland in the year of 1658. It is the very year in which a great storm raged across the British Isles ripping up trees and flooding the land, and all on the very night Oliver Cromwell died. It is the year people throughout the Commonwealth held their breath in anticipation of “what now?” For with the Lord High Protector gone, and the populous wearied by two Civil Wars, a new Stuart era was secretly in the making.

 

 

And so, A Rip in the Veil begins in 2002 with Alexandra Lind, a typical 21st century woman, whom, accustomed the instantaneous age of electronic devices, is suddenly caught up in an electrical storm. Worse, the storm not only scares the proverbial out of her, every electronic device to hand malfunctions. What next? What to do? And little does she know Hell is about to open up and swallow her: literally.

 

 

In Mathew Graham’s world it’s 1658, and as a man given to strong belief in God, angels in his mindset don’t wear strange blue breeches nor are they devoid of wings. Trusting in God and instinct Mathew sees only a woman in need, and whilst tending to Alex’ needs he struggles to understand the complexity of her fate whilst his own is dire in itself. And when Mathew’s lifetime suddenly intervenes and danger is close at hand, Alex knows her life can never be as it was before, not unless she can find a way back to her own time.

 

 

Fate works in mysterious ways, and as time passes Alex is torn between the past and the present, or is it the present and the past? And while she’s not alone in comparing love in the past with love in the here and now, true hearts cannot let go, no matter the cost and no matter the losses along life’s path. Thus the Graham Saga begins.

 

 

Reader note: I fail to understand why some readers (Amazon) have taken affront at A Rip in the Veil and thus implying it is a rip-off of Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” Series. Publishing dates are far from proof that a series of novels were devised before or after one another, and for this very reason editors at publishing houses are oft quoted as saying “books drop on their desks with similar (almost identical) plots within weeks of one another, and while one may get taken up, others will be discarded”. Thousands of authors ply their novels to numerous publishers over a period of years, and few if ever are lucky enough to have their books snatched up and published. Coincidence of plots and even character names are more common than might be imagined, of which I can testify to, for a fellow author and I (FB friends) both dreamed up the same titled character and both of us were penning Regency novels, neither aware of the other’s project until both were published!



Latest Regency Review-Charlotte by Karen Aminadra

Those of us authors who write Regency Romances often also tackle the canon of Jane Austen and try to take her creations and add our own twist to them. This falls into a few groups, one that take the historical Jane and use her in their story, others who take her creations and are exceedingly true to them, as best they can, or take those characters beyond the short few paragraphs she left us at the end of her stories. I have done so and by so doing have put on paper my thoughts on how those characters would change. Ms. Aminadra has done so as well, using as her heroine, Charlotte Collins nee Lucas.

We are all familiar with the tale of Pride and Prejudice, and the farcical Mr. Collins whom Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Bennet both make fun of, though Lizzy for the sake of her friendship with Charlotte, when visiting and actually meeting the esteemed Patroness, understand more of what is in the nature of Mr. Collins. But that is the canon, and as Ms Aminadra weaves her tale, she has to embellish the few lines of what we guess will happen to the Collins'.

Charlotte of course is caught in the middle with what will occur post Pride and Prejudice as she will one day be the Lady of Longbourn and we know Mrs. Bennet the mother of her BFF is assured that she will be turned out right quick. Not that Mrs. Bennet should think that this is now as dire as it was before. From all the movies we have seen, Directors have chosen to show us that ten Longbourns could fit into any Pemberly and a room certainly could be found for her there, or at Netherfield. Yet back in Mertyn, one can be sure that Mrs. Bennet has something to say about Mrs Collins, the daughter of Lady Lucas who still is one of her closest friends, and rivals for attention in that neighborhood.

