The Golden Hour by Margaret Wuertele

The Golden Hour. Margaret Wuertele. NAL Trade Book. February 2012. 212 pages. ISBN #: 9780451237088.

Giovanna Bellini is a very young 17 year old at the opening of this story occurring in 1944 Tuscany, Italy. The Germans have taken over Italy and confiscated the bottom floor of the Bellini home as residence for German soldiers. Giovanni really hasn't absorbed the horrors that the Nazis have perpetrated across Europe and are continuing to do so in her native land. But she is unfortunately about to learn, the hard way!

First, she falls into an infatuation love affair with a German soldier and stops just short of sleeping with him when she is caught by the nuns who have taught her up to now. Then her role in the war truly begins when her partisan brother, Giorgio, talks her into collecting food and supplies for him and his colleagues secretly working against the Nazis. Her relationship with her parents begins to erode because they continue to treat her like the child she has always been.

Giovanni's real taste of war begins on encountering wounded Italian soldiers, including a Jewish Italian soldier with whom she truly falls in love. She must steal and lie to complete her mission of healing and helping, learning whom she can trust to help her project and whom she must avoid. Despite one event in which her former German love mercifully lets her go after realizing who she is hiding and why, Giovanna learns of the treatment of the Jews. Her break with her parents widens on her 18th birthday in which she confronts her father with his former role in supporting the Fascists and their treatment of Jewish businessmen, as well as his unrelenting attitude to her new love and commitment to marry that man.

The Golden Hour is a page turner one won't soon forget. While Giovanna appears to be quite naive for a 17 year old, one can understand her unintelligent mistakes in the vein of being a sheltered child whose parents live in an elite world that is gone forever! She grows up quickly, becoming a courageous, compassionate person who contributes much to the war effort. Finely told, Ms. Wuertele!

The Ninth Step: A Novel by Barbara Taylor Sissel

The Ninth Step: A Novel. Barbara Taylor Sissel. Amazon Digital Services. 449KB. ASIN #: BOO5KDCOCE.

Livie Saunders was left at the altar on the day of her wedding and has never recovered. She compensates by dressing up and spending the night with other lovers who are absolutely nothing to her. For the love of her life, Cotton O'Dell, is gone; and while she can't forgive him, she can't forget him as well, that is until the day he returns as quite a different young man.

As the novel proceeds, this reviewer realized the story was really about Cotton, a fact that leaves one with a a bit of confusion but which is a worthy story in itself and should have begun in that vein. For Cotton now lives his life based on the title's step of Alcoholics Anonymous, even though he has no interest at all in any of the other steps of the program. The ninth step is enough to stop his drinking even in the most stressful moments in this story, of which there are many. So the reader learns about Cotton's past, of which he is deeply ashamed, and how he plans to make amends. However, life interferes with intriguing characters and the story continues to quite a different ending from the expected one, with some very poignant moments and sad events in between.

This is an interesting novel because although the surface meaning is apparent, it goes beyond to the motives and personality of the addict. In other words, we learn the patterns leading to the addiction that must be faced and reconciled with one's new drink-free existence. For that alone, this reviewer thinks this is a very valuable story and interesting one in that vein, with characters who move on from unbelievable pain to grow and those who don't!

Remarkable worthy story, Ms. Sissel!

Fury of Fire by Coreene Callahan

Fury of Fire. Coreene Callahan. Montlake Romance. February 2012. 422 pages. ISBN #: 9781612182728.

Bastian and Rikar are dragons appearing in the guise of humans. They are on a mission to save their race from extinction, one in which they must unite with a human to produce more half-dragon-half-human sons. However, the focus of his mission is diverted when he meets Myst, a fiery woman passionate about her medical calling to save every precious life. While she struggles to save the life of a mother and child, the scent of death and life reaches both dragons. They rush to the scene where Myst is able to save the child but not the mother. Another danger looms, however, Bastian besotted with this woman and putting off the deed he knows he must accomplish and instead taking Myst and the baby to safety!

