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I loved this one. It had everything I like about Tara Janzen’s writing, was missing the stuff I usually complain about, and had extra things I loved too.
This instalment gives us a woman blackmailed by the CIA into delivering weapons to the bad guys....more
I loved this one. It had everything I like about Tara Janzen’s writing, was missing the stuff I usually complain about, and had extra things I loved too.
This instalment gives us a woman blackmailed by the CIA into delivering weapons to the bad guys. Another woman is running away from a bunch of nuns who may or may not be pregnant, because she’s witnessed a few murders. There's a heroine who accessorises her BDUs with a headband and some snack food, and keeps a spare lipstick in the pocket of her tactical vest. And we have a hero who spent his first day with the heroine picking broken glass out of her butt.
He had to wonder if it was always like this with her – going to bed with a sophisticated, elegantly chic woman of the world, and waking up with Sheena of the Jungle.
This is the seventh Steele Street book, and it takes the series in a new direction. The first six – with ‘Crazy’ in the titles – were centred in Denver, Colorado, USA. They were all about muscle cars and terrorists of every nationality and persuasion running around the streets. I enjoyed each and every one of those books. This one, however, doesn’t even set foot on US soil until the very end. We’re in Latin America with the two brilliant characters we met in book #6 – Crazy Sweet.
When the last book finished, C. Smith Rydell had kissed Honoria York-Lytton goodbye after their one night stand, and put her on a plane out of the warzone of the Latin American city they’d been stuck in together. Now Honoria – Honey – a ‘Park Avenue Princess’ is back, a briefcase handcuffed to her wrist, and fears for the life of her little sister (who’s a nun) – and C. Smith is ordered to be her bodyguard. Together they have to make a delivery to a notorious drug lord (who just happens to be the hero of the next book).
Honey is a wonderful disaster of a heroine. I love her because she’s one of those people everyone always makes incorrect assumptions about. Someone who’s blonde and attractive and cares about her ‘outfits’…everyone takes one look at her and underestimates. She never becomes a military ninja or anything, but there are plenty of layers to who she is.
“Nice green shirt,” he said, noticing she’d gotten something clean out of her suitcase. She’d also secured her handcuffs to her belt loop, which he thought was damn cute.
“It’s not green,” she grumbled.
Could have fooled him.
“It’s chartreuse.”
Of course it was, and now he knew.
C. Smith Rydell (and we find out the reason for his ‘C.’ first name here) is everything you could want in a hero, and then some. Most importantly, he’s funny, and the way he approaches Honey and their relationship is funny.
“You are such a jerk.”
…“I know.” He’d been told quite a few times, but never by anybody who looked like her. Nobody looked like her, so perfect, and yet not quite. Being with her all day, he’d noticed a few intriguing flaws. “Two of your bottom teeth are crooked.”
She was nodding, her expression intent.
Women were so sweet that way, always trying to help a guy out with his conversation.
I know that some readers missed Steele Street and the shenanigans over there, and yes, I love all of that too. But we had six books of it. I don’t always love when an author makes such major changes to their series, but here it was a good decision. I could read about Steele Street forever more, but this change keeps the series fresh.
These books are my top ‘guilty pleasure’. Everything’s just a tad over the top, and the characters are larger than life and almost always hilarious. I can honestly say I’ve never read a book like this before. My favourite so far.(less)
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" Thank you!
These cover models might look pretty, but I wish they were more appropriate for the books. This guy is absolutely NOT an 18th century Highla...more
Thank you!
These cover models might look pretty, but I wish they were more appropriate for the books. This guy is absolutely NOT an 18th century Highlander. He looks ridiculous on this cover.
Lisa Kay wrote: "Thanks, Zosia, for another prodigious, extraordinary, exceptional review…oops, ‘waxing’ poetic here (pun intended)."
Thanks for all the adjectives - I hadn't already seen too many or anything!
Jill - I hope your copy arrived. Mine came from The Book Depository, and I was surprised how quickly it got here.
Tammy - I'm very wise, but only because of you! Good thing I saw your rating, because I would never have heard of this book otherwise.(less)
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Wow, I liked this a lot and I’m not entirely sure why.
I struggle with historical romance (not so much historical fiction, where we’re not expected to lust after the hero and the lifestyle). My problem is that back when these stories are set the women...more
Wow, I liked this a lot and I’m not entirely sure why.
I struggle with historical romance (not so much historical fiction, where we’re not expected to lust after the hero and the lifestyle). My problem is that back when these stories are set the women were hairy and the men stinky. I can’t make myself imagine the characters as the guy on the cover of this book: straight from four hours at the gym, a seriously painful chest wax and some major hairstyling to go with that immaculate outfit.
