Romance Book Review: Linda Howard's Shades of Twilight

Author: Linda Howard

ISBN-13: 978-0671019716

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Pocket Books; Reprint edition

Purchase Link: Amazon

Originally published in 1997, this timeless romantic suspense by Linda Howard is a classic by the author who has long since mastered the art of romance and suspense. 

Roanna and her cousin Jessie's parents are killed in an accident and the two orphans move in with their wealthy grandmother Lucinda. Lucinda has a lot of plans for her grandchildren, as well as he nephew Webb. To Lucinda the children are the future of her family empire. She decides the Webb will inherit and expects that someday he will marry her granddaughter Jessie. 

The the children grow they become closer and soon Lucinda's goals are met, Webb and Jessie marry. Roanna who is much younger is desperately in love with Webb, but she realizes there's no chance for her with him. She very accident pron, always saying the wrong things and not at all what every in the family expects a young socialite to be. She loves spending time with the families horses. Webb takes care of Roanna when he can, always spending time with her and giving her attention even when she follows him around like a little puppy dog. 

Jessie, on the other hand is a complete witch to Roanna and her marriage to Webb isn't what she thought it would be at all. She begins a elicit affair and soon is violently murdered. With the case left unsolved and Webb as the prime suspect with no proof, he takes off and leaves Lucinda and Roanna when they need him most. 

After 10 years Lucinda sends Roanna to go find Webb and bring him back. Still as ruthless as he once was, maybe more so he gives Roanna an ultimatum. He'll come back if she sleeps with him. 

Check out the rest of the book and find out who really killed Jessie and who has set his sights on Roanna and Webb next. This book leaves you guess right until the end. 

Description:

Roanna Davenport was raised a wealthy orphan on her grandmother's magnificent Alabama estate, Davencourt, where she had a passion for horses, a genius for trouble, and a deep love for her cousin, Webb. But everyone expected Webb to marry their ravishing cousin, Jessie. When he did, Roanna's desire became no more than the stuff of dreams -- until the night Jessie was found bludgeoned to death. 

After the shocking murder of his wife, Webb left for Arizona, abandoning the legacy that he had once believed was all he wanted. But then an all-grown-up Roanna walked into a dingy bar in Nogales to bring him home; the mischievous sprite he had known ten years earlier was no more. Gone, too, was her fire. In its place was ice that melted at his touch. Webb is drawn back to Davencourt, to Roanna, and to the killer that once destroyed his life and waits only for the chance to finish the job....

Romance Byte: Linda Howard's Shadow Woman

Author: Linda Howard

ISBN: 978-0345506931

Genre: Romantic Suspense/ Mystery

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Purchase Link

I was so excited to see that Linda Howard has a new book out. My list is pretty full right now, but I thought I'd share the info for those who have time to delve into a new romantic suspense.

Description:

Lizette Henry wakes up one morning and makes a terrifying discovery: She doesn’t recognize the face she sees in the mirror. She remembers what she looks like, but her reflection is someone else’s. To add to the shock, two years seem to have disappeared from her life. Someone has gone to great and inexplicable lengths to keep those missing years hidden forever. But the past always finds a way to return.

Strange memories soon begin to surface and, along with them, some unusual skills and talents that Lizette hasn’t a clue about acquiring. Sensing that she’s being monitored, Lizette suddenly knows how to search for bugs in her house and tracking devices in her car. What’s more, she can elude surveillance—like a trained agent.

Enter a mysterious and seductive stranger named Xavier, who claims he wants to help—but who triggers disturbing images of an unspeakable crime of which Lizette may or may not be the perpetrator. With memories returning, she suddenly becomes a target of anonymous assassins. On the run with nowhere to hide, Lizette has no choice but to rely on Xavier, a strong and magnetic man she doesn’t trust, with a powerful attraction she cannot resist. As murky waters become clear, Lizette confronts a conspiracy that is treacherous and far-reaching and a truth that, once revealed, may silence her and Xavier once and for all.

Romance Byte: Burn

Author: Linda Howard
ISBN: 978-0-345-48656-1
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Ballantine

Purchase from Amazon
Purchase from Barnes and Noble

Description:
It’s true what they say: Money changes everything. And in Linda Howard’s red-hot novel Burn, the changes come fast, furious, and filled with the kind of sexy suspense, heart-stopping romance, beautiful people, and risky business guaranteed to give you the most bang for your buck. 