Other dragons under the leadership of Ivar do display that shred of compassion and care. For Ivar is in charge of constructing a lab where his plans will develop to threaten the existence of all humanity. Thus begins the race to survival for every character in this fast-paced thriller story. These are dragons that possess the power to freeze or burn whatever thwarts their purposes, a mystery humans don't understand but are attempting to figure out and conquer.

The feelings grow between Myst and Bastian, in between numerous battles involving Ivar and his cronies and humans. Many lives are lost, but the fire between Myst and Bastian grows and grows and grows until it is banked in their fiery union, where the unexpected happens. Sex with a dragon is also consuming, satisfying both but also increasing the desire for more to an almost unbearable crescendo!

How will it all be resolved or ended? Coreene Callahan has written a fantasy novel sure to thrill lovers of this genre, as well as those who love a fierce, lusty romance story!   

Before She Dies by Mary Burton

Before She Dies. Mary Burton. Zebra Books. February 2012. 416 pages. ISBN #: 9781420110210.

Charlotte is determined to let nothing get in the way of justice! After a night of sex with colleague Rokov in which he hopes for more in their relationship and she hopes for nothing, they are called to the site of a grisly murder. It's clearly one with occult connections as the body's appearance reveals, a startling sight, a case which Rokov will be struggling to solve and close.

Charlotte has the reputation of a no-nonsense, effective lawyer whose world is about to become unraveled when Grady Tate appears and asks Charlotte to help with a shop-lifting case. Her inner alarm bells are ringing loudly and clearly as she knows Grady is up to no good, and she's petrified that her secret past could be exposed. She's related to this man indirectly and directly through past acts of greed and manipulation; and she knows that he is up to something much larger than what she experienced. Charlotte juggles this riddle with Rokov's attentive expectations of more than just nights of passionate sex - which Charlotte both loves and hates!

How real was her role in the carnival years before when as a fortune teller she uttered a prediction and showed fear before an eerie character who repulsed her tremendously with his twisted looks? How will that one day cause havoc for unknown victims years in the future, including the murders of two innocent woman? And just why is Charlotte so ashamed of that past? What pain is she carrying which increases when she finds out that Grady has another naieve young woman who is now playing the "Madame Divine" role. Grady is using that woman to achieve a final grisly goal that eventually will thrill and shock the reader with its twisted method and end result.

Mary Burton is a pro at creating riveting, intense, mysterious, and thrilling crime fiction! Before She Dies is one more testament to the talented skills that deserves a wide audience and recognition! Should be a best seller!!!

Julia's Child: A Novel by Sarah Pinneo

Julia's Child: A Novel. Sarah Pinneo. January 2012. Plume Books - U. S. Penguin Group. 288 pp. ISBN #: 9780452297319.

Julia Bailey is a stay-at-home Mom who takes the topic of her children's nutrition quite seriously, but her kids are slow to get the point and frequently pose comical and crazy questions that challenge Julia on a daily basis - very funny often! But Julia's trying to start a new business with an organic food company named Julia's Child! What's the focus - healthy eating - cheese and vegetables into the most unusual products like pancakes and muffins. It may not be such a new idea now but it's still great to see how it all started - and the sample recipes in the novel are fascinating to consider - and try!

The other interesting part of this novel is to follow how a small entrepreneur starts a business initially stocking her products in a small Brooklyn store. Next step a break on a TV show; next step approached by Whole Foods, the well-known natural food store, and so much more.

The reader will learn quite a bit about the "organic" label, what it really means, as well as marketing and business aspects of growing a flourishing, lucrative business!

This is a light-hearted novel that was pleasant, informative, funny, and interesting all the way through to the last page - a supportive husband and adorable kids add to the fun and adventure of the journey! Nicely done, Ms. Pinneo!

