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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Excellent! Faith, Love, Sacrifice With A Football Background – A Life Intercepted

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The blurb on A Life Intercepted: A Novel caught my eye, “Matthew “The Rocket” Rising had it all.  Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence…all was lost.”  Matthew Rising won the Heisman trophy for best college football player twice, led his team to the national championship three times and was the number 1 draft pick in the NFL.  In Matthew’s mind all these were nothing compared to his marriage to Audrey.

Matthew was convicted of sexual assault and deviant sex with a minor based on a video of sex acts that did not show his face plus testimony of the three women who woke up with him in their bed.  He never made it to training camp, never made any money, and worst, his wife disappeared.

Paroled after 12 years he is forbidden to approach a minor, to work or live within half a mile of a daycare or school, completely broke, homeless and with no job prospects.  Matthew went back to his hometown to find his wife.  His oldest friend lets him stay in his cabin, which is just far enough from the Catholic convent and high school.   He has no intention to violate his parole, just to find Audrey and peace.

 

Matthew finds Audrey is living at the convent, where she planted a flower garden that memorializes Matthew’s final play in his last college football game.   Dee Dalton, 17 years old and a wanna be football quarterback, approaches Matthew to ask for his help.  Dee had been a fine young player but his throwing mechanics are messed up and he needs to learn from someone besides his high school coach.   Matthew initially says no, since that would violate his parole and land him back in prison, this time for life.

 

Audrey comes to Matthew and tells him that he owes it to her to coach Dee, that he cheated her of a family and a life and further that no one would ever know.  Matthew knows that it is all too likely that his nemesis, the person who framed him for the sexual assault, will in fact be watching him, looking for evidence he broke parole.  Nonetheless Matthew agrees to coach Dee as a sacrifice to show Audrey what she means to him.

 

Of course his nemesis videotapes the coaching sessions.  Each individual parole violation means 10 years in prison and Matthew and Dee meet over 70 times.  Matthew is arrested but only after demonstrating to the football loving world that both he and Dee are ready to play, Matthew at the NFL and Dee at high school, then college.

Tight Plot with a Unique Setting

We know all through the book that Matthew is innocent although we don’t know the details nor how – or whether – he will somehow win through.  Author Charles Martin keeps us in suspense until near the end.  He unfolds the plot through Matthew’s memories offset with the events as they occur.  We see Matthew willingly sacrifice his life to help Dee, initially for Audrey’s sake then for Dee’s, and through the memories of Matthew’s life with Audrey.

The novel is set behind the scenes of football, not the games themselves but the practices and the events after the games.  You do not have to understand or like football to enjoy the book because the game is the setting, not the purpose.

There were a few weak points, mostly in the trial that found Matthew guilty.  I thought of a couple points his lawyer could have made, such as whether the DNA evidence against Matthew included semen, whether his fingerprints were on the video camera, the fact it was dark, all of which could have cast some doubt in the jurors’ minds.  But the story is not about the trial.

Charles Martin’s  purpose isn’t to debate the merits of the case, but to show that it happened, that the evidence was overwhelming, that even Matthew’s lawyer and his wife believed him guilty.  This is the set up for the real meat of the novel, how Martin deals with gross injustice.

The resolution with Ginger, Matthew’s supposed victim was wonderful, but it required the woman to completely forego everything she had for something she had never wanted.  It was great to read but a bit far fetched.  Let’s hope that people are like that.

Characters

Matthew and Dee are well done.  Matthew remains loving and determined.  He knows exactly the value of the worldly success and the happy marriage he thought he had, and he has a fine perspective on which matters.

Wood and Ray, Matthew’s two friends, steal the show.  They are courageous, caring, willing to help Matthew, willing to more-or-less believe him.  The character I found the weakest was Audrey.  I understand she was incredibly hurt, wounded to near death by her husband’s betrayal, but it was incredible to me that she insisted he coach Dee even knowing it meant life imprisonment if caught.  She clearly did not expect the vindictive Ginger to spy on Matthew and videotape his movements, and why should she.  She believed Matthew guilty.

