If characters recovering from cancer aren’t a trigger for you, then this is an enjoyable romance with a slow build and a lot of lovely moments in between.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

It’s rare to find a story where the heroine looking at herself in the mirror and describing what she looks like actually has a purpose. (I know you’re already thinking of ditching this post after that, but stay with me.) Blair Macintyre is recovering from breast cancer treatment and she’s sick of people treating her as, well, the poor woman with breast cancer. Her strategy: bluffing.

One of Blair’s key strategies is to look normal—thus, the need to spend time in front of the mirror, applying make-up, putting on false eyelashes, and ensuring her wig is on properly:

She pulled the wig on over her scalp, tugged it into place, and then turned back to the mirror to make whatever adjustments were necessary. Adjustments that would help her look normal. Adjustments that would help her look whole and healthy. Adjustments that would hopefully ensure people started treating her like a fully functioning adult again.

The scenes with the mirror serve a double purpose, because by turning away from it as she puts on her prosthesis, Blair shows that she doesn’t actually feel normal and whole.

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For people who have an appreciation for beauty, illustration and a touch of quirkiness. Just don’t get it as an ebook.

Also known as: how reading a book in the wrong format can completely change the effect.

I requested an e-galley of this book because I love memoirs, coming of age books and travelogues, and thought this was a perfect combination of all three. It certainly had all the elements and I wanted to like it, but in the end, the beauty and spirit of the book were ruined by reading it on a Kindle.

This memoir begins when Stephanie LaCava, in her early teens, moves to the outskirts of Paris because of her father’s work. Hers is a charming, well-off (and well styled!) American family growing up in the 90s, and I could easily relate because I grew up in the same era. I got all the musical references and even the 90s clothes. (Jelly shoes, OMG!) You could tell straight off that LaCava was an unusual child for that era, preferring solitude and collecting bugs and other things. Part of the way the story is told is through her childhood collection, and involves a lot of notes.

Kindles are not freaking designed for endnotes.

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Erotic romance readers who are weary of porny positions and situations may find this book a refreshing change. I just wish there had been more space for the world and the romance to develop.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

Lissa, Princess of Horvald, fall in love with her slave, Devadas, who apparently perishes in battle. Ten years later, she learns that not only did he survive, he has come back to conquer Horvald and take revenge on the princess who abandoned him to the whims of war.

This story really needed to be longer or to have started at a different place. There just isn’t enough space in a novella to show how Lissa and Devadas move from master/slave to lovers, then to conqueror/slave to equal partners, while also dealing with secondary characters and antagonists. I think I would have preferred to start at the point where Devadas returns to take his revenge and have the backstory fed to me in bits and pieces.

Author Keziah Hill builds an intriguing world—although warring kingdoms are fairly common both in historical and fantasy romance, Lissa and Devadas also come from very different cultures whose views on sexuality are almost at extreme ends of the spectrum. As well as providing much fodder for sexier scenes—and this book is pretty hot without going over the top—Hill touches on the way in which women have power in both types of communities.

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Escape Publishing launch author Rhian Cahill talks about her latest book, Christmas Wishes.

Last month, I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Escape Publishing’s launch authors, and they agreed to let me post a short vodcast of them talking about their books an answering that most important question of all: Do you kill fairies?

This vodcast is with Rhian Cahill, author of Christmas Wishes and New Year’s Kisses. Cahill is best known as an erotic romance and romantic erotica author, so these more mainstream novellas are somewhat of a departure from her usual style.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under two minutes.

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Helene Young’s third novel and her best so far. If you like Nora Roberts’s contemporary romantic suspense novels, imagine them with an Australian setting and you’d probably get something close to this book.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

I’ve had the privilege of following Australian outback romantic suspense author Helene Young’s career from her first novel, and it’s been very interesting to witness her evolution as a writer. Young’s books straddle various lucrative but quite specific niches—crime and mystery, romance and rural lit. In Burning Lies, her first novel released with Penguin, Young seems to have found a comfortable balance between these genres.

Kaitlyn Scott lost her husband and her father in a suspicious fire; five years later, she’s even more determined to know the truth behind their deaths. Ryan O’Donnell is working undercover to expose a serial arsonist in the Atherton Tablelands, and the case leads him directly into Kaitlyn’s path.

Young sets up the suspense pretty well, but the culprit was disappointingly obvious—Young needs to resist the temptation to spell it all out for reader too soon. To Young’s credit, however, the story doesn’t cease to be a page turner. Kailtyn and Ryan’s personal struggles are just as compelling as the external plot.

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Escape Publishing launch author Rebekah Turner talks about her latest book, Chaos Born.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Escape Publishing’s launch authors, and they agreed to let me post a short vodcast of them talking about their books an answering that most important question of all: Do you kill fairies?

This vodcast is with Rebekah Turner, author of Chaos Born, a fantasy romance and first book of the Chronicles of the Applecross series.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just over a minute.

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Escape Publishing launch author Ainslie Paton talks about her latest book, Grease Monkey Jive.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Escape Publishing’s launch authors, and they agreed to let me post a short vodcast of them talking about their books an answering that most important question of all: Do you kill fairies?

This vodcast is with Ainslie Paton, author of Grease Monkey Jive, a contemporary romance that is, according to the blurb, ‘Pimp My Ride meets Dancing With The Stars’. Off-camera, Paton mentioned that she has prior dance experience, so I’m very much looking forward to reading her book.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just over a minute.

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Escape Publishing launch author Lee Christine talks about her latest book, In Safe Hands.

Last week, I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Escape Publishing’s launch authors, and they agreed to let me post a short vodcast of them talking about their books an answering that most important question of all: Do you kill fairies?

This vodcast is with Lee Christine, author of In Safe Hands, a romantic suspense featuring an ex-SAS hero and a lawyer heroine whose career—and possibly life—is under jeopardy from a blackmailer. Christine is a woman of many talents—it didn’t make it to the final cut, but she revealed that she plays ‘the devil’s instrument’.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under a minute and a half.

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Escape Publishing launch author Keziah Hill talks about her latest book, Chains of Revenge.

Last week, I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Escape Publishing’s launch authors, and they agreed to let me post a short vodcast of them talking about their books an answering that most important question of all: Do you kill fairies?

Our first vodcast is with Keziah Hill, author of Chains of Revenge. For a limited time, this title is free via Amazon and iBooks.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under a minute and a half.

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Escape Publishing manager editor Kate Cuthbert talks about Harlequin Australia’s digital-first imprint.

Last week, Kate Cuthbert was kind enough to answer a few questions about Escape Publishing, the digital-first imprint of Harlequin Australia.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just over 3 minutes.

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