Book Review: Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell

Title: Under this Unbroken Sky 

Author: Shandi Mitchell 

Genre: Fiction - Historical 

Finished: June 18, 2009 

In the north Canadian prairie lands, Ukrainian immigrant Teodor Mykolayenko was sent to prison for two years for "stealing" grain that he cultivated. When his family, which includes five children, could not pay for their land, they had to vacate it despite all of the work already done on it. When Teodor tried to take some of the grain to replant somewhere else in order to give his family the start they needed, he was imprisoned for theft. With him gone, his family had no choice but to make ends meet the best way possible. Though it was a struggle, his wife Maria managed. Unable to own property as a criminal, Teodor's sister Anna purchased land with the promise that she would sign over his portion to him. Finally home after his two year sentence, where the book begins, Teodor wants to pick up where he left off with his family, gain ownership of his land through Anna, and build a great home to take care of his wife and children properly. He wants the pride of being able to call something his. Sister Anna is coming apart just as Teodor tries to mend everything. Pregnant with her third child, a child of rape by her drunken and often absent husband Stefan, she feels a kinship to the wild coyotes that roam the Canadian wild lands. With every howl she hears at night, she recognizes a freedom that has always been denied her. It is hard for Anna to adapt, to accept what life has given her, but Teodor wants all of them to have the best. Things get even worse for Anna when Stefan returns. Desperate to keep him, she sacrifices the love her brother has for her. Because Stefan says so, she submits to allowing him to try to take the land that Teodor has settled on because he has no legal right to it. Anna is willing to forsake her promise and her loyalty to Teodor because she does not want her and her two children to be alone. 

By the end, everything has come apart. 

People lose their lives, dreams are shattered, and a wounded family has to once again pick up and start all over again. There is no way to say this other than that I love this book. I honestly could not and did not put it down until it was finished. My boyfriend and I went out for a while when I started this book, but all I wanted to do was come home and keep reading. Under This Unbroken Sky is beautifully written and painfully vivid. The descriptions of the Canadian prairie and of the rough, desolate farming conditions are as lovely as they are striking. Each and every character is brilliantly developed and complex. You feel for young Sophie and her desire to be beautiful and rich. You love the innocence in Ivan and his moments of childish selflessness. You respect the strength in Maria and her desire to keep everything together for the sake of her children. And most of all, you can feel just how much Teodor wants his family to be happy. Every day, he goes out to the fields to sweat and toil, and it is all for them. The way Teodor understands and appreciates the land shows his nature as a man who is both gentle and rough, passionate about what he does and respectful of the natural world. Teodor is a pillar of strength to his family and it is easy to see through his character why this is. There's something about this novel that goes right to your heart. I certainly felt it in mine as I read. By the time I got to the end, I was frantic. I pride myself on being a fairly emotionally balanced person, but this novel broke my heart and almost had me in tears. It's all unbelievably emotional to witness the ups and downs of these imperfect but good people, and you want the best to come to them. When you realize that the most horrible thing you could imagine is about to happen, your heart absolutely breaks.  This book is going to go on my list of must reads and most favorites.