A Life Intercepted is a coming of age novel that brings four characters to adulthood, Matthew and Dee of course, and Audrey and Ginger too.  Matthew’s coming of age isn’t when he’s in his teens or college, but as he works with Dee and earlier, in some of his prison memories where he loses the hate and grows his way to redemption.

Thoughts on Redemption

A Life Intercepted: A Novel is one of the finest books I’ve read in a long time.  I read this concurrently with Memory by Lois Bujold, which gave a unique flavor to the experience. Both novels are about redemption and both have exotic settings, football with A Life Intercepted and the planet Barrayar in Memory.

The primary difference is in the nature of redemption.  Memory is all about Miles’ self-redemption after an act he did commit.  A Life Intercepted is about the redemption Matthew offers to his wife, his supposed victim, his fans, the young Mac for acts they committed, not what he had done.  Reading the two books together helped me see the difference and realized that A Life Intercepted first shows Matthew accepting the injustice, coming to peace internally, then offering that peace to the others who judged and rejected him.  It is a Christ-like redemption, not a private personal redemption.

The underlying themes of love, faith, redemption and sacrifice are timeless.  Combine those with excellent characters you care about, intense plot and good writing and you have a real winner.  Five stars.

84 Ribbons – 1950s Ballet and Romance by Paddy Eger

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84 Ribbons by Paddy Eger follows Marta, seventeen, alone in Billings Montana in 1957 and just starting her career as a professional ballerina. All Marta ever wanted to do was dance. Dance when her feet were a mass of blisters, dance when she was exhausted, even dance on stilts with little kids pushing against her legs.

This is an unusual and very enjoyable book. Although Marta and her friends are all young, the book shouldn’t be considered YA fiction. Young people will love it for the characters and the underlying passionate love of dance; older adults will appreciate the characters, setting and the plot that has no perfect ending.

Marta falls in love with Steve, a college student trying to build a journalism career, but she’s committed to ballet. She cannot give Steve her heart because she gave it to dance long ago.

Some of the best parts of the story happen with Mrs. B, Marta’s landlady and soon her friend, and Marta’s fellow boarders. Mrs. Be is said to be a wonderful, warm-hearted woman and proves that true, over and over. She allows Marta to pay part her rent by helping in the kitchen and helps her set up a basement room as a practice studio and she helps Marta after a bad accident.

Marta’s matter of fact daily grind should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking of a career in dance, theatre, art or music. Marta has practice with the ballet company for 7-8 hours a day, 6 days a week, then she practices in the basement on the off days and some evenings. She has little time or money and no energy.

Marta is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds and doesn’t dare gain weight. She starts using diet pills to get an energy boost – this is in 1957 when diet aids full of caffeine and dangerous ingredients like amphetamines. The diet pills work for a while but she has no underlying physical strength and isn’t able to heal after an accident. She is an emotional wreck too, unable to tell Steve her feelings and covering up her diet pill use from her best friend, Steve and her mom. I was impressed with Steve for seeing beneath the crabbiness and being so patient with Marta.

It’s only after Marta loses her position in the ballet company, for at least the next year, that she is able to admit to Steve that she loves him. She’s still only 18, and wisely decides to go home to Bremerton to decide what comes next. She and Steve don’t get engaged and they don’t make plans. Instead Marta tells him “I’m trying to figure things out. One thing I do know is that I love you.”

The title “84 Ribbons” comes from Marta’s goal to be a solo dancer. Dancers must practice and practice and go through shoes after pairs of shoes. She cuts off the ribbons from her worn out ballet shoes with the hope of getting a solo part by the time she collects 84 ribbons. She has 20 ribbons at the beginning of the novel and 84 at the end, but no solo. Instead Marta, no longer a professional dancer, must now decide her future.

The enjoyable characters, realistic ending, grueling daily routines, snubs and nasty comments make 84 Ribbons come to life. I recommend this for anyone who enjoys coming of age stories, dance, or squeaky clean romances.

I was given a copy of 84 Ribbons. My opinions are solely my own.

Ascension The Demon Hunters – Just What Era Are We In By the Way?

