Ten Years Lost: "Cold Creek Reunion" by RaeAnn Thayne

He was the one you called when you needed rescuing… but who was Taft Bowman going to call when he needed help? Because ten years ago Laura Pendleton, the love of his life, had left town without a word, then or since. Now she was back, with a new last name–and two adorable, high-needs little ones in tow. Well, Taft had been stupid enough to let her go once before…he wasn't about to make the same mistake again. He'd never stopped loving her–and one look at those adorable little faces and he knew that he was meant to be with Laura and her kids forever. All he had to do was convince her that this time he was a man she could count on!

I knew when I received this review copy that there was something familiar about the title, and when I was looking for information about the book I realized that I had read an earlier novel in this Cold Creek Cowboys series. This 10th book in the series is a delightful short novel that tells the bittersweet tale of two people who missed their chance as married bliss ten years earlier and the hurts of that break-up appear to still be somewhat unhealed. One would think that as these two characters had moved on in their lives that they could meet again and find a way to put aside the disappointments. But such is not the case. She is now a widow with two children and she has come home to Cold Creek to help her mother with their family inn that is beginning to "sink out of sight." He is not the fire chief of this small Idaho community and is well-established as a bachelor with a reputation for playing hard, a reputation gained in the months and years since the broken engagement.

But all is not as it seems and through a series of unfortunate occurrences and some stealthy matchmaking on the part of family and friends, these two individuals begin the long and rocky road back to one another. As all of us know--many of us from personal experience--old wounds are really sore and our willingness to revisit those bad times can prevent people from moving on. These two characters discover that they haven't moved on as far or as effectively as they thought.

This is a very good piece of writing and the families and other background characters form a lively backdrop to the angst and difficult encounters these erstwhile lovers endure. The two children are delightful--full of fun, getting into trouble by way of their never-ending curiosity and their delight as they discover dogs and horses and lots of other things that are a part of the ranching world. One can't help falling in love with them.

This series and this novel from Harlequin are the books we return to when we want something to read we can trust, knowing that there will be romance, anxiety, despair, family, and some crisis of one sort or another, but in the end there will always be romance. So I recommend this novel as a very nice way to spend some reading time--not a big investment for the wallet, but one that will be fun and will satisfy that inner urge for a good romance. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

The Long & Short of It, Through Thick & Thin, Harlequin Thrives!

I LOVE to read! I love books and magazines, newspapers and journals. I just simply love to read. When I was a kid and knew that my mother wouldn't allow one of my books at the breakfast table--had to hurry so I wouldn't be late for school--I read the cereal boxes, often they were the same cereal boxes I had read the morning before. But I read them again anyway--I just loved to read. I can clearly remember the first book I brought home from school in first grade and the absolute sense of "over the top I felt when I could read and pronounce all those words flawlessly remains fixed in my memory. It was probably one of the "Dick & Jane" books. Of course, there were only about 20 words in the entire book, but when one is six and acquiring a new skill, who cares how many or how few words are in a particular book?

I was probably the school librarian's favorite student--I was in the library all the time, every night, turning in books, checking them out, straightening out the card catalogue, straightening out the bookshelves, and never, never keeping books beyond their due date. What a kid! In fact, my very first job was as a student helper (for fifty cents an hour) at the Public Library which happened to be right across the street from the high school and about six blocks from my house--on the same street, in fact. By this time I had consumed all the Sue Barton, R.N. books, the Nancy Drew books, books full of Greek mythology, novels like Quo Vadis, The Robe, Giant, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, A Many Splendored Thing, The Silver Chalice and Ivanhoe, along with the F. Scott Fitzgerald books. All this was, of course, in addition to literature assignments for book reports and English Literature which was a required course for all college prep seniors.

Then the years of early marriage and having kids hit. OMG, noise, diapers (cloth ones, mind you), and babies everywhere. My hubby and I had four kids in five years and by the time the last baby was born, I hadn't been in a bathing suit for five years, owned very few outfits that weren't maternity clothes, had two sets of shoes because some days my feet were swollen and some days they weren't, and was absolutely positive I was going to be pregnant forever. There were several years when I was never out of the house except to go grocery shopping (is it any wonder that I still think of grocery shopping as a personal time activity?). It was especially difficult when we were living in the Chicago area and the snows for several years were quite deep. But . . . the sanity of this woman was saved by Harlequin. Yes, Harlequin romances. . . you know, those short novels that came every month, four at a time, and which all started to read the same and filled with characters that had the most incredible names. In the midst of diaper washing and bottle fixing and wiping kid noses and rocking babies, I had my Harlequin romances--doors to other worlds, entree into other people's situations and circumstances, and a way of using personal time--the miniscule amount I had--that sometimes was even better than grocery shopping.