Book Review: Forbidden- The Temptation by Samantha Sommersby

Title: Forbidden: The Temptation 

Author: Samantha Sommersby 

Genre: Fiction - Paranormal, Fiction - Erotica 

Finished: June 18, 2009

In Forbidden: The Temptation, after a rock climbing accident, Jacob Madison's life has changed dramatically. Rescued by a group of werewolves, he is bitten and turned into one. It has been a hard adaptation for him, as has life with the pack, and not entirely one he feels is for the best. On one of the pack's excursions, Jake finds a woman in the snow. This woman, Allison Connelly, has been wounded. Jake takes her back to the camping ground of the pack and nurses her back to heath. As she mends and rests, a romance between the two blooms. Jake is at odds with his feelings for her and his werewolf nature, while Allison treads caution after her recent bad break up. But their reservations do nothing to smother the budding passion and the two cannot keep their hands off of each other. Two of Jake's pack mates, Ryan and Mireya, are likewise feeling something for one another. Problem for them is that Mireya has been mated to another male-- a very dangerous and murderous were who goes by the name of Devlin. Allison is familiar with this werewolf since she worked with him as a forensic psychologist. Everyone knows Devlin will soon be there to collect Mireya. How are they going to defeat such a strong werewolf as Devil, who has been killing immortals to increase his strength? And can both Allison and Jake look past his werewolf nature to allow a relationship? This book is steamy and unashamed! I like that there were no cut-outs as soon as the couple got hot and heavy. The plot itself was also very good, and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of romance/erotica and paranormal erotica. Jake and Allison pretty much got it on from second one (or three since she had to recover a bit from her accident first), but there was nothing in it that made me roll my eyes and go, "Oh yeah, not possible." The reaction is what typically keeps me from romance-- I can't stand the cliches. Fortunately, Forbidden: The Temptation had no terrible cliches about it. Just lots of sex, drama, and blood. So, do Jake and Allison get together? Can the group defeat the powerful Devlin and release Mireya from his grasp so that she can be with Ryan? You'™ll just have to read it and find out for yourself.

Blog Tour, Book Review & Author Interview: Gauntlet by Richard Aaron

About Richard Aaron

RICHARD AARON lives in a cold, northwestern city with his wife, four children, and various dogs and cats. He has a university degree in mathematics and a masters in law. Neither have anything to do with his burgeoning career as a writer. He worked in the real world for two decades before realizing that he was actually meant to be a writer. Gauntlet was produced soon thereafter. 

Official Website

About Gauntlet

A terrorist threat is looming; an attack that would dwarf any other. This time, the government knows it's coming, but doesn't know where or how. From a stunning new voice in international intrigue comes a dramatic story of a shadowy underworld, high-stakes missions, treachery, honor, unlikely heroes, and the ultimate attack: Six hundred sixty tons of Semtex is detonated in a massive explosion in Libya – the last of a deadly stockpile. The operation seems to have gone smoothly, but within minutes of the explosion, CIA agent Richard Lawrence discovers that one shipment of the explosive was hijacked en route to the destruction point. Days later, a glory-seeking Emir broadcasts to the world that he is planning a massive terrorist strike against a major U.S. landmark. And he gives a timeline of one month. Now a desperate chase covers four continents, as the men bent on attacking the United States use every weapon at their disposal to evade the American authorities. Time and again they prove willing to destroy anything and anyone standing in their way. But Hamilton Turbee, an autistic computer mastermind at the secretive and newly created TTIC agency, discovers a way to follow their tracks. His flawed genius gives the nation its only chance at stopping the attack: if the American leadership will listen. As the enemies near their destination, and an attack becomes imminent, it is up to the TTIC team, still without a true leader, to stop the massive explosion that could destroy the lives of millions. As the world watches in horror, the President asks TTIC two questions"Where will the attack be? And can it be stopped?

My Review of Gauntlet

In Richard Aaron's Gauntlet, about 4.5 tons of a highly explosive plastic material known as semtex has gone missing and is in the hands of Afghanistan terrorists plotting against America. Authorities don't know where the attack will take place and have only a month to find out and stop it from killing a lot of innocent people. The terrorists, skilled at what they do, evade detection and catch at every turn. A major hub of the action is a group known as the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, or TTIC. One of their most vital employees turns out to be an autistic math genius named Hamilton Turbee who is good at cracking codes and doing quick calculations in his head. The plot will take you everywhere from the caves of Afghanistan where terrorists hide and plot, the deserts of the Middle East, the Canadian border where a cop is investigating drugs, and to Washington and back.

