Recent Read and other stuff

To the Brink by Cindy Gerard

I’ve enjoyed all the other books in this series to varying degrees so I was quite happy to get this one in the series. It sat along with I don’t know how many others in the TBR pile for a while before it was this books turn. I started it but couldn’t seem to get into it so rather than waste time, I put it aside and moved on to another. A recent review of this one at AAR prompted me to give it another try since the reviewer seemed to the same issues at the beginning as I did, but once she got past a certain stage, she really started to enjoy it.
Fortunately I found the same thing. Once I got further into the book I really started to enjoy it.
It starts out 17 years in the past. Manny Ortega is a young Nicaraguan rebel soldier who has infiltrated the ruling Sandinista government. At the start of the book he is found out and taken prisoner. He believes that he was betrayed by Lily Campora, a nurse who was there helping with Doctors without Borders, with whom he was having a passionate affair.
Then the book takes up 16 years later when Lily comes to Manny in need of his help. At first he is very angry with her, still having believed all these years that she was responsible for his capture. But as they work together, along with other member of the EDEN investigating company, he slowly comes to see he very possibly could have been wrong.
I can’t put my finger exactly on why I didn’t like the first part of the book. I don’t know if it was because he didn’t come across as a person with much depth, he was quite young, or whether it was his overwhelming anger or what exactly, but after I picked the book up again, I still skimmed real fast through the first part. But once it got to the present day, it took a real turn for the better. I liked the older more mature Manny. And I really liked Lily. She was older than him by about 10 years, but neither one of them made a big issue of the age difference. I liked that she didn’t agonize over it. I’ve read other books where it seems to be a big deal to the older woman and I loose sympathy with them when they carry it on too far. She was a strong capable heroine and a very enjoyable character.
This book gets odd marks, a 2 ½ for the first few chapters and a 4 for the rest. I think overall I’d give it a 3 ½ but since the good part was later in the book, it’s a good 3 ½.

And in other news, after finding out that you can order books early at E Harlequin, I ordered some there. I really like this ordering books on-line deal. Its fun coming home to packages. I ordered:

Warrior or Wife by Lyn Randal because this one is about a female gladiator. Kewl!

The Unknown Wife by Mary Brendan – not sure why. I think because I need a certain amount in order to get free shipping and this one was it.

The Lawmans Bride by Cheryl St. John. I love her books and Wendy gave it a good review.

Dangerous Temptation by Kathleen Korbel. This is a Nocturne but not a vampire, a line I haven’t tried yet and I’ve read a few other books by her and enjoyed them.

Beyond Breathless by Kathleen O’Reily (recommended by Dear Author).

Hitting the Mark by Jill Monroe because she commented on my blog once *g* and I haven't tried a Blaze for a while.

What I liked about ordering books from E Harlequin - besides the nice discount, is that they convert what it costs into Canadian $'s. They don't do that at Amazon and then you are hit with the added price in exchange rates that you don't already know what that amount will be. But when I ordered these I knew right away what the difference was.

Anyway that's the recent happenings in my neck of the woods.

'til later