24. "She Tempts the Duke" by Lorraine Heath

Page count: 384 pages
Date begun: March 5th, 2012
Date finished: March 6th, 2012

When Sebastian Easton was fourteen, he, his twin and their younger brother were locked in a tower by their evil uncle shortly after their father, the Duke of Keswick's, funeral. They're planning their escape when rescued by Lady Mary Wynne-Jones, Sebastian's best friend and daughter of the neighbouring Earl. She overheard their uncle ordering them killed, and knocks out a guard to unlock the tower. The boys thank her, and promise to return in ten years to reclaim their heritage.

It takes twelve years, and they've been missing so long that their uncle is petitioning Parliament to have them declared dead, so he can claim the ducal title, when the three brothers make quite a dramatic entrance during one of their uncle's balls. Sebastian's been a soldier, and has horrible facial scars (and an eye patch!) after the Crimean war. His twin, Tristan, is now a successful captain, and their younger brother Rafe owns a gambling establishment in London. Their return naturally causes quite a stir, but no one is happier to see them than Lady Mary, who was sent to a convent after their disappearance (because her father wanted her out of trouble). She's determined to do whatever she can to help them back into society, heedless of the dangers to her reputation and what it may do to her engagement.

It's obvious that Mary loves Sebastian and has never forgotten him. He, of course, is scarred both physically and emotionally, and refuses to acknowledge that he may love her too, and keeps trying to push her away, even as she defies popular convention to assist him. Can the lost Lords of Pembrook prove their uncle tried to steal their inheritance, and get their revenge? Can Mary make Sebastian love her, and accept that she doesn't find him repulsive despite his scars?

While I really did like Mary, and especially the depiction of her relationship with her cousin and aunt (who is awesome and clearly wants Mary happy no matter what scandals it may lead to), and I liked Sebastian's relationship with his brothers a lot, the main romance in this book left a lot to be desired. Sebastian is just too caught up in his broodiness and conviction that his facial scarring makes him repulsive to everyone else. He keeps comparing himself to Tristan, who's obviously still very handsome, and it gets old really fast. While it's obvious that Mary's first fiancee is wrong for her, I'm not sure she was better off with "oh woe is me" Sebastian either. He does of course change his mind in the end, but still seems like a bit of a gloomy stick in the mud. I'm much more looking forward to Tristan and Rafe's romances, they both seem more promising.

23. "A Rogue by Any Other Name" by Sarah Maclean

Page count: 400 pages
Date begun: March 2nd, 2012
Date finished: March 2nd, 2012

When he was only just 21, Michael Lawler, the Marquess of Bourne lost his entire fortune, except the family estate entailed to him, in a card game to his former guardian, Viscount Langford. He's cast out without a penny, and devotes the next decade to getting revenge. During that decade, he became part owner in a notorious gambling club, and managed to replace his fortune and then some, but he still wants the lands around his family home returned, and he burns to get back at Langford.

Lady Penelope Marbury was engaged to a duke, but her father ended the engagement when it turned out the Duke's younger sister had got pregnant out of wedlock. The duke married another woman within a week of the dissolution of their engagement, and Penelope is still whispered about in polite society, years later. In order to get her married off, her father increases her dowry , with the land that borders his estate (and just so happens to be the property surrounding Bourne's family home, which he won from Langford in another card game). Penelope and Michael were childhood friends, along with Langford's son Thomas. Penelope hasn't heard from Michael since he lost his fortune, and feels rather conflicted about land that's rightfully his going towards getting her a husband. As one of five girls, she understands that her father wants her settled, and she feels it's her fault (and the scandal after her broken engagement) that two of her sisters settled for less than exciting husbands. She wants better for her husbands.

So when Michael shows up at his old estate, and kidnaps Penelope as she's out walking in the woods, determined to compromise her so they have to marry, and he can get the land in her dowry - she forces him to agree to pretend theirs is a love match (so there won't be another scandal), and that he will help her sisters find good husbands that they love. Once Penelope discovers that Thomas, who is still her good friend, will also be hurt and possibly ruined by Michael's desire for revenge, she sets out to change her husband's mind.