While reading, you will jump around the world, and this constant movement gives a sense of scope to the plot such that you realize how widespread and serious an issue like the one in the book really is, and of all the work that goes into cracking the plots of and stopping terrorists. Everything is fast paced, jumping from one character to the next, and there are A LOT of characters. Each character is distinct, though, even the terrorists that you come to understand the motives of. Gauntlet is a book to read when you don't have anything else to do because you will not want to put it down. With each page, the suspense builds until you feel like it is going to crack. What makes the book even more immediate and hard to put down is that everything within it feels real, as if it is happening or has happened. After all, we are living in a world aware and fearful of terrorist attacks. The thought that something like this could happen, or could be happening behind the scenes, is quite frankly very terrifying. This is really the first time that I have read a book like this and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love a complex plot that twists and connects all over the place, and this book certainly delivered a well thought out and wonderfully written series of events. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say that you will be on the edge of your seat.

Interview With Richard Aaron

Q: What do you do to prepare to write? What is the process that gets you ready to sit down a lay out a story?

A: I try to get to my office very early, as I did this morning, at 5:30 AM. The rest of the crew doesn't start to filter in until 8 or 8:30. In the quiet of the morning, I have research from books and the internet prepared. I have a detailed outline prepared. If a new character is introduced, I put his traits or description into my data base. If I am using established characters I go to that database to make sure that the character remains internally consistent. Working on a plot this complicated takes a certain mind frame, and getting into the characters is the easiest way for me to enter the "Gauntlet/Counterplay world."  Then I can get huge amounts of work done. I do the same on weekends, and in the evenings.

Q: How much of yourself do you put in your characters? Are they extensions of you, or are they independent creations that take on a life of their own after coming from your imagination?

A: My nature is to like structure. On the book I am now working on I have literally, on very large sheets of roll paper, diagrammed out the story from beginning to end. From that I create a more detailed, written outline, and from that, outlines of the scenes in each chapter. When I'm finally ready to write, I have all the major bones in place, and I can motor along at 10 pages a day.

Q: As we are all aware, the issues of terrorist attacks, weapon stockpiles, and international instability are very prominent today. How influenced are you by modern events?

A: A smidgen here and a little bit there. I'm actually a boring person, when you consider the spectrum of personalities that exist out there. If I put too much of me into it, the book would flop. The characters come from the vast number of people I have met as a lawyer. I take a bit from one person, a chunk from another, and I put them together. They become vital and interesting.

Influence by present events?

Totally. I am a news junky. I read I don't know how many newspapers and magazines in a day. I look at each issue from different angles, everything from the stodgy CNN view to the crazy anarchist one-worlders out there. We live in fascinating and dangerous times. Counterplay, the sequel to Gauntlet, is set largely in Iran for this reason. Current events point to the fact that it's a fertile background for terrorism and nuclear hooliganism, which played perfectly along with my plot.

Q: I imagine there are many complexities in the plot with international relations, domestic politics, weaponry, culture, and computer technology. What sort of research did you have to do to write this book?

A: I can say that for every page of the book, there are a good two or three pages of research. I researched endlessly-- everything from the flight characteristics of an F22 to the nature of vegetation in the great Garagum Desert. My novels have that type of detail to keep them realistic.

Q: Do you feel that your book addresses some of the issues that we face today? When you wrote it, did you have any hope that readers would learn something from the events in your book?

A: Yes. But it does not provide answers. The book has issues of drug addiction, illicit border crossing, and the interplay between terrorist and heroin dealers, leading to what today could fairly be called narco-terrorists. It shows that the USA is exposed to terrorist attacks that we cannot even begin to imagine. But then again, it's a novel. It's fiction. I shine a spotlight on these potential problems, but I don't offer any answers or suggestions about how to handle the real world. Thanks goodness.

Q: Because I have to know: who is your favorite US President and why?

A: Kennedy, because he had balls. I know a lot of people blame him for a lot of things (including dying before he could take responsibility), but I mean really... becoming President at such a young age, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and dating Marilyn Monroe? You have to respect the guy for that.

Q: What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you've picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?

A: It's like graduation from high school. It's a step, but only that. A long, long journey follows, involving publicists, expensive trips, signings, time away from home, and endless and expensive PR. When you get published, you soon find out that you are at the start of yet another difficult and challenging journey. I certainly didn't realize this, and I think most authors are probably as shocked as I was to find that writing the book is just the start of it.

Q: What is one thing you've never done but would love to do?

