Book Title : Ashton’s Secret
Author : Liana Laverentz
Publisher : The Wild Rose Press
Genre : Suspense/Romance
Publication Date : 2008
ISBN : 1-60154-482-0
Pages : 270
Series : N/A
Category : Contemporary
Type : Sophisticated, sensual

Reviewer : Melissa

5 Wings

Nicholas Hawkinson returns to his home town of Ashton, N.Y. He was the town bad boy and, accused of a murder he didn’t commit, Nicholas left town for over five years. Now he is back to fix his family home, and find the true killer. He has the background now to do so. Meghan Edwards is also in town for the same reason; the murdered woman was her sister. Her cover in town was doing a photo shoot for a magazine. She is trying to get people to talk to her about what happened five years ago, but nobody is talking about it, except two men, and one isn’t Nicholas. She is determined to clear her sister’s name from the suicide label stamped on her, but it seems neither her society family nor the quiet town of Ashton wants it. Will her investigation take her too far into the world her sister was part of? Will Nicholas be able to save her? And win her heart?

These two characters struck sparks from their first meeting. Both were trying to convince themselves that the secrets they were keeping were for the good of the investigation and for the other person. The high school rivalry between three of the characters adds an edge of urgency to closing this case. The slow opening of the hero and heroine to each other is delightful and captivating. Each conversation between them adds another layer to their personalities, making them real, living, breathing people with enough emotion to jump off the page at you. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Laverentz’s romantic suspense, Ashton’s Secret. I couldn’t put down this story, lost sleep to finish it and find out how they were going to get the bad guy and if the hero and heroine were going to get their happily ever after. Definitely 5 wings, and I will be reading more of her.

Book Title : Baby Baby
Author : Karen Wiesner
Publisher : Samhain Publishing
Genre : Contemporary Inspirational
Publication Date : June 2008
ISBN : 1-60504-050-9
Pages : 235
Series : Family Heirloom
Category : Inspirational
Type : E-book

Reviewer : skb

5 Wings

Book one of the Family Heirloom Series – Accepting God’s Will
Proverbs 31 talks about “submission.” Does that mean a wife must give up having anything of her own? This is what thirty-seven-year-old Tamara Wolfe struggles with. Tamara and Robert, childhood sweethearts, married right out of high school. Their children have always filled her life. Now with the youngest in preschool, Tamara wants to make a business out of her long-time love of creating designer gift baskets. Robert’s adamant disapproval comes as a shock and a surprise to Tamara.

It’s a matter of pride with Robert that his wife can stay home to raise the children, just as it was with his father before him. How many times growing up did he hear his father say that a man who doesn’t provide for his family is the worst kind of loser? Plus, Tamara won’t be home to take care of the family. Worse, maybe she won’t need him anymore. Robert’s answer is that another baby will cure his wife’s restlessness.

Tamara prays for wisdom. A small space of time for herself is all she wants. Is that selfish? Or is God leading her to continue being an outdated model of the Proverbs 31 wife—submissive, but never equal?

Baby Baby by Karen Wiesner is a heart-warming inspirational that addresses the problem of adhering to biblical teaching in a modern world. Ms. Wiesner takes the reader expertly through Tamara Wolfe’s desire to accept God’s will, her desire to create a home-based business out of something she loves doing, and her desire to have a loving relationship with her husband, the love of her life. I could feel Tamara’s struggle and how unhappy Robert’s attitude made her. She becomes fearful that he will be like his father, a man who wanted to control every aspect of his wife’s life—including when she would have children.

Although, the story moved a little slowly for me personally, Baby Baby shows the reader how God can change our attitudes, our lives, and our circumstances. All Tamara and Robert had to do was accept God’s will and wait for His timing.

Thank you, Ms. Wiesner, for writing a charming book with insights that can help all of us in our daily struggles.

