You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2007.
The Bishop at the Lake by Andrew M. Greeley is a fantastic mystery featuring Blackie Ryan, a well known Greeley character. Blackie is sent by his boss, Cardinal Sean Cronin, to investigate a priest spreading false rumors about a prestigious appoinment…held by the Cardinal! What Blackie finds is an ineffectual lush who is not worth the worry. But, while there Blackie is introduced to the Priest’s family, the Nolan’s. Each character is described with Greeley’s typical wit and humor the reader is pulled in by his writing cadence and delightful leading characters. The Patriarch of the Nolan clan is sympathetic and strong, as is his enduring love for his wife. Their Granddaughter, Peggy Anne is at turns immature and wise beyond her years.With the introduction of Joseph, a balancing character for Peggy Anne, a secondary story is intrduced, that of young love. When the Priest Blackie is investigating, Malachai Nolan, is almost killed by a Hornet attack, Blackie is pulled deep into the family’s drama as he tries to find out who (and why) such an attack was made. Even though the villian is over-the-top and easily spotted, an observation voiced by Blackie Ryan himself, the reader is carried along to the predictable and fun ending.
This is not my first (and won’t be my last, I hope) Greeley book. His characters are always bold, bright and full of life. The books seem to end too soon and the glimpses into the families lives are true, just and usually full of love. I have been a huge fan of this authors works for years and have never been dissapointed. Thank You dear author.
Seducing the Mercenary
by Loreth Anne White
Reviewed by Bailey Stewart
The book was done, the last page read and yet I sat there holding it in my hands, unwilling to let it go. The sounds of the neighborhood slowly emerged from the jungle in my mind; I had been so engrossed that they had been shoved back into the shadows of Ubasi. Usually when I like a book, I jump up immediately and write the review; but not this time. I want to savor the feelings that still pour through me; its story holds me in its grip. What to say, how to articulate the sensations brought on by Emily/Emma and Jean’s story; the emotions that still hold me tight.
Ubasi, an African nation in the middle of turmoil, its tyrannical leader Souleyman ousted by Jean-Charles Laroque, Le Diable, son of the merciless Peter Laroque. Emily Carlin is a psychologist who works for the Force du Sable, a mercenary group that has been commissioned by the U.S. to help Souleyman regain power. She’s an expert in tyrannical pathology, alpha dogs as she calls them. Her job is to determine the best way to control Laroque, whose rise to power makes the U.S. uncomfortable because he can not be controlled as easily as Souleyman. The adage, better the devil you know than the one you don’t, comes easily to mind. Emily has to identify the dictator’s weaknesses in order to help the FDS devise their strategy; do they take him prisoner, or do they assassinate him? She has one week to find out.
Jean-Charles Laroque, a man with a mission, distrustful of everyone. Burdened with the legacy of his father’s cruelty, he must deal with enemies on all sides. Betrayal is dealt with quickly and ruthlessly. How will he handle the duplicity of the woman that he not only let into his castle, but into his heart.
Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb is an emotional read that grabs you from the first couple of sentences. “I left my wedding dess hanging in a tree somewhere in North Dakota. I don’t know why that particular tree appealed to me. Perhaps it was because it looked as it it had given up and died years ago and was still standing because it didn’t know what else to do….” And so, we the reader, meet Julia Bennett. Julia is running across the country toward her Aunt Lydia, the only truly loving person she has ever known. In Boston, on her wedding day, she escapes Robert, her sadistic and abusive fiance`. From her Aunts concrete pigs in her front yard in Oregon, to the first meeting of the Psychic Night where Julia meets Katie, Caroline and Lara, Julia is wrapped in love and acceptance. Each woman has secrets, each offers emotional support and love to the other. Katie, too, knows the abusive power of a man. Caroline has a crippling gift and a shadowy past. And Lara, Lara has hidden her true self from everyone around her, even her Minister husband.
As the reader comes to know the women and to cry with them, laugh with them and share in their triumphs, there is still fear present for Julie. Because she knows Robert will find her, and when he does she is sure that he will kill her. She knows she can run away again, but she gathers courage from the friends she has made, the life she has made for herself and the new love that she is beginning to feel for Dean, a truly caring man who enteres her life. Julia will fight for the two children she has come to love and wants to adopt, for the Chocolates she makes and is praised for, but most of all for herself; her future.
As a reader I am unsure of how to tell you of the powerful emotions packed within the pages of this book. They will touch your heart, and your soul. Many topics are introduced, among them: abuse, breast cancer, self acceptance, and most of all love. There is, of course, a HEA for the reader and the characters you will come to care for. I, for one, can’t wait for another book from the author of this fantastic book.
