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.

Review - Trust No One

Trust No One
by Jayne Ann Krentz

Trust No One goes back to Krentz's straight contemporary romantic suspense roots and has all the charm of her earlier heroines and heroes, without all the dated claptrap of her earlier works. Granted, it is formulaic, so you can definitely kind of pick out the mish mash from earlier works, but as I have said before, this formula works for me. It is a little bit of: Dawn in Eclipse Bay, All Night Long, Sweet Fortune, and Deep Water, in my opinion. There are probably novels that would equally apply, but those are the ones that I immediately thought of (and that this book made me immediately want to go back and re-read). Others would probably have other books pop up into their heads. Personally, I think that is part of the charm though, because it makes the reader's connections to the main characters and setting instantaneous, so that it is just so comfortable slipping right into this world.

More specifically about this story, Grace Ellend is an eternal optimist, with a spunky way about her. She's a real sweetheart but she is definitely a woman who can handle herself. When she finds her boss murdered, this sets up a chain of events that leads her home. And of course, when you head home, people want to match make. Here she is trying to deal with current events, trying to find a new job, deal with some horrors in her past, and the mystery surrounding right now...so of course her oldest friends are setting her up on a blind date. I laugh, because it is true, no matter what is going on in your life, when you go home to a small town people are almost desperate to marry you off. Which brings us to Julius Arkwright, who might be the most awkward blind date ever, but at least he isn't boring or useless. He's got his own past shadows, a successful career, and more money than he needs, what he doesn't have is the slightest clue about what he actually wants or needs. He's bored.

I really liked them as a couple. They had their own personal angst and issues, but they weren't really angsty about each other. They were just kind of cute and the chemistry was there, but it wasn't as if they needed to save each other, they just bring the balance the other one needs. The suspense part was plenty twisty enough for my tastes with plausible red herrings and a conclusion that made sense. Altogether and fun an enjoyable read, but time will tell whether this one makes it to my re-read stack.

4 Stars

Sale - J. D. Robb In Death Series

The first 8 books in J. D. Robb's In Death series are on sale for $1.99 each at Amazon. Price matching doesn't appear to be in effect yet with other retailers.

There's over 40 books so far in this series, with no real signs of stopping. For the uninitiated, this is a police procedural romance series set about 50 years in the future with a stable long term couple. It's probably my favorite non UF or SciFi series.

Favorite Books Published in 2014

I've read at least 469 books this past year, many of them were re-reads or older books, but I had quite a few newly published books that went onto my favorites list. Without further ado, my favorites that were published in 2014, in no discernible order:

5 Star

The Martian by Andy Weir
Everlastingly by Michelle M. Pillow
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Archangel's Shadows by Nalini Singh
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
Bite Me by Shelly Laurenston
Unbinding by Eileen Wilks
Darkness Falls by Erin Kellison
Darksider by Erin Kellison
Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews
The Hot Zone by Jayne Castle

4 Star

Beyond Series by Kit Rocha
Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia
Love is a Battlefield by Vivien Arend
Beyond Repair by Charlotte Stein
Silver Tongued Devils by Dawn Montgomery
Sweetest Surrender by Katie Reus
One Sexy Ride by Vivian Arend
Sinful Secrets by Cynthia Eden
Rumpel's Prize by Marie Hall
The Kraken King by Meljean Brook
Night Shift by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, and Milla Vane (AKA Meljean Brook)
Nobody by Sarah M. Anderson
Moonshine by Vivian Arend
A Dangerous Madness by Michelle Deiner
Festive in Death by J.D. Robb
Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper
Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick
Sin Brothers Series by Rebecca Zanetti
The Escape by Mary Balogh
Air Bound by Christine Feehan
Wild Wolf by Jennifer Ashley
Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger
Light My Fire by G.A. Aiken
Sheild of Winter by Nalini Singh

Going through the list of all the books I've read this year makes me see I've been perhaps a bit too liberal with my 4 star ratings, or maybe that's just hindsight. Nevertheless, I read a lot of great books this year and re-read some beloved series.

Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2014

I've been blogging for not quite a year, but here's my most popular posts so far.



Open Library-Borrow Books for Free

This one makes good sense to me, because hey, who doesn't like to read free and legally?

Dear Author Legal Defense Fund

Probably the most shocking thing besides the stalking to have happened in the romance blogging community in the past year. My thoughts on the actual event didn't get so many hits, but man did the community rally.

Inn at Last Chance

This one really surprised me, I gave it a middling review and inspirationals aren't typically my milieu.

Free - Wrecked by Meljean Brook is Free

I guess this one it is not terribly surprising, people love free. It's not still free of course, but it is still an excellent series.

Review - Air Bound

Christine Feehan is a highly polarizing author, but love her or hate her, she's big business in the paranormal romance genre.

