The Campaign by Tracey Richardson

Publisher:        Bella Books

The Campaign is the sequel to Tracey Richardson’s very good book The Candidate.  As is appropriate in an election year, Richardson picks up the story of Vice President Jane Kincaid as she is preparing to run for re-election to a second term.  Kincaid and her partner Secret Service Agent Alex Warner have built a successful life in the public eye and don’t anticipate any problems in the campaign until two unexpected events occur.  First Julia Landon, Alex’s ex-lover, is assigned by a newspaper to cover the campaign.  This causes stress on Alex, especially when Corey Kincaid, Jane’s sister and campaign manager, develops an interest in Julia.  Then Julia uncovers a scandal involving the president that could either destroy everything or launch a new opportunity for Jane.  The interplay between the four women could decide the future of the United States.

It’s interesting to read a book about US politics written by a Canadian.  Richardson gets her details right, but she puts an emphasis on areas that an American might not pay attention to.  It gives the book a little different feel to it.  She also takes a chance in a book that is intended for a primarily lesbian audience.  The bad guy in this book is a powerful gay man who manipulates information in an attempt to gain power.  It works though because it shows the character of Jane Kincaid at her strongest.  There is also a scene that takes place when Jane visits the troops overseas that will wrench the reader’s emotions.  Powerful stuff.

The Campaign is a political story and a love story.  As usual with Tracey Richardson, it’s well written with strong characters.  A reader can’t ask for more.

My top 11 books for 2011.....so far

Lara Zielinsky asked me to make a list of the top 11 books I read in 2011 for the radio show we did and I never got through the entire list, so I thought I'd post it here.  There are two caveats:

• except for the top 4, the rest of the books probably could change positions easily.
• I haven't had a chance to read the latest books from Justine Saracen, Robbi McCoy, Ruth Perkinson or Amy Dawson Robertson.....YET.  I'd be willing to bet they would knock some books off of my list, but I'll have to see.

So, for what it's worth, here they are. 

1.  Shaken and Stirred by Joan Opyr tied with 
     Beyond Instinct by Lynn Ames and you couldn't
           find two books more different.
3.  The Indelible Heart by Marianne Martin
4.  After the Fall by Robin Summers
5.  The Wedding Party by Tracey Richardson
6.  Open Water by Pol Robinson
7.  Like Lovers Do by Lori Lake
8.  My Soldier Too by Bev Prescott
9.  The Girls Club by Sally Bellrose
10.  If the Wind Were a Woman by Kelly Sinclair
11.  Confined Spaces by Renee MacKenzie

The Wedding Party by Tracey Richardson

Publisher:         Bella Books

When is a wedding more than a wedding?  When it's the background for a group of people to find out a lot of information about themselves.

Dani and Shannon have been planning their wedding in Las Vegas for a long time.  Shannon would have preferred something less elaborate, but Dani feels like a big event is a sign of her love for Shannon.  She has paid to fly in their closest friends for a week of activities before the wedding and everything will be perfect.  It has to be because afterward Dani has to tell Shannon that she's been out of work for more than a month, she really can't afford any of their plans and their world is about to fall apart.  Shannon is hiding a secret of her own that could be just as devastating to their relationship.  It soon becomes clear that their friends Jordan and Claire and Shannon's niece Amanda have issues of their own to resolve.  Whatever answer each woman settles on will change the group dynamic significantly and could end relationships that have taken years to build.

The Wedding Party ostensibly starts out as the story of a group of friends celebrating a wedding; however, Richardson soon takes it into an exploration of what keeping secrets and not trusting people can do to relationships.  Dani and Shannon cannot admit certain truths to each other despite their long relationship.  It raises the question of how you can commit to someone if you can't trust them with the truth.  Jordan, the eternal womanizer, is afraid to admit that she's finally reached a point where she wants stability and Amanda is afraid to trust the person she has been the closest to all of her life.  Claire is hiding more than anyone, not only from her friends, but from herself.  The reader might question how this group can be so close when the members are keeping so much from each other, but the reality is that people often hide things from those they rely on the most.  What Richardson shows is the consequences of this behavior and possible solutions for these situations.

