Desert Heat -- Cindy Gerard

**novella -- originally published as part of Rescue Me anthology alongside:

• Tropical Heat by Cherry Adair
• Atlanta Heat by Lora Leigh

I love Cindy Gerard!  A little Cindy Gerard novella to keep me over until I start reading her One-Eyed Jacks books in January (That's in two days!  Yes.  I'm on a schedule here.)

This was an enjoyable and fun, fast-paced read. Standard Cindy Gerard characters, bantering, sexy times, and suspense and action. A little on the formulaic Cindy Gerard Romantic Suspense-side, so it was predictable.

But I still loved it!  I'm not even certain that I'm able to dislike a Cindy Gerard book anymore.

This book was so and so..There were lots of flaws with it: the story was predictable and the characters felt flat. One of the female protagonists did absolutely nothing.

The idea was kinda of okay I guess: there are witches in our world but in hiding. There are good ones and bad ones. And one of the bad ones has an evil plan to take over the world.

I wonder if there is still time to close this year with a good read. Maybe a good short story? I might have time to finish the 'The lottery' tomorrow.

**Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Deep in the Valley -- Robyn Carr

Book 1 of Grace Valley trilogy

After two months of putting it off, apparently I was still bound and determined to finish this book for reasons I don't think I will ever understand. While things DO happen throughout the book and there are moments of excitement, really, a whole lot of NOTHING actually happens in this entire book. It's really just an accounting of several, everyday mundane activities surrounding the people of Grace Valley with a lot of side tangents, Cliff's Notes history-telling of the town's founding and development, talk of drug runners and DEA agents crawling all over the mountains, and a lot of domestic abuse.

And for a Contemporary Romance, there is extremely little romance. What little romance there is in this book isn't even easily acceptable by yours truly, if only because we REALLY take instalove to a higher level. There were three prominent interactions between the heroine and her love interest before the word "love" started getting thrown around. And so the main romance for our main heroine, June Hudson, was barely even there. There were three encounters and this love interest can't even be filed under the category of main hero or even main character because he's never even in the story.

After the first meeting in which our love interest pretends to faint so that he's no longer holding a gun on her and so his criminal partner wouldn't be suspicious of him, June is obsessed with said love interest. She speculates that he MUST be an undercover law enforcement agent because there's absolutely NO WAY she could fall for someone who's a criminal--because that makes so much sense... Then he shows up again and suddenly the two are contemplating becoming a couple. And then the guy keeps entering her home and doing little things for her, like feeding her dog and leaving flowers on her bed WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE. And she's okay with this. He even shows up in her home, waiting for her when she comes home... and again, she's okay with this.

Because obviously he's a good person because, and she repeats over again, she would never fall for the criminal type and because he'd pretended to faint so that he wouldn't be pointing a gun at her anymore.

It would actually be a nice Meet Cute if there had been more interaction between these two before the instalust and instalove got thrown out there. Because, yes, he turns out to be one of the good guys... except I still don't see how that justifies him just wandering into June's home without being invited first. I mean, during their second meeting, June was even hesitant about inviting him into her house while she was there because that would be taking their relationship to a higher level than she's prepared for. And yet, when she's NOT at home, he's just making himself at home. Because when is it ever okay for some strange man to just show up in your home whenever he feels like it without your knowledge, even in a community where no one locks their doors?

Anyway as for the rest of the book: character interactions were awkward, lots of decision-making processes made little sense, and despite being a small town priding themselves on being close-knit and there for each other, these people don't even know how to communicate with each other properly nor look out for each other properly considering all the bad stuff that happens throughout the book that could have been avoided if people really DID just step up and try to help each other.

Anyway... rambling aside (so much for not planning on writing a review), I'm not sure if I'll continue reading the rest of these books if they are written in the same vein of logic. Because for a Romance, this book has very little of that; for a piece of Chick Lit, self-revelation piece about a woman's ticking biological clock, there's also very little development in that aspect as well.

Spinning Starlight -- R.C. Lewis

**This book is a fairy tale retelling based on The Wild Swans, according to sources.  It is a sister spin-off from Stitching Snow, but takes place in a different world with different characters, so does NOT require reading Stitching Snow first.

This is one of those books where I really can't think of anything to say aside from a few generic "This was an enjoyable book, but some things just didn't work out for me," comments. Of course, I say this, but in the end, I always end up rambling up a storm when random thoughts start to hit me as I write.

Spinning Starlight really is quite enjoyable and attention-hooking, with a great premise, great world-building, great characters, great story-telling, and great narration.

