A SOLDIER'S PROMISE & A SOLDIER'S FAMILY by Cheryl Wyatt

These two contemporary romances are short, so I'm doing them together.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE is set in the All-American town of refuge. Joel is a grown-up little boy who never got over his parents shenanigans with an uncle or his mother's death. He's sure he'd never make a good dad, as a result. Yet, his dearly held traditional values make him want a family of his own, rather than making do with a little hanky-panky on the side. Likewise, Amber is kind of estranged from her father, which makes her mistrustful of the male population in general. I can sooo identify with that! Believe me, Amber is a lot nicer to the male gender than I was as a single girl.

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After receiving a letter from a little boy dying of cancer at Amber's school, Joel visit. Bradley, the little boy, is immediately taken with Joel, as well as already having a close bond with Amber. His parents are long gone and his foster-mom just tolerates him. Now, if you're a single guy and you meet a girl who's a nanny (like I was) or a special needs teacher, like Amber, you're really stupid if you don't understand that our maternal nature is more powerful than the beating sun. It's difficult to predict what kind of mother an attorney or a bus driver might be. Most women go totally ballistic with motherliness once the hormones and instincts kick in, but they usually only have patience for their own children. Professional Childcare Providers are born with an extra dimension of maternal instinct. This doesn't make them any better mothers, of course. For example, I may have that extra dimension, but I can't remember my own telephone number. I'd never make it as an accountant. It means we were born suited to a certain profession, just like everyone else. So, Joel really ought to know better than to fall in love with a special-needs teacher, if he doesn't want to be a dad. Ah, but what we think we want and what we really want and need is frequently not the same.

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Joel gets shipped out when his unit is sent to help some people whose South American community has been devestated by floods. While there, he emails Bradley and, through that, begins a slow, but steady long-distance romance with Amber.

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Amber wants to adopt Bradley and is increasingly disturbed by the foster mother after she fails to take Bradley to his cancer treatments for the third time in a row. But, she doesn't want to marry someone who isn't going to be there for her and her children, like her own father. Soldiers get shipped out and are gone for long periods of time. I know I couldn't handle that. It takes a very strong heart to love a soldier. It takes a very strong soldier to admit he needs the love of a good woman, and their children.
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY is set in the same town and feature the best friends of Joel and Amber. Manny has been a bad, bad boy and he wasn't exactly a gentleman to Celia the first time they met. I won't tell you what happened because it would give away too much about A SOLDIER'S PROMISE which you really should read first, although you don't have to. Suffice it to say, Celia clocked the obnoxious jerk onto his backside. That and hitting the ground a little too hard during a skydiving exhursion has bruised Manny's ego and busted up his backside. He meets Celia again and this time he's all bandaged up in the hospital. She's just there to help her best friend, Amber, and gives no indication she's forgiven him.
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Here's a quote to clue you in on Celia's personality: Guilt sucker-punched Celia. She flapped her arms and put resolve in her voice. "Well, fine! Okay. I'm glad he didn't die. Otherwise his dented rear bumper would be on fire right now in the devil's place. Still, what a waste of a perfectly good pine tree." Not that she meant any of the last part, but it amused her to watch Amber's eyes bug out.
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Neither side of this couple have had it easy. Manny's first wife OD'd on narcotics after their son drowned while they were too busy arguing to notice. He's a Big, Fat Failure at the Husband/Father Gig. Amber's father was hypocrital deacond and her first husband was shot in a drug raid. Now, she has a son to raise all by herself. There's no way she wants to marry another man in a high-risk occupation, if at all.
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So, Joel and Amber take Manny in to recover in their home and, of course, Celia visits often. Manny and Celia pretend to tolerate each other while subconsciously falling in love. But, then, Celia finds a drug pipe in her son's bedroom and he suddenly needs some Mega-Parenting. Will Celia find the strength to let Manny step up to the plate with her?
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Both these novels are Sweet with no Violence. They're the kind you want to tuck into your purse before you start a long, hard day. They'll help you remember, through all the dentist's appointments and dinner burning on the stove, that miracles really can happen through the healing power of love.
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Pop over to Cheryl Wyatt's website for more information on her books. http://www.cherylwyatt.com If you like A SOLDIER'S PROMISE & A SOLDIER'S FAMILY, you might also like the novels of Brenda Coulter and Jillian Hart.

Book Review Blitz

I have six short ARCs I'll be reviewing every Sunday and Thursday not taken by a fellow reviewer until I'm through.