Tracey Richardson is very good at writing stories that have more depth than appears on the surface. The Wedding Party can be enjoyed as a character study of a group of friends, but a little more thought shows that it's also about the importance of openness and honesty in maintaining a group dynamic.  A standard story is used to mask a more important lesson.  Richardson writes well.  It's always easy to recommend her books.

The Candidate by Tracey Richardson

Publisher:            Bella Books


The Candidate couldn't be more topical or present a more controversial idea in this year of political firsts. What would you do if you were the first serious female candidate for President of the United States and discovered during the campaign that you love a woman? 

Jane Kincaid has all of the credentials she needs to be President – beauty, intelligence, a distinguished career as a doctor, an electrifying career as a Senator and she's the scion of a respected political family. She has been driving towards this goal for much of her adult life and her Blueprint for America is setting crowds on fire. She has no personal life to distract her. Since her husband's death in a plane crash years ago, she's focused on nothing but her service to the people of the United States and that suits her fine. Unfortunately, her high profile as a candidate means she has to have protection from the Secret Service and that necessitates a female agent being assigned to her.

Agent Alex Warner isn't sure she's any happier about the assignment than the candidate until they meet. Alex is immediately impressed with Jane's down to earth personality and dedication to improving the country. Jane can't help but admire Alex's natural humility and her heroism. The women find themselves becoming fast friends as Alex slips into the role of advisor as well as protector.

As the campaign progresses, Jane finds she cannot focus on her task without Alex present and that becomes the problem. When the women realize they have developed feelings for each other the timing couldn't be worse. Jane is fighting a hard enough battle as a woman. She can't add the extra complication of being a lesbian. She doesn't want to give up Alex, but her life has been dedicated to one path. Suddenly she appears to be looking down two paths that run in different directions. Can she be satisfied following one, but not the other? Is the country ready to accept both? Just how much are they willing to tolerate from their golden girl?
 
Tracey Richardson has written her story with considerable skill. The personalities of the characters are well defined in the beginning, but also are allowed to change as their relationship progresses and the women don't fall in love immediately, but grow into a realization of their feelings over an appropriate amount of time. 

The dilemma Jane faces is also handled very realistically. For someone who wants to be president, outing herself couldn't be more impossible. Readers shouldn't expect her to simply throw away her political dreams for an opportunity at "true love" and the way she handles her choices feels right. What makes the book particularly enjoyable is that the affair, though important, doesn't drive the plot as much as the situation in which Jane finds herself and the decision making process she goes through. The result is an interesting tale with some thought behind it. This book is worth reading.

Side Order of Love by Tracey Richardson

Publisher:            Bella Books

Grace Wellwood is a famous chef who owns her own restaurant and has a popular TV show.  To everyone else she seems on top of the world, but appearances can be deceiving.  When she ends a three year relationship with a married woman that was going nowhere, her friends encourage her to take some time off; so Grace retreats to a cottage by the sea.  Her vacation is interrupted when her company is hired by golf champion Torrie Cannon to cater a tournament she's sponsoring.   

Torrie is younger than Grace and a "player" on and off of the golf course.  She's used to jumping from bed to bed and doesn't feel a need for anything else until she meets Grace.  Grace brings out something different in Torrie, something that Torrie doesn't know how to express properly, so she keeps coming off as a fast talker who hasn't finished growing up.  If there's one thing Grace knows for certain, it's that she's not interested in any more relationships that have no chance of developing into something permanent and maturity, two things Torrie appears to lack.  Torrie's challenge is to prove to Grace that she can meet her expectations for a new chance.

This book has more than one conflict that holds the reader's interest.  There is the tension between Grace and her lover, Grace and Torrie, and between two secondary characters who play significant roles.  The age difference between Grace and Torrie, while not extreme, also factors into what happens between them.  Richardson is able to blend these issues into a cohesive plot with likeable characters.

Side Order of Love, like Richardson's other books, delivers a story that is entertaining and engaging.  