But it's not my pick for "really, really, really awesome read" if only because of a few factors:

First: The world building is creative. I thought the same of Stitching Snow--kind of a Star Wars meets Fairy Tale worlds retelling type of deal. But the world in Spinning Starlight is just so much more complex... and confusing. I can tell a lot of thought was put into the world creation and it's pretty awesome. That is, it would have been very awesome if I had a better understanding of the world, its' cultures, and the tech and the people and the history. But I got lost a lot reading some of the tech explanations, about the portals, about the Khua, about the conduits, about the planets... I'm not even sure if it was just me or if the book really was that confusing.

Second: The main villain was mostly absent throughout. And so the main conflict--Liddi's brother's safety and the safety of the entire universe in general--had to be the one factor everything hinges on for Liddi's actions and decisions. Which, in a way, isn't too bad, but it made our main villain seem kind of insignificant

Third: The romance felt lackluster really. And I'm not even sure why because there's a great development from savior to friendship to romance. Liddi and Tiav are pretty great together. But they don't seem to have much chemistry.

Lastly: The other characters felt very back-seated. There was so much to learn and so many new people to meet and everyone seems to have their own uniqueness. But none of what was presented felt like it was enough for me. I would have liked to know more about Kalkig and how his hostile relationship develops into a reluctant alliance with Liddi. I would have liked to see more about Tiav's mother Shiin. I would have liked to get to know Liddi's eight brothers a bit more. And I would have liked to learn more about the Aelo and the other alien races introduced.

This book felt entirely too short, but at the same time, the main plot felt like it dragged along without really getting anywhere.


But this book isn't without things that I liked about it.

Again, the story premise, narration, writing, attention-to-detail, and world creation was wonderful! Even the characters, given more of a chance to shine, would have been excellent. I especially loved the relationship between Liddi and her brothers being such a tight knit and close one. And given more time and more story, I would have loved to see all the new friendships and alliances Liddi forms throughout with Kalkig, with Quain, with Yilt, or with Spin-Still.

See. Lots of names, lots of characters, lots of interactions (as much interacting as a girl who cannot speak can do), but little insight into these characters and their defining relationships with Liddi. Sure, you can see a connection of some sort forming between our heroine and these side characters; but there's not chemistry, no feels, no intrigue to bind them. The interactions feel lackluster, much like the romance felt lackluster.

On the other hand, I DO like the way in which Liddi's inability to speak was handled. How she communicated with each character was done quite well, even if I'm maybe a little doubtful that all the characters could so very easily pick up Liddi's meaning without elaborate pictures and pantomiming. Still, her communication with everyone without actually speaking and without knowing a written language was interesting enough, and the author didn't make it easy on her just because she's the special heroine.

This book also does a great job of emphasizing the troubles that people have with media and social networking--how easily and readily other people use it as a means to cut other people down because they can, how easily it is for another person's private matters to be broadcast into the public... etc. At first, I thought the little tidbits of Liddi's childhood flashbacks were kind of awkward, but I ended up liking them by the end.

Back to Liddi and her brothers, again, I loved the interaction and relationship between them and wished we could have seen more of that. In fact, there were some feels to be had and it DID help in favor of me liking this book more.


Anyway, of course this supposedly "short" review becomes a bit more rambling than I had intended.

Spinning Starlight is enjoyable and entertaining, well-written and well-thought out. It's safe to say I will still be watching out for future works by R.C. Lewis and am now a bit interested in the fairy tale that this book is based upon (The Wild Swans? I think.)

Risky Christmas -- anthology

• Holiday Secrets by Jill Sorenson
• Kidnapped At Christmas by Jennifer Morey

This dual-story anthology has some good points and some bad points.

Holiday Secrets got better as the story progressed, with a typical Romantic Suspense plot and the usual instalust/instalove romance device. But it's still not much to write home about. I'd say that this is not Jill Sorenson's best work as I have immensely enjoyed the two Aftershock novels of hers. Obviously it's a little harder to pack too much development into a short novella, and the entire story came to a close before I even realized it was there.

Kidnapped At Christmas was a more fleshed out plot with a better romantic development, but a somewhat scattered narration. And also we have a TSTL heroine, and so it lost some points. But overall, it was attention-hooking and entertaining in its own way. Still, it was a fairly mediocre read as a Romantic Suspense and also, I feel like Chloe talks too much and spends too much time telling us things we can deduce on our own. Also, the romance was a little wonky to stand behind.

Overall, this makes for an okay Christmastime read.