A TERRIFIC CATEGORY ROMANCE FROM GAIL BARRETT

FATAL EXPOSURE
Buried Secrets
Gail Barrett
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
ISBN:  978-0-373-27827-5
June 2013
Category Romance

This first book in a new trilogy about three runaway girls who witnessed a murder starts this series out with a BANG!  These girls have gone on to new identities and successful adult lives in obscurity.  In this novel, B.K. Elliot is a successful but reclusive photographer.  When her pictures is published, she comes to the attention of her powerful and abusive stepfather, whom she fled years before.  Sexy police detective Parker McCall figures that she might have some answers to his brother's death, which she apparently witnessed.

Parker begins a relationship with her fraught with secrets and misplaced loyalties.  This novel is incredibly action packed and filled with a developing hot romance between these two characters.  This author captures the feelings of childhood victims of abuse and her depictions of life on the streets are hauntingly realistic.  Her writing reflects an attention to plot that makes for a well done novel.  I can't wait to read the next two installments of this series that promises to be excellent.

Reviewed by:  Jeri Neal
Rating:  4

From the pen of Author Lecia Cornwall

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Romance Readers Connection 05/30/13

A Writer’s Notebook

There they are, nine of them, my precious notebooks, on the shelf beside my desk, lined up like soldiers after a hard battle, tattered and worn and falling apart at the seams. There are pages missing, and scraps of paper, ticket stubs and Post-it notes tucked between the dog-eared pages that remain.

I use Moleskine notebooks, the eight-inch-by-five-inch ones. When I get a new cover flat from my publisher, I use two-sided tape to affix the front and back covers to a new, color-coordinated notebook. I’m currently filling up a red one with the covers for The Price of Temptation on it. It will soon join the ranks of the others on my shelf, filled up, duty done.

So what’s in this mysterious little book? Let me share my secret life with you.

It starts with notes for blog posts for All The Pleasures of The Season (2012), as well as to-do lists from volunteer committee meetings I attended at my daughter’s high school.

There are several pages of dialogue for How To Deceive A Duke with arrows and crossings-out and reminders about the story behind the story, the real reason why the conversation is taking place at all. It includes details about the characters’ unspoken emotions and hidden agendas. Notations like “M must prove self to N, not father.” “Add sensory” reminds me to add the non-verbal dialogue, the story that plays out under the spoken lines and illuminates everything they aren’t saying.

There are notes for The Secret Life of Lady Julia going back to the very germ of the idea. “What would a ruined woman have to do to make a new life?” The jotted list of options following is short—courtesan, governess, companion, demi-monde. From there, the idea started to coalesce into the full story.

There are story ideas that come to me and need to be written down at once before they drift back into the ether. In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he describes how the universe offers us stories to unearth and bring to life, like archeologists. We don’t just think them up by ourselves, and they don’t belong strictly to us. If we fail to take the universe’s offering, it sinks back into obscurity for another author to bring to light. So, stories conceived on subway trains, or that wake me up in the middle of the night, are dutifully recorded. Not all of them are great ideas—some are downright terrible—but they represent possibilities, a place to start, a color swatch to build a room around. In this red notebook, there are lots of useful ideas, too. I used part of a World War II plot for some the details for Thomas Merritt’s story in The Secret Life of Lady Julia.

There’s a recipe for a Back berry martini jotted on one page, the first drink my daughter ordered in public after she turned eighteen (our legal drinking age here). Vodka, Chambord, Crème de Cassis, muddled blackberries, and fresh lemon juice. We experimented with proportions later at home. They are truly delicious.

Another page has a bright green Post-it note with scrawled ideas for Christmas gifts, mostly books. It’s clear that I give way too many books for Christmas! This particular note is stuck crookedly over more plans for the Secret Life of Lady Julia, labeled with the book’s old working title “Thief of Hearts”, including the title of one of the research books I used (and loved), Vienna 1814, by David King.