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I try not to be too picky with things like historical accuracy or logic of magical systems, but sometimes novels simply are not good enough to make me overlook anachronisms or flimsy “powers”.  This book, Ascension (Demon Hunters), by A.S. Fenichel, never put the heroine in a plausible setting or explained the narrative in a way that made sense.

Ascension has a lovely cover picturing a young lady wearing a dress from the early-mid 1800s and carrying a sword.  The guy behind her (whom we can expect to be a hunk since he shows a few inches of chest) is mostly hidden.   The lady is Lady Belinda Clayton, the daughter of an earl, engaged to Lord Gabriel Thurston, the Earl of Tullering who goes to ton parties that include the promenade.  Gabriel recently returned from four years of service in the war and wears his hear in a queue.

Those few pieces of background say we are in the early 1800s, possibly even the latter part of the Napoleonic wars, except the dress doesn’t match.  And men didn’t wear long hair much after the early 1800s.  And Belinda’s faithful maid, Claire, runs a hot bath for her after a long night of demon hunting, yet hot baths during the middle of the night required heating jugs of hot water, lugging jugs and the tin bath up the stairs to the bedroom, pouring the water in, then pouring it out, jug by jug, once the bath was over.

We have anachronisms upon anachronisms.  Sadly the book didn’t appeal to me enough that I could overlook these, nor the ridiculous plot.  Lady Belinda was kidnapped by demons to be a water sacrifice, tortured and then rescued just in the nick of time by her now-friends and associates in the demon killing gang.  In the four years Gabriel was away, Lady Belinda developed muscles, dirty fighting tricks and learned to use a sword to kill demons.  I guess that’s almost plausible, except why would even stupid demons kidnap a rich, titled lady when London was full of homeless, nearly nameless people of any age or gender.

The premise of the book sounded so good:  “A lady by day, and a demon hunter by night”. “Gabriel … determined to show her that their love can endure, stronger than ever.” Doesn’t that sound enticing?  Plus a strong heroine and a big dollop of romance where the guy is in love?

Unfortunately I just could not finish this.   I got to page 60 or so, jumped to the end to see whether it actually ended or was set up for a sequel (there will be a sequel) and gave up.

There are some good points.  The book is well edited with no obvious spelling, grammar or basic writing errors. A.S. Fenichel’s writing style is pretty good.  The bad points are the flat characters and unrealistic (even for fantasy) plot.  Plus, be aware there are sex scenes every few pages.

This book was given to me with the hope I’d write a review, but unfortunately I didn’t like and can’t recommend Ascension (Demon Hunters).

Three Not to Finish – Two Mysteries One Fantasy

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Normally I give a novel at least a few pages before deciding it’s not for me. Two of these I read about half but the other fell off my lap after about 20 pages. All three of these books had great reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble but they just did not work for me.

Pies and Prejudice (A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery) felt like a rerun. Heroine Ella Mae runs from her cheating husband back home to a small Georgia town and starts a pie shoppe. Of course her arch enemy from kindergarten on through high school shows up, her former crush shows up and she is suspected in a murder. With me so far?

Ella Mae makes pies to fit her mood and the person and bakes a bit of enchantment into each one. It’s a little like Garden Spells but without the charming eccentric characters and real-feeling fantasy element.

Despite Pies and Prejudice having 4 1/3 stars on Amazon I simply could not finish. Characters, setting, plot, dialogue were flat, uninteresting.

I got further with Mark of the Mage (The Scribes of Medeisia), over half way through. I was not particularly enjoying the story but it wasn’t so bad that it made me get up off the couch to read something else. At least not until my tea mug ran out and I needed a refill!

Mark of the Mage (The Scribes of Medeisia) isn’t a bad book, it just didn’t have enough oomph to keep me reading. This one also has 5 stars on Amazon so my blah feeling might have been me not the novel.

The second murder mystery, Leave No Stone Unturned (A Lexie Starr Mystery, Book 1), was the best of the lot, good enough that I could have finished had there not been something else to read. The story is a cute combination of suspense and romance, with late 40s widowed Lexie Starr concerned about her daughter’s new husband, Clay. Lexie doesn’t like the guy but is determined to put a happy face until she stumbles across a newspaper article that he is the prime suspect in his first wife’s murder. Lexie’s daughter doesn’t even know Clay had been married before.

