Steven Chase was invited to the Meadow under the pretense of seeing one of the only remaining DeBain houses in the country. For him it was a passion for architecture; for Caroleigh it was a move towards seduction. Kari, who is Caroleigh's reclusive sister, seems upset with all of the company and immediately asks how long the entourage will stay. Much to her chagrin they ignore her and plan tours, parties, and visits. Edward and Evelyn accompany the group to the farm and find themselves tangled in family drama.

After a brief accident with a set of stairs Steven is left alone and in trouble deep in the woods. Kari saves his life in an interesting way which infuriates her sister. Strange things start to happen all over the grounds of the Meadow. Accusations are thrown by all, including the local sheriff, Dell. The townspeople know the true Kari but Caroleigh has everyone else convinced that her sister is simple and not to be listened to. A long-standing argument stands between these two sisters. Kari, Steven, Caroleigh, and Edward must all come together to figure out what's going on and who's trying to get to them.

Larion Wills develops an imaginable setting here which includes ghost stories, old gold mines, and past grudges. Kari's character is described in detail from her quirks to her physical looks. We aren't given a lot of background about Steven, Evelyn or Caroleigh until the latter part of the story and none about Edward. There are a few slow spots in the story but it all comes together in the end. Readers will sigh during the last two chapters- as this is when the whole story comes together. Ghosts are an integral part of the story and they added a dash of interesting to an already wonderful read.

Sorceress is a familiar combination of romance, prophecy and quest in a medieval setting. Our heroine Bryanna is guided by a dead woman in her quest to fulfill a prophecy and save a child she has never met.

Bryanna must travel the farthest corners of Wales in search of these stones. She is joined along the way by Gavin, a childhood friend who is now a fugitive wanted for theft and murder. She is also followed by a dark and threatening presence.




I found Sorceress to be formulaic and melodramatic. I also found it to be an entertaining tale. The author is adept at setting a scene and creating a sense of place without meandering off into long descriptive passages. Although the quest takes nearly a year, the book’s pacing and the mystery of each stone’s location kept me turning the pages.


The characters are distinctive if archetypal. Bryanna is not just a pretty redhead, she is a flame-haired, emerald-eyed beauty. She is smart, but would rather ride horses than embroider cloths. Gavin is not just a handsome man, but a dark-haired, muscular rogue. He is a bastard (by birth not disposition) who had a damn good reason for killing a man and stealing a horse.


There are sexually explicit scenes, but they didn’t seem unnecessarily drawn out and didn’t dominate the story-telling. (The following is one of the tamer scenes.)




As my rating indicates, I found Sorceress by Lisa Jackson a solid read with the few minor criticisms already mentioned. If the passage I just quoted makes you wince, roll your eyes, or similarly express displeasure, you may rate this book considerably lower. On the other hand, if you read that passage and want to know where it leads (in addition, of course, in wanting to know where the stones are hidden), you will probably find Sorceress an entertaining read.


{The edition I read was an uncorrected proof. Also, I did not know at the time I read it that Sorceress is the final book in a trilogy (after Impostress and Temptress), but it stands well enough on its own.}

Gemma Halliday is a master writer for a romance series. Undercover in High Heels is the first I've read in this series so I'll be backing up to the beginning quite soon. Maddie is a fun character who not only wants hot, sleepless nights with her detective Ramirez, but a little mystery would be nice too. She finds exactly what she wants when actors start dying on the set of Magnolia Lane, her favorite soap opera.

Maddie's gotten in trouble before for butting into cases better solved by the police. Her and her best friend, Dana, scheme up a complex way of helping Ramirez solve his case. Who could help more than two faithful fans? Her interactions into the situation not only infuriate her boyfriend but put her in danger as well.

Before she knows what's happening Maddie has stumbled onto a tabloid reporter, a website madame, and a very surprising client. She just knows she can solve the case by delving into the personal lives of all of these people. What she finds is shocking, not only to her and the police, but to the entire set of Magnolia Lane.

Ms. Halliday has created such witty and humorous characters here. I love the interactions between Maddie and Detective Ramirez. He is a hot hero who is dating a misfit. She can't keep herself out of tricky situations- and he always find out about them. Readers who love romance, mystery, and a bit of humor will fall in love with Undercover in High Heels. Like me you will find yourself scrambling to find the whole series of Ms. Halliday's 'High Heels' books.

Kissa Starling

What woman doesn't have a bad boy fantasy?

Ex-marine turn security specialist Joel Wilde loves his jet setting dangerous job. It keeps romantic entanglements at arm's length. But then an old military buddy calls in a favor. Deep in gaming debt, Zach mistakenly sets up his sister and her life insurance policy as a possible out. Now she has hit-men on tail and doesn't even know it.

Joel sets out to keep watch on an unsuspecting Lora at her night time job, as a cocktail waitress at The Electric Blue, a Coyote Ugly type bar. His bad boy looks and the fact that he only has eyes for Lora stir up her nearly dead libido. Working two jobs, she has no time for romance. But she can not deny what the darkly attractive leather clad man is doing to her pulse rate.

Determined to keep things platonic, Joel invites Lora for coffee. She figures out he is her troubled brother's comrade and decides to throw caution to the wind. She tries to seduce him on his Harley, but Joel manages to resist, mostly. Even tho she finds this incredibly sweet, it also sparks her desire more. She is bound and determined to get him between the sheets.

Then a warning comings in the shape of two hit men with a very sharp knife. Shaken, Lora turns to Joel for comfort. Realizing that she came very close to dying rattles him. He should not be feeling these emotions for her. Nor should he take her to bed. But he does both.

