The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty

When the most important person to you in the world asks you not to do something, would you do it anyway? Would you trust that person enough? Evidently Cecelia Fitzpatrick couldn't, and it took just a little odd behavior by her husband, John-Paul, to open up his "in the event of my death letter" over his objections, and thus seal her family's fate.

This engaging story by Liane Moriarty brings together three families. The Crowleys lost their daughter Janie to a murderer when she was just 17 years old. Years later, Rachel, her mother, is still mired in depression and guilt. Tess Curtis, whose best friend in the world is her cousin Felicity, and Tess' husband Will, are caught in a love and life triangle that shows signs of ripping apart their entire family. Caught up in this is Connor Whitby, Tess' ex-boyfriend and a key player in the Crowley family saga. And then we have the Fitzpatricks with their three daughters, and Cecelia, their perfect mother, torn by her desire to do the right thing, yet finding out that the doing right thing will change her life forever.

An especially intriguing part of the book was the epilogue, filled with what ifs and glimpses of a future that never will be that leaves the reader with  a sense of the road not traveled. It's an excellent plot device.

A tangled story of lives in a North Sydney suburb, The Husband's Secret tests the loyalty and trust between husbands and wives,  mothers and their children, friends and relatives and asks the ultimate question. How far would you go to protect everything you hold dear?

Summer is for Lovers, by Jennifer McQuiston

More often than not, I find myself lamenting the writing style of authors in the historical romance genre. Either the language is too simple or too modern, the setting and descriptions not appropriate, or the protagonists too insipid and their stories too predictable. In Summer is for Lovers, Ms. McQuiston is pitch perfect. This is a story to be read slowly, the better to appreciate the effort the author obviously took in writing it.  It's also set in my favorite season and location for love stories; summertime and near a body of water.

Summer is for Lovers is set in Brighton, England. Caroline Tolbertson and David Cameron first meet when Caroline is twelve. An avid and accomplished swimmer, familar with a stretch of hidden beach and its dangerous peccadillos, Caroline saves David, a young man in the military, from what appears to be a drowning brought on by excess drink. For the next eleven years, David is all Caroline can think about, becoming her fantasy whenever she thinks of love.  The townspeople of Brighton and the summer set down from London every year, however, see her in a not all together flattering light. Her height, her lean swimmer's build and her family's lack of money all contribute to her self-doubt. That is until David Cameron comes back into her life.

David fights a ghost of his past, and holds Caroline and her wish to turn fantasy into  reality at bay. But he can keep the battle up for only so long. He is the only one who sees Caroline for what she really is. And in trying to get the rest of their circle to see it also, he inadvertently puts her in a position of leaving him behind. He cannot have her, yet he doesn't want anyone else to have her either.

The culmination comes in an exciting swim race that sees our protagonists work together for a common goal. David, meanwhile, realizes that his past is something he is not entirely at fault for and begins to forgive himself.   Caroline learns that propriety, love, self-worth and following one's own desires are not mutually exclusive.

This is an extremely well-written, absolutely lovely tale of two hearts who fight a strong battle against the tide to be together. Filled with secondary characters (one of whom gets her own sequel) worthy of the main story, Summer is for Lovers is an historical romance that gets a highly recommend from me. Excellent!!

The Ruin of a Rogue, The Wild Quartet #2, by Miranda Neville

At first, I had trouble shaking the feeling that I had read this book before, which, logically, I know, was impossible. But within the first two chapters I realized that the characters were like old friends; Caro, Denton, "Castleton, the Stuffy Duke," Robert Townsend, even our female protagonist, heiress Anne Brotherton, were all characters that I already liked and knew well from Miranda Neville's previous efforts in this series. It  was like returning to catch up with old, well-loved friends.

The story of Marcus Lithgow, newly minted Viscount Lithgow, gamester, cheat, possible thief and now, desperately in pursuit of a fortune through marriage with Anne Brotherton, the heiress of Camber, starts out like the telling of Henry James' Washington Square, albeit across the pond and a century earlier. Like Morris, Marcus worms his way into Anne's heart  with one goal in mind. And like Catherine Sloper, Anne ferrets out his real intentions and seeks to teach him a lesson that Marcus  won't soon forget. Unlike Catherine and Morris, however, Anne and Marcus find the tables turned on both of them when their attraction grows despite their trickery. When Marcus inherits a small estate, he finds he has something she wants as well. But instead of taking advantage of that, Marcus finds a purpose in life, something honorable involving hard work and dedication that leads him back to Anne.

With a marvelous plot line,  this story of redemption and forgiveness is excellent reading. Like all Ms. Neville's novels, the characters are well-developed (flawed yet lovable), the secondary characters add so much, and the situations are not easily resolved. When they are however, the results are so satisfying. Highly highly recommend!!

I Married the Duke, by Katherine Ashe

If this first novel in The Prince Catcher's series is any indication, I will anxiously await the next two books, sisters' Eleanor and Ravenna's stories. Katherine Ashe, in I Married the Duke, brings us the story of Arabella, the middle sister of three motherless daughters in search of their father after a disastrous shipwreck. With a prophesy from a gypsy woman regarding an heirloom they hold, Arabella sets off to find and marry the Prince who will lead them to their heritage. Instead of her Prince, she finds Lucien Westfall, a French Comte from his mother's side and an heir to a dukedom on his father's. An "imperfect" hero, Luc is nevertheless perfect for Arabella, despite her somewhat stringent requirements in a groom.

