Colder Than Ice by Helen Macpherson

Publisher:           Regal Crest Enterprises

Dr. Allison Shaunessy, an archaeologist from Australia, wants to launch an expedition into Antarctica to find the possible remains of the Finlayson Expedition. She is trying to prove that Finlayson was actually the first explorer to reach that continent, but she's having trouble raising the money to cover the costs. Enter Dr. Michela DeGrasse, a psychologist with the International Space Research Institute, who is working on psychological studies for the first Mars mission and would like to go on the expedition to study how the team interacts under adverse circumstances. Michela manages to find the descendent of Finlayson, who is willing to fund the project, with the stipulation that Michela must be the expedition leader. Allison has the permits and transportation to get a team to the exploration site, but, as someone who needs to be in control of things around her, can she accept being second in command of an expedition that could establish her academic career?  Her team also presents some challenges in that it contains her fiancée, who feels he should be leading the expedition, and the daughter of the department chairman at her university who has an agenda all her own.  The story unfolds as these two strong-willed women get to know each other and try to find a way to work together, while struggling with a physical attraction that surprises both of them. They do find Finlayson and a surprise they hadn't counted on. And they discover something about themselves, too.

This is Helen MacPherson's second novel and, like And Those Who Trespass Against Us, it features interesting characters and an engaging story.  It is an adventure story first, with a struggling romance as the second theme.  MacPherson has obviously done meticulous research about life in Antarctica and how an expedition like this would function.  The characters find themselves interacting with nature as much as each other.  The descriptions of the terrain provide a magnificent and dangerous setting for the story.  This is a satisfying book all around and a good read.

As Far As Far Enough by Claire Rooney

Publisher:              Bella Books

Collier Ann Torrington is a fugitive from her own family.  She ran away on her wedding day when her father, a powerful US senator, tried to force her to marry a man who would further her father's career.  She doesn't have a plan except to keep running so that Senator Torrington can't use his extensive resources to find her.  An accident that damages her motorcycle strands her in the Blue Ridge Mountains however and she finds herself hiding on a farm owned by Meri Margaret Donovan.  Meri has suffered her own trauma and prefers the life of a semi-recluse, shying away from interacting with the world.  These two would seem made for each other, but there's still the problem of Collier's father and the ruthless way he may deal with both of them.  With the help of Meri's old boyfriend, they come up with a unique plan that leads to a confrontation with Collier's parents, the shattering of her family and a dramatic change in the senator's fortunes.  Maybe a quiet life on the farm will be possible after all.

As Far As Far Enough is pedantic reading that can provide a couple of hours of diversion.  The basis of a good story is there, but the characters are sometimes superficial and underdeveloped.  At times the reader doesn't care what happens to them because there is little to no engagement.  The solution the women come up with to free them from the senator's control is ridiculous at best and disturbing for its callousness.  Without giving away a plot point, suffice it to say that what they do is done for all of the wrong reasons.  The different elements of the story don't blend, but come in fits and starts and sometimes don't ring true.  When Senator Torrington finally makes his appearance, he comes off more as a Mafia don than a skilled politician.  The collapse of the Torrington family is awkward and Meri's behavior often borders on neurotic.   

The story does have redeeming points however.  The plot line, though not fully developed, has some directions that aren't predictable and therefore keep it interesting.  The supporting characters are indeed "characters."  Aunt Beatrice strikes a nice balance between being shocked and then supportive when she discovers the women's relationship and there is a horse that provides some humorous incidents.  The people in the town are perhaps a little too "rustic," but that doesn't mean they aren't accurate to some places.

As Far As Far Enough shows that Claire Rooney has the basics of storytelling and it will be interesting to see how she develops her skill in later books.  The book is a short, quick read and fine for a few hours of entertainment.  That's probably what most readers are looking for in the first place.

      

All the Bold Days of My Restless Life by Sharon Stone

Publisher:                  Alyson Books

Zany was a term that was sometimes applied to the screwball comedies made for television and the movies in the 1950s and 1960s.  It meant something that had little redeeming quality except that it was hilariously funny.  If there was ever a book that fit the definition of zany, this one is it.  Very few things make me laugh out loud, but I found myself roaring at many of the incidents described and the closing scenes had me literally howling.

Bailey Conners is the head writer for a soap opera called All the Bold Days of My Restless Life.  She presides over a writing staff made up of people who are only slightly less nutty than the actors she has to deal with.  There is Peter, her assistant, who is determined to help Bailey meet Ms Right after her girlfriend dumps her.  He manages to arrange three blind dates from hell.  The first is with a woman who has a midnight online sex show and likes to use her dates as her "special guests." The second regales Bailey with intimate details about why she has six children and how that has convinced her to start dating women. Then the last is a cop who gets drunk and starts shooting rats as they walk down the street, causing an encounter with some of New York City's finest.  Encouraging Peter is his partner Alec who absolutely refuses to wear his glasses so he is constantly mangling everything he reads.  For example, he berates Bailey and Peter for the poor offerings on TV, until Peter points out that what he has read in the TV Guide as "Ten With Macaroni" should have been "Tea With Mussolini."  When Bailey isn't trying to avoid more of Peter's dates, she's dealing with a goofy bunch of writers, the idiot daughter of the boss who has been added to her staff, and a truly weird assortment of network executives and directors.