Book Title : The Haunting of Amelia Pritchart
Author : Sandra Sookoo
Publisher : The Wild Rose Press
Genre : Paranormal
Publication Date : 2009
Pages : 62
Category : Sweet
Type : E-book
Rating : 5

Reviewer : Samantha Daniels

5 Wings

Amelia Pritchard has enough to deal with. Writer’s block is threatening to end her relationship with her literary agent; her husband, from a whirlwind marriage, wants to escalate their relationship, and now, a one-hundred-and-nine-year-old ghost is begging for her to arrange a meeting with an old flame.

Amelia stares at computer keys in the hope that words will magically fill the screen. Instead of the last chapters of her unfinished novel materializing, a ghost from 1918 shows up at the footboard of her bed. Needing any excuse for a distraction, Amelia encourages the ghost to communicate. A former resident of Amelia’s home, Elizabeth shares her story and asks for help to allow her soul to rest.

Although The Haunting of Amelia Pritchart is a short story, Ms Sookoo does a wonderful job of building and holding the suspense. Similar to a Karen Moning novel, The Haunting of Amelia Pritchart has all the elements of a full length paranormal.

Filled with heart warming characters and a storyline that leads you into a world that is comfortable yet exciting, this story does not disappoint. One moment I was intrigued with the events that led to Elizabeth’s ethereal state and the next, I was on the edge of my seat, flipping pages faster than a shady accountant during an IRS audit.

The Haunting of Amelia Pritchart is what a ghost story should be, intriguing, exciting, and leaving me anxious for more.

Book Title : Winner Takes All
Author : Sandra Sookoo
Publisher : Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc
Genre : Historical
Publication Date : May 2009
ISBN : 1-0-936000-16-4
Pages : 94
Series : n/a
Category : Romance
Type : Sweet

Reviewer : Melissa

4 Wings

Lily is a scholar in a time when women were not encouraged to pursue learning. Nineteen oh-four was a time of social change, and Lily wanted to be a part of that change, but she was a woman, a 37 year old woman, and her conservative parents thought that she should have more social skills and less studying. They had about decided that she would never marry, not being able to attend a party or gathering without causing a loud argument as she firmly stated her views on society. Christopher was an ex-military officer who had followed the family tradition since the Revolutionary war, and now ran his family’s factory and tried for his father’s approval. At a Sunday Brunch their paths crossed, and a wager was made. They would find the other a mate before Easter or a price would be paid.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ms. Sookoo. It was the first of hers I have read, and I was delighted by the way she came head on to some of the social reforms of the time, and the feelings of the woman that would be many, many years before the child labour laws were changed, workers environments were improved, or they saw the vote. Even the fact that friendship between men of colour and white men is still frowned upon. People still fit very carefully into the form that had existed for generations before, in which a woman’s mail goal in life was to master the art of flirtation and learn to run a house successfully, so she could catch a man and improve her status in society. I connected very quickly with the main characters. I started out not really liking Lily’s mother, but when push came to shove Mrs. Henderson showed her love for her oldest daughter and that she really only wanted her happy and cared for, and held Lily when she needed it. I give Winner Takes All a firm 4 wings for the joy it is to read.

Book Title : Children of the Mist
Author : Hywela Lyn
Publisher : The Wild Rose Press
Genre : Science-fiction/fantasy romance
Publication Date : February 2009
ISBN : 1-60154-557-6
Pages : 247
Series : Starquest sequel
Category : Sweet
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Lindsay Townsend

5 Wings

Children of the Mist opens with vivid, heart-stopping immediacy and excitement, as Vidarh makes his way to the earth colony of Gladsheim on the planet Niflheim. He is guided telepathically by the Galdsheim woman Tamarith, a woman he looks forward to meeting in person.

Vidarh has a true hero journey, on horseback through an icy landscape of startling beauty, then on foot through caves and a labyrinth; a journey that casts him literally at the heroine’s feet.
Tamarith, dark haired (what hair!) and petite, is an engaging heroine, thoughtful and kind. Vidarh is an appealing hero (I like the way he is a red-head, too, with dark auburn curls). He starts off a little unsure of himself and his role, but reveals his original talents as the story progresses and emerges as a kind, charismatic hero.

