OpenLibrary Review - Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts

Carolina Moon
By Nora Roberts


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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts—an utterly spellbinding tale about a woman who, though battered in both body and spirit, can never lose Hope…Tory Bodeen grew up in South Carolina, in a small run-down house, where her father ruled with an iron fist and a leather belt—and where her dreams and talents had no room to flourish. But she had Hope, who lived in the big house just a short skip away and whose friendship allowed Tory to be something she wasn’t allowed to be at home: a child. 
After young Hope’s brutal murder, unsolved to this day, Tory’s life began to fall apart. And now, as she returns to her hometown, with plans to settle in and open a stylish home-design shop, she is determined to find a measure of peace and free herself from the haunting visions of the past. As she forges a new bond with Cade Lavelle—Hope’s older brother and the heir to the family fortune—she isn’t sure whether the tragic loss they share will unite them or drive them apart. But she is willing to open her heart, just a little, and try. 
Living so close to those unhappy memories will be more difficult and frightening than Tory could ever have expected, however. Because Hope’s murderer is nearby as well… 

I love OpenLibrary, and as far as I am concerned it is one of the best and most novel approaches to book lending we've seen. Small disclaimer though, always checkout the PDF version (unless you are fortunate enough to have access to one of the partner libraries in which case I don't know exactly what is available), because OCR text recognition isn't great with scanned older books. But they do have a wealth of books available.

Today's feature is Carolina Moon. I'd consider this one to be one of Roberts' quasi paranormals, i.e. the whole world is contemporary as are all the characters except the heroine who has a bit of a twist.

Victoria Bodeen is one of those heroines where you just can't quite understand why or how she keeps geting up from the hits life has dealt her. Cade Lavelle is one of those poor little rich boy heroes. He's overbearing, and arrogant, and proprietary when he doesn't really have that right. So I'm not sure quite why I like him, I can just tell you that I do. And I found their romance and their relationship very satisfying. There's also a secondary romance that I found very enjoyable as well. You put those romances together with friendships and familial bonds woven into a very tricky mystery, and you have yourself a highly satisfying read. And considering the bargain price of free, it is more than worth the read.

As has often been said about Nora Roberts' books, they tend to be a bit formulaic. This one however is a bit more involved and trickier than usual. 4 stars

Eclipse Bay Trilogy - OpenLibrary

Having read Jayne Ann Krentz's Trust No One, as I said, it reminded me of previous books, which of course inspired me to re-read some of my favorites. The Eclipse Bay Trilogy is set on the west coast and involves basically two families. There is a small amount of non-action packed romantic suspense, and all three tie in to events happening in the small town of Eclipse Bay. This is not one of JAK's paranormal trilogies, but as JAK is about the queen of Easter eggs in romance novels, there are a few later tie-ins to both her contemporary and her futuristic paranormal series. You don't need to have read everything to enjoy these books, or vice versa, but it is fun to find them. They were published 2000-2002, but to me they hold up well despite the time that has elapsed.

And all three are available to borrow for free through OpenLibrary. As always, remember to borrow the PDF and not the epub.

Eclipse Bay

Eclipse Bay has grown and flourished on the rugged Oregon coast, where the shore can be rocky and forbidding, full of sharp cliffs and hidden coves. Eclipse Bay by Jayne Ann Krentz, this small town is also filled with secrets as treacherous as the landscape and rivalries as fierce as an ocean storm.

Their grandfathers hated each other.

Their fathers hated each other.

And as the next generation of the Hartes and Madisons, Hannah and Rafe are expected to hate each other too. But Hannah Harte, a successful wedding consultant with a skeptical view of marriage, remembers the long-ago night on the beach that revealed Rafe as much more than just "that disreputable Madison boy." And Rafe remembers the heroic gesture that proved Hannah's fierce spirit was stronger than any feud and saved him from near-certain imprisonment.

Now reunited by a surprising inheritance after years of living their separate lives Rafe and Hannah return to Eclipse Bay, and the hostilities that still divide, and bind, their families. And they are discovering something that is at once delightful and deeply disturbing?

They don't hate each other. Not at all.
Dawn in Eclipse Bay

Nothing was ever simple between a Madison and a Harte. The feud that had divided their families still simmered. Now, only months after their siblings’ wedding, Lilian Harte and Gabe Madison are at each other’s throats.

Successful CEO Gabe had insisted on becoming a client of Lilian’s matchmaking service. And after five disastrous dates, Lilian is at her wit’s end. If she hadn’t already decided to close her business and move home to Eclipse Bay, Gabe would have been the final straw. But when she finds Gabe at her door demanding she fulfill their business contract, the sparks between them suddenly turn personal. Once again, Eclipse Bay will witness a showdown—between a relentless Madison and an irresistible Harte…
Summer in Eclipse Bay

Summer has arrived in Eclipse Bay and things are definitely heating up between the Hartes and the Madisons. It seems that the mysterious new gallery owner, Octavia Brightwell, is thinking about having a scandalous fling with that rogue Nick Harte before she leaves town. As far as Nick is concerned, a short-term affair sounds perfect. But it isn’t going to be easy.

