Jill Shalvis

Harlequin Blaze, Feb 21 2012, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373796731

In Santa Rey, California, Rainey Saunders is the junior sports coordinator at the beleaguered North District Rec Center.  At the same time that Rainey and her BFF Lena run a car wash to raise some funds, on the news the Sacramento Mammoth players and their thirty-four years old coach Mark Diego and the Anaheim Ducks got into a brawl at a seedy bar after the latter team won the Stanley Cup over the former team due to a controversial call.  Lena dates their boss, Mark’s brother Rick’ while Rainey remembers when she was sixteen and offered herself to Mark who rejected his friend’s advances with a life misconduct.

Mark and two of his players arrive at the rec center as the coach and his Ducks’ counterpart make their inane fighters do community service.  Rainey’s seditious heart stops as she knows she still wants the rat, but she never forgave him for the humiliation.  However, as he hangs around coaching the girls’ softball team, he realizes he is in love; she has been in love with him for over a decade.  He plans to score the goal of his life winning the trust of his woman.

This is a charming second chance at love sports romance starring two likable protagonists and a strong support cast especially rec teens at the rec center.  Fans will enjoy this fun tale as Mark prays Rainey will release him from the penalty box so that they can heat the ice with their love.

Harriet Klausner

Jo Leigh

Harlequin Blaze, Feb 21 2012, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373796755

A member of the Manhattan trading card women St. Marks Lunch Exchange, socialite and charity foundation CEO Rebecca Thorpe has tried three hunks but none give her the sizzle.  She sees the card of retired NYPD detective Jake Donnelly, who was injured on the job, and likes what she sees and reads. 

While she is Manhattan and he is Brooklyn, Rebecca and Jake have in common is neither is interested in a long term relationship; both want a one nighter or three.  They have the best sex of their respective lives.  Meanwhile Rebecca targets affluent William West for a large donation to her charity.  Jake is stunned as even with major cosmetic surgery, West appears to be a high roller drug trafficker he busted years ago who vanished while on bail.  Meanwhile he rationalizes why he must stay with this woman he is falling in love with. He needs to keep her safe from a nasty person pretending to be an honest businessman.

The second It’s Trading Men! contemporary romance (see Choose Me) is an enjoyable New York City frolic.  The lead couple seems to be total opposites except in bed as she is a 1% upper class Manhattanite and he is a 99% middle class Brooklynite.  Their romance is wonderfully developed to slowly evolve from just lust with the impetus to keep them together long enough for the evolution to occur coming from West.

Harriet Klausner

Catherine Mann

Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246993

Ever since her uncle was murdered in front of her eyes as a child almost two decades ago, Jolynn Taylor stays away from her father’s mob world.  However, when her dad Josiah suffers a heart attack, Jolynn goes to spend some time with him on his “home” a cruise ship the Fortuna currently docked in Genoa.

In Nellis AFB, although it rips at his soul, Captain Chuck Tanaka informs his superior officer Colonel Scanlon that he lost his edge since the enemy tortured him.  Scanlon says instead of a desk job until his Air Force commitment ends, Chuck will go undercover as a blackjack dealer on the Fortuna with the chance to destroy the terrorist cell that kidnapped him and other military members.  Scanlon and “Ice” Berg have his back.  His assignment is to get close to the daughter.  After a klutzy introduction, Chuck realizes someone wants Jolynn dead.  Attracted to her, Chuck breaks cover to protect her.

The latest Dark Ops romantic suspense is a terrific thriller in which the need to protect the damsel in distress supersedes the romances (Scanlon meets his woman too).  The storyline is fast-paced from the first clumsy move until the final confrontation.  This is another winner with readers anticipating the melting of Ice soon.

Harriet Klausner

Christine Trent

Kensington, Feb 1 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780758265906

In 1812 Leeds, Annabelle Stirling runs her successful cloth making dress shop.  Her wastrel brother Wesley and her fiancé Clive Pryce join the Luddites who destroy her new gig machine as immoral.  Angry at the double betrayal and believing the Luddites worked for her rivals, Belle demands the authorities do something; they ignore her rants.

