Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

Even though I've never seen the movie, I had a hard time not picturing Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski, Water for Elephants' male protagonist. Despite this, or because of it, I'm not quite sure which, I loved Sara Gruen's best-seller. Finally, months after the film was released, I got around to picking it up. And it was worth the wait.

The story opens in three different time periods almost simultaneously. The added benefit to this plot device is that I didn't have to sneak a peak at the last page to figure out how the book ends, a nasty little habit of mine. The author tells you right  up front and while some may find this ruins the book for them, it really does not detracts from the overall impact of the novel. So when you get to this point, keep reading!

The story follows Jacob, a 23 year old Cornell veterinary student through two consecutive tragedies that force a decision to leave Cornell before he can finish his final exams, and then to leave home altogether. Jacob finds himself attached to a "train" circus, and  he meets the performers, managers and workmen of this particular circus. He becomes interested in Marlena, the wife of August, the Equestrian and Menagerie Manager, a mecurial man who is, in fact, a paranoid schizophrenic. In Jacob's case, the paranoia is definitely warranted, as he and Marlena draw closer over their love for the circus animals (especially Rosie, the Polish-understanding elephant). Their mutual hatred of August and Uncle Al, the circus owner, who makes a habit of throwing workers off the circus train at night (a practice known as redlighting) draws them inevitably closer together.  When a major stampede occurs, things come to a head, literally, as Rosie takes action, and Marlena and Jacob have a decision to make.

The story takes place in 1931 with flash forwards to the present day, as Jacob retells the story of his life from his nursing home bed. These chapters tended to depress me just a bit, as the author really brings home the fact that we all grow older and sometimes change beyond our own recognition. The ending of the book redeemed itself in this regard, but I was still left looking in the mirror at my own tell-tale wrinkles and age spots.

Water for Elephants is, ultimately, an uplifting book where good (and circus animals) do triumph over evil. I'm still not sure I'd like to see the movie. Some things may be better left to the imagination.

Rainshadow Road, by Lisa Kleypas

I was hoping to break my review writing hiatus with something wonderful. And while Lisa Kleypas' newest foray into contemporary romance held a lot of promise, it fell just a tad short, not for what it didn't have, but for what it did.

The Friday Harbor series starts with the story of Mark Nolan, his niece Holly and his love interest Maggie, in the short story, Christmas at Friday Harbor. What I consider the second novel in the series, Rainshadow Road, is the story of Mark's younger brother, vineyard owner Sam, and Lucy Marinn, a local stained glass  artist. Lucy grows up with a sister who, having survived meningitis, is handed everything on a silver platter. Lucy is left with resentment and an inferiority complex. There are also hints of a special magical talent she has for turning glass into living objects. For me, the "jump the shark" moment comes early in this novel, and I tried very hard to get past it. There are more examples of these magical powers later on, and each time it happens, it just strikes a discordant tone in my head. But back to the story. When Kevin, Lucy's boyfriend of two years,  finds a new love in Lucy's aforementioned sister, Lucy swears off commitment to protect herself from hurt. 

Sam Nolan grows up as a child of alcoholic parents, and finds it easier to protect himself from hurt by running away from commitment. He too, seems to have some powers; plants turn green and flourish when he's around. His special talent, in my mind, also detracts from the story at times, but not as much as Lucy's. He meets Lucy after her break-up and we sense that something is possible between these two, but wonder if past experience with bad relationships and poor examples of parenthood are enough to keep them apart. Lucy decides to take the relationship at face value and to just have fun. But as we all know in a romance novel, that approach never quite works out as planned. 

I think Ms. Kleypas should have left well enough alone, to be honest. This could be a terrific love story, filled with wonderful characters and enough interesting familial situations that  should  carry the novel. No need, in my opinion, to throw "magic" into the mix. I believe this is worth a read, because after all, Lisa is the author of the Wallflower Series, some of my favorite books in the romance genre. As those prove (and without all the hocus pocus mind you) falling in love is magic enough.

Blame it on Bath: The Truth about the Duke

The second in Caroline Linden's new Truth about the Duke series, Blame it on Bath is the story of Lord Captain Gerard de Lacey, the youngest offspring of the late Duke of Durham. All three ducal sons  are entangled in what has come to be known as the Durham Dilemma, a situation which may find all three declared bastards and destitute. Each brother sets off on a mission to find and dismiss the rumor that their parents' marriage was illegal and their father was a bigamist.  Edward, the middle de Lacey, had his story told in the recently reviewed, One Night in London. 

