The Princess Predicament-Lisa Childs

The Princess Predicament


Lisa Childs

Harlequin Intrigue, Mar 5 2013, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373696772



Her father King St. Pierre announced at a ball that his daughter Princess Gabriella will wed in a political arrangement. However, an angry Gabriella ends up pregnant after making love with her sire’s bodyguard Whit Howell. Not long afterward, Gabriella vanished in Paris; Whit blamed himself for his indiscretion and vowed to find her Royal Princess.



Six months since she disappeared, Whit locates Gabriella living in poor conditions while working at an orphanage and loving every minute. When an attempted abduction occurs, Whit intervenes. He wants to escort her home, but wonders whether the rival fiancé princes, a royal cousin or Whit’s former partner targets pregnant Gabriella, a woman he loves and would die to keep safe.



The latest Royal Bodyguards romantic suspense is an engaging thriller that builds from the previous tale Protecting the Pregnant Princess. Although the premise is not new (see Roman Holiday), The Princess Predicament is an enjoyable sequel with a nice added twist involving bodyguard Charlotte Greene.



Harriet Klausner

The Baby Jackpot-Jacqueline Diamond

The Baby Jackpot


Jacqueline Diamond

Harlequin American, Mar 5 2013, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373754472



Following her divorce from Raditch, Safe Harbor Medical Center Nurse Stacy Layne donates her eggs to a needy couple The Barkers. However on her twenty-eighth birthday, Stacy believing she is having her period and intoxicated Dr. Cole Rattigan share a night of intimacy. She learns a side effect of egg donation hormonal therapy is a higher fertility probability as she becomes pregnant carrying triplets.



Cole will do anything for her and their offspring even offering to marry her, but Stacy declines. Having her marriage detonate leaves Stacy believing their children need a home filled with love; an action neither parents wants to do but each wonders if the children will be better off with other people raising them.



The latest Safe Harbor Medical Center romance (see The Baby Dilemma) is an enjoyable baby makes five tale though the premise has been used before (see The Detective's Accidental Baby) made shakier by professionals having unprotected sex. Still, readers will enjoy returning to Safe Harbor, California where unborn triplets prove to be adept matchmakers.



Harriet Klausner

Shadows and Strongholds-Elizabeth Chadwick

Shadows and Strongholds


Elizabeth Chadwick

Sourcebooks, Mar 5 2013, $14.99

ISBN: 9781402274596



In 1148 at St. Peter’s Fair in Shrewsbury, a noble’s spare ten year old Brunin FitzWarin wanders alone as his father’s searjeant is distracted by a buxom. He takes a beating from the squires of his father’s enemy Gilbert de Lacy. Learning of his second son’s battering, Lord of Whittington and Alburbury Castles and numerous other estates, Brunin’s irate dad Fulke wants to avenge this insult as the bullies used a knife, but his friend and trading partner Joscelin de Dinan says he will mentor Brunin at Ludlow Castle.



Joscelin's wife Sybilla welcomes the lad, setting an example of kindness for others to emulate like her daughters. Brunin and one of the hosts’ offspring Hawise become friends. Over the years the lad proves adept at war and recognizing talent in others like his wife Hawise who he wed in a marriage of political expediency between friends and lovers. As the Civil War engulfs Wales, Brunin becomes the Lord FitzWarin.



This prequel to Lords of the White Castle is a strong medieval romance starring a powerful cast especially the lead couple, their families and their enemies. Using real persona, Elizabeth Chadwick brings to life the Shadows and Strongholds at a dangerous time when the innocent die while Stephen and Matilda vie for the throne.



Harriet Klausner

Dreams and Shadows-C. Robert Cargill

Dreams and Shadows


C. Robert Cargill

Harper Voyager, Feb 26 2013, $24.99

ISBN: 9780062190420



Proud parents Tiffany and Jared Thatcher love their newborn Ewan. However, after hearing Tiffany’s awful warble that only a bay would cherish, Dithers the Bendith Y Mamau blob abducts Ewan from his family’s seventeenth floor apartment and replaces the cooing infant with the Changeling Knocks. Tiffany realizes immediately something is not right with her newborn and claims he is not her baby; but Jared and others thinks something is not right with her.