What really appealed to me about this book was that it didn’t make the life the characters were living too appealing. People WERE dirty, and they WERE uncomfortable. Sure, about two thirds of the way through the surroundings transformed Cinderella-style, but at least I got a sense of realism about it. So much better.
Sure, there were plenty of instances throughout where I cringed at the modern Americanisms coming out of the early 18th century British characters’ mouths, but the author created such a great sense of time and place that I was more willing to forgive the inaccuracies than I usually am.
Lady Amelia Templeton is engaged to the English ‘war hero’ who saved her father’s life. One night she wakes to find Highlander Duncan MacLean standing over her, axe raised to kill her. When he discovers she isn’t the man he came to kill, he takes her with him as bait. From there – naturally – it’s only a matter of time before they fall in love, despite pretty much being enemies.
What I really liked was that even though Amelia was attracted to Duncan, she did stay conflicted for most of the book. Sure, her capitulation was far too fast to be realistic, but at least she did make some attempts to escape, and was still uncertain about whether or not the horrible stories about her English fiancé were true. I definitely don’t believe a woman from the heart of great and mighty English society would have taken only a week or so to turn her back on everything she was raised to believe in (the British Empire didn’t grow to what it became due to compassion for other cultures!), but I’m glad she struggled right up until the end.
I liked some of the twists and turns in the plot – call me stupid, but I actually didn’t see a lot of them coming – and I liked Duncan’s character very much. Even when wore a ruffled shirt and a waist-length curly wig. He seemed to get over his murdered fiancée very fast, but I was glad we weren’t treated to one of those moments of, “I love the heroine so much more than I ever loved the first woman” – I hate those.
On the downside, the plot moved far too fast for me to believe it. Your fiancée was gang raped and brutally murdered a year ago, and yet in the space of a week you’re willing to give up your quest for revenge? Because you’re suddenly in love with the murderer’s woman? No. The story could have taken place over a longer period of time and I would’ve been more inclined to buy Duncan’s complete about-face.
Julianne MacLean clearly loves her thesaurus. There wasn’t a noun in the book that didn’t come with an adjective attached to it. It took me a little while to deal with that, as I’m not a fan of overly descriptive writing.
The author also has a tendency to go all purple prose on us at crucial moments. I might even have preferred she write about ‘manroots’ or ‘Mr Happy’ instead of those endless references to ‘his passion’.
I also had some major issues with the sequel-baiting in this one. The ending of the book felt a teensy bit rushed, and we’re left with the belief the hero of the next book is the bad guy. Surely it’s not the whole story, and I felt duped by that plot device. It was unnecessary to bring that big twist in right at the end – especially as there is clearly more to his actions and we’ll learn about it later in the series.
Yes, I had a few problems with this book. But for entertainment value it’s excellent. Just enough dark and nasty to go with the cross-country adventure. I mean, hey, the book kept me up until four in the morning!(less)
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Stormfire
by
Christine Monson
recommended to Zosia by:
Jill
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“You little bitch! I ought to break your neck, but I have a better way of breaking you.”
2.5 stars
I’m no doubt going to have spoilers in this review, but as some second-hand sellers are asking around US$90 for Christine Monson’s mid-80s piece of me...more
“You little bitch! I ought to break your neck, but I have a better way of breaking you.”
2.5 stars
I’m no doubt going to have spoilers in this review, but as some second-hand sellers are asking around US$90 for Christine Monson’s mid-80s piece of melodrama, chances are if you were ever going to read it, you already have. (Thanks to Jill for sending it to me so I didn’t have to pay!)
I was most certainly prepared for anything and everything to happen in Stormfire, as the book is ridiculously notorious. So maybe I wasn’t as shocked as I would have been if I’d gone into it with no idea of what to expect.
I suppose your tolerance for the leads in this one will come down to whether or not you believe partial castration is punishment enough for rape.
It’s hard to decide what part best defines the book.
It could be Sean and Catherine’s first night together:
One hand left its bruising grip on her arm, and he backhanded her across the face.
“Hold still! Your nose is bleeding like a river.”
…Sensing the trigger to her fear, he deliberately smeared her breasts with his blood…
As if giving a death blow to an enemy, Sean rammed himself into her body with all the hatred pent in him, felt fragile membrane tear and heard her scream in agony. He thrust harshly, savaging her, fingers biting into flesh when she twisted as if to escape a knife stabbing into her vitals. His hatred burst into her in a flood.
After which a servant tells Catherine:
“Most of his black rage is spent on himself. I truly don’t think he would hurt ye.”