Gerard is home on bereavement leave from the Peninsula Wars, and is determined to use his time to track down the blackmailer threatening his family and his livelihood. He finds himself propositioned into marriage by the widow Lady Katherine Howe. A merchant's daughter who married a viscount, Katherine is starved for attention and affection and finds herself still in love with Gerard, years after a chance encounter on a rainy country road.  She needs this marriage in order to extricate herself from the expectation of a match to her dead husband's heir. Lacking any self-confidence, Kate sees Gerard as her ticket out of the quandary heavily promoted by her formidable mother. Fortunately for her, Gerard needs an heiress to marry in order to guarantee his income should the Durham Dilemma resolve itself against the De Lacey's. And so, after much thought, he agrees to the marriage.

I loved this book because Gerard himself is so very lovable. He's the quintessential romance hero. Despite an arranged marriage, he tries to make a go of it and when faced with Kate's insecurity complex, he takes his time to coax her (both in bed and out) from her shell. She begins to truly believe in herself for the first time in her life and in return, earns Gerard's love for herself as well.  The blackmail story becomes the backdrop for this beautiful love story set in Bath.

Blame it on Bath is out on February 28, 2011. I look forward to reading elder brother and heir, Charles' story. I've found that this novel is incrementally better than the previous one. If that continues to be the case,  the last in this series will surely not disappoint, especially since Charles has the furthest to go to redemption.

Mariana, by Susanna Kearsley

The lure of Susanna Kearsley's story telling in both The Winter Sea and The Rose Garden was just too much, so I couldn't resist reading Mariana. If you enjoy this author, resistance is futile. You won't be disappointed, as Mariana is more than up to the task of settling in right among those two wonderful novels.

Julia Beckett is drawn to one particular  farmhouse in Exbury. Known as Greywethers, and located adjacent to Crofton Hall, the seat of the de Mornay family, the 16th century house calls to her from childhood, and as an adult of 29, with a job as an illustrator for children's books, she has the wherewithal to purchase it. As she settles in, she becomes aware of coincidences and what can coyly be described as side effects, of living there. She sees a gray stallion with a mysterious rider, who seems to be watching her from a copse of trees. Then, she has what seem to be a series of hallucinations. She finds herself in the Greywethers of the 1660's, as Mariana Farr, a girl who has come to live with her devout uncle during the plague years in London. As she comes back to herself after each "episode," Julia realizes that these are not hallucinations, or the product of too little sleep, but something quite different, and she feels compelled to continue her journeys into the past in order to experience the love that Richard de Mornay had for Mariana, and by doing so, answer questions that pertain to her own life.

Ms. Kearsley's secondary characters which include Julia's vicar brother Tom,  Geoff de Mornay (the owner of Crofton Hall), her friend Vivian, Vivian's Aunt Freda and Geoff's friend Iain Sumner, pull the story together and add the puzzle pieces that completes the picture of both Julia and Mariana's lives. While Mariana's tale is a compelling, tragic, but somewhat predictable love story, Julia's happy ending comes in the form of a lovely surprise, one we may have suspected at first, but brushed aside for a different outcome. I was happy to see that my first impression was correct in this case.

Mariana, like all of Ms. Kearsley's novels, pushes the envelope of reality without actually breaking through the seal. The story telling is so good that we put aside our doubts and questions and truly believe that the basis of these stories are entirely plausible. As with the other two wonderful novels I reviewed here, I didn't want to turn the last page. It's hard to find an author so adept at suspending reality and taking her readers along for the ride. I'm grateful to have found this one.

She Tempts the Duke (The Lost Lords of Pembrook) by Lorraine Heath

They called them the Lost Lords of Pembrook.  They are in reality three young men, one meant to inherit a dukedom, who disappeared years ago only to reappear twelve years later to claim the inheritance their unscrupulous uncle wants to take from them. Sebastian, the 8th Duke of Keswick, was 14 when his father died and his uncle locked him, his twin brother Tristan, and his younger brother Rafe in the tower at their ancestral home of Pembrook.  Uncle David's intent was clear. He would murder the three as he had murdered his own brother and assume the title for himself in retribution for his brother marrying Sebastian's mother.