Goodreads "Ask the Author"

Ask the author is a really cool thing Goodreads is doing. Yeah, I know anyone can do it (that is in fact what makes it so very cool) but damn was I excited the author actually answered my question.

Sweetest Surrender

This post was from back at the start of my blog, I didn't say much, but I really did like the story. While I wouldn't say I'm a fabulous blogger yet, at least I can say I've improved.


Review - Moonshine Takhini Wolves Book 4

Arend is a prolific writer across several genres. I really enjoy her work, but she probably isn't one of the most well known authors yet, so it surprised me that my posts on her books get so many hits.

Review - Dark Blood

Out of over 100 posts I made since I started this blog in April, only two of them were for Christine Feehan, and both of them made the top 10 list. Apparently, polarizing gets the hits. As much as I liked Air Bound, I kind of didn't enjoy Dark Blood. My final summation: "So, as much as I am complaining, I am giving this 3 stars because IMO, Feehan's heroes have become much less rapey and FINALLY we have a hero that checks consent, because it kept me entertained, and actually entertained enough that I will likely still read the next book (I just can't quit Feehan), and nostalgia-because I have now been in this series for 26 books and apparently I just can't quit Feehan."

The Collector

This is another one of my earlier posts, so I suspect the number of hits has more to do with the length of time that it was up rather than any intrinsically helpful,quality in my review.

I am not sure what this pattern tells me, but it is interesting to see how I have progressed in my blogging style. I am looking forward to the coming year and future books to Read and reviewed.

Just how politically correct does a fiction blogger need to be?

Last week All About Romance posted an announcement that they were starting a companion series to their "Dreamboat or Douchebag" series, which resulted in such vitriol that an apology was posted. The original post stated fairly clearly that some of the title ideas were in jest, but apparently some people were outraged. I struggle with this a bit for several reasons. One, by the nature of the topic you just aren't going to be able to use a "nice" descriptor, it would completely defeat the purpose. Secondly, while there was some outcry against the use of the word douchebag to describe the men, it never seemed to reach these levels AND it was mostly framed as an issue of why a feminine gendered descriptor was an insult to men. So it wasn't about the men and consequently, to me, that smacks of the worst sort of hypocrisy. Thirdly I am somewhat conflicted on the idea that it isn't acceptable to judge fictional characters. For me at least, things that would never fly with me when it comes to real humans, I don't find so outraging when it comes to fictional characters. I just have this feeling that both when writing the characters and when judging them, since it is fiction, it should remain a safe place to explore this sort of thing without the moral issues that come into play with real people. Maybe I'm wrong on that, maybe I'm contributing to the negative cultural mores I rail against in real life, but those are my feelings.

As far as the actual title goes, I favor "Keeper or Kick-her-to-the-curb". And I favor it not specifically because of the lack of outraging or denigrating terms, but BECAUSE I feel that sometimes only a bitch or a shrew will do. So I'll likely continue to judge fictional characters, and I'm likely to think of them in terms that some people will find objectionable. Probably the only difference I'll make is to try to explain my motivations and meanings a little better. And I hope All About Romance doesn't decide to scrap the project, because frankly it's fun to judge, and it's also extremely illuminating to see just how differently people interpret and judge things. Frankly I kind of thought that was the whole point in blogging about fiction, because taste is so subjective and it's certainly not universal.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2014 Review - The Martian

The Martian
by Andy Weir

This is definitely not remotely a romance. The vast majority of the time this novel focuses on one solitary man. Now that I have that out of the way, on to the review. I picked this up because it was the only Goodreads Choice Award Winner that piqued my interest. It was outside of my normal bailiwick, but I do enjoy the occasional science fiction story, so I figured why not. And I am so incredibly glad I did. Some of the thrill was probably just the palate cleansing effect of reading :shudders: NOT ROMANCE. But, I think most of the effect was the fact that this is a legitimately good and interesting book. It is commonly described as "Apollo 13 meets Cast Away", which if that makes you want to read it I say go for it, but if it doesn't, well I think that is actually a horrible description. Mine? Mark Watney is Q from James Bond meets MacGyver... ON MARS! He is hilarious, with this irrepressible spirit, and he has this incredibly smart/sexy thing happening and he survives everything Mars has to throw at him with intelligence, science, and creativity. Honestly, I'd love to hang out with him in person, maybe stand him for a beer, and have his babies. Wait, that just slipped out, so maybe this is a romance...mine.

Just for fun, here are some of my favorite quotes:

"My asshole is doing as much to keep me alive as my brain."

"I'm the King of Mars."
"I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the best botanist on the planet."
"Yes, of course duct tape works in a near vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped."
"I'll call it a "pirate-ninja."
"As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation."
"You're sending him to space under a tarp?"

"...apparently, I smell like a skunk took a shit on some sweat socks. This is the happiest day of my life."