No Rules of Engagement by Tracey Richardson

Publisher:             Bella Books

Tracey Richardson is one of those writers who has a knack for taking an item from the front page of the newspaper and turning into a personal, dramatic story.  No Rules of Engagement falls squarely in that category. 

Jillian Knight is an award winning photographer who has been hired by National Geographic Magazine to do a photo spread showing what happens at a medical unit stationed in Afghanistan.  Major Logan Sharp's assignment, when she's not functioning as a doctor, is to provide Jillian with whatever help she needs and to keep her safe.  War can confuse or clarify many things, especially in an area where every square inch of soil is a battlefield and death can strike from anywhere.  Jillian is forced to confront the problems of the relationship she left in Detroit and Logan has to figure out what to do with her life when her tour is over.  The intensity of the danger they face causes the women to drop walls faster than they usually would and they discover an attraction.  Jillian's commitment to her relationship and Logan's sense of honor won't allow either of them to pursue their feelings, but destiny conspires to bring them together over a year later and much has changed.  Now the obstruction is an emotional wound that Logan carries from years before.  Jillian isn't sure she can break through Logan's defenses in a battle where there are no rules of engagement, but she's willing to try.

It could be dangerous to set a book in the midst of the situation in Iraq/Afghanistan because of the dissension over what is happening there, but Richardson manages to avoid those problems.  There are no politics in this book, just a straightforward story about the difficulties for anyone functioning within a war zone, plus a romance.  

The book is actually in two parts that have different points of focus.  In the first half the reader deals with the charged atmosphere in the daily life of war-torn Afghanistan.  There is a scene where Jillian goes on a mission to an outer base and the tension can be felt by the reader as the events unfold.  The second half of the book involves a totally different scenario.  Now that the women have returned to their homes they have to deal with their emotions, their pasts and their potential future.  Richardson provides for a break in the action that covers a number of months and that allows the reader to deal separately with the two situations, yet understand the overlap that ties them together.

No Rules of Engagement is a well-written book that is entertaining.  While it's basically a romance, it's also extremely pertinent to what is going on in the world today.  Richardson continues to deliver interesting books that cause the readers to look forward to her next one

Blind Bet by Tracey Richardson

 

Publisher:                   Bella Books

How do you differentiate one romance from another?  The plot is basically known, so it must be character development or the story.  Blind Bet by Tracey Richardson is an example of how characters can make a book.

Ellen Turcotte is trying to recover from a divorce from her wife that caught her totally by surprise.  She thought they had been happy for thirteen years until she found her wife in bed with another woman.  Ellen decides to visit a friend in Vancouver for a change of scenery and meets  Courtney Langford.  Courtney's life was turned inside out when she missed a flight and the airplane she was supposed to be on crashed, killing one of her staff members.  After dumping everything in her life, she took off on a motorcycle in an attempt to discover why she survived.  Both women are trying to figure out what to do with their lives when they meet in a situation that casts Courtney in a less than positive light.  After more accidental meetings, Courtney realizes that Ellen might be the person she's been looking for, but Ellen isn't so sure herself.  Lady Luck has been Courtney's best friend in everything she's ever done, but that may have changed as Courtney tries to convince Ellen to risk her heart one more time.

The romance in this book is fairly routine; but it's the emotions that Ellen and Courtney go through that make it interesting.  Richardson uses these two characters to illustrate the effects that someone else's actions can have on a person's life.  Ellen has to face the issues of betrayal by a spouse and her own guilt in the situation.  Courtney suffers from classic "survivor regret" and a healthy dose of post traumatic distress.  Neither one of them is able to interact with other people in a personal manner.  These two are the least likely candidates to start a relationship, yet their shared emotional struggles allow them to reach out and help each other.  The dance they do, denying their feelings and each trying to isolate herself within her own form of grief, makes the book as much an exploration of personality as it is of romance.

Tracey Richardson's other books have shown romance against a variety of backgrounds, including war, politics and adventure.  Blind Bet takes a different approach and illustrates how negative emotions, left unaddressed, can ruin the positive that comes into a person's life.  It's an interesting book to read.