REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY
Footloose Lucy wants to be tangled in a relationship but can't quite seem to get there in Betsy Burke's sultry and soapy chick lit romp,
Lucy's Launderette. The soap comes courtesy of the relationships Lucy Madison already
has. She works as assistant manager of a trendy Vancouver art gallery where the manager, Nadine, indulges in bulimic bingeing to keep her
body sleek and gets involved with artists like Pete Bleeker, who creates masterpieces after storm-swept beach trysts. Is Lucy selling herself
short? Her best friend, Sky, trusts her as a confidante when she falls for the gay owner of a vintage clothing shop. Sam, the caseworker for
Dirk, Lucy's older brother, trusts her to participate in his care despite Dirk's penchant for dressing in a Superman costume and tossing
threatening rocks through her window. As if those aren't enough concerns for Lucy to get in a lather about, there's grandfather Jeremy's
launderette, and, oh yes, her strait-laced daddy's midlife crisis that takes him from high school principal to Harley rider. Burke's story
charms with a shower of witty and wry introspection. A tour de-light!
|
Mid-century Manhattan murders
In futuristic New York City (the year is 2059), the terrors come one at a time, and supercop Eve Dallas must stop them. Eve is one cool
cookie, but this time she confronts a serial killer who masquerades as Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy and other vicious criminals of the past.
Imitation in Death is a gripping story of copycat killing told by veteran romance author Nora Roberts,
writing under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. If you haven't yet dipped into her gritty cop dramas, a treat awaits. The unwanted daughter of a junkie,
Eve carries a heavy load of personal baggage into her relationships, even avoiding total candor with her uber-wealthy husband, Roarke.
But underneath the tough-girl exterior, Eve's angst gives her unique insights that make her an ace detective. As the seemingly disparate
victims become linked in a sinister chain, Eve becomes the ultimate prey in a cat-and-mouse game with the killer. In this near-future,
high-tech world some things never change: the spark of attraction, the terror of pursuit and the triumph of justice.
|
Exploring uncharted territory
Journey back to a time and place that shaped a nation in Merline Lovelace's A Savage Beauty, a historical
romance set in the early 19th-century era of Lewis and Clark. Sergeant Daniel Morgan's participation in a military mapping expedition of uncharted
territory in the Louisiana Purchase takes on new urgency when he promises to protect the Indian wife of a dying French trapper. Louise Chartier's
startling blue eyes lure him, but he is bound by honor to his wife, Elizabeth, and by duty to Major General Wilkinson's expeditionary command.
Louise brings rumors of a spy reporting to the Spanish. Daniel honorably fulfills his charge: to protect Louise in the wilderness and to thwart
the even greater dangers of treachery in New Orleans. That treachery leads to the highest levels of power in the fledgling American government.
In the grand style of Michener and L'Amour, Lovelace brings vividly to life the grand beginnings of the American West.
|
Horsing around
Now a veterinarian who has the same horse-whispering gift as her father, Anne Foster returns to the horse country of Virginia, where she discovers
that dealing with humans is an entirely different challenge. In That Summer, Joan Wolf's
bittersweet novel of homecoming, Anne faces unfinished relationships and unsolved mysteries revolving around Liam Wellington, the man she's
never stopped loving, and the puzzling disappearance of Leslie Bartholomew. When Leslie's body is discovered after 10 long years, Liam is
again the chief suspect in her murder. Believing in Liam requires a woman's love, and Anne comes face to face with old demons she fled
from a decade before. Wolf gets inside Anne's psyche with a tender understanding that makes this tale of second chances resonate with
hope and promise.
|
Sandy Huseby writes and reviews from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside in northern Minnesota.
Support your