Then there is the show itself.  Every horrible cliché that can be written about a soap opera applies to this one.  What can you say about a show that has a main character named Aruba, her mother is Myrtle Beach and her stepsister is Bermuda Schwartz?  And then there is the fact that the two major stars of the show spend all of their time trying to do each other in professionally.  Derek Young is the vain aging leading man who has built his entire career around this show and he is determined to have the female star fired.  Morgan Gable, who plays Binaca, is a hold over from the glory days of Hollywood.  She's not only smarter than Derek, but more attractive to both sexes.  These two haven't had a line written for them that they can't twist while on air, giving their ad libs wholly different meanings than what Bailey's writers intended and driving the censors crazy.  The final scenes of the book deal with a special "live" performance that will leave you weeping with laughter.

This is a tremendous spoof of soap operas, much like the movie Soap Dish, but better.  If you have read Sharon Stone's other book, Love Letters in the Sand, you will not be prepared for this book.  They are so different it's difficult to believe that the same person wrote them.  If you don't  like satire and take your soaps seriously, this is not the book for you.  However, if you enjoy a book that reads quickly and makes you giggle, check this one out.

A Matter of Degrees by Alex Marcoux

Publisher:             Harrington Park Press

How many conspiracy theories can one story accommodate?  After reading Alex Marcoux's work, A Matter of Degrees, it would seem that answering that question was one of her major objectives in writing the book.

A Matter of Degrees brings back Marcoux's heroine Jessie Mercer, a novelist who has the gift of precognition.  Jessie often finds that she writes a story and then it comes true, with her in a starring role.  This time, Jessie's brother Steve, a news reporter, is working with a colleague on a story about the Freemasons and their connections to other secret societies supposedly cooperating for world domination when he suddenly dies.  The police believe it is suicide, but Jessie isn't sure about that, especially when incidents from her brother's life begin to mimic what is in her most recent story.  She decides to assume a disguise as a man and find out what happened to her brother by becoming a Thirty-third Degree Mason.  Television newswoman Rachel Addison, one of Steve's friends, assists Jessie in her quest.  As the story unfolds, Jessie finds herself dealing with the Freemasons, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, the Roman Catholic Church, a story similar to the premise of The DaVinci Code, and flashbacks to a previous life in ancient Egypt.   Even the Secret Service is portrayed as a surreptitious hit squad used to enforce the leader's wishes.  She has to contend with all of this while she disappears from her own life for almost a year and keeps her lover songstress Taylor Andrews, who is on a world tour, from finding out what she is doing.  The ending of the story culminates with a totally different conspiracy and puts Jessie in danger of losing her life.

Marcoux's first two books, Facades and Back to Salem, were extremely enjoyable and dabbled in the supernatural in a believable manner.  A Matter of Degrees however stretches creditability well beyond the breaking point.  The book has a slow start, perhaps because Marcoux lays a foundation based on the idea that all of the conspiracy theories in world history, including various assassinations, are not only true, but connected in a confusing pattern created by the people who really control the world.  One conspiracy might seem logical; maybe two if the reader chooses to believe the current theory that says secret societies are linked in the New World Order.  After a while though there are so many theories and suspicious circumstances that occur with no one being the wiser that it becomes impossible to accept the premise of the book.  The end of the book is somewhat flat and predictable.  A character that has been omniscient for thousands of years doesn't have the ability to see what is going to happen next. 

  

Marcoux says on her web page, "As you will soon see, my stories are a bit more complex than my earlier work".   A Matter of Degrees is proof that more complex does not mean the story is better.  

Worth Every Step by KG MacGregor

Publisher:              Bella Books

KG MacGregor uses the beauty of Africa and the majestic setting of Mt. Kilimanjaro as the setting of this novel about doing something daring in your life.

Mary Kate Sasser feels a need to do something spectacular in her life.  Life in a small Southern town is stifling her and she craves adventure.  She can't explain to her fiancé and family so that they'll understand why she needs to go to Kenya and climb Kilimanjaro, but go she must.  Addison Falk is headed to the same location for a similar reason.  She has just finished her MBA degree and her father expects her to come to London and take her place in the family firm.  Addison isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, but she knows working for her father isn't it.  She decides that climbing Kilimanjaro will give her a chance to do something exciting and some thinking.  When the women are paired together as climbing buddies, they form a pact to help each other reach the summit.  That act comes to be symbolic not only of them achieving their quest, but finding themselves and each other.

