Unspeakable

Unspeakable is one of Sandra Brown's more recent novels (post romance era).  While the plot is not her best, it definitely relies more on suspense and story than her earlier works. 

What fascinates me is that when Brown focuses on something other than the romance plot, the romance ends up being so much more believable.  We get so drawn into this deaf woman's world that the relationship that develops between the two main characters makes perfect sense.  It really couldn't end any other way. 

One stumbling point.  The tornado.  Yes, a natural disaster is great to move a plot along.  But I don't see a 70+ year old retired sheriff setting off on his own to try to save his town from a looming tornado.  Anyone in their right mind would duck and cover.  Going out to help pick up the pieces, sure, but let's not pretend he can stop a tornado.   

Deja dead

Kathy Reichs and I got off to a rough start.  I picked up Deja Dead expecting to solve a case with the Temperance Brennan I know from the TV show Bones.  That Dr. Brennan is not in this book.  Reichs writes about a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan, but that is where the similarities end.  It took me a little while to adjust to this difference in character.

My patience paid off.  While this Dr. Brennan is not nearly as socially awkward and quirky as the TV version, she is still a strong, determined women.  Just battling a different set of demons.  And if you are looking for the Bones-Booth love story, it's not here either.  (Although I suspect a romance subplot with a detective to appear in  a later novel).  This debut novel is all about Tempe recognizing and feeding the urge to go out and get the bad guy.

The second summer of the sisterhood

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares is like slipping into a pair of well-worn jeans and sharing a pint of cookie dough ice cream with your best friends.  I was hesitant to revisit the sisterhood, fearing that like many sequels, this book could not possibly live up to the original.

I was wrong.

Brashares writes such amazing characters that you are immediately pulled into the plots that circle this group of young women.  Each of these characters is flawed.  But not over the top flaws.  They suffer the same flaws we all do- selfishness, insecurity, jealousy, anger, denial.  All those things we wrestle with in the course of discovering who we are and then living with that reality day to day. 

I love these girls. 

I miss my girls.

The river knows

Another Amanda Quick bodice ripper.  OK, no bodices were actually ripped in The River Knows, but it could have happened.

Again with the corsets, petticoats, bustles, fans, and ridiculous undergarments.  But in this novel, our heroine agrees that it is all ridiculous and refuses to wear half of it.  The sheer bulk of fabric worn by most women in polite society also turns out to be a contributing factor in the death of one lady.

Quick once again gives us a heroine pretending to be someone she's not in order to have the freedoms she cherishes.  Who doesn't rely on the man to get her out of the trouble she has gotten herself into.  (Though he might turn out to be helpful in the end). 

Another fun page-turner in old-school London!