Tag Archives: Romance

Harm’s Way by Sam Cross

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HARM’S WAY
Sam Cross
Whiskey Creek Press, 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60313-745-4
Print ISBN: 978-1-60313-746-1
328 Pages
eBook
Thriller/Romance

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Clare Boyd is a successful businesswoman whose world is built on a foundation of glass. When her husband, whom she loved dearly, convinced her to carry an accidental pregnancy to term, Clare divorced him a week after the baby was born. A late night with the ultimate client ends with him missing and Clare outside, in a park, in the arms of a statue of an angel, with no memory of the evening. Instead of going to the police, Clare goes manic, trying to cover up her involvement. And then there are the dreams, which turn out to be a reality Clare is not prepared to face.

But face it she will, because someone is carefully pulling back the layers of Clare’s past. This is someone who’s willing to harm everyone who gets in his way—as long as it brings Clare closer to the future he envisions for her.

Harm’s Way, an appropriate title, takes us through the meltdown of a top corporate executive who is poised to take the reigns of the entire company. How can an individual like this unravel in just a few days? Sam Cross shows us, in detail.

This romantic thriller is crisp, professional and character driven. Ross is obviously at home with the genre(s), and I’m sure his fans will love Harm’s Way. For my part, I found this 328 page novel just zipped right on by, which, in my world, means the author did exactly what he’s supposed to do: he drew me in, suspended my disbelief, connected me with his protagonist and kept the tension high enough for me to keep turning those pages.

I did have a couple of concerns.

First, Cross revealed his antagonist/evil doer about half way through the book. He even took us back through scenes we had already seen through Clare’s eyes. Risky business, that. He could have lost me right there. In fact, I found myself saying “What the hell?” You see, by making the choice he did, Cross diluted a great deal of the suspense he had worked so hard to build. And I didn’t understand it. But… Harm’s Way is not a novel of suspense; it’s a thriller. So, believe me when I tell you the author’s seemingly unorthodox choice pays off: there are many more thrills to come, some plot twists you won’t expect and a pace that never lets up.

Second, there’s the questions: Would a seasoned trench fighter like Clare melt down as quickly as she did? Do her actions resonate with who she’s supposed to be? If one follows very closely, Cross answers these questions (in a way) early on in the story. Clare divorced her husband and walked away from her one week old daughter. What would make someone do that? The answer explains Clare’s behaviour throughout the book.

My problem is, I’m not sure, even with Clare’s history, that a mother would walk out on her baby and a husband she loves and who loves her. So, I didn’t quite buy the answer Cross gives the reader. What this means for me as a reviewer is that I would probably give this book a 4 out 5 rather than the perfect 5 (if I used such a scale). However, I’d rather put it this way: just because I have a few issues with Harm’s Way that diminished my enjoyment, doesn’t mean you will. Sam Cross has given his readers a terrific thriller!


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

A novel about Richard III in This Time

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This Time
by Joan Szechtman
Basset Books LLC, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9824493-0-1
Trade Paperback
344 pages
Historical Fiction

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Richard III is yanked into the 21st century in his dying moments and a substitute body is left in his place, so as to keep then and now balanced at an atomic level, at a static level of energy. While this is an interesting concept, I don’t believe it’s ever explained how the scientists could make such exact measurements using the equipment available to them. However, I suspended my disbelief and gave the novel a chance.

And it turns out that This Time by Joan Szechtman is an enjoyable read. Billed as historical fiction, it also gives more than a nod to the science fiction genre and the romance genre. The book deals largely with Richard’s attempts to adapt to 500 years of technical and social changes. He must learn to use a computer and drive a car. His English is also terribly out of date. And Richard, ever the man of action, also intends to carve out a place in the business world where his skills can be applied in a useful way. Intuitive thinking and the ability to solve problems quickly and with confidence helps…

He converts the project director from an enemy who puts two bullets into him to the man who allows Richard to run a risky project of his own, as well as becoming a welcome member of the corporate structure of the company itself.

His romance with the inventor of the original technology used in the time machine, who knows Richard only as the evil, deformed man portrayed in one of Shakespeare’s plays, is also complicated by the fact that the woman is Jewish and Richard is a devout Catholic who is not at all comfortable with today’s atmosphere of religious toleration. Richard sets out to solve this set of problems just as he would plan a campaign.

Richard’s emotional wounds from the recent deaths of his wife and child, and his folly of taking his men into a battle he knows they cannot win, takes a heavy toll. Did he go into battle as a form of suicide? If he can be brought forward in time, what about his wife and son?

As Richard works through all the alien ideas and possibilities now open to him, one can see the shape of a king emerge—with one exception. Richard is comfortable dealing with all kinds of people, but is especially demonstrative of emotion when it comes to his new love and her children and of his doomed wife and the son he hopes to rescue from an early death. This did not feel real to me. Everything I’ve read of the historical times of Richard III leaves me with the suspicion that overt emotion of any kind would be seen as a weakness and thus avoided. Why would Richard make such an about face in our time? Yes, I believe he would want the same results he garners within the pages of This Time, but I think he would have been more aloof and would have kept his own council.

Anyway, these are just my opinions. This Time by Joan Szechtman is probably closer in content to the movie Kate and Leopold than Michael Crichton’s Timeline, but comparison between the three stories seems to indicate that This Time presents a more believable scenario than either of the mentioned stories. History Buffs and Romantics should find the book most enjoyable.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Once Upon A Moscow Night by Judith McGuinness

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Once Upon a Moscow NightSKU-000062627_XL
by Judith McGuiness
iUniverse
2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-49240-4
243 pages
Trade Paperback
Romance

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Kate Barnes spent her isolated childhood developing a love for all things Russian. Time has now painted her as an unusual beauty, one that catches the eye of every man on the hunt. So, while Kate is living her dream of holidaying in Moscow and bumps into the eminent Viktor Cherkasov, there’s no reason for her to feel any different about him than she has the men who have come before him. But Kate does. Can her love conquer a large age difference, cultural barriers and a venomous son determined to keep Kate and Victor forever apart? And can it do so in just ten days?

Once Upon a Moscow Night is a novel meant for the true romantic. Its pace is leisurely: you get to visit all the places Kate does, you’re exposed to the thoughts and feelings of each player in the story and you’re ever so gently pulled down into the romance until you have no choice but to see it through to the end. And, of course, the denouément includes perfect solutions to all problems, followed by the same gentle, even graceful, glide to the finish.

These are all good things. Or they could be. Judith McGuinness puts sentences together very well, and she cares deeply for her characters. I think, however, she should care as much for her readers. You see, Once Upon a Moscow Night is a story completely told by the blurb on the back cover. There are no surprises. One reads the book only to participate in a “knight on a white horse” love affair set in an exotic place. There’s nothing else. Deep character development isn’t possible, because there’s no real conflict. Never, in the 243 pages of this book did I feel convinced the romance was truly in danger. The hurdles felt exactly as they were: contrivances.

If the author was doing her job, story movement, the ever-changing and unique actions of the characters would have defined specific feelings, morals, traits, etc., for us. Instead, the reader is too often fed repetitious actions, words and thoughts of both Victor and Kate. In my opinion, we’re told of the romance more often than we’re shown.

Let me put it this way: Once Upon a Moscow Night is the perfect, undemanding romance to transport you away from a dreary and boring afternoon. It’s not a novel of substance.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009