There are three major characters in this story, the two women and the mountain.  As with all of MacGregor's books, the characters are well written and the story is solid.  It is the mountain that sets the tone though.  No matter what happens to Mary Kate and Addison the mountain is there hovering over them.  Massive and dangerous it represents the challenges they face and the decisions they have to make.  There is plenty of humor and sexual tension, but always there is the adventure and the need it represents in both of them to change their lives.  MacGregor has put her personal knowledge of that environment to good use in this book.

Anyone looking for a book to provide some hours of enjoyable reading should give Worth Every Step a chance.  Adventure, suspense, romance, sex, it has a little for everyone. 

Witch Wolf by Winter Pennington

Publisher:              Bold Strokes Books

Kassandra Lyall is a witch by birth, a werewolf by circumstance and a licensed Preternatural Private Investigator and Paranormal Huntress by choice.  She lives in a world where vampires are an accepted part of society and werewolves aren't. That is why Kass prefers to work alone, but she's often called in by the police to help with cases.   

When mutilated bodies show up, Kass finds herself working on two cases that could endanger her own existence.  It's obvious that there is a rogue werewolf involved in the murders and another werewolf asks her to help find her missing brother.  The cases bring Kass into contact with a world she has tried to avoid and a woman she finds frightening and irresistible, Lenorre Countess Vampire of Oklahoma.  Kass feels the cocoon of safety she's built around herself being ripped apart.  She has to find a way to make her changing paranormal situation, the murder investigation and her complicated relationship with Lenorre come into sync and maintain her identity. 

Winter Pennington fell into a twist on the proverbial stew of biting off more than she should have chewed in Witch Wolf.  It's a first book in a series she intends to write about these characters and she spends more time introducing them and how they fit into the picture than she does in telling a story.  She either should have written more or tried to cover less territory; then what is a passable story would have become a better book.  

The publisher brands this as a romance which only works if that's interpreted in the classic definition of the word.  There's very little development of a love story, which is what most readers will expect from the label.  The mystery that is supposed to tie the characters together never really has much suspense about it and the answer to what is happening is apparent fairly quickly.   

Pennington is trying to create a complex world with complicated characters, but it would have worked better if she had let the different aspects she wants to cover show up gradually in each book instead of trying to pour it all into one.  She makes a reference to something significant that happens to Kass then never mentions it again in the book.  Since the title of her next book has already been announced, it's clear that this situation will be important then, but it has no relevance to this book.

What is interesting about the book is the characters and the potential they show for the future.  Kassandra Lyall is a complicated personality and has a lot more to reveal about the different aspects of her life.  The world of vampires as represented by Lenorre isn't typical and could be an interesting story line by itself. There is a scene about what happens to a vampire at the end of a night that describes a process not usually discussed.  The strength of the series will depend on how Pennington develops the story lines from now on.   

Although the story in Witch Wolf is thin, it will provide a strong platform to launch the rest of the series.  All the characters need are story lines that develop as they do.

Who'll Be Dead For Christmas by Kate Sweeney

Publisher:                     Intaglio Publications


Kate Ryan strikes, um, bumbles, um, stumbles, oh heck, Kate is having her usual run of luck. She thought she made a really good deal when she bought a renovated brownstone in her old neighborhood in Chicago, then she learns it was such a steal because the previous tenant was murdered there. Poor Kate. All she wanted was a nice place to bring her lover Dr. Maggie Winfield, but strange things begin to happen almost immediately and she’s sucked into a mystery against her will. 

Kate discovers a journal hidden in the floor and a CD in a secret compartment in the fireplace that seem to indicate the former tenant was involved in some kind of medical experimentation that was connected to the government; then someone breaks in and tries to bash out her brains with one of her own dining room chairs. She  hears footsteps in her apartment; someone drugs her and there are two attempts on Maggie’s life. All of this concerns Kate, but none of it scares her as much as trying to find the courage to say “I love you” to Maggie. If she doesn’t find out quickly what is going on and why people seem to be spying on not only her but Maggie and her new friends who are the other tenants in the building, she may never get a chance to say those words.

Kate Sweeney has provided another opportunity to spend some time with her accident-prone detective Kate Ryan. This time she is surrounded by a new cast of characters. There is the aging hippie couple, Summer and Todd Lockwood, who own a natural food store and see conspiracies behind everything. Ironically, this time they prove to be correct. Living across the hall are Jerry O’Neill, who owns a research company, and his partner Matt Johnson, a restaurant owner.  Matt insists on speaking to Kate as if he were in the Medieval Age and likes to compare Kate and Maggie to Tracy and Hepburn. They provide a nice complement to Kate’s confusion.

As usual, Kate tries to solve the mystery without anyone else getting hurt and they all end up in the soup. This plot is more complex than the previous Kate Ryan mysteries and it’s not clear at the end exactly who the “bad” guy is. In fact, there seem to be several different ones. The resolution of the case gets bogged down in the cross purposes of certain government agencies and private interests and following who did what gets a little muddled, but, as usual, it’s fun getting there with Kate.  

Who’ll Be Dead For Christmas should provide some reading fun for a few hours.