A: Spend a week inside and outside the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Q: What would your "theme" song be on the soundtrack of your life?

A: Bob Seeger, "Against the Wind."

Blog Tour & Review: Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham

I would like to welcome Lisa Sweetingham to Epeolatry, who is here on her book blog tour for Chemical Cowboys: The DEA's Secret Mission to Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin. It is a book that I would highly recommend and perfect gift For Father's Day if you are still looking for a gift to give yours.

About Lisa Sweetingham

Journalist Lisa Sweetingham spent four years following in the footsteps of DEA agents and Ecstasy traffickers to bring Chemical Cowboys to life. Previously, she covered high-profile murder trials and Supreme Court nomination hearings for Court TV online. Sweetingham is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Parade, Spin, Time Out New York, Health Affairs, and many other publications. She resides in Los Angeles. Chemical Cowboys is her first book.

Author's Official Homepage

About Chemical Cowboys

For nearly a decade, Ecstasy kingpin Oded Tuito was the mastermind behind a drug ring that used strippers and ultra-Orthodox teenagers to mule millions of pills from Holland to the party triangle: Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Chemical Cowboys: The DEA's Secret Mission to Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin is the thrilling, never-before-told success story of the groundbreaking undercover investigations that led to the toppling of a billion-dollar Ecstasy trafficking network, starting in 1995 when New York DEA Agent Robert Gagne infiltrated club land to uncover a thriving drug scene supported by two cultures: pill-popping club kids and Israeli dealers. Gagne's obsessive mission to make Ecstasy a priority for the DEA and to take down Tuito's network met with unexpected professional and personal challenges that almost crippled his own family. Woven into the narrative are the stories of Tuito's underlings, who struggled with addiction as they ran from the law, and the compelling experiences of a veteran Israeli police officer who aided Gagne while chasing after his own target, a violent Mob boss who saw the riches to be made in Ecstasy and began to import his own pills and turf warfare to the U.S.

My Review of Chemical Cowboys

Chemical Cowboys: The DEA's Secret Mission to Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin by Lisa Sweetingham traces of the evolution of the popular rave and nightclub drug, Ecstasy. DEA Agent Gagne first notices the drug in its early years, when it was known as "kiddie dope" and overlooked by officials focused on harder drugs like cocaine and heroine. Infiltrating the New York night club scene, Gagne and his partner track nightclub owner Peter Gatien and his league of employees including Club Kid King Michael Alig (remember the movie Party Monster? that guy). But Gatien and Alig are just small pieces in a larger, more world-wide drug puzzle full of danger, violence, death, and money. At the top of the international drug chain is Oded "the Fat Man" Tuito, and Gagne soon sets his sights on catching and convicting Tuito, as well as some of his other associates and drug pushers. Sweetingham takes the reader around the world, from Israel to Amsterdam, to Belgium and France, and back to the United States into the club scene and the mob. We witness law enforcement around the world working together to gain evidence and convictions. We are also given the ins and outs of how big time international drug dealers hide out, hide evidence, launder money, and pass drugs through airport and port security. This is a book full of twists and turns, with real life people and events and only minor details changed, mainly for the sake of condensing or protecting some of the people involved. When you read this book, you don't feel like you are reading some stiff account of justice in action-- it is certainly not dry. Sweetingham has written the book with enough personality and excitement that one could easily be reading a crime mystery novel. This book is further proof that the things that happen in real life can be just as good as anything you see on TV or read in fiction. What makes this book even more fascinating is that you know while reading it that these things really did and are still happening all around you. Names, places, and events are all familiar and distinct. You'll learn a lot of about drug trafficking and how law enforcement tracks down criminals. I wasn't aware that there were so many restrictions and regulations in place for Agents, and it was frustrating to me to see the bad guy get away so many times! This book must have taken a lot of time, and had to have required Sweetingham to research a lot. The sheer detail and specifics of the book shows that Sweetingham really knows what she is talking about and properly investigated the key players and chronology from beginning to end and everything connecting in a confusing and intricate web of drug crime.

