Romance Book Reviews
Page Two of TwoEnchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
Ballantine, June, 2005Trade paperback, 308 pages
ISBN: 0345481259
Subgenre: Paranormal
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Katie Chandler is a sensible Texas girl, who ran her parents' store
for years. She doesn't have a Harvard MBA, though, so her
new business associates in New York aren't terribly impressed with her.
And Katie is definitely not impressed with her current job as
an executive assistant to Mimi the marketing manager from hell. When
she's not depressed about her horrible job situation, Katie
is always noticing really strange things in the city that no one
else seems to see: like girls with real fairy wings and a stone
gargoyle who isn't always on top of the same building. When
Katie gets a mysterious job offer via email, she thinks it's spam and
deletes it. But eventually she is convinced to take a position as a Verifier at
MSI, Inc. (Magic, Spells
and Illusion, Inc.) a wholesaler of benevolent spells. Katie is
uniquely qualified -- she's what the magical world calls an Immune,
someone on whom illusion spells don't work. That makes her
very useful for verifying contracts and spotting invisible
competitors. But Katie's new job is a lot more dangerous than it looks.
In the first book in her new "Hex in the City" series, Shanna Swendson creates a charming, likeable heroine in Katie and throws her into a wild world of spells, sorcery and urban warfare. This is not the dark urban fantasy of Laurell K. Hamilton: this is the lighter, funnier, G-rated end of the spectrum. Shanna Swendson is especially good with dialogue, and Katie's adventures with the paranormal and the singles scene in New York make for very funny reading. At first Katie is crushed to learn that although magic exists, she doesn't have one iota of it, but she soon realizes that what she thinks of as her "ordinariness" makes her very special indeed. And that's not such a bad lesson for any girl to learn.
The Truth About Love by Stephanie Laurens
William Morrow, March, 2005Hardcover, 392 pages
ISBN: 0060505753
Subgenre: Historical
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
In 1831 London, Gerard Reginald Debbington is the ton's
foremost landscape painter. Gerrard is miffed when his
offer to immortalize the legendary gardens of Hellebore Hall is
turned down by Lord Tregonning. But Lord Tregonning
dangles a carrot in front of the painter: if Gerrard will agree to
paint a portrait of Tregonning's daughter, then Gerrard will
be allowed to paint the gardens. Gerrard reluctantly agrees,
expecting Jacqueline Tregonning to be an addlepated, shallow
girl who thinks only of parties and frocks. He is
thoroughly shocked when he finds out that Jacqueline is as
fascinating as she is beautiful, and he quickly falls for her.
But evil rumors say that Jacqueline killed her mother and her
former fiancé, and the
whispering campaign is intensifying. When a body shows
up in the Hellebore Gardens, Gerrard determines to find the real
killer and prove that Jacqueline is innocent.
Stephanie Laurens weaves a sensual gothic undertone in her latest entry in the wildly popular Cynster series. Her interesting plot device of having the hero be a painter who falls in love with the wrongly accused heroine works like a charm. There is an air of danger and suspense in the story that gives it a certain spice. It is also refreshing to see a couple who don't actually hate one another on sight, but instead work towards a common goal. Stephanie Laurens gets the moody atmosphere and the passionate relationship just right in this civilized, absorbing tale of love, murder and suspense.
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