Musings on Romance
I’m reviewing The Search by Nora Roberts, narrated by Tanya Eby. Tanya is one of my favourite narrators and this book marked my first listening experience with her. Also, I’m a sucker for dogs, so Fiona’s canine training school and the canine search and rescue stuff were a big plus for me. And then, there’s Simon… 😀
Today I’m reviewing Night Broken by Patricia Briggs. (And didn’t I feel lucky when I got to review it too). I love this series and I loved this book. Click on the link to see why.
Why I read it: The author contacted me requesting a review and sent me a NetGalley link.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Setting up the money shot…
Quiet, sensible Ellie Smithson is a highly respectable photographer by day – but there are only so many wedding photo-shoots you can take without your mind wandering to what happens when the blissfully happy bride is swept off her feet and straight to the honeymoon suite’s sumptuous four-poster bed…
So after dark, Ellie takes pictures of a more…intimate nature – a dirty little secret she’s kept from her accountant Tom. Until now. It seems Tom is the subject of her next racy shoot!
It isn’t just the blurring of work and personal boundaries that’s the problem; secretly Ellie has always had fantasies of a most unprofessional nature about the almost illegally gorgeous Tom. With such temptation on display, how will she ever stay behind the camera?!
The first book in the Indecent… trilogy
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I probably accept less than 10% of direct review requests. I have limited time and a massive TBR so the email has to get my attention and blurb has to hook me. This one did. I finished a book last night and was flailing about for something to read. Sometimes, when I can’t decide what I should read next (because having so many books can feel paralysing as Liz eloquently says here), I choose a novella. It’s not a big commitment and it works as a kind of palate cleanser for me. So, I opened Indecent Exposure.
I suppose the first couple of paragraphs were just a little on the clunky side but after that, I was completely reeled in (to complete the fishing metaphor). The story is told in the first person present tense POV of Ellie Smithson, photographer by day, erotic photographer by night (well, sometimes that’s during the day too). She kind of fell into it to pay the bills and she’s found it’s not only lucrative, she’s very good at it. Basically, people come and have sex (alone, with someone else, etc) in front of her and she takes classy photographs of them. It turns her on unbearably but she feels safe behind the camera.
Why I read it: I’ve had this one on my TBL for a little while and decided to sneak it in between review books.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea, still under the influence of her father Leck, a violent psychopath who altered minds. Her advisers want to pardon evildoers and forget everything, but she sees the past holds fast. Two thieves, who only steal what has been stolen, hold the truth and change her life. One, his Grace skill unidentified, has a key to her heart.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): Oh, so many things to say!
I’ll start with the narration because I’m far less conflicted about that. It was superb. Emma Powell doesn’t have/use a super deep voice for her male characters, but she manages to imbue each with enough difference and enough about what makes them that particular character (which is in part due to the writing which provides those details) that almost all are easily differentiated. I found it hard to identify Rood from Runimood (apologies if I have the spelling wrong – I only listened and haven’t seen these names in print). Perhaps Prince Sky was hard to differentiate from Po – but Sky was in the story for such a short time, it wasn’t a problem. Saf has a Lienid accent (which Powell does as Welsh) and is similar to Po but so different a character, it was easy to tell them apart. Katsa has a more brash tone than Bitterblue and the elderly characters have a convincing wobble to their voices. I noticed subtleties when listening that enhanced the experience beyond what it could have been just reading. Tones that were perfect but which I wouldn’t have thought to give certain words or phrases. The subtext was also clearly delivered by the emotions in the narration.
Ahoy! Thar be spoilers! Read on at own risk.
Today, over at A Little Bit Tart A Little Bit Sweet (Limecello’s blog), *debut* author Olive Endwell has an exclusive excerpt of her “completely original and refreshingly different” *coughspoofcough* paranormal romance Mugged After Midnight.
I have it on good authority that Olive Endwell is a pseudonym. But just who could this author be? *shifty eyes*
with a recommended read: Carolina Man by Virginia Kantra. My favourite book of the Dare Island series so far.
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