10.) The Buckled Bag by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart is known for as the “American Agatha Christie,” even though her first mystery novel was published forty years before her brutish counterpart. Thusly I believe Christie had the advantage of the change in styling and times, as her mysteries are easier for this Nerdette to read through, yet Rinehart was painstakingly slow and dull. These are the only crimes against “The Buckled Bag,” with great attention to detail, a truly baffling mystery but can be and is dull. The details are finite on the background which lend little to the clues, and the pacing is slow made for readers who are ready to submerge themselves into the plot. To the story’s credit, it is short only 89 pages long.

Candid: Book Haul and Power Trip

Candid Nerdette: Book Haul!!!

With the tragedy in Boston, I am having trouble focusing on my reading and reviews. For this Nerdy girl, the attention and devastation is similar to the 9/11 attacks and it always blankets my moods in dark. So to uplift myself I spent the whole day with my mother doing what I was trained to do since childhood. SHOP! And of course, knowing your lovable Nerd-Girl I went to my local "Goodwill" shops, and "Salvation Army."

To expand my library and save money, I often peruse thrift shops for out of print, hard to find, or just neat additions. in the past I would come home with bags of finds of my favorite authors, yet as I had changed my promise to my husband to "go easy" on the books alas I only found three.

Johanna Lindsey - The Heir - Romance

I fell in love with Lindsey's romances in high school when I checked out a novel from my local library, (They were never in the school library due to the sex scenes, which had saddened me ) I can't remember the title of the book, but I do know that it was about a young woman who time travels to the Viking Age and meets her roguish Viking whom she gets to keep! Yummy! The Heir though is a little more sophisticated or at least I believe it is as the cover does not have a bare chested Adonis with a fragile damsel embracing him with a face of pure ecstasy. (As I was writing the sentence I googled the cover and DID find a bare chested man. I guess the publishers class up the hardcovers. Who knew?) The Heir though is the first in the Reid Series.

Nicholas Sparks - The Guardian - Literature/Love Story

He's not a romance writer, though he writes about love and a romance. He escapes being pigeonholed and is known for bringing his characters to a tragic end. I watched adaptation of his movies before I discovered he was a writer. He's not one of my favorites but something about his craftsmanship on the story inspires me as I write. I am determined to have his all of his published works. (Dear John and Last Song were better as a novel, but I cannot resist Channing's ...well everything.)

The Reef - Nora Roberts - Romance

I love this writer to death! I just cannot get enough of Nora Roberts or her stories. She makes her female leads with a strong character and does not ignore the fact that they are women as well. Her men are practical and realistic, not the white knight on the high horse, but a partner for their lover. So far she not disappointed me, yet I still have 400 books to go.

Current Fiction and Sneak Peak of what Nerdette is Reading : Power Trip by Jackie Collins

The Raunchy Moralist has returned with another story about the Rich and Powerful and what happens when you are to naughty. POWER TRIP follows the passengers of a yacht, The Russian Billionaire and his Super Model Mistress, A Cheating Congress man and his Doll like unhappy wife, A former soccer star and his interior designer wife, A famous Latin Singer and his bitchy British Boyfriend, and a journalist and his Asian Human Activist date. As they all sail the seas, waves of drama erupt on board as everyone is somehow connected to each other. The story is comes to a head as pirates show up with revenge on their mind. I'm enjoying the novel as I usually do of Collin's works.

 

 

 

 

9.) The Tycoon's Revenge by Melody Anne (I'm BACK!)