Money certainly changes Jenner Redwine’s life when she wins a lottery jackpot. But it also costs her plenty: Her father rips her off and disappears, her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex, and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything. 

Flush with new money, Jenner can’t imagine ever finding a place in the world of the wealthy.

Seven years later, though, she’s rubbing elbows with the rich, despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher. Luckily she finds an ally–and a guide to the rarefied realm of privilege–in shy, kind-hearted heiress Sydney Hazlett, who quickly becomes Jenner’s confidante and surrogate sister. 



When Sydney invites Jenner on a charity cruise aboard a luxury liner, Jenner reluctantly agrees. But while she’s expecting–and dreading–two weeks of masquerade balls, art auctions, and preening glitterati, what she gets is more like a Hitchcock movie than a Love Boat episode. Taken hostage by a menacing stranger, Jenner must cooperate in a mysterious cloak-and-dagger scheme–or else.

With nowhere to run, and with Sydney’s life as well as her own at risk, Jenner is drawn into a game of dizzying intrigue and harrowing danger. But as her panic gives way to exhilaration, and fear of her captor turns to fascination, Jenner rediscovers feelings she hasn’t had in years–and realizes she’s found a life worth living. If she survives.

Romance Book Review: Diamond Bay

Author: Linda Howard
Series Connection: Midnight Rainbow, White Lies
ISBN: 978-0727868855
Genre: Contemporary Romance Suspense
Publisher: Severn House Publishers

Purchase your copy of this book here

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This is a reissue of one of Linda Howard's most popular books. Kell Sabin is a repeating character in several books, but mostly remembered in Midnight Rainbow and White Lies. He is the mysterious head of a special secret government organization that takes down drug cartels and the like. Kell decides to take a vacation on his own and while out on his boat the bad guys find him and blow up his boat. Getting away in the nick of time he washing up on a Florida coastline where he is found by Rachel Jones.

Rachel has no idea who the man is who washes up on her beach, but she can't help but think he is in real trouble. When he asks for her help she can't say no. This puts her life in considerable danger. Both Rachel and Sabin call in reenforcements from friends that Linda Howard writes other books about.

This is romantic suspense is short but filled with action, lots of gunfire, explosions and love. Sabin and Rachel have an instant and passionate attraction. Linda Howard is part of a small group of romance authors who in the 1980s and 90s sparked the first erotic romances in the romance genre. Although not as descriptive by some in todays erotic genre, Linda Howard is really remembered for her passionate and graphic love scenes. 

Description:
Any hopes Kell Sabin has about taking a month's vacation from work vanish the minute several of Kell's "business associates" try to kill him. Although he manages to escape with just a bullet hole or two, he wouldn't have survived if Rachel Jones hadn't found him when he washed ashore not far from her cottage on Diamond Bay. Because her previous career as an investigative journalist taught her that things are not always what they seem, Rachel knows she is going to have to find out more about the wounded man who ends up in her home.

Helping Kell is a risk Rachel is willing to take, but the risk becomes even greater once Rachel realizes she is falling in love with a man with no future.

Romance Byte: Ice

Author: Linda Howard
ISBN: 978-0345517197
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Description:
Gabriel McQueen has only just arrived home on holiday leave from the service when his county-sheriff father sends him back out again with new marching orders. A brewing ice storm, and a distant neighbor who’s fallen out of contact, have the local lawman concerned. So he enlists Gabriel to make the long haul to the middle of nowhere, and make sure Lolly Helton is safe and sound. It’s a trip the younger McQueen would rather not make given the bitter winter weather–and the icy conditions that have always existed between him and Lolly.

But there’s no talking back when your dad is the town’s top cop. And there’ s no turning back when night falls just as Gabriel arrives–and discovers that the weather outside isn’t the only thing that’s frightful. Spotting strangers in Lolly’ s home–one of them packing a weapon–is all it takes to kick Gabriel into combat mode. And his stealth training is all he needs to extract Lolly from the house without alerting her captors. But when the escape is discovered, the heat–and the hunt–are on. And the winter woods are nowhere to be once the ice storm touches down, dropping trees, blocking roads, and trapping the fleeing pair in the freezing dark.