One big obstacle is Mitchell Madison. For reasons of his own, Mitchell has taken it upon himself to play guardian to Octavia. He’s made it clear that if Nick fools around with her, there will be a price to pay. And then there’s Nick’s young son, Carson, who has his own agenda where Octavia is concerned. He doesn’t want his father messing up his plans.

Summer in Eclipse Bay is going to be eventful this year. Some long-buried secrets from the infamous Harte-Madison feud are about to surface. The past and the present are on a collision course. I hope you’ll join me to watch the fireworks.
The second one's hero, Gabe, is the one that Julius reminded me of. They are cute stories, perfect for curling up on a rainy weekend, which is precisely what I did. They were as good as I remembered them, not spectacular, but definitely cozy.

OpenLibrary Review- Seventh Heaven

Seventh Heaven
Catherine Anderson

Seventh Heaven is available to borrow on Openlibrary. That's right, free to anyone with an internet connection through Read in Browser, or to anyone with an internet connection and Adobe Digital if they want to have it on their shelves for a while.

This particular book caught my eye because I remember it being an incredibly sweet and romantic second chance love story, but edgy too because it was either the first, or one of the first books I ever read about a rape survivor. I remembered thinking that it was remarkably well done, and I was curious to see if this book held up to my memories of it.

What we have here is two best friends from childhood who became high school sweethearts, then are ripped apart by tragedy in college, and are meeting again 10 years later after a whole lot of rough life for both of them. Joe Lakota is a dominant former pro-football player with a small child named Zachary. Zachary is a plot moppet, but he's fairly integral to the story, and reasonably cute. Marilee is a neurotic mess, but all things considered, she has every right to be. Some of what she did and did not do doesn't make sense till more than a third of the way into the book so in reviews I saw quite a few DNF's based ont that, but, her reasoning eventually does make sense if you get through it.

So how does it stack up against my memories? Not quite as well as I had hoped. Joe did some pretty bone headed things and while he usually caught on, at least in his head, he never truly expressed that to Marilee. It is still mostly sweet and romantic, but there are ways and places that Joe pushed, that I was just not entirely comfortable with. But he never really pushed the sex angle either, so it was at least acceptable. Altogether, for a book published in 2000, I am still fairly happy with how the treatment of a rape survivor with PTSD was handled. No magic smexing magically made her all better, and Marilee's panic felt very real to me.

I am not quite sure whether or not to recommend this book. I still liked it, but I can see where some people are going to be put off with various aspects of it. basically though, if the events described in the book aren't triggering to you (and they are fairly graphic), and you like or want a bit more realism in your contemporary, then this might still be a good choice.

OpenLibrary Review- A Soldier's Heart

A Soldier's Heart
by Kathleen Korbel

Blurb from Goodreads:

Over twenty years earlier, an unnamed nurse had struggled to pull Tony Riordan away from the brink of death. And now, Tony could see the confusion in Claire Henderson's eyes, could see her struggle with the same nightmare images that had haunted him for years. Claire Henderson had saved his life, and it was time to return the favor.

This book caught my attention when I saw the Dear Author Classic Review because it's not often you see a book with a female protagonist with PTSD from war. It was originally published in 1995, so may be one of the first, if not the actual first romance novels to tackle PTSD in women. This book is available to check out from OpenLibrary. As always with OpenLibrary, use Adobe Digital Editions to download the PDF version because it is a scanned copy of a physical book.

Tony Riorden gets the boulder moving when after 20 years, he finally seeks out Claire, the nurse who saved his life during Vietnam. Of course, that boulder was already tipping from the stress of her job as a supervisory nurse, trying to open her own bed and breakfast, and the fact that she has a 17-year-old son who is wild to join the military to become a fighter pilot all happening during the UN intervention in Somalia.

When Tony sees that he's caused harm by his visit, he decides to stick around to see if he can help. So of course, they fall in love.

The romance part of this book is fairly light because most of the emphasis, and rightly so, is on how Claire is handling or in some of the cases, not handling, her life. The intimate scenes are pretty meager as well and for all of the interest they added, should have just been completely fade to blacks.

What worked for this book for me were the cast of secondary characters and the experience of PTSD that rang true based on what I know of the people in my life. What also worked for me was the way Tony tried to help without being a macho overbearing alpha male and then when Claire finally did decide she needed help he gave her the information she was seeking and then stepped back to allow her to heal on her own. Naturally, this made him a bit of a Mary Sue; you can't win for losing with me.

Solid 4 stars for the story and the mustache ;)

Review- That Camden Summer

That Camden Summer
by LaVyrle Spencer

I remember reading this first on one of those rare breaks during college where I could not stand to write another paper but felt like I had too much to do and couldn't go home. So, I found myself on the second floor of the library where the scanty fiction section was. I wasn't expecting much because this wasn't an author that had ever interested me, but I was instantly captivated and re-read this book several times over the next several years, naturally I was pleased to find a copy of this on OpenLibrary. As with most books you can check out through open library, because they are scanned your best bet is to use Read Now or download PDF using Adobe Digital Editions.

