Book Title: Harlow’s Heaven
Author: RaeLynn Blue
Author Blog: http://raelynnblue.blogspot.com/
Genre: Contemporary I/R

Wow! Ok I had to get that out of the way first. To say I liked this book would be an understatement. I really read this all in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. From page to page I was trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I learned to never really judge a book by its cover, because what we are looking for sometimes is right in front of our faces.
This is the story of Harlow Shelton who at the age 37 decides to return to school. After raising a child on her own she decides to get her degree in literature. Filled with self doubts about everything in her life Harlow pushes forth, trying to finish what was started fifteen years ago. After signing up for her classes she decides to stop for coffee at the little student run kiosk. This little stop will change her forever. Though not known by Harlow at the time, she is going to meet the man of her dreams. The clerk whose name is Luke Hudson is everything a girl would want. But, Harlow thinks that he could never be interested in her. She liked the way Luke looked but she felt there were obstacles to prevent anything between them.
What she doesn't know is that Luke is thinking about all the ways they could be together. And so we see the lengths he goes to guarantee they end up together while Harlow is finding reasons why they can’t. Harlow feels that no one would want her. Though attractive, she considers her size a stumbling block. But Luke has only one thing on his mind, and that is to make Harlow his.
This is a love story to be read. The anticipation of sex is as hot as the sex itself. You will like this story as much as I did. I give it 5 stars out of 5.

Edward Johns

Book: Magnificent Man
Author: Randall Lang
Publisher: Midnight Showcase
Genre: Contemporary

Rarely do I read books so long. It isn't that I have lost my desire to read; it's simply the fact that between grad school and my own writing, I lack the time and patience to read books that long. Still, I purchased the book with every intention of tossing it in the TBR pile. A strange thing happened on the way to the pile - I started reading it...and couldn't close it. It wasn't that Magnificent Man is the best book I’ve ever read; it was the fact that it is intriguing. Though classified as a romance, the book is so much more than that. Like the movie UP by Disney/Pixar, this book leaves you pondering about life ... or at least it should.

It's not just the good things that you reflect on such as a beautiful and moving romance; it's the unthinkable things such as the way we hurt each other; it's the wretched things such as the way we hurt ourselves; it's the 'well damn' things such as the way we rush through life without really experiencing the whole thing.

There were some facets of the book that I did not like but there were many facets that I simply loved. Reading the book put me in the mood of Dickens' Tales. Not the writing, but the polar opposites that existed. For example, the phrase 'my lady' was used too much in my opinion but then the phrase 'your obedient servant' was used just enough. While 'my lady' was simply a nice address, the phrase 'your obedient servant' was almost religious when Coyote said it.

I hated the heroine Cassie...and I loved the heroine Cassie. In the beginning, I felt for her. In the middle, I wanted to b*tchslap her when she became complainy (yes I know that isn't a word but I'm using it regardless). In the end, I cheered her for how she reacts to Coyote's pain and when she delivers that dissertation on greatness. All along I respected how she attempted to care for her mother (who I never came to like) and her daughter.

When her tale begins, it is easy to identify with a woman whose dreams have been put on hold due to previous decisions, current obligations, and living life with the mindset that 'one day... I’ll live.' You understand her living in the glory moments of her past thinking of how the older you get, the better you were. But you become frustrated with her for doing so. You simply want her to snap out of it because as tempting as nostalgia is, you cannot live there except for in flashbacks.

I almost put the book down as it opened with TOO MUCH. It seemed that life was piling on to Cassie and I wasn't sure that I wanted to read a story about how life can beat the sh*t out of a person, but I knew I wanted to read about Coyote. And I wanted to read more about the places he visited, the America that he called home.

I loved Coyote. It's hard to read the book and not fall in love with his gentleness even as you appreciate his strength. A modern knight, he wears chivalry like he wears his scars ... with honor. Even though it's simply a man on paper, you read the book and only want the best for him. Wanting the best for him led to my frustration with Cassie.

I abso-fu*king-lutely loved Sancho! And I dibsed him. Actually, I had to negotiate with fellow author Drea Riley to have him because she'd dibsed him too. I loved Sancho so much that I wrote the author asking before finally DEMANDING his story. Sancho is the kind of friend that if he has twenty dollars you both have ten. He's the paradigm for friend. He reminded me of Doc Holiday in my fav move Tombstone when he said he risked dying simply because Wyatt Earp was his friend. For all of the things Sancho was (giving, powerful, wealthy, intelligent), I felt that he was searching for something and had yet to find it. I want to be there when he does.

The best part of this book was the description of America, not the America full of concrete jungles, interstates, and skyscrapers; not the America full of resorts, golf courses, and beaches; but the America full of history. The backwoods places, the desolate places, the pristine places, the rarely-traveled gems that have been abandoned in lieu of progress and have been cut off because we have interstates that allows us to bypass those pockets of life/history in order to get us places we don't necessarily want to go faster than we often need to be there. Oh, I wanted to be on the back of Coyote's cycle, holding on to his strength, hearing his melodious voice give me history lessons, seeing the beauty that he saw in the desert.

Coyote moved me even as he broke me with his wisdom. When he explains why he doesn't use the interstate, I gasped. And then I thought...and I was sad because he was so right.

This book was filled with some brilliant prose...so much so that I again wonder why the author doesn't have pieces in those magazines that are filled with snippets of life. You know the New Yorkers, the Sunday Parade, and Reader’s Digest. Some of his prose was simply so brilliant that I felt that he needed a bigger platform. Some of the prose was simply words that left me saying 'da hell?' (but I won't talk about those things here because they are spoilers). It wasn't the 'da hell' moments that resonated with me; it was the 'ahh' moments, the 'oh my' moments; the 'hell yeah' moments that stayed with me, that moved me to tears and to fist pumping like Tiger Woods on the back nine on a Sunday with a two stroke lead.

Just as this book is difficult to categorize; it is difficult to rate. Sometimes it was a five of five; sometimes it was a one of five. Still, in the end I have to rate it a 3.5 of 5.0 because the beautiful, wonderful things far outweighed the negative, 'why the hell is that in here for' things. I'd enjoy a discussion on this book because it's one of those books that stays with you long after you've put it down. And as a publisher, I'd enjoy having a story like this in my inventory because it gets people talking.

Jayha