Lexie makes up a story for her daughter about meeting up with a jeweler she met online and takes off for Schenectady to research the murder. This is where Leave No Stone Unturned lost me. Lexie tells the police detective she’s writing a novel about the case and that she could help. Really. No police detective who ever saw a single episode of Murder She Wrote or any of its imitators is going to be too excited about that and a clever woman like Lexie could surely come up with a better reason to talk to him.

The romance is sweet without being maudlin and is the best part of the story. It just was’t good enough to keep me reading the rest. Leave No Stone Unturned has 4 1/3 stars on Amazon too, so once again my opinion is the minority. I’d give it 3 stars.

Ask Bob: A Novel by Peter Gethers Can a Vet Find Love Writing a Pet Advice Column?

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Before Ask Bob: A Novel the only books I read by Peter Gethers were about Norton, his wonderful cat. I loved the Norton books although I wasn’t quite sure I loved the author; he’s a bit fond of himself for my taste.

Ask Bob: A Novel substitutes Dr. Robert Heller for Peter Gethers narrating, but it is otherwise unmistakably by the same author. They are stylistically similar and the main human characters share common qualities and attitudes.

Dr. Bob is a young veterinarian beginning his practice in Manhattan. He and his beloved wife Anna live in the small upstairs apartment above both the practice and his partner’s larger apartment. Bob takes in strays that show up at the practice, human and animal, beginning with Rocky a small cat.

He begins to write a pet advice column in “New York’s most popular newspaper”. I enjoyed reading the introductions to each Ask Bob letter to see how he progressed, from an occasional appearance on television to a regular appearance, and from one book to three. The pet advice column was great, especially the grammatical lesson.

Ask Bob: A Novel moves quickly through the early years. Bob was so very happy with Anna and devastated when she dies of cancer. He does find love again, twice in fact, but you do have to wonder about his heart. The relationship with the last lady puzzled me. It started with instant desire but I never could see where the true love, the love that is based on one’s will and heart, vs. based only on one’s emotions and lust, was built. I did not find the character believable or likable.

The book is structured as a series of vignettes that together flow from one to the next, with Letters to Ask Bob acting as dividers between mini stories and as counterpoint. The Bob letters usually have some tie in to the vignettes.

I found a few annoyances. One was the constant reference to dysfunctional families. Bob, Anna and Bob’s eventual second wife, all came from families one could call “dysfunctional”. But don’t we all have some degree of oddness in our families? Bob describes Anna’s family as atrocious and Anna herself called her parents abusive, but when he and Anna visit them the family comes across more as sad than as awful. Anna’s mother behaved terribly at her funeral, but the other members simply were different, not living as fully as they could. Dr. Bob, (apparently as does Peter Gethers himself) does not believe in God and doesn’t miss many opportunities to say so.

What made the book excellent was Dr. Bob’s growth as a full human, not only as Dr. Heller or as Anna’s husband, but as a son, as an uncle, as a friend, as a pet owner. The man who started out feeling vulnerable and alone finds happiness with people and in his ability to give to them and to take from them in love.

Overall I enjoyed this very much and give it 5 stars.

Beautiful Day: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand Nantucket Romance Wedding Story

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Beautiful Day: A Novel is the first book I’ve read by Elin Hilderbrand. It is set on Nantucket, a location I found fascinating in Island Girls by Nancy Thayer. When I browsed Island Girls on Amazon this book, Beautiful Day came up as a “if you liked” recommendation.

I had a like / not-like reaction to Beautiful Day. I found the relationships and emotional conflicts interesting, especially in the oldest sister Margot’s guilt over her affair with her father’s partner and her betrayal of a job seeker.

But – and this is a big but – I didn’t like the characters. Bride Jenna is spoiled and silly. Supposedly she is dedicated to helping people, environmentalism, ethical mining, so on and so forth. In reality she spent $180,000 on her wedding. Really? I believe people have the right to spend their money as they choose, although I would never spend even a tenth of that on a single day, but is it consistent with a true champion of the poor? No, it is not.