Or perhaps it’s the way he thanks her for trying to do the right thing:
Severing the bonds at her ankles with a single jerk, he threw her to the floor and assaulted her. Hating, hurting, until all she could feel was his hatred, permeating her soul. There was nothing he didn’t do to her.
He struck her with all his force, sending her spinning to fall against the desk corner. Catherine clung to the rim, almost fainting with pain that lanced through her side.
“Well, you were bent on breaking her, boyo, and now she’s broken. Three ribs, collarbone, and left leg in two places. Those jagged ribs were like knives. One of Marie Antoinette’s gowns couldn’t have required more stitches.” He dragged at the bottle. “She lost the baby on the table.”
What happens between our hero and heroine in this one?
Kidnapping, backhand across the face, rape, slavery, mouth scrubbed out with soap, shackled around the neck, rape, chained to the bed, ‘forced seduction’, slavery, more chained ‘forced seduction’, hero throws a tantrum, rape, hair hacked off, slavery, given to his men to be raped (there’s an intervention before it can actually happen), imprisonment, broken ribs, dead baby, broken body, mental breakdown, ‘forced seduction’, possible incest, marriage a baby and happily ever after.
True love, huh?
He nuzzled her ear. “I never courted you properly, did I, lass?”
You don’t say.
Ah, Stockholm Syndrome.
That’s leaving out the rape, attempted stabbing, drowning, castration and everything else that other characters do to try and off poor, feisty Catherine and brooding, rape-lovin’ Sean.
All that taken into account, I was actually very surprised by a couple of things in this book. Firstly, Sean spends a greater percentage of the story caring for Kit and looking out for her welfare than he does trying to destroy her. Secondly, there’s actually a rather intriguing plot that is a hell of a lot better researched than most historical romances you’re going to find in the shops these days.
Catherine Enderly is a sixteen-year-old English schoolgirl with some big and fancy family connections when she is kidnapped by a bunch of men and dragged to Ireland. It was done under the orders of Sean Culhane, an Irishman hell-bent on revenge for…well, just about everything. He locks Catherine up, rapes her, forces her to work as his slave, and spends a whole lot of time lusting after her and worrying about her wellbeing. You see, only HE is allowed to abuse her – if anybody else does he’ll be furious.
Which brought me to my first major issue with Stormfire (yes, the rape wasn’t good, but I knew about it long before I even got my hands on a copy of the book):
• Taking your revenge on the wrong person.
I understand that Sean, his loved ones, and Ireland in general, suffered greatly, but if you’ve got an issue with an Englishman, why not punish the Englishman instead of destroying his innocent daughter?
But soon the tables are turned. Sean forces Kit to sleep in his bed every night, and after a bit of token resistance they are deeply in love. In love to the point that Catherine does something self-sacrificing and possibly stupid, which not only lands her back in Sean’s bad books, but sends her spiralling into even worse health and right into a complete mental breakdown that lasts years. (That would be the near death with dead baby and broken body I mentioned earlier.)
But it’s okay because our leads recover eventually and are more in love than ever.
Until it’s revealed they’re brother and sister.
So Sean sends Kit away and gets himself captured, whipped, shot, has a nut cut off, and nearly freezes to death.
Sean’s right arm was broken near the wrist and several ribs were caved in. The bullet wound in his chest was ugly and mounded. She eased him onto his side, and in his back, now a mass of livid scars and reopened cuts, found a bullet hole just missing the spine. His skin was so encrusted with blood and dirt that despite the lantern and candles, she gave up trying to see any more.
Catherine prositutes herself a bit for the greater good; everyone frolics in Paris; and we wind ourselves up to the Big, Dramatic Ending (which turned out to be quite the letdown after everything that came before it).
Sean is the ultimate abuser, and Catherine the ultimate battered woman. In between bouts of severe assault and neglect Sean keeps getting his breeches in a knot because Catherine just doesn’t seem to worship him the way he wishes she would. He abuses her; she comforts him. Someone else assaults her; she comforts him. He denies her food; she comforts him. She doesn’t have an orgasm; she comforts him.
In reality, Sean’s actions are unforgivable. He’s an awful person who treats rape and ‘forced seduction’ as a natural progression for a romantic relationship. There wasn’t a moment of, “Holy Crap, I’m a complete bastard who should head off to a monastery to repent for the rest of my days”. He and Kit move on from their relationship’s horrible beginning, yes, but it wasn’t enough for me. Not even in Bodice-Ripper Land was it enough for me. Catherine’s self-sacrificing garbage was almost as annoying. She’d do anything for Sean, and she had some marvellously Mary Sue characteristics to her personality. But then I guess for most of the book she was a teenager.
