Sunday Book Blog

Hello and welcome to the first Sunday Book Blog of 2009!

So, I've got lots of fun and interesting things planned for my blog this year.  I'm still plotting and planning and I'll keep you all apprised as they come along.  But without further ado, I present the first Sunday Book Blog of 2009!  And they have the added bonus of being from two of my all-time favorite authors.

Running Hot (An Arcane Society Novel) by Jayne Ann Krentz

It was supposed to be a routine sneak and peek mission.  They were to find a killer named Eubanks and report back to Fallon Jones, head of Jones and Jones Investigations.  That was what they told him but Grace Renquist was not the mild-mannered librarian that Luther Malone expected.  Instead, she was sex in a neat and compact package.  His attraction to her is immediate and what's even better is that their psychic profiles seem to mesh together so well.  For her part, Grace doesn't think much of a 'bodyguard' that uses a cane and doesn't carry a gun (not that he was much of great shot in the first place). 

Unfortunately, what starts out as an innocent job turns deadly when the idyllic Hawaiian resort turns into a viper's nest filled with Nightshade agents.  There's that psychotic opera singer who moonlights as a trained assassin who wants to kill Grace.  

Okay, so this isn't the best description of the book but I don't have the inside flap with me so it'll have to do.  

I enjoyed this book but then again, I enjoy most of her books.  The Arcane Society books are a series that she writes both as Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz.  They're also similar to the flower books she wrote as Jayne Castle (I love those!).  Basically, I'm a Krentz/Quick/Castle bookslut.

I enjoyed these characters.  I thought that the plot seemed to veer off course.  I'm not really sure that the whole Eubanks thing was relevant but seemed liked a convenient plot device.  Plus, there was this one thing that Luther and Grace experienced that seemed like it was going somewhere but she left us dangling.  And I would have liked to have read some beefed up sex scenes but then again, I always do.  Still, there is something about her writing that I can't get enough of.  And there were only a couple places where the plot seemed thin but overall it was a very satisfying read.  Plus, Fallon seems like he's going to be getting his own book soon!

If you like JAK, you'll love this book.

RATING: SPEED WALK

Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood

Newspaper reporter Sophie Snow has been trying her whole life for the to get out from beneath the spectre of her modern-day Robin Hood father and after a lifetime of interrogations by every government agency with initials the last thing she needs is to get involved with an FBI agent.  Even if he were as incredibly sexy as Jack McAlister.  But when her father is suddenly thrust back into the news, several threats are made on her life, and her bra thwarts a bullet, she can't deny that she needs him.  If that weren't enough, her life becomes severely complicated when a man she interviews turns up in the wilds of Alaska eaten by a polar bear named Barry.

Sophie, being Sophie, can't give up on the reasons why a man with no apparent motive leaves a 5k race and ends up dead in Alaska.  So it's off to the wilds, Jack McAlister hot on her heels and in her bed.  She can't deny their attraction but neither can she forget who he is.   

Okay, I just love Julie Garwood.  I wish that she would continue writing her historicals.  Anyway, her romantic suspense books are awesome.  I love them all.  This one is no exception.  You may remember Sophie from The Murder List.  My only issue with her is that she seemed really naive.  Seriously, if someone is making threats on your life and then you get a mysterious phone call asking you to go to he window, would you do it?  Uh, no.  Plus, she's very trusting for someone who has lived under the scrutiny of every government agency in the U.S.  Still, this adds to her charm.

I liked Jack and Sophie.  They had great chemistry and hot sex.  Plus there was a really interesting story intertwined that could be farfetched but she made it work.

RATING: SPEED WALK  

Until next week!