Fuming, she heads to London to make her case with the leadership, but the Prince Regent who she meets acts no differently than what she met in Leeds.  Architect John Nash takes her under his wings as his mentee while she and cabinet maker Putnam Boyce are attracted to one another. Meanwhile Wesley gets involved with a high level assassin abduction plan.

The latest Christine Trent historical (see A Royal Likeness and The Queen’s Dollmaker) is an engaging Regency story starring a likable protagonist who enjoys her shop vocation; which makes the twin betrayals that much more hurtful.  The storyline is driven by undeterred Belle’s need for retribution as she makes a wonderful lead holding the plot together.  While the Luddite movement anchors time and place, other historical facts slow down what is overall a strong early nineteenth century tale.

Harriet Klausner

Kate Lloyd

David C. Cooke, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780781405089

In Seattle, Esther informs her thirty something daughter Holly that she received a letter from her grandma begging for her to come home as she needs her.  Holly, whose dad died in Vietnam, is a bit taken aback with the news as Grandma Anna is dead.  She is even more stunned when her mom sadly says she will hate her.  Esther tells Holly, who she knew desperately wanted relatives for years that she lied to her all her life; her mother and her brothers still live in the Lancaster area. 

Her BFF Dori agrees to manage Esther’s Amish Shoppe while mother and daughter are away as reluctantly Esther decides to go home to Lancaster County.  Holly accompanies her as she wants to meet her grandma, her five uncles and aunts and cousins.  They stop at the home of Mennonite Beth Fleming before finally meeting the family.  Ass Holly enjoys her time with her kin; she meets and falls in love with Beth’s son Zach.

This is a wonderful refreshing Amish tale that focuses on the complications of second chances.  Esther makes the tale work with her trepidation of seeing her mom and brothers (who are all heading to Big Sky Country) after abandoning her family, her community, her religion and her lifestyle decades ago.  She prays for forgiveness from her kin especially her Mommy Anna and her daughter.  Readers will relish the prodigal child’s return accompanied by her adult offspring.

Harriet Klausner

Cindi Myers

Bell Bridge, Jan 2012, $15.95

ISBN: 9781466473461

In 1864 Missouri, a fire and brimstone Methodist Minister’s daughter Zeralda Mimms and her cousin Quantrill’s Raider Jesse James meet at the wedding of her older sister Lucy to Bowling Browder.  Each is attracted to one another and he boldly kisses her.  Jesse returns to the fighting.  When the war ends, wounded Jesse goes to Zee’s home to heal.  As she nurses him back to health, they fall in love.  They become engaged and she learns her future husband is a robber and rumored to be a cold blooded killer.  She prays that their marriage and their children will straighten out her beloved husband, but that hope is not answered.

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James is a fascinating biographical fiction that looks at the famous outlaw through the eyes of mostly his adulating beloved wife in a world still suffering from the ravages of the war and the consequential agony of defeat.  Because of Zee’s loving filter, Jesse comes across as heroic rather than a cold blooded killer.  She needs to believe in the goodness rather than the wickedness of her mate who she knows is tender with his family.  Well written, readers will enjoy Cindi Myers fine nineteenth century look at Jesse James through his spouse’s loving perspective.

Harriet Klausner

Jacqueline Woodson

Nancy Paulsen/Penguin, Feb 2 2012, $16.99

ISBN: 9780399252501

Fifteen year old Laurel is filled with remorse as she feels she failed her loved one especially when she turned to meth to numb the pain of death.  Having kicked the habit, encouraged by her BFF Kaylee who she let down, she writes an elegy to cleanse her soul and hopefully regain her life.  Her downward spiral began when Hurricane Katrina killed her mother and grandmother who remained in the family house when the storm swamped New Orleans. 

Her father, her younger brother Jesse Jr. and Laurel obtain temporary shelter in Jackson, Mississippi before moving to Galilee, Iowa in order to start over.  Laurel seems to adapt well as she becomes BFF with Kaylee, becomes a cheerleader and dates basketball team captain T-Boom.  Still the teen grieves her matriarchal losses; so T-Boom introduces her to “the moon,” which numbs the depression.  However, she soon needs more and more moon until she becomes an addict begging people for loose change on the city streets.