Book Review: Memoirs of a Fortune Teller by Gary Turcotte

Title: Memoirs of a Fortune Teller 

Author: Gary Turcotte 

Genre: Fiction - Supernatural 

Finished: June 6, 2009 

Mary Ann is a fortune teller traveling with a carnival. Her gift, passed on from mother to daughter at the time of death, is as much a blessing as it is a curse. Left behind is a diary of a few of her predictions, some of them disturbing and some of them inspirational. Mary Ann meets people who will have good things happen, who will die, who will molest, who will hurt, and who will be hurt. The major limitation to her power is that she cannot see her own fate but through glimpses in the fates of other people. Her visions make her an unfortunate witness to a murder, which she hopes to stop before it's too late. Aiding a police man named George whose fortune she earlier told, they try to pin down the murderer as a priest tries to save him. There were things that I really enjoyed about Memoirs of a Fortune Teller and things that I did not enjoy. 

Overall, Memoirs of a Fortune Teller is a quick and thrilling read. I wish it were a bit more fleshed out, though, with ample detail given to some of the human interactions and emotions experienced by both Mary Ann and her clients. Mary Ann deals with a lot of trauma and personal reaction, so I think the book missed a lot of potential in keeping descriptions of behavior and reaction minimal. Also, it is unbalanced in how details are given. Mary Ann delivering bad news to a client is given in dialogue form with little reaction to heighten the emotion of the scene and make it real, yet we are given an entire page describing Mary Ann eating a carnival sausage, and another of her eating a candy apple. I wish it were the other way around. Also, I found Mary Ann to be a bit inconsistent as a character. On one hand she is preaching to a preacher about Jesus and forgiveness, yet on the other hand she confesses to not helping a man out when his child's life was on the line because he was rude to her. I wowed at that because that is an awful thing to do! I couldn't imagine someone taking such a strong stand on how people should behave yet at the same time not even caring, indeed justifying, their own horrid action. If added to and expanded, Memoirs of a Fortune Teller will make a wonderful suspense/thriller novel. With a murderer to catch and her own life on the line, Mary Ann could be developed into a strong, formidable female lead full of complex emotions that are tempered by all of the things she has seen and all the people she has met through her years as a traveling fortune teller. The events taking place could also be a little slower coming to raise anticipation for what is coming. The murderer could also be formulated a bit more, could stand in the background as a deeper, shadowy, and insidious character that hovers like a dark omen of doom, you know? I love a good bad guy and I wish he were more of a threatening presence to Mary Ann for a long period of time. I liked the book, really. But it is bare-bones and needs about another hundred pages of build up, suspense, and description.

Book Review: Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan

Title: Of Bees and Mist 

Author: Erick Setiawan 

Genre: Fiction - Drama 

Finished: June 2, 2009 

Monarch Street, where Meridia grows up, is cold and uninviting, and certainly haunted. Her mother Ravenna, a severe woman in all black, cooks and mutters strange and angry curses all day long. Gabriel, Meridia's father, is a cruel and loveless man who spends his nights elsewhere, carried away at night and delivered home at morning by a strange fog. It's not long before Meridia is aware that her father is sleeping at another house with another woman. Memories of a scream and a flashing light haunt Meridia, as well as the shadows of the house that hold secrets she cannot begin to unveil. When Meridia meets and falls in love with a boy named Daniel, she relishes the thought of marrying him. Daniel's mother Eve is a bright and laughing woman, larger than life. At the age of 16, after struggling with her father to get what she wants, Meridia is allowed to marry Daniel and moves in with his family on Orchard Street. Her high hopes of having a happy family are soon dashed when it comes to light that Eve is not all she appears to be. Underneath her laughing, boisterous exterior is a cunning, selfish woman, cruel to the people around her and quick to do what will benefit her above the people who love her. It is a constant battle between Eve and Meridia. Eve takes as much money from Meridia and Daniel as possible, keeps them dependent, and says horrible things about Meridia behind her back while committing terrible crimes to her own gain. To make matters worst, Daniel refuses to see anything wrong with what his mother is doing. So how can Meridia break free of this? How can she gain the independent and support she has craved for so long? And, of course, finally have the loving and stable family that she has also always wanted. Help comes from strange places and magical clues help and hinder her. All the while, Meridia becomes a strong woman, aided by the tight laced nature of her mother and her father's quiet cruelty that is, in fact, loving. The one thing that Meridia refuses to do is back down and bow to Eve, which for a while brings her a lot of grief. But determined to free herself, she runs into all obstacles placed by Eve head on. 