Romance Byte: Burn

Author: Linda Howard
ISBN: 978-0345486561
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Description:
It’s true what they say: Money changes everything. And in Linda Howard’s red-hot novel Burn, the changes come fast, furious, and filled with the kind of sexy suspense, heart-stopping romance, beautiful people, and risky business guaranteed to give you the most bang for your buck.

Money certainly changes Jenner Redwine’s life when she wins a lottery jackpot. But it also costs her plenty: Her father rips her off and disappears, her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex, and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything.

Flush with new money, Jenner can’t imagine ever finding a place in the world of the wealthy. Seven years later, though, she’s rubbing elbows with the rich, despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher. Luckily she finds an ally–and a guide to the rarefied realm of privilege–in shy, kind-hearted heiress Sydney Hazlett, who quickly becomes Jenner’s confidante and surrogate sister.

When Sydney invites Jenner on a charity cruise aboard a luxury liner, Jenner reluctantly agrees. But while she’s expecting–and dreading–two weeks of masquerade balls, art auctions, and preening glitterati, what she gets is more like a Hitchcock movie than a Love Boat episode. Taken hostage by a menacing stranger, Jenner must cooperate in a mysterious cloak-and-dagger scheme–or else. With nowhere to run, and with Sydney’s life as well as her own at risk, Jenner is drawn into a game of dizzying intrigue and harrowing danger. But as her panic gives way to exhilaration, and fear of her captor turns to fascination, Jenner rediscovers feelings she hasn’t had in years–and realizes she’s found a life worth living. If she survives.

Romance Book Review: Dream Man

Author: Linda Howard
ISBN: 978-0671019754
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Mystery

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As part of an experiment this weekend I decided to find a good romance book that I could purchase over the internet in audio version. The idea was to try and kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Since I waste hours on the internet playing games on Facebook and My Space, I thought instead of listening to music like I usually do why not listen to an audio book. After a quick search I found one of my favorite authors, Linda Howard, and decided on a book I hadn't read yet. Dream Man was the one.

For six years Marlie Keen has not had any psychic episode. She has been able to have a relatively normal life, until one night on her way back from a late movie she has a vision from a killer's eyes of him raping and killing a woman. When she goes to the police, of course, they are skeptical. She didn't expect anything less. After all when she was younger she had worked with skeptical police before.

Detective Dane Hollister at first thinks Marlie is a quack after media attention, but after he gets to know the young woman he realizes that she isn't what he thought she was. Now he needs Marlie's help to find a serial killer before he strikes again.

Linda Howard is great at piecing together a good mystery. She leads her readers on a path to finding the answers to her mystery right to the end filling scenes with suspense and erotic love making. She was also one of the original erotic writers in the suspense genre. Dream Man is an action packed suspense novel that isn't perhaps as gory in the crime scenes as other books that Linda has put out, but it doesn't take anything away from the story.

One note on the audio version. I'm sorry but listening to this book on audio really takes away from the suspense style in the book. I'd have to give it very low ratings. The male voice trying to imitate the female lead was at time just so bad I was laughing out loud. She sounded so pitiful when he tried to voice her emotions that she came off sounding like a real wimp, even when the character was supposed to be mad or being stubborn. It might have been better to have a female read this particular book.

As far as listening to the audio book while I was playing my Facebook game and such, that part really worked a little too well. I wanted to keep listening to the story, but I didn't have anything else to do on the games. So I wound up putting a picture slide show and watching the pictures pass while I was tethered to my laptop.

Description:
Marlie Keen was trying to lead a quiet, ordinary life. She thought the knowing - the clairvoyance that allowed her to witness crimes as they happened - had been destroyed in the nightmare of her past. Then one night it returned with a vengeance, and she desperately needed to find someone to make it stop.

Detective Dane Hollister of the Orlando police department had never met anyone like Marlie. He had doubts about her clairvoyance, but there was no doubt how much he desired her. Her soft, sweet scent set his blood afire, and he wanted to wrap her in his arms and chase the sadness from her eyes. To Marlie, Dane was all heat and hard muscle, and he made her body come alive as it never had before. But not even she could foresee where their passion would lead: a hungry quest for the elusive, dreamy ecstasies of love...and a dangerous journey into the twisted mind of a madman who would threaten their happiness and their lives....