From this Ms. Aminadra is able to relate to us that Charlotte Collins has complexities, as well as from the Canon's reveal that Charlotte was never one to think she would wed for love. That clearly puts her on the quest to find love. And while Jane Austen left us with several ladies still in need of marrying at the end of Pride and Prejudice, of the men, their is but one, Colonel Fitzwilliam (discounting Denny and other men of the Militia Regiment we hardly met)

Close in approximation to reading one of Jane's works, we sometimes leave the POV of the women and see inside such men as Mr. Collins, or the Colonel. That is a depth Jane did not give us, but it adds to the brushed that Ms Aminadra paints this canvas with.

Here we are taken to a part of time, (though the idea that the Colonel and other officers could leave the theater of war easily is perhaps something that wasn't researched as well as it could have been) in the latest stages of the Peninsula Campaign years, (Wellington being referred to as Duke which came after that was over) that I believe the author means to be about 1812 to 1813. Shortly after Lizzy has accepted the marriage proposal of Darcy.

Charlotte, our hero is faced with trials that aid her to grow, and to have Mr. Collins see his life afresh, for now he is more than the client of Lady Catherine, but a husband, and as all married couples hope, to perhaps one day be a father as well. Yet there must be conflict and here Ms Aminadra adds lacquer to her painting, adding depth and dimension and perhaps a modern way of thinking of flirtation and dalliance that puts her on a part that causes change from the canon at a more accelerated pace, and even a different pace than those last few paragraphs in Pride and Prejudice might have allowed.

Some of these changes a reader will either enjoy very much. some elements that are added may cause the reader to feel that the characters have progressed much as they should. Other readers fearing that any change to the themes of characterization that Austen left us with is sacrosanct may have difficulty here. My favorite Lady Catherine, is the one of Edna May Oliver in the Olivier/Garson version of P&P where at the very end we see Lady Catherine telling Darcy to go offer for Lizzy is just the challenge he will need. Huxley changed Austen's intention in that 1940 screen classic, but I think it adds to the mystique.

Charlotte is a worthy read and should be explored by those who like all P&P sequels, and I am interested to see where Ms Aminadra is able to take us with her Austenesque work as well.

Available at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Reviewed by David

Historical Romance during the English Civil War

Gillian Bradshaw's
London in Chains

While this is a romance, that is not its strength. The romantic elements are not really developed as opposed to the historical context and background that Ms. Bradshaw provides us in what becomes an excellent glimpse into a time that perhaps most know little about.

London, after the victory of Parliament over Charles I was not all celebration and happiness, but was in turmoil, the victors fighting over the spoils of war as happens frequently when the victors are not led by one mind. We see this as our heroine comes to London for the first time and has to deal with allies who were oppressors, family that loves and hates her, and a city that is tightly held in an inflationary spiral which happens when a country has been beset by a war that has ravished it.

Add the religious pressures that Parliament was suffering as well to this mix where all those who know the truth of their vision of god tried to wrest control of the nation, and London is indeed in Chains as Ms Bradshaw names the book. What we see also is the rise of printing in this era and a comment that is made, about how no General would dare go to war without their own press, (which reminds me a great deal of Douglas Macarthur) and we see that our Heroine is poised to show us a glimpse of this period that I had no idea of. Before this work, I thought Parliament won, Charles was incarcerated and eventually Parliament voted to behead him, and then Cromwell was made supreme. Yet much was to be done before that happened as I now know. (I am a product of the US education system)

Though there is a romance for our Heroine, and some little time is devoted to it, it does not seem fully fledged as the hero of this action is taken away off stage. That there is some interaction and words between hero and heroine to put the building blocks for a relationship and that they view each other philosophically similarly might breed true, but still, if romance be ones first inclination, more should take place. If History is what you would like to delve into in a period piece, than look no further for the period of 1647 and 1648 one can do little better. At every turn of the page Ms Bradshaw is able to add depth to her world, painting with words details that little occurred to me, but that I think all would find enriching. I recommend this to those who find history of an interest in their reading.

At Amazon US or at Amazon UK

Reviewed by David