In Children of the Mist there is also Jess and Dahll, the heroine and hero whose stories we first see unfolding in Starquest. Their stories are now continued in Children of the Mist and their star ship and more technical environment makes an excellent contrast to the farming community of Gladsheim and Niflheim.

With planets and cultures based on an intriguing blend of mythologies, history, technology and Hywela Lyn‘s vivid imagination, Children of the Mist is a journey into true other worlds. The stakes are high: most of the population of Niflheim are dying of a strange disease. Worse, a mysterious force field has been set around the planet, preventing Jess and Dahll from leaving to seek help with the disease. They return to Niflheim to discover that Tamarith has been kidnapped by an unknown enemy.

Vidarh meanwhile knows he should return to his own settlement and family but he cannot stand the thought of Tamarith being taken. Although torn by the choice, he joins in the search for Tamarith’s kidnappers – most likely the ruthless slavers, the Salmarans.

Packed with excitement, adventure and cliff-hangers, Children of the Mist also has moments of profound tenderness and beauty, with stunning description of snow, ice-cats, glaciers and mountains. Telepathy features strongly through the novel and I was touched by the way Vidarh and Tamarith fell in love with, and also rescued each other, via telepathy.

Book Title : Mudflat Toy Boy
Author : Phoebe Matthews
Publisher : Siren-Bookstrand
Genre : Urban Paranormal
Publication Date : February 2009
ISBN : 1-9-60601-208-8
Pages : 282
Series : Mudflat, Book 3
Category : Sweet
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Melissa

5 Wings

A small neighbourhood in Seattle, Washington, Mudflat is a place of old magic and its residents have lived there for generations. Outsiders are not liked. Clair Carmody had brought in two a couple years ago from her unexpected trip to a different time and place. The older cousin Tarvik, younger than Clair, was a warrior and Clair’s love, and his younger cousin, Nance, was trying to find a life and grow up in a different culture than she was born in. Now another person (or being) from their home has come looking for the missing Prince warrior and new power. Clair must learn more about her horoscope talent and whatever else comes with it from the oldest living mage in the neighbourhood; she also must avoid the Decko Brothers and their schemes to use her talents for illegal purposes. The death of two of the most powerful mages in the Mudflat drew her closer to two of her friends who were not zombie-like in their actions and responses to others in the neighbourhood. Could Mudflat beat this new enemy? Could they survive this new hypnotizing enemy who was trying to steal the riches from the not so rich Mudflat? Lots of twists and turns and a lovely love story of two different people still trying to make their way to each other through it all.

This third book in the Mudflat series by Phoebe Matthews, Mudflat Toy Boy, delights and keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can to find out what happened next. The interaction between the members of this small Seattle neighbour makes anyone from a small town, or a small neighbourhood, laugh at the situations they find themselves in. The emotions and caring for each other, everybody pitching in to visit and watch over the two woman most affected by the evil in that had come to Seattle’s Mudflat is real and touching. The hero and heroine kept worked together, and eventually Clair told Tarvik everything that had happened to her and exactly who they were dealing with. Her fear of losing him jumped off the pages as she explained herself to you the reader, her love for him, her fear of losing him, her fear of commitment because things might go wrong. What I loved that about this book is that Clair states she would survive a broken heart, but she would not survive a broken marriage. This reviewer got that statement when she thought it as Tarvik keeps bugging her to get an engagement ring and promise to marry him. She is so afraid of waking up one morning and finding him gone for whatever reason. She finally agrees on getting his ring resized for her finger, no other ring could ever mean more to her that the one he had given her in his land. I totally enjoyed this book, even with it being in the first person, which for the most part I am not fond of. I give Ms Matthews a full 5 wings for keeping my attention and making the book so delightful. Well crafted, Ms Matthews. This reviewer will have to go collect the first two books of this series now.