The Turning of Anne Merrick by Christine Blevins

The Turning of Anne Merrick. Christine Blevins. Berkley Trade Paperback. 2012. 448 pages. ISBN #: 9780425236796.

Anne Merrick is a spy for the Revolutionary Army in the late 1700s in the colonies. Jack Hampton and she are deeply in love but don't get many opportunities to be together. Caught up in the war between the Patriots and the British, Anne is spying in the camp of the enemy, having fled New York City after killing a British officer, Edward Blankenship. Though they are outnumbered by the British in manpower and weapons, the Patriots are slowly but surely winning the Saratoga campaign. But all is not so easy for Anne as she and her friend Sally see what war is like up close. They cook and care for wounded British soldiers, and they have to frequently remind themselves in the middle of suffering and death who they are supporting and why. Still Anne never loses her feisty nature and can swing between joking and compassionate care without missing a heartbeat!

After a phenomenal victory, Anne and Jack head for General Washington's camp at Valley Forge, where the situation is dire as they are surviving with a serious dearth of food and clothing in the middle of a fierce winter. Here Anne helps out in the middle of this dire situation; the strength of Anne and Jack is that the Cause of Liberty is worth everything and anything. Such determined focus is amazing on page after page after page!

Returning to Philadelphia Anne returns to her former role as owner of what we know as a coffeehouse and a collector of information from a carefully planned network of spies. With her charm and vitality, she manages, as she did in Saratoga,to charm the elite and thus learn of even more important British secrets. However, things begin to go awry when the man she thought she killed is met, alive and well and on recognition determined to have revenge on his would-be killer. The story of Anne's capture, imprisonment, and escape is riveting, tense reading, ending in a shocking way guaranteed to promise the reader more to come from this very, very talented writer, Christine Blevins. This reviewer looks forward to reading the next installment of this writer who makes history, with all its real and fictional characters, pull in the reader for hours of historical and romantic pleasure!!! Wonderful!!!

One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery by Nancy O'Hara

 One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery. Nancy O'Hara. Amazon Digital Services - Kindle Edition. 428 KB. ASIN No. B006LAA9WW.

Alex Sullivan has a Zen ability when she's in the middle of a crime scene in her role as an NYPD homicide detective. Going inward, she turns around and looks around a room, activating a sense for what is unusual and central to solving the mystery of a crime. But little does she know as she wearily travels upstate to a Zen monastery where she hopes to spend ten days reviving her inner spirit that this skill will be sorely needed very soon. Will it be to strengthen her for her job or is it time to be thinking about retiring? It turns out she won't be thinking about either, for upon arrival she senses an unusual tension among the community and not from the preparations for a Buddha birthday party to be held the following weekend!

Alex doesn't really get a chance to find out the problem when it is discovered that one of the monks is missing. The monastery is situated in the center of land surrounded by forest and mountains, so this monk could be anywhere. Almost before one can absorb the shock, the monk is found - dead - with a written message or Koan about a man hanging upside-down from a tree with a branch in his mouth - with a puzzle posed for the appropriate Buddhist response.

Things begin to spin totally out of control with two more deaths, a cat slaughtered, and a severed hand, all of which indicate a passionate killer. Two detectives are assigned to the case initially after the first death and it takes them a while to overcome their distrust of a female detective who is out of her precinct and has no authority in upstate New York. However, she's got what they need of which she for once can't seem to make sense as there are so many potential community members and non-community members who might be the guilty party or more than one guilty party.

Nancy O'Hara's got what it takes - She has crafted a terrific mystery with plenty of clues slowly revealed and with characters who exude both innocence and guilt. The calmness of the Zen Master and spiritual practices are a fascinating counterpoint to the increasing brutality and tension of the murders, with all beginning to worry about their personal safety as well as who is the killer and and how do these trained professionals, including Alex Sullivan, plan to solve the crimes before more happen? Finely done, with more captivating details, Ms. O'Hara!!!