Discovering Laura Drake

Wow!  It's been a long hiatus, and while I could blame the weather, or the holidays, or my kids' school, there really is nobody and nothing to blame but myself.  I did crank down in November and early December to get ready for my first "craft show" with the gourd art my mom and I do (Mom & Me Gourds shameless plug), and that put everything else on hold.  But, the date passed, and still no writing.

I'm coming back, though.  And, to get back into it I'm writing a review of a book I received in a giveaway.  I had the option of more than several books to be given away by Sharla Lovelace, and when I won I narrowed it down to four.  I couldn't decide between them because they were all so different and new authors to me, so I asked her to surprise me.  

The book, along with a $15 gift card to Barnes & Nobel, arrived in my mailbox Christmas Eve.  I opened the bubble envelope Christmas Day and pulled out The Sweet Spot, by Laura Drake.  I was thrilled to get another Texas cowboy romance, and this one was different from the "typical" romance. . . It involved a hero and heroine who had already been married to each other, but had that marriage shattered by tragedy.

The back cover reads:

Charla Rae Denny was the perfect wife with a perfect life, content to keep the home fires burning while her husband, JB, competed as a champion bull rider.  Then their son died in a tragic accident--and everything fell apart.  Divorced and saddled with a hill of bills and a failing ranch, Charla must now cowboy up to put her life back together.

James "JB" Denny doesn't stay where he isn't welcome.  So when Charla shut him out of her grieving heart--and their home--a year ago, he took comfort where he could find it.  Now after seeing beautiful Charla again, he wants it all back.  She can't work the ranch alone, and deep in his heart he knows he can be the man she needs.  But after so much history and heartbreak, can JB convince Charla to take a risk and give their love a second chance?

I was drawn to this story because it's not your typical man-meets-woman-woman-fights-falling-for-man-but-does-anyway sort of romance.  I liked that they were once married.  I liked that the worst thing I could imagine was what blew a canyon between them.  (Not that I relished in that tragedy, mind you.)

The story opens with Charla occupying herself in a homemaker sort of way.  Fighting the draw of her addiction that began with the death of her son.  Boom!  She already has a vulnerability that affects her daily life, making other life struggles that much more difficult.  And she is faced with another almost immediately: money.  And that's where JB comes in.

JB spends almost the entire book trying to convince his ex-wife, who so obviously still loves him in some tucked-away treasure chest in her heart, that he has grown as a man.  He's trying to show her how much he still loves her.  To regain her trust.

And Charla turns him away at every turn.

But she is changing and growing, too.  She has a ranch to run, after all, so she pushes through old fears to take care of what takes care of her.  She makes a new friend who knows nothing of her past, helping her to move into the future.

Laura Drake's The Sweet Spot is a Romantic Times Top Pick and won "Best Debut of 2013" in the 2013 Curvy Book Awards.  And there's good reason for that.

Drake's prose is poetic, using fantastic imagery to take you from your sofa on to the Denny ranch in east Texas.  Her metaphors are an Indian summer to the hackneyed phrases of the past decades. The dialog feels real, true to the characters speaking.  The characters are so full, even the minor ones, it feels like you know them personally.

But I think my favorite thing about this book was the emotion.  Drake pulls you into the the lives of Charla and JB and makes you feel what they feel:  the heart-wrenching pull of the damaged love between husband and wife; the terror of losing a child so young; the fear of rejoining society in a small town.  All of it.  I lived this story when I read it, like it was happening to me or my closest friend.  I even had tears running down my cheeks at one point.

Their stories are true-to-life ranching stories.  The details are what make it so real:  the way a cutting horse "turns on" when a cow is in front of them; birthing a calf stuck in the wrong position; a harsh bit in a horse's mouth.  Drake obviously knows what she's doing.

It was a leisurely read.  One I didn't feel rushed to finish like the fantasy novels I've read.  I think that made it more enjoyable in ways that fast-paced books can't grasp.  The next book in the Sweet on a Cowboy series (love that title!) will be released January 28th, and you can bet I'll be at the store to pick it up.  I've been searching for real "cowboy" stories for a long time.  Laura Drake has provided what I've been looking for.

The Reason Is You (a review) . . .

I was blessed to receive a copy of The Reason is You, by Sharla Lovelace, to review.  The author signed and dated the book for me, and she also included a Snoopy note card with a personal note of thanks inside.  I will alway treasure this book because it represents my first personal contact with an author, and an opportunity to push my own writing out there a bit further.

Thank you, Sharla, for this wonderful opportunity.

The Reason is You, by Sharla Lovelace

Dani Shane has been laid off from her job in Dallas.  With no other options left to her, she moves  with her sixteen year old daughter, Riley, back to her father’s house in the small town of Bethany.  Dani is less than thrilled about the move, especially when her oldest friend suddenly appears at her car while she’s unpacking.

