Guru Goddess

Book Review: In from the Cold: A Romantic Thriller of Chechnya
by Carolyn Stone

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful, definitely romantic

I enjoyed this box, which was fast-paced and sexy. The book was written long before 9/11, (I think the first edition was copyright 1997, actually, 12 years ago! is how long that war has been going on) and even long before most people had heard of Chechnya.

It is realistic and gritty; the author being a freelance journalis, the whole novel has a breathless, on-deadline quality about it, which actually lends itself to the subject matter totally. For a fast, fun read, I don’t really expect great literature!

So, I definitely recommend it to romance readers, and anyone who enjoys really strong characters. It’s not a fluffy beach read, but it isn’t depressing or too violent either. I really enjoy the fact that the author doesn’t just put characters into the book to kill them off for shock effect the way so many writers do.

We really come to care about all the characters (and who are the good guys, and who the bad One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.) She grasps the complexities of the situation, though this is certainly only intended to be an entertaining read.

The hero is dark, brooding, inwardly scarred. He gets to come to terms with his past, in a most surprising way, and is then free to be open to the possibility of a normal life after so many years as a spy.

The heroine is a breath of fresh air–an academic recruited as an agent, she is the last person who ever imagines she’ll become a spy, until her father is kidnapped. She turns out to be tough, resourceful, and really goes through hell to win the man she loves. I love the settings in Cambridge and Oxford, very accurate, and the excellent visual detail. If you want get caught up in a book with a real epic feel to it and some interesting twists and turns, you’ll enjoy this novel for sure.

346 words

The PDF edition is available from http://www.herstorybooks.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Vulnerable and Betrayed

I really loved the dark, scarred, brooding hero in this gripping book. The hero’s major issues with the heroine make him oscillate between him being made to believe, by the agents pulling his strings, that his former fiancee had betrayed him and tried to murder him, versus trusting to love amid the most dire situation they have suddenly found themselves in.
Surrounded by double agents, and convinced she isn’t telling him the whole story, he is constantly being forced to choose between love of country and duty, and the woman he has never forgotten, or never stopped loving, even after all those years, and all the things she’s been accused of.

In the end, the bad guys are exposed for who they really are, but it is certainly a game of cat and mouse.

As for the writing, the characters are strong enough to keep the pages turning, and the plot, based on chemical weapons, is a topical one, though it was written long before 9/11.

This is far better than the absurd puerile Plum novels, which are wooden and one note, or some of the top names on the bestseller’s lists-that one about the killer dolphins a couple of years ago was so bad, Fatal Tide, it was laughable were it not for the hefty price tag attached to any of these books.

The setting, the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon, in fact, is depicted so clearly I feel like I am right in the middle of the action.

For an author who specializes in British historical fiction, (which I have read, and LOVED!!!) this is an excellent effort at the popular US romantic suspense genre. Enjoy!

297 words

This book is available in PDF from HerStoryBooks: http://www.herstorybooks.com

2 out of 5 stars

The trouble with a successful author’s work being treated like a publisher’s ‘product’

This ‘novel’ should have stayed a short serial, because it is so thin on plot, there was really no point in trying to blow it up into a full book just for the sake of the with a hefty pricetag, let alone as a hardcover, when it would at best merit a slim paperback.
Winn the main character stars out fantastic, and we love his gran, though it is pretty silly to have her ’solve’ the crime in some sense. But then Winn goes on the wild goose chase, and the whole book goes to hell in a handbasket.
Every detail the author gave to provide characterisation at the start of the book as they all lurch into action, and manage to go to it with all of the liveliness of cardboard. Once again, the author is thin on motive, and the whole thing smacks of “Phew, glad I got that out of the way!”

All of her most recent books have felt like that–I know her topics are seldom cheerful, but where is the fun, the wisecracks, of the early Kay, Marino and so forth?

It is a shame that Cornwell has descended into the dark realms of despair with her most recent books, but it is not surprising if she is expected to churn and grind out her next book like a hack writer meeting a deadline.

Definitely give this a miss, and her ones where the serial criminal is a werewolf-I mean, I ask you. Just like sex is supposed to sell, sensationalism is supposed to as well, but this is a real waste of everyone’s money, time and effort.

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3.0 out of 5 stars

Another enjoyable installment but quite disappointing with regard to Ramses

Especially after having recently re-read Children of the Storm, the characters in this book all seem so flat compared with their usual panache.

Also, Ramses having meaningless sex with a new stranger while everyone else is in peril, including his beloved Nefret, is the height of bad taste, and not true to the character at all. Daria has no redeeming features, and the psychobabble to explain Nefret’s supposed frigidity is just too terrible for words.

Really, I want to see the whole family solve mysteries, have adventures, not read about their romantic troubles.

And making Sethos the master criminal virtually harmless is just to silly for words, and also foreshadows the friendships between the characters which chronologically comes way later in the series.

If she is going to go back in time, why not to the good old early days with Ramses as a baby/child!! Instead of making them all seem so puerile when they are in their 20s. I loved the early Amelia and Emerson. Ramses lacks the heroic stature of his father.
198 words

1 out of 5 stars A total flat tire

The title of the novel refers to the strange experience familiar character Dillon Savich has on a lonely, snowy road one dark night. Alas, it is hardly developed at all in the book until the last 40 pages or so, and I really can’t see, hard as the author tried, how it is linked up with the supposed hero and heroine of this book, Ben Raven and the daughter of a murdered supreme court justice.

The motive for the murders as the body pile mounts up is absolutely absurd, and the twist at the end totally falls flat. I felt really cheated by this book.

It was nice to see Sherlock and Dillon and their little boy, but the whole relationship between Ben and his lady love is a wet squib and the macho posturing in the living room of Savich’s home is just absurd. A real let down. Neither romantic, nor suspenseful.

168 words