Book Title : The Gamble
Author : Lyncee Shillard
Publisher : Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc
Genre : Western
Publication Date : June 1, 2009
ISBN : 1-936000-14-8
Pages : 100
Series : n/a
Category : Sweet/Sensual Type : e-book

Reviewer : Melissa

4.5 Wings

The Stonewell’s and the Dempskey’s; for years a bitter war had waged between them for the Rough Ride Ranch belonging to the Stonewell’s. For going on three generations, the Dempskey’s had tried to take possession of the land that Rough Ride sat on. Now JT Dempskey’s dead and his will states that the Dempskey who got the title to the Rough Ride would also get the title to Diamond Heart, their horse ranch. Ryder Raven Dempskey, the oldest son, was getting ready to walk away and take up his life in New York, but he goes out to the small tavern in town, and meets the granddaughter of Duck Stonewell, Callie, Rough Ride’s owner. He decides that he can’t let his evil brother hurt her or have her, so he sets about a blackmail scheme that ensnares Callie in an engagement to her family’s worse enemy. But is Ryder as bad as his father and brother? Can he convince Callie that he cares about her, not just wants her family’s ranch? Can the both avoid the killer that seems determined to see Callie dead before their wedding day?

All the odds were against Ryder Dempskey and Callie Stonewell before they even were born. Then Ryder meets Callie and knows that his brother would do anything and everything in his power to marry her or otherwise weasel her ranch, the Rough Ride, away from her. He can’t let that happen because, though her family might be his family’s worse enemy, she did things to his body, heart and mind he didn’t understand. So he started out by blackmailing her into agreeing to marry him. After she says yes, she starts getting death threats, which she doesn’t tell anyone about. Then someone hurts her grandfather, she finds his best friend’s dead body two days later when she finds her best friend’s SUV turned over in the ditch. Ryder is frantic now and refuses to allow her to be alone in the house. The sheriff makes suggestions that make her doubt Ryder’s reasons for his actions. Then secrets come out that have been buried since their birth, and Ryder has to fight for his love.

The Gamble was very well crafted; I loved the fast paced story line. There were times I got lost in the time line as it seemed that events that should have taken maybe a week jumped almost a month and a half. Lyncee Shillard gave the hero and heroine time to fall in love and try to work out the differences that their family’s generation of dislike and distrust had instilled in them. I would definitely read this author again. I give this story a rating of 4 ½.

Book Title : Love Comes Blindly
Author : Phyllis Campbell
Publisher : Champagne Books
Genre : Historical Romance
Publication Date : July 2008
ISBN : 978-1-926681-20-7
Pages : 100
Series : N/A
Category : Sophisticated
Type : E-book

Reviewer : Lindsay Townsend

4 Wings

Love Comes Blindly opens in Scotland in 1854. Lord Gregory Fielding – Gregg – is an adventurer, coming to Scotland in pursuit of a story for his newspaper when he and his men are attacked by unknown assailants armed with a cannon.
Madeline O’Neil is staying at the nearby Abbey of St Mary’s, trying to rebuild her life after a series of unfortunate choices in love. When the injured Gregg and his men are brought to the Abbey to be cared for, Maddie recognises him as her lost love. He does not recognise her because he is blinded by the cannon.
Maddie resolves to help him but does not reveal herself: she is concerned he hates her because she wronged him so badly, three years earlier.
The reader discovers that the ‘wrong’ Maddie did was to succumb to a mutual physical attraction she and Gregg shared. He was her first lover. To his credit, Gregg did offer her marriage but the young Maddie, not yet understanding her own heart, refused him and worse, claimed that her brother-in-law (whom she thought she loved) had also been her lover. Since then she and Greg have not seen each other.
Now they are together. Maddie is his carer as Gregg is blind and injured. Maddie is now older and has matured since their first encounter. Understanding herself better now, she acknowledges to herself that she does love Gregg. Yet, given their past, can he forgive her?
To spare them both pain and hoping that he might learn to like her and perhaps forgive her, Maddie claims she is a nun, Sister Mary. As Sister Mary she tends Gregg and inspires him to resume his life.
As Gregg slowly recovers his sight he wishes to coax Mary, whom he admires, into loving him. The physical attraction between them is as it has always been, passionate and compelling. But what will his reaction be when he realises – as he surely must – that Sister Mary is also Maddie O’Neil?

