Brazen Broads Book Bash

For Thanksgiving, we Broads went traditional on you and did a Top 5 things/people we give thanks for.  Some are to be expected since we're both mothers, but others may seem a bit off the wall.  We wanted to list things we truly enjoy, so those things that may seem minute or inconsequential to others but bring us some measure of pleasure are here too. From both the Broads, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! Alexandria/Moira 1.  Family/Family 2.  Friends/Friends 3.  Writers/Books 4.  David Gilmour's music/Cooking and enjoying food 5.  Nir Lavi/Mixed Martial Arts #1 You Can't Pick Your Family, But We Would Have Anyway Alexandria:   I'm fortunate to be the mother of two wonderful children, a 21 year old daughter and a 14 year old son.  They both bring me incredible joy.  My daughter and I are the best of friends, and no one can make me laugh like she does.  She's funny, witty, and sharp as a tack, all things that make her one of the best people I've e

We would like to welcome Marie Treanor to the Brazen Broads Book Bash today.  Her book Blood On Silk , out now from NAL Signet Eclipse, is a favorite of both Broads, so this is real thrill for both of us. (Click here to read our review.) A little bit about the author:  Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with her eccentric husband and three much-too-smart children.  Having grown bored with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing sensual stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.  Brazen Broads:   When did you first understand that you wanted to attempt writing as a career? MT:   While I was doing a job I really hated!  I began to think of alternative ways to earn my living, and to consider what I actually enjoyed doing.  And since I'd been writing fiction constantly since childhood, with varying degrees of secrecy, I began to wonder if I shouldn't try it with a serious vie

Perfect Score by Susan Roebuck is in many ways a romance, but certainly not your typical romance.  The two main characters, Alex Finch and Sam Barrowdale, are males, but Susan Roebuck handles the romantic relationship that sits at the core of the story very adroitly.  Perfect Score isn't just a romance, however.  It's a story about the powerful and the powerless. Alex Finch is the adopted son of Timothy Finch, his uncle.  He lives what seems like a charmed life on the surface, but he gets little love from his adopted father. A musician and sentimental heart, he meets Sam Barrowdale when they are both just young teens. Sam is a homeless boy, but despite his ragged appearance, Alex falls in love with him at first sight. Alex's chapters are told in first person, which is a successful technique to show how self involved he can be, but it also works to show Alex as the protagonist who causes much of the relationship between him and Sam to occur.  Sam's story is much di

Harmony Grove, a quiet community nestled in Amish country, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, becomes the center of an intense investigation after a murder takes place at Sienna Collins' quaint bed & breakfast.  The victim is Sienna's former boyfriend, Troy, and as the investigation progresses, Sienna learns that Harmony Grove has a history and secrets of its own.  These secrets have Sienna under investigation by the federal government.  Facing the possibility of losing her career, home, and prosperous lifestyle, Sienna turns to her family and her faith to find peace, hope, and forgiveness in her heart, while using her intellect to solve a mystery in order to clear her name.  When an intriguing and gorgeous detective working the case takes an interest in her, Sienna must decide what she truly wants out of life & love. Mindy Starns Clark serves up a terrific mystery in Secrets of Harmony Grove.  She created interesting characters within and without the Amish community.  S

Unbelievable? Lori Foster's two story compilation entitled Unbelievable includes the stories Fantasy and Tantalizing .  Interestingly, these stories are from the late 1990s, which means certain things in the stories seem odd, such as the car phone one of the men has and the impressed reaction the female in the story has to it.  Overall, however, it's not the anachronisms that damage the stories but the basic ideas of the stories themselves. The first story, Fantasy , involves an incredibly sexy man named Sebastian Sinclair who is taking part in a charity auction of handsome men and a woman named Brandi who sees him and is enchanted by him.  When her sister "buys" him for a five-day vacation for her birthday, Brandi is introduced to a world of romance and seduction that helps her to become a real woman after a trauma years earlier. Cue the wedding bells.  The second story, Tantalizing , involves a woman named Josie Jackson who goes on a blind date with a man her

After her father's death, Lady Irene Wyngate vowed she would never marry.  Her alcoholic father terrorized her family while she was growing up, and Irene determined she would rather remain a spinster than to put herself at the mercy of a man, even if that meant enduring the whims and self importance of her brother's wife, Maura.  Fate, and Gideon, the Earl of Radbourne, however, have something other in mind. Gideon, who had been kidnapped as a child, survived on the streets of London never knowing his good breeding.  His uncle, the Duke of Rochford, manages to find him, Gideon no longer a child, but a grown man and successful businessman.  Of course, the 'ton' hesitates to accept him, as he lacks the refinement they deem appropriate, but Gideon's Aunt Odelia believes everything will be remedied once Gideon marries well.  She enlists the help of successful matchmaker Lady Francesca Haughston, who allays with Gideon in his quest to woo the resistant Lady Irene, believ

One Immortal Greek General Plus One Conservative Accountant Equals Mojo & Magic In The Big Easy..... Ancient Greek Legend, Kyrian of Thrace cries out for vengeance against his betrayer while dying a horrific death, and his request is heard by Artemis, goddess of the hunt. In exchange for his soul, Kyrian is inducted into her army of Dark-Hunters, immortals who roam the earth exacting revenge on vampires and daimons, protecting an unknowing human race from the evil that preys upon them. Both a blessing and a curse, Kyrian's powers enable him to battle dark forces skillfully, but prevent him from gaining his heart's desire, real love. Amanda Devereaux, one of nine sisters in a family of paranormal junkies wants nothing more than to be normal. Denying the supernatural gifts she possess, Amanda works as an accountant, loving her quiet life and hoping to meet Mr. Right, settle down, and have a family. Irreconcilable as light is to dark when they meet, the pair, under t

The Bad Reputation Of An English Rake ........Is So Very Good... Lady Claudia Whitney is disturbed at the re-appearance of Julian Dane, Earl of Kettering and notorious rake, during her visit to France.  Harboring hidden love Claudia flees, returning to England, unable and unwillilg to trust herself in his presence.  Julian is the unrepentant rake Claudia imagines, with one curious problem of his own.  He has loved Lady Whitney for the last few years.  The memory of tragic events their shared history evokes, and each one's belief that their love is unrequitted threatens to keep them separated until the fateful party at Harrison Green's London home.  Julian pushes further than he should with a proper lady of Claudia's social standing when he realizes her desire matches his own; and when gossip-monger Mrs. Frankton happens upon them in a questionable position, Claudia's reputation is bound for ruination.  Julian proposes the only acceptable alternative, marri

A Vampire I Could Sink My Teeth Into Marie Treanor's novel, Blood On Silk , is part romance, part paranormal, part Gothic, and all wonderful.  The story is about a woman named Elizabeth Silk, a Scottish academic who is researching in Romania for her PhD.  Her work continues to reveal one name:  Saloman, the name of an ancient vampire killed centuries ago.  The locals in the village she is staying in speak of him constantly, and when she is given the chance to explore where he's buried by a man named Dmitriu, she takes it and finds herself at the beginning of an adventure that will bring her to Saloman's bed and mortal danger. Blood On Silk is a wonderfully delicious Gothic romance.  Treanor has written a page turner, and her characters, particularly Saloman, are crafted well.  Saloman is a terrific vampire-what all vampires should be in romantic fiction. When he speaks, he seems to almost purr.  Treanor's writing of his part is especially good. When Sa