Eloquent Silence

When I can't sleep, I have a bad habit of picking up a book and reading until I can. Tonight I picked up Sandra Brown's Eloquent Silence because it was shorter.

Okay, here's what you need to know. She (Lauri) is teacher for deaf students. He (Drake Rivington, which I thought was awesome) is a (you have to be ready for it) soap star. He also has a daughter (Jennifer) who is deaf. He hires Lauri to move from New York to Arizona to privately tutor Jennifer.

Of course, there's this really strong attraction right from the beginning. Both are widowers. The difference? Drake is still in love with his dead wife, while Lauri was glad (in a non-creepy, non-black widow kind of way) that her husband died (she was sad at first, I swear).

Anyway, as Drake is in New York, filming, Lauri and Jennifer are bonding in Arizona.

Then Drake comes to Arizona. They (of course) become lovers after (many annoying) near misses, and (are you ready?) when her parents (a minister and his wife) show up unexpectedly at the house, Drake tells them (as to save her reputation) that they got married!

Oh my gosh. It all kind of spirals out of control from there. A reporter shows up, and suddenly everyone knows.

And she's mostly okay with it until Jennifer goes through the boxes of the dead wife's things, and Drake flips.

He leaves for New York, and when he come back, they hash it all out.

The best part of this book? The cheesy romance lines. "Drown me in your love, Drake!" (Oh man...so inappropriate...).

I can't even keep going, because the best ones are really, really inappropriate (especially given the context...oh my gosh), and I try to keep this (at least mostly) family friendly.

Anyway, it was fine. Good for an (inappropriate) laugh, but a fine story line too. Characters who were a little annoying, but not overly.

I liked it just fine.

Temperatures Rising

So, I went from surprisingly stellar CF to a huge letdown romance. I'm just that kind of person, I guess.

Anyway, I just finished Sandra's Brown Temperatures Rising, an old one (1989!), so a straight romance.

Let me just say, Scout was very obsessed with Chantal's breasts. They came up at least once a page.

Anyway, Scout is an engineer working on a resort in the islands off Hawaii when he's kidnapped by Chantal, a beautiful native woman. He's accidentally shot, knocked out, and dragged to their village.

Chantal is a brilliant geologist who's village needs a new bridge. She kidnaps Scout so he'll build it for them. It's a rocky road (he doesn't want to, she ends up burning the bridge down so he will), never mind the fact they're both so attracted to each other that it's practically killing them.

I wasn't all that impressed. The writing was only okay, the plot line despicable, the characters unbelievable and annoying.

None of the great twists I've come to expect from a Sandra Brown, but then again, it is an early one before she had her style set.

Let me just say, I doubt I'll be reading it again.

The Crush

So, in my hurry to get to work today, I forgot to bring the book that I'm nearing the end of. Good thing there was a book sale nearby and I picked up 20 (20!) books today.

I started reading The Crush by Sandra Brown when I had 15 minutes before my shift started.

When it starts out, you know exactly who the killer is, who the woman is, and who the man is. It's kind of nice, knowing all that right off.

With all that in mind, all you have to look out for in this book is the emotional twist.

Here's what's different about this book. They (Rennie and Wick) don't get together until really, really close to the end. It's refreshing, and a little disconcerting. The killer is a sane sort of crazy. The twists in his case (I really thought he was still with them by the beach when they get called away!) are very well done as well.

What's not so stellar: killing the other doctor right off. A little sad. The 4 page into on the security guard's issues...we only see him in the second chapter and never again. Waste of time, in my book.

Oh my gosh! Where Wick shoots Oren? Amazing! I couldn't believe it!

Yeah, in case you missed it, I'm a fan.

Best Kept Secrets

I really am on a Sandra Brown kick.

Okay, so this one was...weird. In a kind of creepy way. Alexandra Gaither (Alex), a public defender in Austin (I think), Texas, goes back to her hometown when her grandmother falls into a coma. Her reasoning? She wants to figure out who killed her mother, Celina.

It's one of three men. Angus Minton, ruling patriarch and general good ole boy; Junior Minton, his lackadaisical son who just isn't up to his standards; or Reede Lambert, the sheriff and son that Angus never had.

Of course, Reede and Junior were both in love with Celina, and all three were best friends. And no, neither was Alex's real father (Thankfully. That would have been icky).

Anyway, Alex is uncovering all sorts of bad things, including the wretched truth about her mother, all the while (let's all say it together...) finding herself wildly attractive, then falling in love with Reede.

Yeah, a slight ick factor. Even worse is the fact that Junior totally wanted her.

I'm amazed Angus didn't get in there and confess his wild lust as well.

Anyway, the story went well. I was vacillating between the actual killer and the other one who it might be.

Well written, though a touch slow. Again, the slight ick factor of Alex and Reede getting together. Not to mention that Reede is really kind of an ass. Junior is a playboy.

It's not that they don't have redeeming qualities, I just had trouble with them getting together. She seemed smarter than that.

It's always nice to be wrong though.

Anyway, not stellar. Not terrible, but not stellar either.

Charade

Apparently, I'm on a Sandra Brown kick. A new Sandra Brown kick. That's impressive for me.

Okay, just I just finished Charade, a mid-90's Sandra Brown novel.

It starts out detailing the last days of 3 patients who give up their hearts for organ donation, and the first day of a heart recipient. From there it gets odd.