Having read Maclean's Love by Numbers trilogy last year, it was nice to see what happened to poor Penelope Marbury (the Duke she was engaged to is the hero of the third book in the trilogy). Penelope is a great character, and what makes this book really work. Michael is angsty and conflicted and frankly quite douchy towards his awesome wife throughout much of the book, but unlike several other reviewers out there on the internets, I didn't think he crossed the line into too unforgivably unlikable. Because Maclean shows us both sides of the relationship, we do see Michael's conflicted feelings about using Penelope, and treating her callously, and it's clear that some of the conflicts in their relationship could (like in most romances) have been solved if he just explained himself better to her. And he does step up nicely towards the end, and Penelope ends up being the one who saves him in more ways than one. The very end of the book also teases a very interesting relationship between Bourne's reclusive book keeper business partner, and Penelope's bluestocking younger sister - so I can't wait for the next book in the series.

22. "I Only Have Eyes for You" by Bella Andre

Page count: Don't know, it was an e-book
Date begun: March 1st, 2012
Date finished: March 2nd, 2012

This is apparently the fourth book in the series, but I haven't read any of the others, and I suspect it works fine on its own.

Sophie Sullivan's been in love with her brother's best friend since she was five years old. She's a twin, and her sister's always been nicknamed "Naughty", while Sophie is "Nice". She's known to be sensible, level-headed and works as a librarian. Her brother's best friend is Jake McCann, a successful business man who runs a chain of Irish pubs. Jake had a sucky childhood, with a mother who abandoned him, a drunken dad, and what is quite clearly dyslexia (although he was never diagnosed with it). Jake's been a bit of a playboy, but has also fancied Sophie for a long time. He just never really thought he was good enough for her.

During her brother's wedding, where Sophie is one of the bridesmaids, she decides to show Jake once and for all that she's not just the sweet and innocent little girl he thinks of her as. She has the stylist make her up all bombshell, and after the wedding is over, shows up on his doorstep and proceeds to take all her clothes off in front of him. Jake can't really resist, they spend the night together, but then he panics, decides that Sophie's clearly made a huge mistake and leaves without saying anything to her. He doesn't contact her for two months and then Sophie discovers that she's pregnant. Can they get over their differences and make the relationship work, or will Sophie end up a single mum?

I bought I Only Have Eyes for You because it was the book club pick for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and several of their earlier selections have been awesome. This, unfortunately, was not. The premise was not necessarily bad - innocent librarian and business man playboy (who hates to read, but can't tell anyone for fear of showing weakness!). However, the author gives us very little chance to get to know either of the characters that much, and most of their romance seems to be focused on having a lot of great sex. As soon as Jake finds out that Sophie is pregnant, he is determined that she will marry him and that they will clearly spend the rest of their lives together without difficulties, despite the fact that after hooking up with her, he left her without a word and avoids and doesn't speak to her AT ALL for the next ten weeks. He seems to think that one week of spending time together will change her mind (and to be fair, it does), but it seems forced, and implausible. Of course, because we find out so little about the main characters, except that they're both sexy and clearly very compatible in the bedroom department, we're supposed to just take the author's word for it.

Romance readers get criticised a lot, and accused of reading romance because they're frustrated and repressed, and it's a more acceptable reading choice than outright porn. This isn't true. Romance readers enjoy good stories and being entertained, and the best romances are so popular not because they feature hot sex scenes (which many of them don't), but because the readers like the characters and care about their issues, and want to see them overcome obstacles and learn to communicate to find their happy endings. I have strong doubts that Sophie and Jake in this book will have a healthy relationship, but most importantly, I don't CARE, because their so-called romance bored me. Frequently, when I start a series, I want to track down the other books and find out what happened before and after. In this case, not so much. I will not be reading any more Bella Andre books.

21. "Deathless" by Catherynne M. Valente

Page count: 352 pages
Date begun: February 24th, 2012
Date finished: February 26th, 2012

Marya Morevna is the fourth youngest and fourth prettiest daughter, and spends her childhood in Revolutionary Russia. In turn she sees three different birds turn into men and take her sisters away as wives. She expects the same for herself, but when her husband finally does show up, he is Koschei the Deathless. He takes her away in a car that turns into a horse at night, and feeds her and clothes her and nurses her when she gets ill, to his castle in Buyan. Yet Marya Morevna discovers that despite what he's told her, she is not Koschei's first mortal bride, and there are challenges for a mortal girl wanting to marry the Tsar of Life. Koschei's sister, Baba Yaga, sets her three tasks that she must complete, or become soup for the old witch's stock pot. And if she does succeed in the tasks, how is she to hold Koschei's interest and to convince him that she won't be faithless to him like the endless Elenas and Vasilisas that came before her, now stuck in a factory, never aging, making yarn soldiers for his endless war with his brother, the Tsar of Death?