Alex looks exactly the same, with his dashing good looks and black clothes, and Dani is shocked to see him.  Particularly when she notices Riley talking to him . . . because Alex is a ghost.  Dani was the joke of the town when she was growing up because she talked to people who weren’t there.  Ghosts only she could see.  And now Riley could see them, too.

Then there’s the new owner of the bait shop, Jason Miller, who is also her new boss.  His hard body is graced with a handsome face, and Dani can’t seem to avoid running into him . . . literally.  When she discovers his softer side, she begins developing feelings for him.  But he’s new in town, and the skeletons--or ghosts--in her closet are bound to come out at some point.

Dani has to face her past while trying to build her future.  And, she has to help her daughter learn how to deal with her new “gift” before she becomes the next town joke.

I didn’t read the back cover before starting The Reason is You.  My first impression of the author’s style was the dedication to her family.  It was poetic and flowing, and made me eager to get to the first chapter.  But, the acknowledgments came before that coveted first word.  They were cryptic, written for the minds of those they recognized, but they were also inspiring for this aspiring writer, confirming my characters loosely based on real people, and encouraging participation in conferences for the connections and support earned.

I would say that the book started off a bit slow, but at the same time the author throws the reader into the story from the beginning.  No back story is needed at this point because the main character is starting over.  Lovelace does a great job of pulling the reader in quickly, too.  I was hooked directly after meeting Alex, and before page 8.

The back story that is needed is filled in at just the right pace.  We learn about Alex out of necessity because of Riley’s newfound ability to see and converse with spirits.  We learn about Dani’s history with the town of Bethany as the people from her adolescence begin to trickle into the story through her new job at the bait store, a place everyone seems to need for one thing or another in such a small town.  

Throughout the story more is discerned about Dani’s history with Alex, eventually culminating in a revelation that perhaps Dani should have seen earlier.  But, when you have that much crap going on in your life, maybe putting puzzle pieces together becomes tedious and trivial.  After all, if Alex would just come out and say what he wants Dani to figure out, she wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Until the secret is revealed, of course.  At which point her world goes a bit topsy-turvy again.  

The sexual tension between Dani and Alex is palpable.  The fact that they are so obviously in love and yet unable even to touch draws out the tension until it feels like it would snap in a light breeze.  Delicious proof that sex scenes aren’t needed if it’s written with finesse.

Dani grows tremendously through the story.  She begins to stand up for herself instead of crawling into the safety of her psyche.  She also comes to terms with her gift with the help of a photo album filled with pictures her mother had taken in her youth.  It’s easy to sympathize with Dani.  She starts out a meek woman, who, by the end, becomes a strong person who stands up for herself and others.

Sharla Lovelace does a wonderful job of telling this story.  Her style is easy to read, and I love her metaphors and descriptions.  There were a couple places where I was confused by her description of a person or place--meeting Miss Olivia stands out in my memory--but, after reading through the page and going back to reread the description, it made sense.  She is very creative in the way she uses the character's memory of a person or place to describe it.  And she doesn’t use typical adjectives for her descriptions, filling them with the flavor of the person or location.  I was able to watch the story play out in my mind’s eye like I was there as it happened.

While there was the typical romance novel wedding ending, it lacked the speed that annoys me with other romance stories.  Without giving a time frame, Lovelace makes it clear that the wedding didn’t happen two weeks or two months after the characters met, that they were given time to get to know each other before saying their vows.

And here is my favorite thing about the ending . . . . . . No sequel!  This is so rare in any genre these days.  I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I picked up a book that was a “stand alone” story.  It was incredibly refreshing to not have to wait for the next book to find out “what now.”

All in all, a well written, well told story that I highly recommend.

Review: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

I’m a writer and a reader, but I’m not big on writing reviews.  They feel like book reports to me.  The ones I have written in the past wither on the page when compared to those written by people who have even a minor talent for such assessments.  However, I have recently read two books which I think deserve at least an effort on my part.  (I will write the reviews in separate entries.)  

The first book, I am reviewing because I want to get my strong opinions about the writing and storyline out.  This book was recommended to me by several people, some of which compared the writing to my own, so I feel obligated to give my opinion.  And here I emphasize that it is my opinion.  It is not meant to sway other readers one way or the other.  It is merely my own view on the things that I picked up while reading.

(Fifty Shade of Grey, by E.L. James)

The second book was Christmas gift from my father.  I read this book in less than a week, which is saying something since my life is a hectic blur most of the time.  But I couldn’t put this book down.  I loved it so much that I want to write a review to share with the author and future readers.  Again, though, it is my opinion and thus not meant to sway anyone.  

(Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo)

Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James

2.5 stars

SPOILERS!