My ‘favourite’ thing was how hurt Sean was whenever Kit didn’t do what he wanted. He was devastated that she thought him a rapist, and that she expected him to hurt her. But gee, Sean, I wonder where she got funny ideas like that from?
He actually seemed to believe he was the victim in most situations.
The book lost the plot a bit towards the end, when Sean and Catherine find themselves in France and spend time hanging out with Napoléon Bonaparte and Josephine. There’s another marriage, a weird almost-orgy involving Sean, a Frenchwoman and an Indonesian immigrant, and a few thousand duels. I was getting a little desperate by the final chapters, as it seemed Monson actually intended to end her book with the confirmation that Sean and Catherine were indeed brother and sister.
Regardless of whether or not I liked them, you just can’t do that to me! Thank goodness it turned out not to be the case, but after years upon years of pain and torture, I sure would have loved a couple more pages of happiness!
I guarantee I’ll never be swooning over Sean, nor fantasising about being in Catherine’s shoes, but I daresay Stormfire is a whole lot closer to historical accuracy than those dandified, tea-sipping, Mr Darcy-types populating the historical romance genre. It’s a well-written story that’s absolutely horrendous.
This is a five star drama with a one star relationship at the centre.(less)
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This is my favourite Julie James book so far.
Funny, with great dialogue and smart characters, this was the first one without a lawyer for a heroine (just an observation - it didn't make me like the book more or less). These books come with a teensy...more
This is my favourite Julie James book so far.
Funny, with great dialogue and smart characters, this was the first one without a lawyer for a heroine (just an observation - it didn't make me like the book more or less). These books come with a teensy bit of suspense, but are most certainly straight contemporary romance. The fact the hero is an FBI agent is just a nice bonus!
Jordan Rhodes is the daughter of a billionaire computer guy. Her twin brother is in prison for messing around with Twitter after a bad breakup, and Jordan's busy making it on her own (without her father's money) in the wine business. One day Special Agent Nick McCall and his partner walk into her store and ask for her cooperation in an investigation in exchange for her brother's early release. She goes along with it, but things become a little complicated, and the charade ends up lasting a lot longer than originally intended.
I kind of wish I'd read this back to back with Something About You, as the books are a little bit connected, and there are references to past characters and cases.
I planned to mark my favourite quotes as I was reading, but by halfway through I had so many I gave up. In other words, this book is funny - very funny. It's nice when the characters act like intelligent people because it's fun to read about them. Whenever the author takes us to a place where most characters in most books would do something stupid, she pulls them back, makes them think, and has them do something intelligent and mature. It was the same in Something About You - even in dangerous situations you could trust James to make sure her characters did the sensible thing.
You'd best be a wine fan if you read A Lot Like Love. There's a lot of discussion about the stuff, and it factors very heavily into the plot. It's probably not a good book to read if you have a hangover! Often I become annoyed when such a particular topic features so much in a book (as I almost never care about it anywhere near as much as the author does), but I think in this one the subject was kept interesting enough for most readers.
I had a couple of issues, but they're not enough for me to lower my rating.
James' books have a tendency to be very `of the moment'. They probably won't hold up so well - in a few years people will be reading them and saying, "What in the world is Twitter? Facebook - huh? What's that television show they're talking about and why do they keep calling one of the characters `Sawyer'? TMZ - uh, is that supposed to mean something?!" There're a hell of a lot of pop culture references.
I have to admit it does get to me a bit. Not only do you have to know exactly what shows or celebrities they're referring to, but you have to have kept up with what's going on with them. As someone who watches very little television and couldn't care less about celebrities, I'd rather not have that stuff in a book that's dating itself before it's even in the shops.
It's also really starting to annoy me how vocabulary that not all that long ago was commonplace only in erotica is suddenly appearing in EVERY mainstream book. Sure, it's not as cringeworthy as all those manroots and maidenheads in the 80s, but it's not always necessary to follow trends for writing sex scenes!
James' first few books were `closed-door', and now suddenly she's writing far more detailed stuff (which is fine!), but is stumbling over words she does not seem at all comfortable using. The first sex scene was incredibly awkward to read, and I would almost have preferred it wasn't there.
Oh, and as good as it is that Julie James (so far) hasn’t been given those “Crap, I have my gun but forgot my shirt!” covers, the woman on the cover of this book annoys me. The heroine is supposed to be a small woman (as in nowhere near as tall as the hero) who’s supposed to look like Grace Kelly. I can’t say they chose the correct model there! Couldn’t she at least have shut her mouth?!
But I enjoyed this so much. I've had quite a few lacklustre reads recently, and reading had started to seem like a chore. It was wonderful to discover how good A Lot Like Love was. The best yet.(less)
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