In Your Dreams-Kristan Higgins

In Your Dreams

Kristan Higgins

Harlequin HQN, Sep 30 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373779314

In Manningsport, New York, Blue Heron head winemaker Jack Holland rescues four teenagers from drowning after they wrecked their car.  The townsfolk rightfully consider the kindhearted Jack the hero of the Midwinter Miracle; but he remains traumatized over the boy in that accident still in a coma.

Police Officer Emmaline Neal needs a date for her former fiancé Kevin Bates’s wedding in Malibu.  Friends suggest she ask Jack to be her guest, which he agrees.  In California, Emma feels overwhelmed and not just because she is the groom’s ex; as her family resides nearby and she believes she is the lone failure of Dr. and Dr. Neal.  When she and Jack share a wonderful evening of love, Emma doubts it is more than just a one-night tryst; as a cop can’t compare to his former wife Hadley who demands a second chance with him.  However she doesn’t know Jack; as well as she thought as he wants much more than a SOCAL fling.

The fourth Blue Heron romance (see Waiting On You, The Perfect Match and The Best Man) is a charming contemporary starring two amiable protagonists and ably supported by their families and other bicoastal locals.  Kristan Higgins authors a warm droll drama as the self-doubter buries her trepidations in Skittles and chocolate cake, and the PTSD sufferer struggles with the accolades from his heroic act; neither know how to deal with falling in love.

Harriet Klausner

Jilted-Rachael Johns

Jilted

Rachael Johns

Harlequin HQN, Sep 30 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373779369

A decade ago in Hope Junction, Australia, Elenora Hughes jilted Flynn Quartermaine at the altar to pursue an acting career.  When her godmother Matilda breaks her ankle, Ellie returns home after remaining in the big city as a successful soap opera star for years to care for her beloved injured senior citizen.

Ellie and Flynn share in common two things: each fears a second chance and each remains in love with the other.  The tabloids stalk the couple and other residents in the small western town; local nurse Lauren Simpson deploys a plan to finally win Flynn’s heart; and Ellie’s show producer pressures her to return to the set.  However, as Mat reveals a secret and Ellie finds joy in directing and teaching drama, she explains to the two people she cherishes with all her heart why she left Hope behind ten years ago.

Jilted is an engaging second chance Australian romance due to likable leads and a colorful local cast dealing with the big city invaders.  Although the storyline goes as expected, Rachel Johns provides her audience with a pleasant HEA Down Under contemporary.

Harriet Klausner

Return to Glory-Sara Arden

Return to Glory

Sara Arden

Harlequin HQN, Aug 26 2014, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373779307

Former SEAL Jack McConnell returns home to Glory, Kansas a broken man.  He sits in his dress whites and pulls the trigger of a gun pointed at his head.  The click disappoints Jack as the chamber was empty.  Jack’s BFF, GPD police officer Caleb Lewis, arrives before the PTSD veteran continues with his Russian Roulette.

When Caleb’s sister Betsy was a tweener, Jack saved her life.  Since then he has been her beloved hero.  Whereas he assumes he no longer is her idol, Betsy knows she still loves him damaged goods and all; and will do anything to help Jack heal from his emotional injuries.  Though he doubts she can reach through his darkness, Jack doesn’t know Betsy; as she remains determined to save her hero from himself.

Return to Glory is an insightful contemporary romance that provides a stunned audience with a timely realistic look at a suicidal vet struggling with mental and physical war wounds, and the beloved woman (and townsfolk) giving her all to rescue him.  Character-driven by traumatized Jack, this is not an easy read starting with the opening haunting sequence.  As readers wonder if love will prove enough to save a life, Sara Arden brings needed attention on the much higher rate than the civilian population of suicides among returning veterans.

Harriet Klausner

Christmas At Thunder Horse Ranch-Elle James

Christmas At Thunder Horse Ranch

Elle James

Harlequin Intrigue, Sep 16 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373697922

In North Dakota U.S. Customs and Border Protection interdiction agent Dante Thunder Horse flies his copter to check out a farmer’s report that a snowmobile illegally crossed from Canada.  While flying solo because his copilot has the flu, Dante knows this is the third anniversary of the worst day in his life; his late fiancée Captain Samantha Olson died on this date in Afghanistan.  He spots the snowmobile and watches in astonishment a man launch a rocket propelled grenade at the helicopter.  Dante survives the fiery crash but his assassin fires shots at him.

University of North Dakota Paleontology Professor Emma Jennings is near the crash area searching for the skull of a T-Rex when she sees the inferno.  Emma rushes to the scene only to witness a person on a snowmobile firing at recumbent man wearing only thermal underwear.  Heroically she crashes into the shooter’s vehicle knocking away his gun.  The assassin flees so Emma checks on the wounded person who she recognizes.  Dante and Emma head to his Thunder Horse Ranch knowing her intervention places her in peril.