                Romance the genre has guidelines to plot development. The first is for the story to be centered on the heroine, often the protagonist, and the hero, her love interest and the relationship that blossoms in the story. Secondly and most important is for the couple to meet a happy and satisfying ending. The second of the requirements is what keeps Nicholas Spark’s novels out of the romance genre and mainly viewed as a love story which is a part of general literature. So with only two guidelines an author or authoress has free range to incorporate them. J.R. Ward a paranormal romance writer has even made her one of her main hero in her series bisexual and getting over his past love with a man by being with a woman. It is something different that usually captures readers new and young, but traditional like Nora Roberts creating strong sensible males and females but twist a different plot can still be effective. However with Melody Anne’s “The Tycoon’s Revenge” follows the formula so much so that leaves the plot predictable, and the juvenile antics of her characters caused them to be one note. Though I am not sure whether I am just jaded by all the romance I have read over the years, where I can see the plot’s destination within three chapters or it is just plain predictable.

            The story centers on Derek Titan, a self-made Billionaire who is plotting revenge for his spurned affections and bruised pride. He successfully in chapter one gains control over the company of his ex-girlfriend’s father. Jasmine Freeman, our heroine is too bitter but not out for revenge for Derek leaving her at the altar without a word from him for years, all she wants is to keep her job in order to take care of her home. She bites her tongue and works with Derek to rebuild the company and along the way rekindle the romance they had once had in their youth.

            Good premise, yet a bad execution. The plot is rushed, with the reader finding out the cause on both sides to leave our main characters feeling betrayed. In first couple of chapters we find out how Derek was betrayed and before that we already learned of Jasmine being abandoned at the altar. This leaves the reader to watch as Derek and Jasmine fall back in love for the rest of the three fourths of the book. For two people who had been betrayed and wounded so deeply they seem to fall back in love and in bed with each other. This has to do with the plot already correcting our villain so early.

            What could have helped the story along would have been a convincing and layered antagonist. Yet his reasons are typical and overplayed with no personal depth. He put a ruse in the young lovers tryst for the reasons that have been done and way better. To add to the injury he is only in the story as foil to our characters romance, which would have been fine if there had been something deeper to the story.

            Our hero is to scale. Derek is perceived by the authoress as a cruel and ruthless business man who only looks forward and never back. (The business of what he does is a little sketchy as it is never really explained what the company does, though that could be overlooked as the main focus is on the romance). His need for revenge is fueled by the pain left on him by Jasmine as well as his prejudices toward the wealthy born. However in the flashback of how she had spurned him, the reader has to question his own character. He did not hear such words from his lover, instead from an informant who has questionable traits even to Derek. Yet with the information he damns all wealthy born women and flees off to plot his revenge. It seems cowardice that he could not wait to confront her, and lazy as a writer to not expand on other possibilities to justify his anger. The unjustifiable rage only cheapens the inevitable reunion and romance which quickly follows, leaving most readers annoyed and tired of his incompetence.

            However Derek’s actions does give Jasmine just cause to be bitter and resentful towards him. In her defense she was left at the altar with no call, letter or message. He disappeared for a long time, yet she knew he was alive not dead from an accident or kidnapped. She cuts her losses and moves on with her life yet retains a secrets which sours her character. The secret though to the reader is not discreet at all. A reader is then left to questions the ethics of Jasmine. She is our protagonist and sure she is susceptible to human flaws but with her moral high ground and her integrity to better that of her lover why would she keep this secret. It makes her seem childish and less developed as to no real explanation is given. Instead the reader and Derek are left with, “You weren’t around, so there seemed no reason to tell you.” Bullshit! If a character, a person claims to love someone and has no idea why he left but their own imaginings would at least make some vain attempt to give him the news!

            At which point I had to calm myself before breaking my iPad. I did not cover the sex scenes which are usually my favorite parts of a romance novel, because they were as formulaic as the plot though they tried to hint of eroticism. Anne had a good premise and popular idea with a Billionaire trying to enact some type of revenge and yet falling into his own trap. The execution though was just rushed and underdeveloped.

            The Tycoon’s Revenge eBook can be found on amazon.com for the kindle and on itunes for apple products. It is fairly inexpensive (unless you don’t have a kindle or apple products then go freely into sweet sweet ignorance) and for a short little romp with not much use in brain power could be enjoyable.