I wasn't sure what to make of this story by the description on the back. The first few pages confused me a few times because I wasn't sure if I should understand the setting as an alternate universe or a common universe. And I will admit that some of the descriptions of things and events sort of threw me off-- I wasn't always quite certain of what the author was trying to convey or paint an image of. Still, the story was good enough that even the occasional time of confusion didn't make the book hard to read and ultimately understand. The use of imagery, when not abstract, was really very beautiful and heightened the sense that there was something sublime and magical all around. And there is something wonderfully disorienting about the whole story, which makes it dreamlike at times. What I wish, though, is that Ravenna and Gabriel had their own story! Just as much as I was drawn to the development of Meridia and her character, I was drawn to the complicated relationship between her parents. Maybe I am mentally ill with poor taste in men, but I found myself powerfully attracted to the character of Gabriel. Meridia's parents are so closed off and cold that it made me want to crack them open and see why they behave the way they do. And, ooooo, Eve is so insidious! So many times I wished I could reach into the pages of the book and strangle her, or knock some sense into the people around her who didn't see her manipulations and selfish lies. Every small and large victory won by Meridia I cheered, and I hurt every time she lost a battle. Eve is definitely a character to hate, but still one that I think readers can understand. All in all, Of Bees in Mists is a wonderfully crafted book of magic and reality, with characters that are well developed and unique. When reading, you clearly feel the workings of unseen forces and malice all around, and you sigh with relief along with Meridia.

Blog Tour, Book Review & Author Interview: A Hint of Wicked (James Family, #1) by Jennifer Haymore

About Jennifer Haymore

I've been writing since I could pick up a pencil. Wait, no-- that's what every other writer says! I started writing just before my eighth birthday, and it wasn't on my own volition. I was sailing with my family in a 42-foot sailboat across the Pacific, and since there were no local schools (except those pertaining to fish) nearby, my mother homeschooled me. She was a strict taskmaster! A veritable slave driver! She demanded a new story every day.  So I'd sit in the boat's galley and write. And stare out the porthole, and write some more. And doodle, and write some more. By the time we arrived in Hawaii the following year, I had a portfolio of stories, and I was hooked. Since then I haven't stopped. (Well, much. I did take breaks now and then, for things like college, young kids, and a master's degree.)  I love to read just as much as I love to write, and actually the reading bug hit me at about the same time my mom was cracking the whip over my head and commanding me to write. What else to occupy your time with when there are no other kids to play with and nothing to do but stare at the endless sea? Some of my most recent favorites: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, River God by Wilbur Smith, and anything by Laura Kinsale and Loretta Chase.

Official Website

Author Blog

Twitter

Facebook

About A Hint of Wicked

CAUGHT BETWEEN DUTY AND DESIRE . . . Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has finally moved on. After seven years mourning the loss of her husband, Garrett, at Waterloo, she has married his cousin and heir, Tristan. Sophie gives herself to him body and soul. . . until the day Garrett returns from the Continent, demanding his title, his lands-and his wife. TORN BETWEEN TWO HUSBANDS . . .

Now Sophie must choose between her first love and her new love, knowing that no matter what, her choice will destroy one of the men she adores. Will it be Garrett, her childhood sweetheart, whose loss nearly destroyed her once already? Or will it be Tristan, beloved friend turned lover, who supported her through the last, dark years and introduced her to a passion she had never known? As her two husbands battle for her heart, Sophie finds herself immersed in a dangerous game-where the stakes are not only love . . . but life and death.