Doug, Jenna’s dad, is unhappy. He is married to a woman he doesn’t love, Pauline. He misses his dead wife Beth so much it prevents him from being happy with someone else or even growing up enough to face the consequences of his rather aimless agreement to marry Pauline.

The rest of the group are no better. I didn’t like the characters and found the plot silly. There are other missteps.

For example, bride Jenna is a teacher at a low income school. She invited several of her fellow teachers to her wedding and they came. Yes, they managed to afford a 1) boat or plane trip to Nantucket, 2) a dress to fit in with a very rich crowd, 3) a hotel room on Nantucket in July on a weekend. Nope, I don’t buy that. Unless all her friends are the same as she, little rich girls playing at solidarity with the poor, it’s ridiculous.

Margot’s supposed lover, her father’s partner, turns out to have a very young real girlfriend. He used Margot and Margot, supposedly a super smart woman and great judge of character, fell for it.

Margot’s and Jenna’s mother Beth wrote Jenna the Notebook before she died with directions for her wedding.  It’s a lovely sentiment but the wonderful, loving mother that all seem to worship came across to me as careless, obsessed with material perfection and manipulative.  She suggested Jenna could wear her dress, but of course she didn’t have to, although she, Beth, was crying just thinking how lovely her little girl would be.   If Beth had been alive she would have been ghastly.

Lastly over half the bunch were cheaters.  Newlywed girl cheating with the best man.  Groom’s dad cheating with a woman, having a child.

Even the lovely Nantucket was scarcely shown.  Instead of seeing the gorgeous island sun all we read about is the 40% chance of rain.

Maybe it’s me.  This is not the type of book I usually read, but I found Island Girls by Nancy Thayer so enjoyable and liked the light, fluffy relationship story so much that I borrowed several by Nancy Thayer and similar authors from the library. I thought I’d found a new genre and new authors to enjoy.  So far all have disappointed. Guess I’m just not into wow ’em weddings, fancy clothes, cheaters and whiny brides.

Good Story, Lots of Suspense, Bit of a Fizzle at the End Images of Betrayal Claire Collins

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One way I like to find new authors and books I might not otherwise read is to get free Nook books and then check out the “people also bought” selections for the ones I like.  It works most of the time.  In fact the biggest problem is the sheer number of free Nook books available!  When I shop via my Nook and search by price, the second sort criteria is title and there are so many that I’ve never gotten past the free books with titles starting with “A”.

I don’t remember how I found Images Of Betrayal by Claire Collins (which is not free) and I wasn’t sure what I was getting. The blurb says “He possesses the remarkable ability to take photographs of events that have not yet happened.” Will this be fantasy? Science fiction? Suspense? Or? The Amazon blurb hints it’s not a fantasy about a guy who really can photograph the future: “Walker-her apparent savior, David-her new admirer”. Kinda gives it away a bit; it’s Photoshop, not a time machine.

Plot and Characters

Tysan is 17 years old and the left behind kid from her parents’ divorce.  Her mom got custody of the four younger kids and her Dad got her.  Unfortunately Dad forgot about earning a  living, paying bills and has neither interest nor intention to take care of Tysan.  In fact Dad left and left Tysan behind.  She dropped out of school to wait tables to pay the bills and working the day shift at a steakhouse she can barely make enough to stay alive.

Enter Walker, a guy in his 20s, who chats up Tysan at the restaurant and shows her some photos he took of her that show people she knows, situations she has been in, and photos he claims are of the future.  The future is horrifying, showing Tysan horribly burnt.  Walker asks Tysan to come to his home the day that the fire is supposed to occur.  Indeed, the restaurant explodes, a couple people are killed, Tysan’s friend Sheila is hurt.  She leaves Walker’s home and goes back to her own apartment terrified, shaken and now jobless.

Sheila is kind and generous and knows well that Tysan is barely able to keep her apartment.  Sh asks Tysan to come stay with her family for a while, at least until she finds another job.  Tysan and Sheila’s popular, 18 year old son David soon are on the edge of an affair.  That’s as much as I can say without spoiling the book for you.