When I started reading this, I went in with mixed feelings.  I had read several reviews, good and bad, and I had been told by a few people who have read some of my pieces that this book reminded them of my writing.  The unfavorable reviews I had read said the writing was horrible, so I started this book on the defensive.  

But, there is a big difference between writing and story or scenes.

If I had been an agent following the 5-page rule--meaning if I didn’t like/love it in the first five pages, then I’d reject it--I never would have signed this book.  The first five pages were incredibly dull and filled with excessive use of adjectives.  In fact, within the first three pages there was a sentence that used eight adjectives.  Eight!  In one sentence.  By the time I got to end of the sentence, I had to look back to remember just what the author was talking about to begin with.  

These first pages also gave amazing detail for a scene that would never again be visited.  Superfluous descriptions of the lobby of a building left me hoping that this scene would become important later in the story.  That I hadn’t wasted my time reading something that would end up having nothing to do with the story at all.  But, that’s exactly what it was.  Every bit of that useless description could have been cut from the book, and it wouldn’t have been missed by any reader.

I did notice that the writing got better as the book progressed, but I still think the entire thing could use a good editor.  It would probably be half the length if all the clutter was cut.  It would also be easier to tolerate.

The story is okay.  It really only follows Ana and Grey along in their relationship without giving much information outside of that.  Even when Ana, who is telling the story, isn’t with Grey, she constantly thing about him.  He totally consumes her.  

Ana doesn’t ring true to me, either.  I find it very hard to believe that a young (heterosexual) woman of twenty-two has never found interest in a man.  Especially in today’s world.  The virginity thing is completely understandable, but I challenge you to find a woman today of that age who has never been attracted to a male.  This reader just doesn’t buy it.

The sex scenes are better than the rest of the story, almost like everything that isn’t dealing with sex is just filler to get to the next sex scene.  The BDSM aspect was obvious from the moment I met Grey.  The scene where he and Ana met reminded me of a James Spader movie called Secretary.  

I’ve read my share of romance and erotica and all the stories that fall between them.  This book was classified--basically--as mainstream erotica.  The BDSM made it that.  And the language.  The sex scenes in this book, while erotic, are more of an erotic romance type than straight-up erotica.  James gives details, but no more than a book from Harlequin's Blaze series.  (And those are better stories with better writing.)

Personally, curse words, especially the f-bomb, seem to be used for shock factor by authors that perhaps aren’t eloquent enough with their vocabulary to express what they really want to say.  There are exceptions within characters, but if Ana is as innocent as James would have us believe, she wouldn’t use the f-bomb except to reflect on Grey’s words.  But she does.  Although, maybe that part of her is just a twist in her personality.  I thought that she came off as the religious zealot type, without the religion, so her extensive use of the f-bomb could’ve been replace with other, lesser words like hell or shit.  James used the f-bomb more and more as the story progressed.

Then there’s the “inner goddess” and “subconscious” aspect of Ana.  She talked about them so much--my “inner goddess” count ended at 48--and gave them such distinctive personalities that I wouldn’t be surprised if she was later diagnosed with multiple personality disorder or some other mental distress involving polyphony.  She even goes so far as to describe their physical appearances, like the “half-moon spectacles” of the subconscious.  Essentially these two characters, for they are indeed minor supporting characters, are the proverbial “angel” and “devil” sitting on Ana’s shoulders.

If the other supporting characters had been developed as well as the “inner goddess” and “subconscious” the story would have been more well rounded.  Making Jose more direct in his pursuit of Ana, for example, would have caused more conflict all around.  This reader would have liked to see Grey have to “fight” for Ana’s affection instead of just having her melt into a pile of goo in his presence.

The ending, now that was something.  I loved the ending.  So often books end happily with the hero and heroine falling madly in love and getting married, all loose ends neatly tidied up.  And I know that, in general, readers want that happy ending, but occasionally I’d like to see the heroine or hero fall flat, fail to reach that plateau where the sky is a cloudless blue and the sun shines so there are no shadows.  Don’t get me wrong, I do love happy endings because they make me feel like life isn’t always an uphill battle, but every so often I’d like to see something different.  Fifty Shades of Grey provided that sadder ending when Ana left Grey, admitting that neither of them could give the other what they wanted or needed.  I enjoyed reading her exit from his life without preamble.  I am happy with that ending, even knowing there are two more books to complete their story.  For me, it’s over.  She left.  End of story.  

If I do read the next book, I sincerely hope that Jose becomes a more pertinent character.  I hope that the editor she is going to work for is also groomed into a well-rounded character.  Especially since he was described with the same “dark expression” as Grey when Ana met him.

I’m not saying it was a bad book.  It wasn’t horrible, but wasn’t the 5-star spectacle that society made it out to be, either.  As I said in the beginning, I started this book on the defensive, and I read it with a very critical eye.  But, it wasn’t meant to be a literary masterpiece, as one friend pointed out.