Love Comes Blindly is a touching, sexy story – P Campbell writes passion very eloquently indeed – and Gregg and Maddie’s final honesty with each other is very moving. There are one or two coincidences I found less than convincing but I am happy to give it 4 Wings.

Book Title : Perfect Strangers
Author : Jane Richardson
Publisher : The Wild Rose Press
Genre : Contemporary Romance
Publication Date : TBA
ISBN : TBA
Pages : 29
Series : n/a
Category : Sensual
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Lindsay Townsend

5 Wings

Opening in a rain-drenched Venice just after Christmas, Perfect Strangers by Jane Richardson shows us Anna, a British art historian, bruised but not broken by life, and a mysterious, unnamed handsome American. They are in Venice, as he says “two perfect strangers in a perfect city” and they choose to spend their time together – one perfect day.

Anna is escaping from a failed relationship and so is he. They choose to keep things simple, not clutter up their time with details. They do, however, share their troubles, drawn as they are to each other, and they take comfort in each others’ company as they ride in a gondola, dine together, shelter from the rain together, succumb to their love together….

It is an utterly convincing and intense instant attraction and love, and a real relationship, compressed and heightened by the short time they have together, the city of Venice and even the weather, which mirrors their own emotions. Soon they must part – but will they ever see each other again? If one perfect day all they will have?

Perfect Strangers by Jane Richardson is a very beautiful and intense short story. I read it and was transported to Venice: its sights, sounds smells, as seen through the eyes of two lovers. Perfect.

Book Title : Beast Warrior: Viking Werewolf
Author : Eva Gordon
Publisher : Vanilla Heart Publishing
Genre : Paranormal Historical Romance
Publication Date :
ISBN : 978 – 1 – 935407
Pages : 289
Series : n/a
Category : Sophisticated
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Lindsay Townsend

5 Wings

Vivid and immediate, Beast Warrior: Viking Werewolf by Eva Gordon opens in Frankland in AD825 in a dark wood. Chanteloup is the Alpha of his Lycan werewolf pack, concerned for his pregnant mate Elinor, one of the wolf-maidens. The pack can shift from wolf to human at full moon. As Alpha, Chanteloup can do so any time, as can Elinor. He returns to his home to find Elinor in labor with their child. Elinor has a daughter Emelisse, who is destined for greatness and also Lycan, although her mother dislikes this. (Frowned on by the medieval church, Lycans must be secret in their beliefs and shiftings.)

The action moves to Scandia, where nineteen-year-old Sigurd is hoping to fight the Bear Men, mad shape-shifting Berserkers who butchered his family. A Lycan werewolf, Sigurd the Red is a rare red-pelted wolf and a mighty red-headed man. Intent on revenge against the Bear Men and waiting his chance, he goes Viking with humans.

We now see an adult Emelisse, who is about to be betrothed to Radulf, a cruel man and Lycan whom she does not want. She publicly rejects Radulf, but the two packs want the betrothal. Emelisse, who also fears she is pregnant by Galien, a human, feels she has no choice but to leave her father and flee.

Radulf pursues them and kills Galien. That act and her father’s refusal to free her from the betrothal makes Emelisse determined to leave the werewolf world.

Her father agrees to help her protect her unborn child and leave the kingdom for a year. She goes to Lapurdum Abbey. Sadly, she loses the child and soon after the abby is attacked by Bear Men.

Captured, she is rescued by Sigurd, who claims her as his true mate. In their escape from the Bear men Sigurd is injured and she rescues him. That is only the start of their adventures and their deep love for each other.

Full of excitement and full-blooded action, Beast Warrior: Viking Werewolf is a compelling, epic read that is also richly sensual. I believe lovers of historical romance and paranormal romance will both really enjoy this novel. I particularly found the Lycans and their alternative history, gods, magic and beliefs utterly fascinating. I know that ‘Beast Warrior: Viking Werewolf’ will stay with me for a long time.