In 1916, Roberta Hewitt returned to her former hometown newly divorced from her philandering and gambling husband, with her three daughters and a job as a nurse and a tendency for independence. The residents of the town are dismissive and critical, even her own family, and her brother in law is worse. Gabriel Farley is the town's handyman and jack-of-all-trades ACS he works on her house. Initially he is as crude as her brother-in-law, but over time they develop a friendship that sets tongues wagging.

So first things first on this. There's a trigger warning. There's a moderately graphic rape scene. It isn't gratuitous and is integral to characterization and plot for several reasons, but may be distressing to some readers.

Now on to the more pleasant things. I loved how much information we got about cars of that time period, the way they were run and serviced and the way people felt about women owning and operating them. It's a big part of the story, and while I was fascinated, and in the end, it actually did turn out to be integral to the plot, I can see why some people might get bored or frustrated. However, what I loved most was the characterizations and how the people changed throughout the story, or how our perceptions of them changed. Rarely have I loved and hated characters in such equal measure throughout a story while still feeling they were believable characters and not merely caricatures. Roberta was no Mary Sue; she was a strong and determined woman who even by her own admission was overly stubborn. She wasn't always as tidy, reserved or circumspect as women of her era were expected to be, but she was joyous and true to herself. Gabriel wasn't perfect either. He was just as crass and crude towards a divorcée as one might expect from men of that era, and he wasn't a perfect father either, being more reserved than a motherless daughter might need. But it didn't take long for Gabriel to open his eyes and take another accounting of the situation. And it was so lovely watching these two very different individuals first learn to be friends then to integrate their lives, and finally for Roberta to learn to lean and Gabriel to open up his emotions and play. And while Elfred, her brother-in-law was ultimately unredeemable, it was clearly his own choice. I despised him unreservedly. Myra, Roberta's mother, on the other hand, while I certainly couldn't like her, I did learn to understand, just as Roberta did.

So, I'll rate this as 4 stars for a touching and realistic journey into love the second time around.

Review- A Man Like Mac

A Man Like Mac
by Fay Robinson

This book is frequently found on lists about disabled heroes, particularly on positively rendered disabled heroes. It was published in 2000 and is not actually released as an eBook nor is it currently in print. While there are plenty of used copies for very cheap, isn't it better to be able to get things for free? So, I found a copy of this on OpenLibrary. It's available to anyone for check out with a free OpenLibrary account. There is only one copy so if you are looking for it, you may have a bit of a wait, but still, free is free.

So first, practical considerations. This is a scanned copy of an older book, so you will definitely want to read in browser or download the PDF version. It's well scanned and clear to read, but the color if the pages and some slight text fading is likely to make OCR text recognition for the epub version rather dodgy.

As for the story itself, it's pretty good. Mac agrees to train Keely following a devastating accident despite the fact that he knows she'll never run professionally again. Keely isn't a particularly sympathetic character, so that balances out the rather heart breaking situation so this isn't an overly saccharine book. Mac isn't perfect either, he's a little too irritatingly self-sacrificing and a bit too manipulative with Keely. He also has some of the worst timing known to man. I enjoyed how prosaically their respective disabilities were treated both in general life and in their intimate lives. It's discussed very frankly and in fact, there's one extremely humorous situation where Keely does something completely crazy to make Mac feel better when something embarrassing happens. There's also no magic cure for either of them. They certainly get their happily ever after, and their own version of miracles (It is a Harlequin Superromance after all), but they're practical and plausible sorry if miracle, which is refreshing in a romance novel.

If I were strictly rating this based on writing style and characterization I'd probably rate this 3 stars, but the deft handling of the disability gives added depth to what would otherwise be a somewhat mediocre book so I'm giving it a solid 4 stars.

Open Library-borrow books for free.

Did you know that there's a free lending library online? OpenLibrary allows access to plenty of books with a free account. You may borrow up to 5 books at a time. It's kind of a random little library. You won't find a ton of the newest bestsellers, and some very popular authors are under represented (there are some but it isn't the backbone of this collection). But what you may find are little hidden treasures of books that may be out of print and may never see release as an ebook. These are scanned copies, often of older books, so even if epub is available, you will want to request the pdf version. Adobe Digital Editions is required for downloading most books, but there is often a read in browser version too.

For the visually impaired, they also offer protected Daisy files. I am unsure how those work, but they are available.

It's a free and legal alternative to pirating for the voracious reader on a budget, especially if that reader either doesn't want to deal with their public library or their library doesn't have a connection to OverDrive.

Murphy's Child

Murphy's Child
by Judith Duncan

This book kept popping up in the comments of blogs about "realism" in fiction. I was able to find it on OpenLibrary. Do yourself a favor though, if you do the Read Online thing, just don't try it on a phone.