REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY
Getting her unreliable ex-boyfriend Jake out of her system would be a whole lot easier for painter Kate Disney if he'd stop popping up in the garden shed she now calls home (and art studio). And if she could only stop fantasizing that he'll come back to her. The British painter excels at pet portraits, but she's lousy at love until she encounters a fairy godmother in the guise of former screen icon Mirri Moncur in Clare Naylor's sparkling
The Goddess Rules. Mirri wants a portrait of her pet lion, but she ends up sharing the secrets of a well-lived life. Mirri's prodding and the overarching goddess rule that "life lived to excess is best" make for a story that's flirty, fun loving and full of life. Kate's old friend Louis may seem an unlikely prince, but his charm eventually proves irresistible. Whether Kate is schlepping pets, fending off paparazzi or falling in love, Naylor's charming new novel is an entrancing read.
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Hands-on courtship
As long as we have our art, Andre Duval tells Phoenix Banister, we don't need anybody. But the sinister secrets that entangle them threaten Phoenix's growing love affair with Morgan Grayson. Phoenix expresses her deepest artistic passions in the sculptures she creates. And in arts-filled Santa Fe, she should be a star. Instead, it's Andre, her mentor, whose sculptures are applauded. Morgan reins in his frustrations—both as art critic awestruck by her talent and as the man who is falling in love with the secretive Phoenix. Her skittish rebuff to his courtship calls for gentle handling in Francis Ray's
You and No Other. This return to the Grayson family, whom matriarch Ruth is determined to marry off one by one, is a romantic tale worth savoring.
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E is for 'excellent'
Someone is killing the great business leaders of America, and just when they're about to solve our enormous trade crisis with China. Before the entire economic world is encompassed by the enigmatic tragedies, two excellent investigators are enmeshed in a new task force and each other in Dee Davis'
Endgame. FBI profiler Madison Harper and CIA undercover operative Gabriel Rourke each trust their own considerable talents and resources, but neither is so sure about the other as they try to solve the killing of leaders of the American Business Consortium. Madison and Gabe are at the top of their game, but even that may not be enough to keep them alive and halt the deadly effort to change the ABCs to RIPs. We rate this first novel in a planned romantic trilogy A+!
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The fortunate fossil
Finding a valuable fossil should lead to fame and fortune, but Cassie Ashton discovers finding is one thing, keeping quite another in Michele Albert's
One Way Out. Her troubles begin when she's forced to go to the man most likely to drive her crazy, paleontologist Dr. Alex Martinelli. The verbal jabs that characterize their non-relationship barely scratch the surface, however. When the fossil becomes the target of thieves and Cassie and Alex themselves are taken captive, they're forced to work together to outwit and escape the bad guys. On the run, they uncover layers of attraction and passion as primitive as the Wyoming backcountry and as enduring and strong as the mountainous wilderness. Fast-paced adventure with plenty of local color and character, One Way Out is a zesty read.
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Sandy Huseby writes from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside in northern Minnesota.
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