I've always wondered if the survival of Harlequin has been, in large part, because there were so many people like me, who were literally "tied to the mast" with family responsibilities and who found those little short novels a way of escape. When my kids got older, I scheduled a "Mother's Reading Day" every month. By this time I was teaching my girls to cook a bit, so I would give them all tasks for that day, prepare the main dish ahead of time with directions for getting it on the table, make sure they were all well and away at school, and then I would retreat to my bedroom, hunker down in my comfy bed with a stack of those short novels, and forget the world. Everyone in my family knew that no one came through my door unless it was a genuine emergency. I have to say that I was a much nicer person after that "day off." I firmly believe it was my salvation in more ways than one.

Now Harlequin has a number of imprints and a large number of authors writing for them. I know of several who have a separate pen name for their Harlequin writing contracts, and there are some authors who write lots of books for them. I have reviewed a number of books that are published under one of the imprints and most of them have been really good. I know there are reviewers who don't pay much attention to their Super Romances, but I have found them to be very good reads, not expensive, and written by some very good authors.

And so . . . Harlequin Thrives. I, for one, am thankful that during those lean years there were fictional books available to me for a very small price. Yes, I know, I love libraries and I use our Los Angeles County Library all the time. But in those years, when getting out of the house was like outfitting an army in snowsuits, having those books come to my door in the mail every month was a delight. I think I looked forward to them more than I ever did my membership packages from the cosmetic club. After all, why would I really need cosmetics? I never went anywhere. I still buy Harlequin short novels at the used book store near us, and I still am delighted when I can review one of their books. I hope that all of you can look back and see how good books have brought a lot of fun and joy into your life. Until next time . . .

Blood Is Thicker Than Water and That Aint Necessarily Good: "A Silken Thread" by Brenda Jackson

My mother's family is from the South--Kentucky, to be exact. Actually her ancestors came to Florida in the 1600's and were refugees from France when Catherine de Medici was persecuting Protestants after the Reformation. Decades later they moved into the Carolinas and then to Tennessee and eventually to Kentucky--Union County. So I know all about the prejudices that remain embedded in families and communities, and we were always aware that there was an entire society on "the other side of the tracks", no matter which side one lived on. That being said, it is amazing how decades of family history continue to tell of old wounds and old hurts. It was just this way in Brenda Jackson's new novel.

The setting is Hattersville, Ohio, a small community just like hundreds throughout the United States that is having its problems. Some want to keep preserving the "old" while the newer generations want to bring in new policies, new growth, new stuff in general. The families in this story harbor some of the same emotional scars as most families and this novel is about love, sex, revenge, old hurts and angers. And the two main characters are best friends, two African American young women who live on opposite sides of "the tracks." One--Erica-- is from one of Hattersville's most wealthy and prominent families. April was raised by a single mother and she really doesn't know the identity of her father. Yet she is beautiful and she has used her physical assets to rise high in the modeling world. In spite of Erica's family prejudice against April, her family deficiencies, and her lower soci0-economical class, their friendship stays true, no matter what. Erica's mother has tried to get her to marry the son of another prominent family and it just hasn't worked. They are also best friends but they knew long ago that they didn't love each other. Instead, Erica is engaged to be married to a very handsome and successful attorney and their wedding is only weeks away when the novel begins. April has someone she has always loved, but he doesn't know about her feelings. She has kept them safely tucked away most of her life.

This is an involved novel that has some historical mysteries that don't want to be revealed, families that manipulate and pull some fairly evil stunts to accomplish their social goals, and some surprising twists and turns that will keep readers guessing. Erica's relationship with her fiance is seriously put in jeopardy by her own mother for some really convoluted reasons, most of which are rooted in some old beliefs that have assumed the shape of a family curse in the mom's thinking.

Yet, this novel is, in the final analysis, about the tensile strength of a love that "beareth all things, endureth all things." It is about the strength of friendship--a friendship that will not cave in to prejudice or snobbery. And it is novel that warms the heart as the reader is brought into the inner circle of relationships that are loving, sexy, enduring, and whose participants think highly of one another and of the authenticity of their love that they are willing to fight for their future together.