Deathless is one of the strangest books I think I've ever read. It takes a number of themes, characters and creatures from Russian fairy tales and weaves them into a strange mix of romantic fairy tale re-imagining, feminist treatise and history lesson. Marya Morevna's relationship with Koschei is both a romance and a power struggle, set against the backdrop of Russia and later the Soviet Union in the first half of the 20th Century. I loved the fairy tale aspects of it, although readers must be warned that this is NOT a young adult book, unlike so many of the other fairy tale retellings I've come across. This book is definitely meant for grown ups (and most teenagers would probably find it rather confusing and boring).

Valente has a marvellous grasp of language, and frequently describes things poetically, without the book becoming twee and saccharine (it's often very dark and bloody things that are lyrically depicted). The first part of the book is magical and strange, probably helped by the fact that I'm not really very familiar with Russian folklore, so every new aspect that was revealed was fascinating to me. The last third of the book, where it seems to me that Valente is using Marya Morevna to make some sort of feminist statement, didn't really work as well for me, mainly because most of the characters stared acting in a way that seemed to go against the way that they'd first been established, and the whole story seemed to turn on its head, and not in a good way. The ending is very ambiguous, and I can see how some people might find it a bit off-putting. But the book is well worth reading, because the first two thirds are so excellent, and the book presents something so different from what you normally find in fantasy.

20. "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green

Page count: 336 pages
Date begun: February 23rd, 2012
Date finished: February 24th, 2012

Hazel is 16. She has incurable cancer, so knows that it's only a matter of time before she dies, but thanks to some miracle drug, she's currently doing fairly ok, as long as she drags a tank of oxygen around with her at all times. Her mother spends all her time taking care of her, and worrying, and making sure she goes to Cancer Support Group to battle her quite-natural depression about having cancer and knowing she's going to die young. Hazel thinks Support Group is a big waste of time, until one day, she meets Augustus Waters there. Augustus is 17 and lost his leg to osteosarcoma. As Hazel says: "Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then if it likes you, it takes the rest".

Augustus is handsome and charming and witty and instantly taken with Hazel, comparing her to a mid-2000s Natalie Portman (and even with this description, I adored her). He agrees that Support Group is dreadful, and they quickly spark up a friendship that starts turning into something more, even though Hazel wants to distance herself from everyone, afraid of becoming a "grenade", blowing the lives of those around her to pieces when she inevitably dies, yet Augustus tenaciously refuses to keep his distance. They discuss films, games, life, poetry, art, and especially bond over Hazel's favourite book, An Imperial Affliction by Peter van Houten. The book, also about a teenage girl with cancer, ends mid-sentence, and both Hazel and Augustus become obsessed with finding out what happened to the other characters in the book after it ended. They correspond with the author by e-mail, but he refuses to tell them unless they talk to him in person. He lives in Amsterdam.

Now, Hazel used her dying Wish (from the Make a Wish Foundation) on Disney World before the miracle drug made her somewhat better, but Augustus still has his. This is their chance to go to Amsterdam and talk to the author of their favourite book, getting some kind of closure before Hazel's life takes an inevitable downturn.

I'm convinced The Fault in Our Stars will be among the best books I read this year, even though it's only February, mainly because it's one of the best books I've read in years. I bookmarked a dozen pages or so just for the amazingly quotable lines. The book made me laugh out loud on public transport, getting me puzzled looks from fellow commuters. It made me sob uncontrollably on the couch, freaking out my cats. If you make it to the end of this book without both laughing and at least getting teary eyed, you are some sort of unfeeling machine. It's an amazing book, and while the protagonists are kids with cancer (or recovering from cancer), the horrible, deadly disease is not the focal point of the book at all.

This is one of those young adult books that I desperately wish had been around when I was actually a teenager, because I would have killed to get my hands on it. Hazel and Augustus are amazing kids to read about, and it breaks your heart that their love is so star-crossed. She's dying, he's recovering. You know it's all going to end in tears, but you keep turning the pages because you can't not. You have to find out what happens next. This is going to be one of those books I gift to people in years to come, just to make sure I can talk to them about it. Now I just have to track down John Green's back catalogue of books, to see if they're as amazing as this one.

