One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Historical Romance
Series: N/A
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 372 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.
Note: This book was originally titled The Bastard.




The French Revolution stole much from Jeannette Boucher and her family. She had little choice but to marry well to lift her family out of the shame-and-grit-filled gutters of destitution. Her new husband is a wealthy Baron, respected and old, but she accepted her duty. Until she finds out her aged husband is also impotent and plans to give other men the use of her body so he can beget an heir.

Sick with fear and dread, Jeannette flees, intent on meeting back up with her family in London and securing an annulment. Instead she ends up out to sea, dressed in men's clothes, signing on with the Royal Navy in their war against the French. The frigate she boards is bound for London before it returns to war, so she thought it was the fastest, safest route. She needs fast and safe, because Jeannette has no doubt her new husband will be looking for her. And he will not be happy.

Royal Navy Leiutenent Crawford Treynor is furious when he finds out he's allowed himself to be duped, that the boy he's allowed to board his ship isn't a boy at all, but a sharp-tongued and belligerent young woman. And as he's already heard the news that a Baron is missing his new bride, Treynor has no illusions about just who the troublesome little beauty is. Now she's stuck on a ship bound not for London as their previous orders stated, but out to sea to join in the naval barricade.

Treynor will keep her hidden and protect her as much as he can, but it would be nice if she'd stop flinging herself into dangerous situations every time his back turned. And that's not even accounting for the war they're sailing to meet. Still, protecting Jeannette becomes more and more vital to Treynor as his attraction to her grows. Unfortunately, it's far easier to keep her away from a debauched husband while out to sea than it will ever be protecting her from the grim realities of naval war. A reality what could end up costing both their lives.


I'm no history buff, but I admit, I enjoy historical romance that I feel teaches me a little something about life within the era and location the book is set. I had never really pondered the intricacies and dangers of the naval battles centuries past prior to coming across this book, and I knew even even less about life on board a warship in the early eighteen hundreds. Novak brought to the story a fabulous depth and wealth of information and attention to historical detail that fascinated and intrigued me.

It was, to me, the strongest element of the book and added a wonderfully authentic tone to the whole of it.

There certainly is no dearth of plotted story, either. Jeanette's wedding night and the nefarious plot that's uncovered before she is victimized jump-starts the elements of action and suspense in the storyline and everything else flowed very nicely and naturally from there.

I wish I was as enamored of the characters as I was of the historical detail. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand Jeannette for the first half of the book, and while I liked Treynor and very much appreciated the depth of his character and backstory, I couldn't figure why he put up with the level of haughty disdain and venom that Jeannette spews at him. I would have tossed her uppity butt overboard.

Jeannette has fled from her disgusting husband but, when Treynor warns her that she has to remain inconspicuous and stay dressed as a boy for safety sake, she tosses aside his warning and grabs on to that eschewed husband's coattails, claiming no man on ship would dare hurt her because she's a baroness. Later she vows to get even with Treynor as she eats with the common sailors while he eats with the officers. After putting herself into the position to do so to begin with. The frequent evidence of her ignorance and selfish willfulness got on every one of my nerves throughout the beginning and straight to the middle of the story. I could have cheerfully throttled her more than once.

Her character does improve around the halfway point in the book, and she does prove herself to be caring and fiercely loyal straight to the end. Which is when I felt Treynor's character - and the climax of the story itself - went off the rail. I didn't like the last couple of chapters and struggled with understanding Treynor's actions, as well as the actions of some of the secondary and ancillary characters. Because of that, the romantic resolution fell pretty flat for me and wasn't nearly as satisfying as I'd hoped.

There truly is some good story before then, though, and despite my issues with the characters and the romance resolution, I liked the plot. I could have loved it with a less annoying heroine in the first half. The best parts for me, though, were the authentic-seeming glimpses of an aspect of history I hadn't had before. The vibrant, gritty, descriptive writing and attention to detail brought life on a naval ship into sharp, obviously pungent, occasionally brutal focus. I thought that was exceptionally well done.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Bulletproof, Book 2
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Mira Books publisher Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



More Suspense Than Romance

Four years ago, Laurel Hodges' brother was exonerated and released from prison after serving fourteen years hard time for a crime he did not commit. The relief and hope she'd harbored for a future with the brother she loved didn't last beyond the first attempt on her life. The Crew saw to that. A vicious gang with a long reach, her brother Virgil had joined them out of necessity when he was in prison. They weren't exactly amenable to his leaving it when he got out. They've been trying to kill him, her, and her two children ever since.