THE RED QUEEN'S DAUGHTER by Jacqueline Kolosov

I love Historicals and I love non-Tolkienesque Fantasy. That is, I love Tolkien, but I don’t like Fantasy which mimics him. So, it’s no wonder I’m really enjoying the growing popularity of Fantasy Historicals.
THE RED QUEEN’S DAUGHTER by Jacqueline Kolosov is Young Adult, but I think it should be stocked with regular adult novels as well. The story twists and turns enough for any grown-up. Also, if you’re sick of having to skip the Standard Issue Sex Scene, you won’t have to worry about it here. There’s plenty of romantic tension. It intertwines with the plot, but the rest is very skillfully left to your imagination. I don’t know about you, Sister, but I got a heck of an imagination! Maybe that’s why I’m so unforgiving of poorly written Romance novels. Anyway, this is NOT a Romance novel. Also, a lot of Fantasy novels for adults these days are too dark & gritty & grotesque for me. Ms. Kolosov manages to pull off all the scary magical stuff without resorting to a lot of blood & guts & making me want to eat worms.
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History supposes that Mary, the daughter of Katherine Parr (widow of King Henry VIII) and Thomas Seymour died in early childhood because there is no mention of her after Katherine died six days after giving birth. There’s no proof, of course. It’s a pretty safe assumption since the infant mortality rate was so high. But, Jacqueline’s supposition is so much more interesting.
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I don’t know about you other history buffs, but I would not have wanted to live before contraception was widely available and doctors knew to wash their hands before attending a woman giving birth. (Ancient Egypt was better off the Medieval Europe in this respect.) I would have installed myself as a nanny to a wealthy family and married chocolate. A hundred or more years ago may have been ‘the good old days’ for men with over-inflated opinions of their own masculinity, but sex was deadly for women back then. In RED QUEEN’S DAUGHTER, Mary knows this all too well. She knows her mother only escaped the fate of two of Henry’s other wives on the head-chopping block because of her intelligence and Henry’s failure to plant the Seed. Still, Mary is sure Romantic Love eventually got the better of her mother when she married Thomas after Henry’s death, because she died in childbirth and Thomas was executed as a traitor to the Crown.
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Mary was fostered by two women, a duchess who was a close friend of her mother’s and a lady who comes from a long line of white magicians. Both reinforce Mary’s belief that Romantic Love is a death-trap for women, one she will never allow herself to fall into. The second foster-mother, Lady Strange (Don’t laugh. There really is an English peer whose title is Baroness Strange. It probably has some obscure and ancient origin,) takes it upon herself to train Mary in her natural talent for magic. Much more than that, she impresses on Mary the value of an education during a time when few women could read. The great thing about magic in this Fantasy is that its believable mixed with real science. That was refreshing.
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Mary is sent to the court of Queen Elizabeth I at the age of 16. She finds there a 30 year old virgin queen (some scholars doubt the virgin part) and a collection of scheming backstabbers you could find in any public high school today. In fact, it reminded me of PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE by Nathalie Mallet that way. The trials of adolescence are universal it seems, because both authors pulled it off without it being contrived. That is, if they were trying to mirror contemporary high school life, it really didn’t show. Neither resorted to being too contemporary to pander to today’s readers. I hate it when Historicals do that. A truly great author doesn’t need to do that and readers are too smart for it.
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Soon after arriving, Mary makes the acquaintance of Francis whom she’s told was knocked up by Edmund Seymour. Frances loves a different boy, but Edmund used the magical equivalent of date-rape to do the Deed. He didn’t do it for lust or love, but to destroy Francis’ reputation. Francis, Mary is told, was in a position to marry well and her future husband would be sure to rise up in status. At that time, if a girl got pregnant outside of marriage, she could be shamed, have her head lopped off, get tossed out into the street to be raped and murdered. I know these horrendous crimes are still committed against girls around the world today, but in America we have laws against it and social programs to help the girls. Francis’ parents were counting on her making a marriage which would be politically advantageous for them and that’s where their ‘love’ ended. Unconditional love and compassion were not lavished on this girl, so it’s no wonder she fell in love with a good young man who filled her need for it.
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Francis decides to intervene, for that is her role as a white magician in Queen Elizabeth’s court. She’s there to ensure the Queen’s long and good reign. In doing so, she draws the attention of another magic-user, Edmund, and someone else she can’t imagine who. Now, she’s pitted against Edmund whom she’s sure means to destroy her as well. But, there are many ways to destroy a girl in Tudor England. If the Queen returns Katherine Parr’s inheritance to Mary, she will become a very rich young woman and the second most eligible bachelorrette in town (the Queen’s #1). It would be much more advantageous for Edmund to coerce her into marriage before destroying her. Back then, husbands got all their wives’ money upon marriage. Wives lost all power too and this is why Queen Elizabeth never married.
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Well, you all know how I feel about Sizzling Hot Villains.
They say little girls tend to grow up to marry men just like their fathers, whether he was a monster or a hero. It’s often true, unless a girl consciously decides she wants *and deserves* someone else. Edmund is a lot like Mary’s father, the traitor Thomas Seymour. Mary finds herself attracted to him and, yanno, I really feel for her, ‘cause he is totally hot. Oh, those bad, bad boys.
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The thing about Bad Boys is they’re totally stupid unless they’re in the hands of a skilled author. Thank God Jacqueline Kolosov is one of those authors.
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One of the things I really enjoyed about RED QUEEN’S DAUGHTER is it followed Mary’s growth. A lot of Fantasy writers take great pains in setting up the fictional world, usually the first 30 to 60 pages. It seems to me even the greats like Mercedes Lackey do this. Jacqueline kind of does that, but if you’re the impatient type you won’t feel it. The first part of the story is Mary remembering the tragic circumstance of her birth, growing up as a foster-child to the Duchess first and then Lady Strange and her unusual education with them. I really liked it because if a Protagonist starts out perfect and mature and powerful, I just can’t relate because there’s no room for them to grow. Booooring. I followed Mary from her birth, through her childhood and all the angst of knowing her mother died after giving birth to her and her father was a traitor, and into her teens as educational and vocational and romantic opportunities opened up to her, all the way up to her as a confident young woman. Loved it.
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As I mentioned before, this is not a Romance novel. You’re not promised a Happily Ever After and, really, there’s so much more to life when you’re a teen than just getting married. However, the other thing I liked about this novel is that it does have a satisfying ending which screams, SEQUEL! And I, for one, can’t wait.
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To learn more about the novels of Jacqueline Kolosov, pop over to her website. http://www.jacquelinekolosov.com
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If you like RED QUEEN’S DAUGHTER, I just know you’ll like PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE by Nathalie Mallet and anything by Linda Bray or Eva Ibbotson.

