Book Review: Ghost from the Past: A Romantic Thriller by Sorcha Macmurrough

5.0 out of 5 stars Vulnerable and Betrayed

I really loved the dark, scarred, brooding hero in this gripping book. The hero’s major issues with the heroine make him oscillate between him being made to believe, by the agents pulling his strings, that his former fiancee had betrayed him and tried to murder him, versus trusting to love amid the most dire situation they have suddenly found themselves in.
Surrounded by double agents, and convinced she isn’t telling him the whole story, he is constantly being forced to choose between love of country and duty, and the woman he has never forgotten, or never stopped loving, even after all those years, and all the things she’s been accused of.

In the end, the bad guys are exposed for who they really are, but it is certainly a game of cat and mouse.

As for the writing, the characters are strong enough to keep the pages turning, and the plot, based on chemical weapons, is a topical one, though it was written long before 9/11.

This is far better than the absurd puerile Plum novels, which are wooden and one note, or some of the top names on the bestseller’s lists-that one about the killer dolphins a couple of years ago was so bad, Fatal Tide, it was laughable were it not for the hefty price tag attached to any of these books.

The setting, the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon, in fact, is depicted so clearly I feel like I am right in the middle of the action.

For an author who specializes in British historical fiction, (which I have read, and LOVED!!!) this is an excellent effort at the popular US romantic suspense genre. Enjoy!

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This book is available in PDF from HerStoryBooks: http://www.herstorybooks.com

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Book Review: A Dark Champion

A Dark Champion (Brotherhood of the Sword, Book 1)
by Kinley Macgregor

1.0 out of 5 stars Hopelessly confused muddle

This is supposed to be the first of the Brotherhood of the Sword books, but first of all, she mentions characters from her other books, from some novella or other that she wrote as part of a book with other authors, and secondly, she says she covered the first part of the story in a book that does not exist so far as I can find it. So the whole thing is confusing from the outset.

The trouble is that there is then so much of this back story- of the ‘he is friends with Simon, also known as Sin,’ and ‘hates Damien because…’ variety that it is confusing, tedious, and waters down the little romance there is in the book.

The hero, as a result, never really gets moving in the book, and becomes so much more dull as a hero compared to the villains of the piece. The whole Brotherhood of the Sword, presumably to help each other, seems to be pointless in a lot of respects when we find out that the villains are amongst them and the so-called Brotherhood are actually all killing each other off.

All of the hero’s duties mentioned so that he has no time for a wife, are what, exactly? He never leaves the castle!

The whole issue of his brother and his sexual preferences is done to death, and never once is the fact that he is a murderer addressed! He just says, that’s okay, you are my brother and I love you. Sodomy was totally sinful in those days, though since there is never once any mention of these people having any religion, it too is lost as a conflict point upon which the action could hinge, or be escalated, meaningful. This was supposed to be the Middle Ages. All the opportunities for really deep conflict and characterization are completely lost.

The whole issue of the heroine falling in love with a warrior is over almost before it’s begun, again because there is no believable context. These people break all ten commandments with gleeful abandon, which is kind of odd for Crusaders, supposed Christians, to want to do.

The book is weighed down with secondary characters or mentions of them for so short a novel, but when we really need them they are not there!! The Heir to Jerusalem vanishes from the book completely with little logic, and then we are supposed to find out what happens to him in the next book in the series, (first chapter included at the back of the book) when he has made hardly any impression. This is just plain bad writing and planning. The couple’s love-making in the jail whilst being spied on by the voyueristic Damien is just gross.

This book has no medieval content-they are all ‘electrified,’ ‘mesmerized,’ and they talk like teens down at the mall. There are no sumptuous or relevant details of medieval life, and there is a decidely disgusting hidden patriotic message that seemingly tries to justify the current war in America which most readers would find repellent.

If you are going to write medievals with a message, keep to facts and truth, not melodrama, and certainly not this propaganda with offensively modern outlooks which devalue both time periods.

I certainly am not going to waste my time on this sensationalist bodice ripper of a series. The blurb on the back of the book was completely misleading. This may well be trying to set up a series, but as a romance it fails completely. Very disappointing.

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Book Review: Dear Lover: A Woman’s Guide To Men

Book Review: Dear Lover: A Woman’s Guide To Men, Sex, And Love’s Deepest Bliss
by David Deida

5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb book for any couple who wants to live in true harmony and love

The author’s previous book ‘Superior Man’ is for men, and an excellent guide, but this is the companion volume for women, and gives deep insights into how a true man of integrity is able to and really wants to love the woman in his life. One woman, for this lifetime and even into the next. He writes beautifully and candidly, and each time I read it, I see more and more what I am able to share Tantrically with my partner.

We have created bliss on a daily basis through skill, determination, discipline, and above all, love, and this from a man who is by no means easy to live with or love! And one who never even thought he knew how to love, because all his other relationships had failed so miserably.

Deida’s advice about loving each other open to the divine even when ‘stuff’ gets in the way is one we would all do to remember. After all, what is more sublime than living and being in love-having that 24/7, 365 days a year, always, at every moment, is well worth it. So take the advice offered to heart in this moving book. And read his other books, like Wild nights and Blue Truth, and definitely get Superior Man for your guy. If you train and practice love, and Tantra, and be happy, you really will experience deepst bliss. It really does work! And as good as it sounds in the book, it is even better in real life.
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