Hello, and welcome back! I hope you´ve all been enjoying some of the great new romances out now. My reading time has been plentiful this past week, and I´m nearly through the March releases now.

Do you love or hate when a favorite author suddenly jumps from writing historicals to contemporary, or vice versa? I know there are some readers who are genuinely upset when this happens with one of their favorite authors, but as a reader, I like to look at it as opening up new areas for me to explore with their change of time period. As a writer, I know it is great to stretch your wings occasionally, so I can appreciate it from that point of view as well.

This week, we have Susan Wiggs´s second foray into contemporary romance,
Passing through Paradise (Warner), and I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. Sandra Winslow is having a truly tough time of it--her much-beloved husband Victor has disappeared, presumed dead in the same accident that put her briefly into the hospital. Now she´s ready to get out of the small town where everyone blames her for Victor´s death, but first she has to find a buyer for her family home. And before she sells it, she has to have it fixed up. Enter Mike Malloy, Victor´s long ago best friend. Sandra is really Everywoman--she could be any of us, trying to make it through a tough time, and struggling with an attraction to a man she isn´t sure she even likes and certainly doesn´t plan to stick around to see where the attraction leads. I adore these characters, and watching them make their way to their happy ending was a joy. I´m giving this one four and a half of Cupid´s five arrows.

Next up is Lisa Jackson´s
Wild and Wicked (Signet). Lady Apryll of Serrenog is an unwilling, and mostly uninformed, partner in her brother´s plot to snatch Lord Devlynn´s son during a Christmas party. I have to say, I didn´t start out liking this one much, and my opinion didn´t change as I read through to the end. Sure, they´re lusting after each other, but I wasn´t convinced it was because of love. Neither can trust the other, and quite frankly, Devlynn is pretty abusive, verbally, in my opinion. This one´s earned only two arrows.

Finally, we have
The Knight and the Rose from Isolde Martyn (Berkley). Lady Johanna FitzHenry is wed to a most abusive man. In order to escape the marriage, she has to find another "husband." Gervase de Laval, supposed scholar, is the answer to her prayers, agreeing to swear she was wed to him first. This is a book history lovers will enjoy immensely, because the history of the times is woven very much into this story. Not a keeper for me personally, though, for that very reason. I´m giving it three arrows.

Until next week, happy reading!