Lady Mary Wynne-Jones, 12 year old neighbor, best friend to Sebastian, and daughter to the Earl of Winslow, overhears David's plans and manages to free the young lords. The boys then disappear into the night, each to live the next 12 years in their own exiles of hell before they come back together in dramatic fashion in order to take back what's rightfully theirs. In the escape, they leave Mary behind. She in turn, suffers her own form of exile when her father finds out exactly what she did that night and why.

Lorraine Heath's characters are horribly scarred psychologically by their ordeal. Sebastian even carries these scars as a physical manifestation, which adds to the dark undertones running rampant through this ultimately wonderful love story. The entire second half of the book is devoted to what we hope will be Sebastian's ultimate redemption, and the beating back of his demons and his unnatural need for retribution. Mary tries to break through the wall that surrounds this damaged grown up little boy, but it's only when Sebastian realizes what truly matters, that she succeeds. But will that realization come too late?

In the first of  a series of three novels, Ms. Heath takes us to the darkest reaches of despair and makes us wonder if perhaps this is the first time we will read a novel in this genre where a main character is so far  beyond all repair.  And seeing how this novel turned out, I can't help but hope that Tristan and Rafe's stories will follow in very short order. Published February 1, 2012.

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae by Stephanie Laurens

Congratulations are in order. I am the owner of a brand new Kindle Touch. And to christen my latest bundle of technological joy, I immediately downloaded an advanced readers’ copy of Stephanie Laurens’ The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae. This is the third novel in the Cynster Sisters Triology and, as usual, Ms. Laurens delivers. Get ready, romance lovers. We have another winner.

The fun begins at a ton ball where a split second decision to act by the desperate Dominic Lachlan Guisachan, eighth Earl of Glencrae, changes the course of Angelica Cynster’s privileged, if somewhat mundane life. But the Scottish earl’s reputation as a dastardly villain does not accurately reflect this gentleman’s true nature; there is more to the story than meets the eye, for Angelica’s mother and Dominic’s father share a history – a history that the current Countess of Glencrae is none too happy about.  Irrationally jealous, Dominic’s mother steals a precious artifact – a goblet earmarked to be the financial salvation of the clan – and sets a ransom for its return. Dominic must deliver to her a Cynster, specifically a ruined Cynster. Then and only then will she hand over the goblet.  Dominic’s first two attempts at abduction (In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster and Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue) end in failure, but the third is the charm as Angelica turns out to be more cooperative than Dominic could have hoped. But Angelica has her own motives for assisting. She’s convinced Dominic is her hero, her one and only true love, and it’s just a matter of time before he reciprocates in kind.

Every book in Ms. Laurens’ Cynster series is well written with engaging protagonists in truly sigh-worthy romances.  The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae, the latest and perhaps my favorite of all, does the franchise proud.

Bond Girl, by Erin Duffy

In this stellar debut novel, Erin Duffy proves that "write what you know" is great advice indeed. Ms. Duffy, who spent years in the financial industry, spins the story of UVA alum Alex Garrett who, fresh from graduation, begins work at the Wall Street trading firm Cromwell, Pierce. Alex has known all her life that the financial industry is where she wants to make her mark. In a brilliant and almost too precocious light bulb moment at age eight, after visits to her father's place of work, Alex realizes that everything she's told not to do and everything she is undervalued for as a child, is actually permissible and admired on a trading floor.

At twenty-two, Alex arrives at Cromwell and meets her boss "Chick" Ciccone, and her assorted group of co-workers, all male, all older and all anxious to show the new "girlie" where she belongs on the office totem pole. What Alex does is turn her role as resident gopher into a chance to prove to herself and to them that she belongs, and over time she does just that. Some of the mistakes she makes on her way up her learning curve are quite hysterical, and her boss's punishments don't quite fit the "crimes" but we laugh at them anyway. Alex is faced with some challenges in the form of a duplicitous office love interest, a client who shows a bit too much enthusiasm for Alex's spare time, and the financial crisis of 2008. In true chic lit fashion, she overcomes it all, and comes out of it way ahead of the game.

For a debut novel, Ms. Duffy does an excellent job in serving up a fast-paced, absorbing page turner. Alex's embarrassment, trials and triumphs are all experienced first and center by the reader and by the end of the novel, we're ready to cheer her on to the next great thing she undertakes. It's an engaging story, very well-written, although the subject matter once again reminds me why I didn't study finance in graduate school. While it's a complicated subject to master, it's a heck of a lot of fun to read about. Highly recommend, and out on February 1, 2012. Published by William Morrow.