This is an entertaining romantic suspense with some gender bending action as the academic saves their butts several times.  Fast-paced throughout, Christmas At Thunder Horse Ranch is a fun thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Texas Born-Diana Palmer

Texas Born

Diana Palmer

Harlequin Special Edition, Sep 16 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373658411

In Comanche Wells, Texas, three weeks have passed since seventeen year old Michelle Godfrey buried her father Alan next to her mother while his second wife Roberta raged at the unnecessary cost.  Irate Roberta dumped all of her late husband’s personal items in a landfill while her stepdaughter was at school and kept Michelle from attending church.  Roberta tries to sell her late spouse’s stamp collection, but Michelle intervenes and the ethical collector refuses to complete the purchase.   After slapping Michelle, Roberta still plans to place the house on sale though the market is tanked. 

Michelle meets her kind but troubled neighbor veteran Gabriel Brandon who tells her to stay calm and consider becoming an emancipated minor but definitely not accept abuse.  When someone kills Roberta, the police suspect Michelle who had plenty of motives to murder her odious stepmother.  Gabriel looks after Michelle as if she was his sibling Sara though his feelings for the teen are unsisterly.  Vowing patience until his beloved is old enough to decide what and who she wants, Michelle threatens Gabriel’s control as she may be seventeen but acts thirty.

Once the villainess dies, this Long, Tall Texans contemporary (see Desperado) is a pleasant sweet romance.  The teen is forced to be an old soul by family circumstances and the hero is willing to do whatever she needs to allow her to grow up before making his case.  Although Roberta is a caricature of Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, this is a fine entry.

Harriet Klausner

This Good Man-Janice Kay Johnsonr

This Good Man

Janice Kay Johnson

Harlequin SuperRomance, Sep 2 2014, $6.75

ISBN: 9780373608683

Filled with guilt, Family Violence Unit police captain Reid Sawyer returns to the Spokane area when he learns he has a much younger teenage half-brother Caleb.  Reid assumes his violent dad, who battered him and his mother including getting away with uxoricide, would do likewise with his surly fifteen years offspring whose mom abandoned him three years ago.  Reid says he is damaged so cannot take Caleb with him, but offers to place him with friends off the grid until he turns eighteen.  Reid takes a position with the Angel Butte’s Police Department before taking a battered Caleb to live with the couple Roger and Paula Hale who saved his life decades ago.

When social worker Anna Grant demands ABPD search for a thirteen years old runaway, Reid intervenes and orders his officer to look for the kid.  Meanwhile, he and Anna are attracted to each other, but though it could cost him his job, Reid conceals from her where he hid Caleb in order to protect the kind Hale couple and to keep his brother safe.  He is unaware that Anna’s traumatic childhood in the foster care system left her damaged and her sister dead.

The fourth Mysteries Of Angel Butte (see Cop By Her Side, Bringing Maddie Home and Everywhere She Goes) is a timely (NFL) character-driven police procedural mindful of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as the storyline takes a deep look at the impact of child abuse.  The lead couple share in common love for each other, dedication to their jobs and damaged psyches from their troubled childhood.  Leisurely-paced with the romance taking a back seat to the abuse plot, Janice Kay Johnson provides an intense drama.

Harriet Klausner

The Texan’s Twins-Pamela Britton

The Texan’s Twins

Pamela Britton

Harlequin American Romance, Sep 2 2014, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373755356

In the middle of a field in Nowhere, Texas, Jet Baron goes to meet J.C. Marks.  However, instead of the male project engineer just hired by Baron Energies, he sees a beautiful woman.  He assumes the female is a stripper sent as a joke.  After that auspicious start, arrogant Jet continues to step into sh*t including offering to meet no-nonsense Jasmine Caroline Marks for breakfast; while she mocks his occupation of rodeo performer and scorns his skirt chasing.

Attracted to the feisty engineer, Jet learns she is the single mother of twin girls (Brooke and Gwen) whose father, her fiancé, Darren died before she gave birth.  As they work together, Jet and J.C. fall in love, but her kids come first especially when Brooke becomes ill; reminding the harried mother heartbreakingly of what happened to Darren.

The fourth Texas Rodeo Barons romance (see The Texan's Little Secret by Barbara White Daille and The Texan’s Cowgirl Bride by Trish Milburn) is a warm family novel starring a seemingly care-free philanderer and a stressed-out mom.  The strong females (his sister Lizzie - see The Texan's Baby by Donna Alward, the engineer, and the twins) make this a winning contemporary; while their male counterparts (Jet, his dad and Lizzie’s mate Chris) struggle to live up to the high standards the women and girls set.

Harriet Klausner