19. "A Perfect Blood" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 448 pages
Date begun: February 21st, 2012
Date finished: February 22nd, 2012

This is book 10 in Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. You don't want to start the series with this book, trust me. If you're interested, go pick up Dead Witch Walking. Don't read this review, it will contain spoilers for earlier books in the series, it's unavoidable.

You'd think Rachel Morgan's life would be easier once she got her shunning rescinded and the Coven for Moral and Ethical standards off her back? Unfortunately, no. Rachel is currently registered as legally dead, and has no social security number, no bank account, no driver's licence and is generally finding local bureaucracy less than helpful. On public record as a "good" demon, she wears a bracelet of charmed silver to cut herself off from her leyline powers, and thus also any ability to do demon magic. Yet someone out there is abducting witches, torturing and killing them, and making it look like a demon's work. Rachel will be blamed if she can't help the I.S and the FIB track down the real culprits.

The culprits in question seem to be part of a human hate group determined to rid the world of all supernatural races. They want to use demon magic to do this, and are trying to synthesise demon blood. If they were to get their hands on the newly power neutered Rachel, they'd be much closer to their goals. Despite the advice of her bodyguard (Rachel's parents don't really trust her to keep herself out of danger any longer), and her long time associates, Rachel puts herself right into the path of danger once again, and has to trust in her friends to get her out of trouble.

To say that Rachel has changed a lot since the first book of the series would be an understatement. She's not even the same species as she was. Rachel's naturally scared about the changes her life has taken, and her two closest friends, Ivy and Jenks, both seem to be moving on with their lives, leaving her feeling all the more lonely. She's terrified of Al and the other demons discovering that she is still alive if she takes the bracelet off, yet clearly can't function properly by cutting herself off from a major source of her own powers. After going on a road trip with, and sharing a very intimate moment with her former nemesis Trent, at the end of Pale Demon, she's also forced to reevaluate her relationship with him. When pretty much all the world were willing to condemn her, he stood by her side, and he keeps offering to help her, even at the risk of his own life. As Rachel's come to realise over the course of the books that there is very little black and white, and oh so many shades of grey, and that she herself is has to decide what is "good" and "evil" - Trent has had to make a lot of difficult decisions, and may not be a bad guy even though he's done some fairly ruthless things in the past.

While I think Harrison is a horrible tease, it's as of yet unclear if Trent is moving from becoming Rachel's enemy and some time reluctant ally, to being her new love interest. Rachel certainly spends a LOT of time thinking about how silky his hair is for someone she doesn't have any romantic feelings for. As a huge fan of Trent, I have no problem with more time being spent developing his character and friendship with Rachel, which is a large part of what happens in this book. The structure of the book is a bit meandering and the plot could probably be a lot tighter and more streamlined. But I read these books mainly to spend time with Rachel and all the other extremely colourful supernatural creatures of The Hollows, so I don't really mind if the narrative takes a few detours, especially when I get Trent and Rachel spending more time together, bantering and facing off against common enemies. Al and the other demons barely get an appearance in this book, though. I hope that changes in the next one.

18. "Visions in Death" by J.D. Robb

Page count: 320 pages
Date begun: February 20th, 2012
Date finished: February 20th, 2012

A woman is found naked in the park, brutally raped and murdered. The red ribbon she's been strangled with is tied around her neck, and her eyes have been cut out. Like all sexual assault cases, the case hits Lieutenant Eve Dallas hard. When it becomes clear that they have a serial killer on their hands, the stakes become higher, and Eve and Peabody have to work to stop him before another woman loses her life.

Eve is approached by a psychic, who claims she saw the murder taking place. While Dallas is deeply sceptical, the woman knows details that have not been released to the public, and the NYPSD can use all the help they can get. Yet the killer keeps staying one step ahead of them, and when the investigation starts closing in, he lashes out towards the investigators.

Having been abused and raped as a child, Eve is always affected all the stronger by sexual assault crimes. She's determined to bring the killer to justice, willing to use even the assistance of a psychic if that's what it takes. Yet the investigation takes its toll. In this book, Dallas finally tells her now partner Peabody about the events in her childhood, and the book also highlight just far Eve has come since Naked in Death, where she was bitter, driven and alone. Now she has a loving husband, a loyal partner, a whole slew of friends who invite her for dinner parties and refuse to let her wallow in misery by herself. That same contact network also steps in when the killer strikes one close to Eve, and helps her catch the culprit.