This is a great tweener-teen cautionary tale that makes a powerful case that Beneath A Meth Moon the addicting drug takes over your mind and body as you only live for more meth.  Laurel’s observations of going to hell and back (she is writing the elegy so she obviously has survived her self-inflicted ordeal) are brilliant as her recollections are dark, choppy and filled with memory gaps.  Jacqueline Woodson provides a powerful warning to her tween-teen audience that meth may allow you a moon walk or two but will incarcerate you with a desperate need for more.

Harriet Klausner

Shelley Gray

Abington, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781426714634

In 1874 the notorious Walton outlaw gang is infamous for cold blooded murders as much as they are for their robberies.  Gang member Will McMillan plans to end the killing spree of his violent compatriots soonest though he knows how difficult this will prove to be as he expects he probably will not survive.

The gang stops a train in Kansas.  Those who are not immediately killed are held hostage including the only solo female Jamie Ellis.  She quickly realizes that the outlaw Will is the only reason she has not been harmed so far.  Undercover Will needs to stay in character if he does not wish to be exposed although that keeps him at risk when the law catches up to them, but saving Jamie takes precedence over saving his life though he sadly knows she could never love a violent man like him.

The second Heart of a Hero thriller stars an honorable man who rode with the title character of A Texan’s Promise.  Fast-paced, readers will enjoy the romance between the “outlaw” and the hostage as Shelley gray provides a fabulous Kansas post-Civil War thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Nathan Englander

Knopf, Feb 7 2012, $24.95

ISBN: 9780307958709

This insightful anthology focuses on living Jewish in a modern fast food world; yet the themes of conflict (modernization and assimilation vs. tradition, anti-Semitism, and grief, etc.) are universal.  These excellent eight entries were published previously over the past five or so years but not in one place.

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” stars two married intoxicated women discussing the Holocaust as the secular Jew says the Nazis are the culprit while the orthodox Jew says it is now with assimilation leading to mixed marriages.

“Sister Hills” focuses on a settlement in Samaria over four decades ago in which the heroic Jews build their city, but their rigidity in a changing world leaves everyone in peril.

The students decided an eye for an eye when they confront an anti-Semitic bully in “How We Avenged the Blums,” but now feel haunted with what they did.

He indulged in “Peep Show” porn in Times Square, which gave him pleasure until everyone even the strippers became rabbis lecturing him.

“Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother’s Side” has a different tone; that of a cherished memoir.

“Camp Sundown” in the Berkshires hosts seniors who believe one of them is a concentration camp guard who deserves swift justice.

The Author would do book tours to lines out into the street; now no one shows up except one elderly “Reader” who demands he read.

“Free Fruit for Young Widows” who pass down from generation to generation tales of surviving the Holocaust, but the survivor is not the same soul that she was when she entered the death camps.

Harriet Klausner

Richard Mason

Knopf, Feb 7 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780307599476

Piet Barol leaned in his recent adolescence that he is a pleasure magnet to most women and many men.  He knows his charm comes from his late mom as his dad is a grim university administrator.  Thus Piet uses his looks and gracefulness to obtain whatever he desires. 

In 1907 in Amsterdam, Piet becomes a tutor to preadolescent mentally ill piano protégé Egbert Vermeulen-Sickerts.  Heeding the advice of a footman, Piet avoids the daughters of his sexual abstemious employer but the wife is fair game.  However, while almost everyone in the household adores Piet, he has one key adversary, Daughter Louisa, who strips away his charming veneer with a look of scorn.  However, he begins to understand his student’s issues as the martinet father brings the wrath of rigid strictness to his son.

This is an intriguing morality tale starring a fascinating protagonist who is not so much a pleasure seeker but a pleasure giver who wants to do right by his student and help others with their tsuris.  The key cast members are fully developed as they anchor time and place, and enable the reader to better understand the title protagonist.  Although the ending serves only the purpose of setting up the further adventures of the pleasure seeker in South Africa, fans will enjoy his Dutch escapes as The Netherlands in the Queen Wilhelmina Era come to light.

Harriet Klausner