The characters are moderately well done.  Tysan’s conversation is authentic and her relationship with her sister feels real.  Her parents are monumentally selfish, but believable too.  Sheila, Mike and David are a little less believable and Walker is only sketched in.

The Good Parts

Tysan was so convinced by Walker that we readers are almost convinced too, at least enough to get into the story and go along with it. Images Of Betrayal is fast moving, with enough suspense and creepiness to engage.

The Bad Parts

What parent in their right mind would think it was a good idea to let their teenaged son and their almost foster daughter play house in the basement?  I know lots of kids indulge in sex and lots of people don’t see anything wrong with it, but any parent who thinks it’s a great idea and encourages their kids has rocks in their heads.  Kids, especially naive vulnerable 17 year old girls who have been abandoned by their families, do not have great judgement and if you add sex to already heightened emotions, plus the hormonal stew pot, you are setting that girl up for misery.  How many teens stay happily in love with the same person from age 17 forever?  And how hard would it be for that girl to break up if she should decide to do so?

Yet this is what Sheila and Mike do at the end when they offer Tysan a home and offer to fix up the basement for her and David to share as their own home.  This is the romantic equivalent of buying the booze for your kids to have a big drinking party.

4 Stars except for the ending

Island Girls Nancy Thayer Summer Read Beach Book Romance Novel Chick Lit

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Island Girls: A Novel was a bit off the usual type of book that I read. It’s entertaining, classic beach novel, about three sisters who spend the summer together, fall in love and renew their sisterhood.

This was the first book by Nancy Thayer I have read. Our local library newsletter included this in their recent “new books” section and it sounded fun. Plus the cover was lovely with the fluttering beach umbrella. I detest books full of women having affairs and angst about marriage, careers, suburbia depression. I much prefer books about happy people or people who at least recognize happiness when it flits in and seize the joy. Island Girls: A Novel was that.

Characters

Arden is a semi-famous television personality with her own show in Boston. She’s threatened a little by a younger colleague brought in to revive ratings by appealing to younger viewers. Arden is 34, single and has not been back to Nantucket since she was exiled by her stepmother for alleged theft. Arden gets along fine with her own mother.

Meg is Arden’s half sister, 31 and also unmarried, an English professor at a community college. She feels drawn to teach at the smaller school because she is a teacher first, before a researcher. She wants to help her students and she is very good at it. Meg’s best buddy is 26 and a guy; Meg is drawn to him but fights it as she fears he will dump her like her dad dumped her mom. Meg’s mother remarried and has a new life with her husband and sons; Meg is an afterthought in their lives.

Jenny lives on Nantucket in her parents’ summer home and runs a computer business. Arden and Meg’s father adopted Jenny when she was 10, making her Arden and Meg’s stepsister. She is also 31 and gets along fine with her mother.

The mothers all appear in the book too but are not central characters. The sisters’ boyfriends and would-be boy friends have parts and their deceased father plays a role too.

Plot Plot is light and fluffy. Arden, Meg and Jenny must spend 3 months on Nantucket living together to inherit their father’s house. The house is worth over $2,000,000 so it’s worth an inconvenience or two.

Of course the girls end up renewing their sisterhood and all fall in love.

Overall This was fun and I was intrigued enough to check out vacation rentals on Nantucket. (Summer rentals start at several thousand per week; October is more reasonable.) I also checked out two more Nancy Thayer books although I suspect she will be a once a year author, not a steady diet. I’m not enjoying the second on nearly so much.

4 stars.

The Paid Companion Amanda Quick Regency Romance Suspense Jayne Ann Krentz

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The Paid Companion is a lot of fun, a good combination of romance and suspense set in Regency England. Our heroine Elenora has been cheated of her entire inheritance by her dumb and greedy stepfather and her erstwhile fiance dumped her the minute he heard she lost her fortune.

Sadly this situation happened; in the early 1800s women had no control over their own fortune and their male “guardians” could gamble it away. Elenora was not surprised when the sheriff arrived to kick her out but she was surprised when her fiance broke the engagement.