The passionate night spent together is obliterated when the vagabond brother calls and lets Joel's undercover work out of the bag. Lora is incensed that Joel lied to her. Fulfillig his promise, he whisks her off to a secluded cabin to keep her from harm and sets a tentative plan in motion to erase the threat against her life. Lora thaws to Joel when she realizes he does having feelings for her that he is denying even to himself.

She uses his lust for her as a lure and he can't resist. She employs the erotic skills of her day job as a masseuse. When her brother shows up and Joel tells him of his plan to erase his debt, Zach balks as any addict would. But then he hits rock bottom and has no choice. He accepts help and rehab and the threat which kept Lora and Joel together is gone. And Lora lets him go. She can't keep him if he doesn't want to stay. Ultimately, Joel realizes he can not live without Lora and returns to her.

There is a wonderful romantic sub-plot with Lora's boss and friend Sydney and her daughter's Math Teacher Daniel that threatens to overshadow the main story. It was like a mini book inside the primary one. Those characters were refreshing and a engaging with a spicy plot-line.

While the premise of the book was a little weak (If Joel couldn't offer the money to fix Zach's debts in the first chapter, hows can he do it in the end?), the overall effect was believable. The female aggressor is always a nice change and by, is Sydney a go-getter!!

The sex was spicy but not overly erotic and scattered enough to not be just one long string of bedplay. The emotions were well thought out and true to character. But the shaky plot really bothered me in the end. Zach seems to just deflate and accept the offer of help without much fight. And the fight he did show was not too aggressive. Having read other books by the author, I was a little disappointed. It was good but not her best work.

As part of the series, it did stand alone very very well. You didn't get the sense of a huge back story you missed out on. The sub-plot was almost more creative than the main line and I found myself more interested in them as a whole. This line would have made a fantastic read alone.

Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose, though billed as a thriller, is more of an unrequited love story. There’s a lot of ancient Roman history, detailed descriptions of Rome and like Da Vinci Code, hints of impropriety in church history. Of course, since the story is also modern day, and murders are occurring, there’s the possibility that the church is still trying to cover up some misdeed or some piece of history that might lean away from its teachings—such as reincarnation.

While reading, there are tons of unanswered questions, but it was hard to put my finger on the actual plot. Is this a mystery? Well, kind of, but not exactly. Yes, there were mysterious memory stones that everyone wanted to get their hands on. It was never entirely clear why it was absolutely necessary to obtain these stones. They mimicked the holy grail of Da Vinci Code, but the legend of the holy grail is quite well-known. The gems in the story are thought to have mysterious powers, possibly enabling a person to link with a past life. Of course, several of the characters seemed to be linking just fine to past lives without the stones, so I assumed they would be most coveted by those that either didn’t have past lives and wanted to experience the connection or by people that couldn’t connect with a past life they thought they had. There was the thought that the stones would prove once and for all that reincarnation was real, but since most of the characters were either experiencing it or believed in it already, it wasn’t at all clear how finding the stones would change their lives.

The history of these gems is doled out slowly as Josh, one of the main protags, relives a past life through flashbacks. He experiences these flashbacks quite often, usually when he comes into contact with a place in Rome where his past life (Julius) existed. It is, after all, a book about reincarnation. I enjoyed the clever description of those who had been reincarnated as seen through the camera by Josh, (his alternate character is Julius, a priest from the past). That concept was interesting as were some of the other “what if” moments. Josh wasn’t a particularly likable fellow; he could be rather tiresome when he argued with himself over whether what he was experiencing was real. Naturally, this same doubt was displayed by other characters experiencing flashes from the past.

As anyone who reads my reviews know, I’m not big on multiple POVs and this book has plenty. The author kept them short so that as a reader I wasn’t pulled too long from the ongoing story, but there were a number of POVs that could have been dropped without injuring the story in the least. There are multiple story lives going on during the various POV shifts; the reader has to assume that ties to the main plot will be revealed in the end. It’s a storytelling technique many people enjoy. You actually have three or four stories being told in the guise of one novel.

M.J. Rose ends many a chapter on a cliffhanger—pushing the reader forward to find out what happens next. She moves the plot along, pausing most often for history or for a romantic moment—when hands touch that have touched in past lives, there can be an instant “fire” followed up with detailed results.

The ending of the book is where the tension ratchets up—the last few chapters were a breeze to get through. I was pleased to find that my early guess about the main villain was correct (guessing ahead of time bothers some people, but the clues fell into logical place and any other ending wouldn’t have made much sense). If I were to change one thing, I would have liked to see the master thief/culprit punished on stage. Or killed in some ironic twist so that there was a sense of justice served, but it is a fate book. The ending leaves a sense of time spooling out in an endless pattern, with each of us needing only courage and morals to edge it in the right direction—this time.

For anyone that believes in reincarnation, or is interested in the subject, this book presents some interesting ideas. It also serves quite well as historical fiction. For anyone that believes love is timeless and endless, it has the romantic element of a promise finally kept. The book is a bit experimental; the mystery elements are not handled traditionally; same for some of the romantic elements.

I haven’t read any other M.J. Rose novels, but I do enjoy her PR articles. She has done a lot to help other writers and is tireless in studying marketing concepts and pushing the edge when it comes to marketing novels. Her blog is full of interesting information, and I’d encourage any budding writer to have a look. From reading this historical novel, I’d say she researches her novel topics as thoroughly as she does her research into successful PR.