I Married the Duke is a love story, told in fits and starts, two steps forward, one step backward fashion. Ms. Ashe weaves together the stories of two disparate and dysfunctional families into one, a paradigm for any modern marriage.  Wonderful secondary characters abound. Luc's cousin Cam and his naval friend Tony move the story forward while adding necessary intrigue and dash. One hopes that these two will one day get their own happily ever afters.

This novel is different in that the hero is physically impaired, and the outcome of the relationship, let alone the protagonist's individual survival, is left in doubt in many places. It's a story that's riveting, colorful and so much better for all the twists and turns.

Well written, well thought out, highly recommend.

Love and Other Scandals, by Caroline Linden

Caroline Linden is one of my favorite Romance authors, and the reason why is clear in one page of any of her novels. Her writing is intelligent, her characters strong, witty and yet vulnerable at the same time, and all of her stories come with a cast of characters each worth a story of their own. Love and Other Scandals is definitely not the exception to this rule.

Joan Bennet first meets Tristan Burke, Viscount Burke, when her brother Douglas brings him home for a school holiday. In a prologue worthy of an entire chapter, Linden sets the scene for the coming years, and the future interactions between an orphaned and unloved young Viscount and a headstrong, not quite fashionable young lady. The real story begins when Joan is 24, an almost "on the shelf" spinster with strong ties to her mother's unerringly strict rules of behavior and dress. At first, Tristan is intrigued by Joan's impertinence, and can't help but give back as good as he gets from her. As he spends more time with her at the behest of her brother Douglas (who I'm hoping gets a story of his own), things change, and what was once unattractive about Joan begins to draw Tristan nearer.

The story is more than the typical romance of this genre. In each other, both characters learn to accept themselves for what they are, while at the same time, growing in ways they hadn't imagined. Tristan learns that he is deserving of love and that his reputation does not have to define him. Joan learns that she doesn't have to depend on her mother for guidance, and that she can find her own voice, be it in the clothes she wears,  her choice in reading material (think 19th century version of 50 Shades of Grey), or the man she chooses to love.

Great characters, good story and a very lovely ending that is really a beginning for these two. Well done, Ms. Linden, as usual. Highly recommend.

When I Find You, by Dixie Lee Brown

"If I were you, I'd find someone I could trust and stick with him ..."


Darcy may not be married to the mob, but she's close enough to feel the pressure. Too close. So when her boss becomes the victim of a professional hit and she's forced to run, she heads for the relative safety of home.  But being on the lam is just a bit more complicated than she thought because now there's not a soul she can trust. Not Grant, the good looking law student who offers her a lift. Not Cooper, the U.S. Marshall assigned to her case, and certainly not Walker, the rogue combat vet who claims to be one of the good guys. But surviving means she has to trust someone and Darcy picks the one man who seems the most interested in keeping her alive. And while she may be physically safe - for the moment - her emotional safety is far from secure.

Ms. Brown has a way with suspense; I didn't know who to trust either, up to almost the very end of the book. Her writing is precise, with just the right amount of snappy dialogue laced with humor and heat. Ms. Brown is adept at changing the point of view between the characters, particularly Darcy and Walker - and especially later in the book, when things were really rocking and rolling. This made up for some confusion in the first few chapters, when Ms. Brown backs up over the plot from the two different POVs. The technique is distracting as Darcy's desperation calls for nothing but rapid forward progress. Not a value add in terms of the story and, IMHO, it would have worked better without it. Despite all that, I adored the characterizations. Darcy's hidden strengths surprised me, while the hero's humanity and honor won me over completely. I loved the story, loved the characters and loved the book. Edge of your seat stuff, folks.  Well done!

Big Girl Panties, by Stephanie Evanovich

Holly Brennan has no idea what she's in for when she steps on a plane coming back from a business meeting in Toronto. When she's seated next to Logan Montgomery, she catches his slight whiff of disdain over her body, and the logistics of sitting next to an overweight woman. Logan, a personal trainer with his own gym, impulsively takes Holly on as his "project," which results in so much more than Logan's own version of The Ugly Duckling with a little Pygmalion thrown in.

Filled with humor, a little kink and a lot of personal growth, Big Girl Panties is an oddity in today's contemporary romance genre. While Holly does lose weight and get into shape under Logan's tutelage and her own perserverence, she does remain against type, and that's what makes this novel so endearing. One would think that all the personal growth was on Holly's side. After all, she has to overcome isolation, loneliness, guilt over her husband's death, and a horrid upbringing, in order to curb her emotional eating. That's all fine and expected in this kind of story and Holly does do a superb job doing just that. But Logan too, needs to put his big boy shorts on and grow up. His growth comes from realizing that he can move beyond his own image others have of him (and what he has of himself), stop caring about what others think, and learn to not only think for himself, but put aside everything else to gain his own happiness. I enjoyed Logan's awakening more than I did Holly's, actually.

The novel is filled with good advice on emotional eating and fitness, probably not intentional as they fit totally into the story, but I got that out of it as well. The only recommendation I have is to cut Chase and Amanda's backstory to a minimum. I'm unaware if these two have appeared in a previous novel, although I have a feeling that would explain why they get so much "press" in this book. If that's the case, and even if it's not, I really didn't need to know the details of their early relationship. Hey, whatever works! I don't think the two or three pages explaining their back story was necessary. One or two sentences could have done it. At times, their narration took away from Holly and Logan, and that's a pity. While an interesting secondary couple, their story should not impinge on the main event, especially when the main event is so darn good!

Really good contemporary romance with more than one twist. I highly recommend it.