Over the years Ewan and another abductee Colby meet and become friends in the Fey’s Limestone Kingdom. Together they escape to earth where Ewan falls in love in Austin. However, departing the Limestone Kingdom proves much easier than staying away as they are drawn back to their former realm as no one just leaves.



Though the Changeling snatch concept is not new, the denizen of the Limestone Kingdom brings freshness with their metaphysical debates on whether places like Texas exist beyond “… traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone!” Fans will enjoy the escapades of the two BFFs in Austin and in Limestone as both places can prove bloody deadly.



Harriet Klausner

Earth Girl-Janet Edwards

Earth Girl


Janet Edwards

PYR, Mar 5 2013, $17.95

ISBN: 9781616147655



By 2788 one out of a thousand earthlings are unable to use the portals to travel to other planets. Those immune system challenged one tenth per-centers are considered handicapped as they are Planet One-bound.



The parents abandoned newborn Jarra because her handicap meant she could not live away from earth; so they dumped her there. Now eighteen years old, Jarra, tired of the inane prejudicial Neanderthal ape jokes and a lover of history, plans to prove her worthiness. She masquerades as a normal offspring of a military family from a different portal than that used by her biological parents and becomes a student of University Asgard where she meets Fian. During an archeological dig in what was once Manhattan, a twentieth century skyscraper collapses on a research team; the most experienced on excavations, Jarra becomes a key rescuer. A solar storm forces an earth evacuation that would prove fatal to the abnormal, but instead those orbiting make their first earth landing in six centuries with Jarra key to their staying alive.



Earth Girl is an entertaining futuristic science fiction thriller that focuses on a brave heroine trying to prove to the majority that society thrives when everyone is welcomed inside the tent; prejudice harms more than just the obvious recipients. Obstinate and steadfast, Jarra is an engaging teen as she makes a case that an Earth Girl ape can do much of what the Norms do; in many cases better.



Harriet Klausner

Bungalow Nights-Christie Ridgeway

Bungalow Nights


Christie Ridgeway

Harlequin HQN, Feb 26 2013, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373777457



In Afghanistan dying Colonel Samuel Parker tells combat medic Vance Smith what he wanted to do with his little daughter Layla when he returns to the States. He shows Vance a picture of a little girl and makes him give a deathbed vow to fulfill his helmet list.



His cousin Baxter hires childhood neighbor Addy March to serve as a nanny when Vance takes young Layla to the beach at Crescent Cove, California for a month. However, the only problem with sharing Beach House No. 9 is that cute little Layla is a beautiful twentyish woman. Both feels the heat of attraction, but the late colonel stands between them; as Vance believes a fling would betray his vow and Layla being a military brat learned to control her emotions and fears the medic will open the floodgates of grieving the death of her father.



The second Crescent Cove summer romance (see Beach House No. 9) is an engaging tale starring two nice people brought together by her deceased father. Although the set-up seems highly unlikely, readers who ignore Vance’s misconceptions will enjoy this warm love story as the protagonists learn families matter.



Harriet Klausner

Beauty Awakened-Gena Showalter

Beauty Awakened


Gena Showalter

Harlequin HQN, Feb 26 2013, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373777433



His beautiful cold Mommy Cornelia hated him and sliced off his wings as a small boy before sending seven year old Koldo to live and preferably die with his even eviler father. He survived his father’s torture though psychology Koldo is damaged due to parental loathing and abuse. Koldo joined the on probation Angels of the Dark army led by Commander Zacharel (see Wicked Nights) whose brutal combat against demons has led to human collateral damage.



Koldo meets twins Nicola and Laila Lane while on an operation. Each sister suffers from chronic heart conditions with Laila dying; both also have been used as sustenance by demons. When Nicola has a concussion, she begins to see demons. Her only hope for her and her sibling to survive resides with the wingless avenging angel Koldo who she finds overwhelmingly attractive.



The second Angels of the Dark romantic urban fantasy contains refreshing unique romance as the embittered lead male (Freud would have had wet dreams fulfilled with Koldo as a patient) is the virginal one though their tryst comes across somewhat limpid. The storyline is fast-paced from the moment readers meet young Koldo and never slows down as this offshoot of the Lords of the Underworld saga provides fans with a grim exciting thriller starring a traumatized male whose heart was pulverized when his wings were clipped.



Harriet Klausner