Tuesday News!

Lots of news today. First off, pop over to Patricia Wood's blog to pay homage to the Divine Miss Snark. http://pkwood.blogspot.com/

It's the first anniversary of her blog retirement. http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

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The celestial Susan Grant has consented to us indulging in lunacy over her new release, MOONSTRUCK, which hits the shelves May 25th.

We'll throw her a Cyber-Launch Book Party some time during the first two weeks of June.

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Speaking of MOONSTRUCK, Heather has launched a new blog, The Galaxy Express http://thegalaxyexpress.blogspot.com/ and a little birdie tells me Susan's new book will be featured a lot there in the near future. The Galaxy Express is devoted to Science Fiction Romance in all its incarnations - Futuristics, romantic Space Opera, and all that.

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Linda Gerber's new book, DEATH BY BIKINI, is out sometime soon and she's doing all sorts of things promoting that. Pop over to her blog to learn more. http://lindagerber.blogspot.com/
My copy of the beautiful Gwyneth Bolton's next release, PROTECT AND SERVE, arrived in the mail yesterday.
I'm reading RED QUEEN'S DAUGHTER by Jacqueline Kolosove to review this coming Thursday, but I couldn't help but sneak the first few pages of PROTECT AND SERVE. Awesome! I love Jacqueline's book, but I'm very much looking forward to Friday when I can start Gwyneth's book. I was going to read CRYSTAL RAIN by Tobias S. Buckell next, but Blog Buddy authors get preferential treatment here, yanno. We're hoping to throw a Cyber-Launch Book Party for Gwyneth in July when PROTECT AND SERVE hits the shelves.

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And, once again, I'll tell you about a few books which I would read and review for you, if I had the time, which I don't. Maybe my fellow reviewers do, so if you're the author or an author associate, feel free to email them and offer to send an ARC.

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THE LAST MERMAID by Shana Abe. This story radiates mythology and you know how I love that.

ODD MOM OUT by Jane Porter. Well, I got to love Tough Mama stories.

EMPRESS by Shana Sa. I love Ancient Chinese history and culture. This is one I'd squeeze into my schedule if the author or her associate offered the ARC. I'm resisting the urge to email and beg for it.
BEWITCHING SEASON by Marissa Doyle. Tia is reviewing this one at http://fantasydebut.blogspot.com/ right now. I bet Kimber Chin would looooove this one! She goes by 'K' on this blog because our first names are the same. Here's here link: http://businessromance.com/And that's it, Blog Buddies. Thanks for popping in and have a good week.