Ms Jackson has a list of published works that is quite impressive, and she continues to give readers stories of African-American individuals and families that help all of us appreciate the richness they bring to our culture and society. Some of her novels are better than others, and I happen to think this is one of her really good ones. I was fascinated with the family "curse" and the mystery that surrounded it. I think I read the book in one sitting. There are many layers to the story and some very colorful characters. The reader has to exercise some brain power to keep the story in mind as the various scenes shift--what good fiction should be.

So I recommend this to Brenda Jackson fans, romance fans, or those who have never read one of her stories. I think most of you will find it to be a worthwhile use of your time. I give it a 4.25 out of 5 rating.

This novel was released on 22 February 2011 by Harlequin/Kimani Press.

Review: Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart

Megan Hart is one of those authors who gravitates toward the hard-core edge of human experience and she is not afraid to make those issues and situations the context of her novels. There are quite a few kidnapping novels and stories about the Stockholm Syndrome, but Ms Hart has not necessarily written a story that replicates those. As a testimony of her creativity she has crafted a story that is significantly different.

What actually happens when a young mother, frazzled and tired, truly weary of being the work-horse of her family, overwhelmed with laundry and crying kids and vet visits and husbands who can pick up and take a business trip without creating any ripple in the family life while any time away for her is a major undertaking. Gillian Solomon, or Gilly as she is called in this story, is a woman who has always wanted a family of her own, loves her husband dearly and deeply, yet has this insane desire to run away--to be free of all the hands that pull at her, free to finish tasks that forever go undone, free to just be. On a fateful day in January she stops at her bank's ATM, and in just a few moments her life changes forever. As she is returning to her car she finds that a carjacker has slipped into the passenger side, is holding a lethal knife to her throat and ordering her to just drive. Nothing she offers makes any impression. He won't even stop to let her children out of the back seat. Somehow she manages a quick stop and drops them off at an Amish home, knowing that they will be cared for. Even when they stop for gas she doesn't run. There is a part of her that doesn't want to go back.

For the next three months Gilly and Todd are holed up in his uncle's mountain cabin in Pennsylvania, totally and completely snowed in with drifts up to the roof. He has taken some of his inheritance money and fully stocked the cabin with food. There is sufficient wood and propane. Even when Gilly wrecks the car trying to escape they know that they will not freeze or starve. In a moment of weakness Gilly tries to kill herself and contracts pneumonia for her trouble--a terrible illness that Todd nurses her through. Yet there is always this tension. At first she begs to be let go. He can't do that--he knows she will tell them who he is and where he is--he just can't go back to prison. He is not unkind; he never attempts to assault her; he forces her out of her depression; he is not an uncomfortable companion. He just won't let her go.

This story is one of those that the reader knows must end but how? It is like a huge boulder rolling down the mountainside, but the bottom of the canyon is hidden by thick mists. Where will it land and what will happen when it does? Gilly must deal with her own feelings about her husband and children, about the relationship her feelings now have to do with her growing-up experiences, dealing with dreams and nightmares and trying to find a way to get through one boring day after another. Todd is terribly troubled--he isn't really bad or stupid or uneducated. He has been traumatized in his early childhood by the loss of his parents and siblings; he has survived the foster care system but not without wounds and scars and with responses to life's situations that may be predictable but are still sad and uncomfortable. He had intended to kill himself at the cabin. He never intended to have Gilly there. He makes some surprising discoveries about himself and his family that are very hurtful. But what is one more blow for this man? Yet as the weeks go by he is not sure he wants to end his life now. It becomes apparent that Todd is beginning to care deeply for Gilly, and even when she rejects his tepid romantic advances, he works through his anger and hurt without hurting her. He is not a really bad man. But where does this all leave them?

This is a wonderful novel and once again displays Ms Hart's skill as an author and her expertise in crafting a story many writers would never attempt. This is not beauty and life, it is not love, hearts and flowers. It is sad and hurtful and raw and gutsy. But there are moments of gentleness and caring, demonstrations that Gilly's orientation in her traditions and her depth as a mother and caring person bring some peace and understanding to this troubled man. It is not an easy book to read, but I have to admit I couldn't put it down--read it all, word for word, in one sitting. I felt like I was falling down an emotional well and when I reached the end, I was surprised while not being surprised. It's almost like waiting for the other shoe to drop and when it does, it is still a surprise. There is a sense of the inevitable but the reader has no clue how it will all end.

So if you are a Megan Hart fan, you will like this book. It is not one of her erotic novels--no sex except for Gilly's memories of her times with her husband--but this is an incredibly in-depth novel and a very good read. I give this book a rating of 4.75 out of 5.