Doodles—there are dozens in the margins of every page—Faces, swirls, squiggles. On one page is a sketch of a Halloween witch we later turned into a life size Paper Mache Halloween decoration (there are pictures of her in my Facebook photo albums). She stands in the basement in the off-season, and there are times I come round the corner and scare myself silly, thinking someone’s standing there.

I have four pages of point form notes outlining the first fourteen chapters of The Secret Life of Lady Julia, showing who’s point of view each chapter is in, and offering brief but insightful notations and ideas. There are further pages dividing up the subplots, too. The Intrigue plot is here, with details about how it will slowly unfurl through the story like a red flag in front of a bull. And Dorothea’s sad, laudanum soaked existence is described. There’s also a list of floral perfumes, since Thomas Merritt has strong opinions about the fragrances ladies wear. Julia, like all my heroines, wears violet perfume. My mother wore the violet-based Je Reviens by Worth. I still keep a bottle of it, and it reminds me of dress up days and special occasions when my mother wore her black Jackie Kennedy coat and elbow-length black kid gloves. Alas, Je Reviens doesn’t smell the same on my skin. I wear Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir—I wonder what Thomas would say about that?

There’s a list of trees guaranteed to grow in our tough Alberta climate—Makamik Crab Apple, Russian Olive, Norway Maple—made when the fledgling apple tree in our backyard died and had to be replaced. We chose a Golden Willow, and it wasn’t a good decision. The tree is dead as a stick, but each spring it valiantly puts out new shoots from the roots, like a hand from the grave reaching for salvation. I can’t bear to cut it down when it’s trying so hard.

Here’s another scrawled outline for The Secret Life of Lady Julia, a scene where I was trying to decide what Julia was might use as a weapon against an attacker in the dark. “She tiptoed across the floor and grabbed the only weapon close to hand…” and then follows the potential list—book, candlestick, chamber pot, hairbrush, and bed warmer. You’ll have to read the book to find out which one I ultimately chose to be our intrepid heroine’s weapon of choice, and who is the recipient of her forceful blow. There’s a hint in the book trailer, too, which you can access from my website.

There are pages of ideas and story questions for three other books, including the next one in this series, Stephen’s chance to find love at last, and currently titled “What A Lady Most Desires”.

I also have a list of the real historical figures included in The Secret Life of Lady Julia. I usually don’t use real people, just work the story around them, but this time, characters like the wily French ambassador Talleyrand, the charming Prince De Ligne, and the utterly delightful Madame Anna Protasoff were too wonderful to resist using.

On the last page of each of my notebooks, I list songs I want on my iPod. I’m learning fast, but I still haven’t had ‘the lesson’ from my kids on how to do this myself. I still turn over the list and the iPod over once a year, and the update is one of my favorite Christmas gifts. In past years it included recordings from their excellent high school bands. I am almost ashamed to say I have a few songs from my distant past this year—from the Best of Bread, no less. Even I’m cringing. There are a couple of Partridge Family songs, too, since my daughter has just discovered the old TV show in re-run. It’s a daily date—she and I sit down at four-thirty to watch the Partridge Family (really!). Remember how cute David Cassidy was? And they had some amazing guest stars on some of the episodes, before (or long after) they were famous—Mark Hamill, pre-Star Wars, Richard Pryor, Harry Morgan, and Ray Bolger to name a few.

Written inside the back cover is the best note of all—the date and time of the flight that will bring my son back in a few weeks from his latest adventure, a study abroad trip to Kosovo and St. Petersburg, Russia. I can’t wait!

And now, there’s a brand new notebook waiting for me, one decorated with the gorgeous cover of The Secret Life of Lady Julia … and doesn’t a brand new notebook offer so many wonderful possibilities?

Special offer: Two lucky winners will receive their very own Secret Life of Lady Julia Moleskine notebook, blank but discreetly signed, handmade by the author, for your own amazing ideas.