When the last attempt by The Crew forced her to separate from her brother and his new family two years ago, she started over yet again, this time as Vivian Stewart. She selected the town of Pineview, Montana because of its low crime rate, seclusion, and small town nature.

For two years she's lead that small town life and felt safe. Her handsome neighbor Myles King is the sheriff of Pineview, and has asked her out several times, but she's always declined. She can'd afford to get too close to anyone, be too honest with anyone, especially the single father and cop next door. That is the sentence that she serves now, and will have to serve for as long as The Crew keeps her and her loved ones in its sights.

It is a sentence she's mostly resigned herself to in order to keep her children safe, to stay alive. And when she hears of the murder of a man from town, Laurel fears that it is a sentence that has - unfortunately - been commuted. The Crew has a long, long reach. And they might have reached out and caught her once more.

I hate to say this, but I had some trouble with this second book in the Bulletproof series. I enjoyed the characters of the first one quite a lot, especially Virgil, and had been looking forward to his sister's book, but I ended up feeling a little disconcerted by the four year time span between books, and had a hard time reconciling the budding relationship between Rex, aka Pretty Boy, and Laurel that closed out the last book with the apparently painful breakup of the long-term relationship they had before she came to Pineview. That made it difficult to downshift and accept Myles as the romantic lead in this one. Maybe it also had a hand in the difficulty I had warming up to Laurel, too. I'm not sure.

I know I wasn't crazy about her. I think she was believable and realistic as a character, but she didn't strike me as being all that bright, and I had significant trouble with several of her life decisions. I still have to give Novak credit, though. She writes realistic and believable characters, even though one of them frustrated the heck out of me. Just because I didn't favor one of them doesn't mean they aren't well written.

In Laurel's case, it was an issue of too many conflicting had-it-beens, those moments where you put yourself in the characters place and think, had it been you, would you have said/done/acted the same as he/she did. In most cases with Laurel, the answer wasn't just no, it was an emphatic hell no. It started early - I would never have chosen a small town (where everyone knows your secrets and if they don't, they dig or shun until they do) with no cell phone tower (a disposable cell would've made things so much easier) to try to hide - and it persisted throughout the book.

Novak writes solid suspense imbued with an increasingly intense sense of impending doom. There's no argument there. I thoroughly enjoyed those threads in this book. I just wasn't totally sold on the premise for the suspense threads, and had some problems completely buying into a disabled thug like Ink being in a position to escape jail, whether or not he had help. Despite the plausibility of the premise, the execution was spot on - completely chilling in parts, actually - and I found myself really enjoying both the ever increasing tension and the way Myles handled himself as he was investigating and as he got closer to Laurel.

I was pretty confused about something, though, and wondered if I missed some part of the story. Rex fills in Myles about what's really going on just before he heads back to New York, and Myles is concerned about how to tell Laurel he knows. Next he sees Laurel, though, there's no confrontation about it and she treats Myles like he's always known the truth. I'm still not sure if that was an accidental plot contradiction or if I just missed something somewhere.

Regardless of the issues I had, I enjoyed the suspense and the characters of the story. My biggest problem, actually, and the largest reason this book wasn't as appealing to me as the first, was the lack of satisfying development in the romance arc. There was acknowledged attraction on both sides relatively early, but beyond a single night of lust satisfaction, there was next to no evolution of a romance between Laurel and Myles until I was over 70% into the book. And that was just too late to give either the romance arc or the characters enough time to be satisfactorily developed alongside the suspense.

I have to admit, I was heartened by the fact that the third book returns to Pineview and delves into a case surrounding Laurel's best friend. Not only am I hoping to see more of Laurel and Myles to get some sense of resolution and completion to their HEA, as well as see how they merge their families, but it'll be nice to get away from The Crew and their threats. That thread was starting to feel very worn by the end of this book.

I can't help but hope, though, that we haven't seen the last of Rex. He's been a favored character of mine since he dropped into the first book and my heart broke a little for him in this one. He's a bit of a dark and tortured soul, and I keep hoping he'll find the peace and love he deserves. It just seems he's got a lot of demons yet to vanquish before that happens. I hope Novak lets us see him gets his own HEA at some point.

Bulletproof Series:

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Bulletproof, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 448 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Harlequin imprint Mira Books via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



I Fell Hard for Virgil