We're following Cat Delaney (who else used Delaney as a last name? And Gannon? I swear, repetition will make me crazy until I figure this one out...), the recipient. She's a soap opera actress before her transplant, and after does a 4 minute piece on a news show to help kids in need of adoption. He is Alex Pierce, ex-cop current writer.

While Alex and Cat are falling in love, she's being stalked by a person who has killed everyone that has had a heart transplant on the day that Kat did. He's killing them to set one heart free.

Okay, so I liked this book. A little slow at first (the first 5 chapters totally threw me...kept going in and out of characters that I didn't see the point to, plus I didn't realize it was a medical drama). After that, when it finally settled into it's rhythm, it was good. Cat is a spitfire, which is always fun (and a redhead...just like Allison from Thursday's Child...hmm...wonder how many redheads Sandra Brown writes about...), and Alex is haunted.

Anyway, they (somehow) figure out a myriad of things, which leads to the big revelation...that I'm not going to give you. Needless to say, I totally forgot about it until they brought it back up.

However, when everyone thought Alex was the killer (of course he's not...it's a Sandra Brown novel. They just have to accuse him to get the heroine alone so the real killer can find her!), I'm sitting here going, "It's not him! You're looking for the lover, it's not him! I don't care what the evidence says, you've got it wrong!"

And!! I was so excited! I knew who it was! Though, at the end, she did throw in a minor twist as to who it could have been, but instead, it was who I though! Yes!!

Anyway, I approve.

Thursday's Child

While I like the newer Sandra Brown novels, the old ones tend to annoy me. I picked up Thursday's Child because I am a child of Thursday (as in, I was born on one).

Anyway, in this one Allison and Ann are twins, and Ann wants to get a breast enlargement, so she convinces Allison to be her around her fiancee for the next few days.

The only problem is that when Davis, Ann's fiancee, introduces "Ann" to his best friend, Spencer, they fall immediately in lust. "Ann" (really Allison) is trying to pretend like she doesn't feel it, and Spencer is trying to figure out why she's faking it with Davis.

About halfway through it comes out that "Ann" is really Allison, and when Ann actually is.

After that, Allison and Spencer spend their time on his boat, trying to prove one of Allison's theories right. That two superior parents can make an intellectually superior baby.

When Spencer has to leave for work, Allison is desolate. They meet up again at Ann and Davis' wedding, and when Spencer finds out she's pregnant, he's thrilled. Love declared, marriage proposed and accepted, all's well that ends well.

Again, it was cute, but not all that challenging (something I actually missed).

Oh, and I agree with Allison. The title is based on an old poem that goes like this:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

Allison says, 'Thursday's child has a long way to go to catch up with everyone else."

Anyway, it was cute, but not stellar. Be wary of explicit sex scenes, because that's what Sandra writes.

Smoke Screen

Smoke Screen is the latest novel by Sandra Brown.

As with all Sandra Brown novels, you can’t trust anyone, except of course the one you’re falling in love with. Don’t mean to be rude, but that’s how it always works.

Anyway, in this one, Britt Shelley, a TV reporter, wakes up next to a dead man, Jay. When she can’t remember the night before, or how he ended up dead, things take a dark turn. She’s accused of killing him, but before she can be arrested, is kidnapped by Raley Gannon.

Gannon tells her his story of waking up next to a dead girl after a party at Jay’s house, with a lot of similarities, they agree to go hunting together to find out just what happened.

As usual, there are a million twists and turns that no one saw coming. From the party-boy who just wanted to clean his conscience, to the Attorney General who may or may not have played a part in the cover up, you’re never quite sure what Sandra is going to throw at you. But I liked this one.

Unspeakable

I just finished Sandra Brown's Unspeakable. It's an older novel (10 years now...), but one that I hadn't read. Lola mentioned it when she was looking through my books ("You don't have Unspeakable? Sad.") so I picked it up at work.

It's about a deaf woman (Anna) and her son (David). Well, and a whole bunch of other people. In a small town in Eastern Texas, Anna lives with David and her father-in-law (Delray). When Jack Sawyer, a drifter, comes to work at the ranch where Anna lives. When Delray's good-for-nothing stepson breaks out of prison and Delray dies, Jack is the only one who can protect her and David.

Like all the other Sandra Brown novels I've read, it involves love, a huge scene where everyone is going to die (but doesn't, of course), and the twist at the end (usually within the last 15 pages or so) that is shocking.

And, of course, in the end, love conquers everything else.

Because in novels, the ending is usually happy, if unresolved.

Hello, Darkness

I just finished Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown.

Yes, take a moment and sing the song.

Ok, now that we've all done that (every time I think of the book, I think of the song).

What I like about this: Well thought out, the twist, the relationships. I like Paris because she's strong and can stand her ground, I like Dean because he's trying to do the right thing, and Sandra shows us his human hang-ups, especially about raising a son. I like Gavin because he's finding his way into being the man his dad wants him to be.

What I don't like: Incest, The Sex Club, the dentist...okay, all the weird sexual perversions.

That said, I really like this book. You do have to be aware of the sexual content, because (a) it's a Sandra Brown novel, and you have to be prepared for that, and (b) it's a murder mystery of a sexual nature.

But did I mention I really like the twist? I spent the whole time (the first time I read it), just following where she pointed me. What, he has the tapes? It must be him! Ooh! Sexual predator! It's him! And then...OH MY GOSH!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S HIM?!? kind of moment.

Although, this time, for the first time, I caught the slip. The moment where you realize who it is, the slip in his language. Never saw it before, and I've read it at least twice before.