Lecia Cornwall

Paranormal Pic for April

FALLING BLIND

The Sentinel Wars-Book 9

Shannon K. Butcher

Signet Novel

ISBN: 978-0-451-23972-3

April 2013

Paranormal

Cain is a man at the end of his rope. He knows that if he doesn't find a mate soon, he will die. But mates for his kind are hard to find, and finding one who is compatible with his power is even harder. When he meets the pink haired Rory, he would have never guessed she could be the one, but fate can be a finicky thing and his mate just happens to be a hard headed lady with a quest of her own. Rory is looking for the person who can cure her visions and she thinks that Cain can help her find them, so she vows to stay with him only long enough to find that person. She is drawn to Cain, but she isn't looking for a commitment, even though his power speaks to her and she longs to have a family of her own. Rory has lost everyone she has ever loved and she knows she can't afford to lose another, so she rather just walk away at the end of things. Cain is determined to get the woman that has come to mean more to him than life and he will use any method to get her, even his body if that is what it takes. Meanwhile there is a demon that is seeking Rory and if Cain isn't careful he may take the one person that Cain has ever loved.

FALLING BLIND is the first book in this series that I have read and I was able to pick up the series rather easily. Of course I think the reader would find more enjoyment if they started at the beginning of the series, as Butcher has created an intricate series and the characters overlap throughout the stories. Either way, you are sure to enjoy the Sentinel Wars.

Reviewed by Lori Sears

Rating: 4

A new book by Jane Graves

COWBOY TAKE ME AWAY

A Rainbow Valley Novel 

Jane Graves 

Grand Central Publishing 

ISBN:  978-1-455-51519-6 

April 2013 

Contemporary Romance 

Rainbow Valley has been a refuge for animals and Shannon North is the director 
of the local animal shelter.  Her budget is, at best, slim, and she is worried 
that money will run out.  Luke Dawson is the opposite of the altruistic and 
privileged Shannon.  Friends during their adolescence and briefly more 
intimately involved, Luke comes from an abusive, alcoholic, single parent family 
where his father was the town drunk.  Mean to a fault, his father managed to 
drive Luke away.  Now a very successful rodeo rider, Luke has come back for his 
father’s funeral.  He plans to immediately leave town.

But fate has a way of intervening and Luke ends up injured and needing a place 
to bunk.  Shannon has free room in exchange for a caretaker position at the 
animal shelter.  Luke reluctantly agrees to take this job and the sparks and the 
romance begun to fly between these two. 

This is a delightful book, filled with romance, well-developed characters and 
the classic bad boy, good girl couple.  I loved the animals in this book and the 
interactions brought me to tears.  Manny the miniature pony is a special 
character.  Readers will love the hard core Luke with a heart of gold.  Not to 
be missed! 

Reviewed by:  Jeri Neal 

Rating:  4 1/2

THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR, Part 1
Vivi Anna Self Published - eBook
ASIN # B00C52CDBK
April 2013
Paranormal Romance

Makayla Bradley works for Hot Gossip, a Calgary entertainment magazine. The Toronto International Film Festival is her first major assignment and when she spots an amazingly handsome man across a crowded room, she can't help herself, she tries to get his attention and instead humiliates herself in front of him.

Twice now Makayla has felt slighted by Jonathan Devane, a man that while successful and ruthless, likes to keep his life private. Makayla means business this time, she will not let any man take advantage of her again, so she is determined to get the dirt on Jonathan, making sure the public knows just what kind of man he really is.

THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR, Part 1 is a paranormal romance novella. I found Jonathan and Makayla to be great characters but are they perfect for each other? That remains to be seen. Secondary characters are hilarious, I found myself laughing, and cheering the characters on. I don't know what was sexier, the super hot scenes between Jonathan and Makayla, or the quick flashes of fangs. Ms. Anna has a winner on her hands. I can't wait for part 2.

Reviewed by Gloria Gehres
Rated: 4 1/2