SEDUCING THE MERCENARY by Loreth Anne White

A Silhouette Romantic Suspense from Nov. 2007, SEDUCING THE MERCENARY is less about Mata Hari than the title might suggest. The story begins in a war-ravaged African country of Ubasi. The new leader, Jean-Charles Laroque, is a ruthless militaristic dictator who wrested control from Xavier Souleyman, another despot.

Or is he? The CIA and the Pentagon want to know, so they have contracted the services of Force du Sable, a private military company based off the West Coast of Angola. They have sent in Emily Carlin, a profiler, to observe him and give her professional opinion on his character and stability.

She can’t complete her mission, though, because the U.S. Embassy has been evacuated after four American geologists have turned up dead- and the bodies were displayed in the same manner that Laroque’s father used to use as warnings. But there’s a hitch: these Americans were agents, and Laroque didn’t kill them. Someone is trying to force him into conflict with the U.S., and he suspects Souleyman is working behind the scenes to regain power.

Emily winds up getting stuck in Ubasi, and becomes the guest of Laroque in his palace. Her cover is in place, but he suspects there’s more to her than she’s saying. Emily is thankful for the chance to observe him up close, but has to find a way to report back to her superiors by a certain time, or they will assassinate Laroque. They know of Souleyman’s plans, and prefer to deal with the devil they know if it seems that Laroque will be as evil as his father was.

Complicating matters is the attraction that runs strong between the two. Emily is fighting her Achilles’ heel- she has a weakness for Alpha males, and Laroque definitely fits that bill. Trying to do her job while protecting her heart is no easy task. Laroque is conflicted as well; he has to deal with his superstitious people who point to a prophecy that says a woman will bring him down. His growing feelings for Emily may well cost him the trust of his countrymen. And he still knows he can’t fully trust her.

Loreth Anne White plots political conspiracy very well; her conflicts were entirely believable and compelling. I am a huge fan of spy stories. And as much as I love an escapist fantasy, I liked the realism- no James Bondish gadgets or Goldfinger villains here.

The inner arguments that Emily and Laroque have were well written; just enough angst to keep you guessing but not so much introspection that the action slows down. Their attraction is believable and may I say, HAWT.

Speaking of heat level, that would be highly sensual, and it totally fits the story. It’s a wonderful addition to the Silhouette line, and won the 2007 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Silhouette Romantic Suspense. Congrats Loreth, and great story!

Artichoke's Heart

I have had the great fun of reading an advanced reader's copy of Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee - the release date is June 12th, but you can, of course, pre-order on Amazon.

I've read about a lot of teenage issues in books lately -- one girl is too smart for her own good, or she has a shallow step-mother, or her brother ignores her. This is the first that I've read and said, "Yeah, that's legitimately a big problem in high school. No wonder this poor girl is struggling." Because Rosemary is overweight. Not just a little overweight, like all the chick lit heroines who need to drop 5 pounds to fit into their favorite jeans, but significantly overweight. High school is still present enough in my mind that I know this would be incredibly painful to a young girl. And on top of it, Rosemary is being raised by a young single mom, in a small town, with an aunt who is way too involved in Rosemary's weight issues.

But, of course, there is a boy... and things improve... and Rosemary learns some things about herself and her mother... and I couldn't put it down. I read it straight through in a day and a half, and I have three little kids so that was quite a feat!

I highly recommend you getting your hands on a copy of this one!

Suzanne has also written When Irish Guys Are Smiling - which sounds fabulous as I, personally, have a particular soft spot of Irish guys. ;) I think you might also like I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You, by Ally Carter and Wrecked, by E.R. Frank.

Tuesday News

I almost forgot about doing the Tuesday News. Then, I thought, "Wait a minute, I've got nothing anyway." Guess my brain cells are still getting used to not being sick anymore or maybe I need more coffee. Typically, on Tuesday mornings I visit my author Blog Buddy sites and MySpace for news to add to whatever I've collected on my file since the Tuesday before. Anyway, MySpace won't let me on this morning, so I may have additions later on today.
Patricia Wood had the news today. First of all, her bestselling, debuted-in-hardback-last-Augest novel, LOTTERY, is coming out in paperback on June 3rd. http://pkwood.blogspot.com/

Second of all, Pat is doing a tribute to The Divine Miss Snark at her blog on May 20th. All Snarklings must be there to show proper respect and gin. Miss Snark may have retired from the Blogosphere, but her archives are still with us. Many a published and aspiring author owes much to Miss Snark. http://misssnark.blogspot.com