My Review of A Hint of Wicked

Title: A Hint of Wicked

Series: James Family

Book Number: 1

Author: Jennifer Haymore

Genre: Fiction - Historical Romance

Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, lost her husband Garrett at Waterloo. After seven years of mourning and searching, she finally moved on and married their mutual best friend Tristan, who lost his own wife. Though Sophie still harbors feelings for Garrett, she loves Tristan with a passion never experienced before, not even during her previous marriage to Garrett. The two of them have gotten through their grief together and are very much in love. In the midst of carnal passion, Sophie and Tristan are surprised by the sudden homecoming of Garrett who did not die at Waterloo, but instead spent the past years with amnesia in Belgium. But now that Garrett has his memory back, he wants his wife and his name returned to him. Sophie and Tristan are now at a loss of what to do-- nullify their marriage or fight it out. Sophie's position is especially difficult since she is still very much in love with Garrett and is overjoyed that he alive and home, back to her and their daughter. But yes, she loves Tristan and does not want to separate from him either. Since Sophie can't be married to two men, she has to choose. Of course, Garrett wants to give her no choice by declaring her marriage to Tristan illegal. Flanked by his trusted assistant William, Garrett is having trouble coming to terms with the war. He is prone to hallucinations, flash backs, and violence. His doctor is very grim about Garrett's eventual outlook, which makes it even harder for Sophie to give up on him. Very soon, Sophie and Tristan suspect that something is amiss, that Garrett isn't as sick and out of control as William and his doctor say. Now not only must Sophie decide between the two and Tristan fight for his wife, but the two of them have to uncover what plot Garrett is unknowingly in the middle of. I am a novice when it comes to romance, but I decided to give A Hint of Wicked a try because it is historical fiction and I am constantly searching for that one romance book that will seal the deal for me and make me love the genre. Or even just appreciate it. Though new to this genre, it didn't hinder my ability to appreciate Haymore's elegant writing style or her vast variety of adjectives that were never overused. It was, of course, predictable who Sophie would turn out with. 

Still, I tried not to let that bother me and instead took the book for what it was worth. Rather than accept the story as a mystery unfolding, I understood it as a progression of events I would see to the end, just to know how the events play out and what the means to the end are. Need I mention that the book is very steamy? I don't think I have to once you see the cover. Haymore certainly doesn't shy away from being descriptive, she doesn't hold back and cut out before the passion starts in full force, but her writing is such that she never descends into being crude. It is so easy to ruin a good love scene, you see, at least for me. Truthfully, sometimes Sophie annoyed me. Sometimes reading about how perfect she is got to me. But I never got bored of the love scenes.

Interview With Jennifer Haymore

Q: What do you do to prepare to write? What is the process that gets you ready to sit down a lay out a story?

A: It actually takes me a while to gear myself up to write. In advance, I know I'm going to need a good chunk of time. Unlike some (very lucky and enviable!) authors, I can't sit down for 10 minutes and whip out a page. I need a couple of hours, at least. Once I know I'm going to have the time, I sit down, clear out my email inbox so it won't distract me, and then I look over the last bit of work I did. I usually edit it, think about it, think about where I need to go now, and then I dive in. Sometimes I write fast (my record is about 7000 words in one day); other times I write at a snailâ's pace.

Q: How much of yourself do you put in your characters? Are they extensions of you, or are they independent creations that take on a life of their own after coming from your imagination?

A: The heroine of my first book (which is currently unpublished and under my bed) was very much an extension of me, but since then I think I've branched out quite a bit. I do think, though, that all my heroes and heroines possess certain attributes I have. For example, I think they all pretty much stand on a similar moral plane as I do (although at times theirs can be amplified!).

Q: What sort of research went into making this book?

A: As I wrote this book, I became addicted to Google books (www.books.google.com). There's nothing quite like a source written in the same time period you're writing in. I now have an extensive, organized Google books library filled with books written in the early 19th century about everything from medicine to fashion to travel and architecture and cooking. The cure for opium overdose in A HINT OF WICKED is taken from these texts! Along with Google books, I made use of published historical texts on the period, Regency & other historical websites, horse experts, and fellow members of the Beau Monde chapter of Romance Writers of America, many of whom are experts on the period.

