Too Many Great Ones

Romantic_L_eads Recommendations and reviews of romantic fiction

Too Many Great Ones

ROMANTIC LEADS COLUMN By Janine Taylor
RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION June 23, 1999

I AM USUALLY lucky enough to find a couple of great stories to recommend. Lately, I’ve been so impressed that there are nearly more than I can fit in one column. Consequently, here is a selection of rave reviews that run the gamut _ modern witch to a medieval “Rear Window”.

Love Potion #9

By Claire Cross (Jove – July 1999, $7.99)

This odd but enjoyable page-turner will keep you guessing.

Lilith Romano is an immortal gypsy fortuneteller cum witch who has been hanging around awaiting the return of her true love, Sebastian. After nearly 600 years she’s become pretty impatient. So, she brews up a potion to call him to her side. Unfortunately it works a little to well.

When a man arrives who is the spitting image of her lost love, Lilith is pretty excited. Who can blame her for a little lusty overreaction? Well, Mitch Davison can. He’s a single Dad with some serious doubts about magic and he knows he’s not this Sebastian character she insists on calling him.

Toronto author Clair Cross (Delacroix) has brewed up another winner.

Breathless

By Laura Lee Guhrke (Sonnet Books – July 1999, $8.99)

(FOUR HEARTS)

Breathless is a charming tale of small town scandal in turn of the century Shivaree, Georgia.

Lily Morgan is the town’s most outrageous citizen. Since her divorce five years ago she has taken to playing honky-tonk piano, wearing red and she even has a naked statue in her foyer _ all this, while battling to close the local brothel and running the local library.

Gotta love her.

Lily’s ex-husband’s lawyer, Daniel Walker is an unapologetic, manipulative, up and coming politician, back in town to represent the brothel.

Gotta hate him_ for now.

The town gossips are all stirred up as the former combatants re-enter the public arena.

Add a twist of murder and it’s a fiery combination.

Wonderful characters inhabit this world. You really should visit and sit a spell.

(FIVE HEARTS)

Plum Creek Bride

By Lynna Banning (Harlequin Historical – 1999, $5.99)

An astounding, admirable portrayal of an American immigrant combined with a poignant portrayal of grief.

A young German-born mother’s helper, Erika Scharf arrives in the Oregon town of Plum Creek to find the mother she was to help has died weeks earlier. The infant’s father Dr. Jonathan Callender, hasn’t come to terms with his loss. Erika’s no-nonsense, determined approach to life forces him to rejoin his own life.

Plum Creek Bride will take you on an emotionally satisfying journey.

Silken Threads

By Patricia Ryan (Topaz – June 1999, $7.99)

A plot based on a creative writing exercise, this medieval tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Rear Window was appealing and inventive.

A knight on a secret mission, Graeham Fox is nearly killed when attacked in the alley behind Joanna Chapman’s home in London.

Graeham arranges to heal his broken leg under Joanna’s care, sleeping in her back storeroom overlooking the alley. A world of social intrigue unfolds before him as he watches out his window. His own plans are complicated as he finds Joanna as captivating as his mission.

As usual, Ryan makes her characters breathe the air of their time.

Janine Taylor is a Halifax writer. She can be reached at romanticleads@hotmail.com

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