Meanwhile the hero, Arthur Lancaster, Earl of St. Merryn, has had his fiancee run away to marry another man. One of the best scenes in the book is when Arthur hears that she has bolted while at his club and makes a dry comment about the best way to secure a wife would be to look for a paid companion. Of course his friends think he is cold and unfeeling while in fact he had helped orchestrate the elopement.

Arthur wants to solve his uncle’s murder and does not want to be hounded by marriage-minded mamas and daughters. He hires Elenora to pose as his fiancee. They quickly run afoul of the villain, the mad Parker, who killed the uncle to obtain his snuffbox. The box was one of a set with a pure ruby.

The villain Parker fancies himself a great scientist, “England’s second Newton” and has set up his laboratory in a fascinating part of London, underground, accessible by a “lost river”. Amanda Quick notes that these rivers actually exist, apparently flowing under London and built over.

It’s quickly obvious to the readers and to Arthur the two lead characters are in love, but it’s not so obvious to Elenora. The book has several enjoyable plot twists and secondary characters.

The Good Points

The Paid Companion is a fun, fast read with enjoyable characters. There are secondary villains, such as Elenora’s ex fiance or Arthur’s butler that add greatly to the story. The butler especially was an excellent character; Amanda Quick took care to make him realistic and his actions plausible.

Amanda Quick took time to elaborate the setting and background of Regency England high society. This also added to the story and made it more interesting and vivid.

The Less Good

The ending was a little too pat. We knew Parker would come to a sticky end and we knew Elenora and Arthur would end up with a real engagement. When you know the ending it’s tricky getting to it with any element of surprise.

The other thing I didn’t like were the love scenes. Would a woman in Elenora’s position – a paid companion with few resources in milliue where women had few rights and unwed mothers were viewed as tramps – really risk her future on sexual intercourse? I don’t think so. Plus I don’t care for the current fashion to throw obligatory sex scenes in every novel. Is this really necessary?

Quicksilver by Amanda Quick Paranormal Romance Victorian England Jayne Krentz

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As the title says, Quicksilver: Book Two of the Looking Glass Trilogy (An Arcane Society Novel), is the sequel to the excellent contemporary romance In Too Deep. A few points make this a most unusual sequel.

    1. There is no continuity in the characters.  The two leads Virginia and Owen have a tenuous connection to Jones and Jones and the Arcane Society.  Virginia mistrusts Arcane as she feels they view people like her who make their living via their paranormal skills as frauds.  Jones and Jones contracted Owen to solve the murders of two glass readers.
    2. The author writes under different names, Jayne Ann Krentz for In Too Deep and Amanda Quick for Quicksilver
    3. Quicksilver is set in Victorian England, some 130 years before In Too Deep.  Quicksilver included a short teaser for the third book, Canyons of Night which is by Jayne Castle and set several hundred years in the future and on a different planet.  (I have read several of Jayne Castle’s science fiction/paranormal romances and enjoyed every one).

Certainly an unusual combination for a sequel!  It’s actually the second book that includes paranormal weapons made by Millicent Brightwater.  The “quicksilver” is a mirror that makes a cameo appearance at the very end of In Too Deep and then used for attempted murder in Quicksilver.

Overall

I liked Quicksilver and will continue to read books by Jayne Ann Krentz (and her other two names Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle), but I think she is an author best read in small doses, say a couple books now and then a couple more in a month or two.  I find this is true for most authors in fact.

The dialogue felt real, you could feel the gloom in the setting, and the characters’ motivations and feelings were plausible.  I didn’t care for these characters or the Victorian setting nearly as much as the contemporary In Too Deep.  The limitations that Victorian women worked under (and through) were real, but tiresome to read about.  It would have been interesting to read more about the credulous clients and those who found the paranormal – whether real or fraudulent – so popular.

The plot had a few eye-rolling moments, especially the set up at the end with the two villains.

Overall 4 Stars.

Here is my review of the earlier In Too Deep:

In Too Deep: Looking Glass Trilogy, Arcane Society, Jayne Ann Krentz