The most historically complex aspect of A HINT OF WICKED was the legal ramifications of a woman (an aristocratic woman, who'd be treated rather differently than a commoner) being married to two men at once. The English courts were extremely complicated and very fluid during this time period, marriage laws went through radical changes about ten years later, and there weren’t any exact precedents for this situation. I bought books on the topic of historical marriage, separation and divorce in England, and I contacted legal experts for advice. Still, it was a tremendous challenge to work it out.

Q: A Hint of Wicked is set in the early 1800s. What is the appeal of historical romance? Is the past somehow more romantic than the present?

A: Hmm...this is a tough question, because I really love contemporary romance too. Sometimes, yes, I think the past is more romantic than the present. There was an intensity to the time—the morals were stricter, the expectations more fierce, and double standards abounded. For example, thinking in terms of A HINT OF WICKED and marriage: once Sophie married Garrett that's it. Game over. Until one of their lives is over, there can be no other marriage. Hopefully they'll be madly in love until the end of their days, because if they're not "oops. Major, impossible-to-overcome problems ensue!" I love huge life-and-death conflicts, and I love how seriously people in history approached concepts like honor and fealty. I also love the pageantry and the customs of the time.

Q: What is the best part of writing a book?

A: Finishing it! There's nothing like that feeling of accomplishment when you write "The End."

Q: What is the worst part of writing a book?

A: Feeling like it's never going to end. Writing a 400-page book is a big job, and if you're an impatient person (like me), you want to do it and be done, but it really does take a long time and a lot of hard work to write a book.

Q: What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you've picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?

A: There's so much...hmmm. Maybe to trust myself and my own voice. I used to worry incessantly about my ability to communicate a scene appropriately, and I drove myself crazy over it. I'd work on one sentence for a day and still feel like it sounded juvenile and boring. As much as Iâ'd love every single word I write to sparkle with wit and satire, my voice is my voice, and I've learned to appreciate it for what it is (I can't pinpoint exactly what that is, but I can say that while it may contain an occasional glimmer of wit and satire, it doesn't do so 100% of the time!).

Q: What is one thing you've never done but would love to do?

A: I'd love to go on an around-the-world sailing trip for a year or two and explore a few seldom-touched corners of the world.

Q: What would your "theme" song be on the soundtrack of your life?

A: The Chariots of Fire theme song is running through my head, but my husband says the instrumental version of Hotel California reminds him of me.

Q: Finally, could you share with all of us a quote that you love?

A: Since I was talking about trusting myself, here's one I like from Sylvia Plath: "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

Participating Sites:

http://www.foreigncircuslibrary.blogspot.com/ - May 19 review 

http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com - May 19 intro; May 21 review; May 23 Q&A; June 6 announce winners of giveaway 

http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com - May 21 Q&A 

http://chicbookreviews.blogspot.com/ - May 22 review and giveaway 

http://www.findthetimetoread.blogspot.com - May 26 review and giveaway http://www.ReadingWithMonie.com - May 26 giveaway 

http://zensanity.blogspot.com/ - May 26 Q&A http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/ - May 27 giveaway 

http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/ - May 28 giveaway 

http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset - May 28 review http://confessionsofaromancebookaddict.wordpress.com/ - June 1 to 4 Q&A, review, and giveaway 

http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com - June 1 giveaway 

http://www.morbid-romantic.net - June 2 review, giveaway, Q&A 

http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/ - June 3 review and giveaway http://kayespenguinposts.blogspot.com/ - June 3 giveaway 

http://thereviewfromhere.wordpress.com/ - June 4 review 

http://www.thebookgirl.net - June 5 review and giveaway 

http://yougottareadreviews.blogspot.com/ - June 6 review and giveaway http://reesspace.blogspot.com - June 6 review and giveaway

http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/ - June 6 review and giveaway 

http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/ - June 8 

http://www.bookwormygirl.blogspot.com/ - giveaway 

http://www.alphaheroes.blogspot.com - review