Summer of Two Wishes, by Julia London - Review

The Facts:
Release Date: Today! (Aug 18, 2009)
Publisher: Pocket
Page Count: 401
Series: appears to be #1 of a new series.
Misc: Book club guide in back, themed recipes from the author.
Julia London's Website
Buy It!

Short Answer:
Very enjoyable, great characters, sweet and romantic. This one is a multiple-tissue read.

Same As Hint of Wicked?
OK, so. Same set up, right? War widow remarries, soldier husband returns, what should she do? Two Wishes is a contemporary, with a US soldier returning from Afghanistan to Texas, versus a Regency Napoleonic vet returning to Jolly Old England.

The parallels in the heroine's dilemma are striking. She's a little afraid of her first husband, that his experiences have changed him beyond her knowing. She's guilty and remorseful about abandoning his memory, though she knows rationally that it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, given the evidence: Sophie threw significant resources at an exhaustive personal search for Garrett, while Macy receives Finn's dogtags and is told there was DNA evidence of his death.

And yet both women refuse to leave their second husbands out of hand. These are good men, for neither heroine is TSTL and they've got good taste. Both women withdraw from the situation and take the time they need to process their feelings.

Both books even have a rather weak subplot to help move through the last quarter or so of the book, after the heroine has made up her mind, but to heighten the drama-- and perhaps the page count. Which I actually don't mind too much, because it's always nice to see the HEA couple in action under duress, and in both cases it helped resolve the situation for the odd man out.

Only Different, Because...
The sex is plenty hot in Two Wishes, but somehow it's a sweeter story; maybe it's the down-home setting of the small town and the cast of gossipy secondary characters that might put you in mind of this:



(I love how she says "BALLLLLL-zac!")

...

Sorry, was that distracting? You're welcome for the earworm. Where was I? Right, secondary characters --

Secondary characters were a little hit and miss. I particularly liked Milo (the dog who must be very confused by now), Laru (the helpful and freespirited aunt), Linda Gail (one of those fabulous admin assistants that also frets about the boss) and Karen (the MIL from hell but you can't help feeling for her). (Sorry for all the parenthesis).

There were another half a dozen or so that didn't quite hit the mark for me -- the sister seemed unnecessary, the mother and best friend were cardboardy and others weren't even important enough to be secondary. Tertiary, maybe. The author's website mentions that it's the beginning of a series, so my money's on clumsier-than-you'd-expect sequel-baiting.

Of course, the twists and turns that the two books take are different and appropriate for the time. While London ratchets up the tension with a seriously Excruciating Turn, she also telegraphs the "winner" in the triangle far more obviously than Haymore. The ending isn't really going to surprise you, but the getting-there is a great ride, with all the drama and romance you could want.

The Zing
Although I thought one character was a little all over the map, I could see how maybe that would be the case given the circumstances. At times I thought all three characters were behaving pretty immaturely, and I liked how London brought them all through their respective arcs. You'll find the epiphany involving the hippy quoting 1970's airbrushed T-shirts everywhere either deeply touching (probably not), tongue-in-cheek ironic (maybe) or eye-rollingly silly (also maybe). Personally, I'm undecided between options b & c.

But the main thing is, London built up the romance between the HEA couple and made it irresistible. Irresistible: I'll say it twice. It was painful and sweet and then *really* painful and then sweet again and they are a couple you will pull for and cry with and cheer on.

All in all, a perfect read to cap off the summer, whether that means the beach, a backyard hammock with a pitcher of lemonade, or tucked in a comfy chair in the a/c (heh).

The Blog Tour
For other takes on the book, check out the tour, one-day only!

My Book Views
Book Soulmates
A Journey of Books
Just Jennifer Reading
All About {n}
My Guilty Pleasures
Bookin’ with Bingo
Starting Fresh
Booksie’s Blog
The Tome Traveller
Readaholic
Cheryl’s Book Nook
Bella’s Novella
Frugal Plus
Eclectic Book Lover
One Person’s Journey Through A World Of Books
Foreign Circus Library
My Own Little Corner of the World
Pudgy Penguin Perusals
Seductive Musings
Bibliophiles ‘R Us
Park Avenue Princess
Power in the Blog
Books and Needlepoint

Snowed In

I’m snowed in.

You wouldn’t think in 2008 a little snow would have this much power over an entire region. But I live in the Pacific Northwest, and the infrastructure around here is just not equipped to handle a foot of snow.

I did manage to get out a couple of times. I have a two-mile twisting 9% grade road to get anywhere, which was harrowing but do-able. The city had it sanded, and people were driving remarkably sensibly, ie, slowly.

But I’ve missed 3 days of work and tomorrow is looking no better. Fortunately our Christmas prep is in OK shape except for the glaring absence of a tree. My kids were not happy about the tree situation-- although my 8 year old has made Christmas lemonade and constructed a tree for us from a mike stand and green construction paper cones.

All in all, it seems like the right moment for a review of Snowy Night With a Stranger, though I confess I’m not feeling very rose-colored-glasses about being snowed in. In fact, I’m in a pretty grouchy mood, but I’ll try to rise above that for the sake of a fair review. {g}

So I’ll call Snowy Night a confection of a collection: it melts quickly like a snowflake on your tongue (aww, poetry).

Jane Feather’s A Holiday Gamble features a youngish aristocrat, on his way to a remote family estate after unexpectedly inheriting the title. The requisite snowstorm strands him in a house of suspicious goings-on. The set-up is a little reminiscent of Madeline Hunter’s recent Secrets of Surrender, in that the heroine starts out in a position of ruin—or nearly so. Typically novella-ish, the situation is not nearly so dire, the obstacles not so insurmountable, but it had that same seedy undertone of Unspeakably Nasty Things Might Be Happening Here. As a hero, Ned’s primary advantage is that he’s observant and smart—less of a storming, confrontational alpha hero and arguably more of a beta with a good instinct for a strategic retreat. Here’s a nice little snip of the h/h interacting:

She turned aside to the fire, where a small pan was heating on a hob. “I was warming some milk for myself. Would you like some?”

“No!” he exclaimed. It was so domestic and soothing, and he didn’t feel either of those things. “What else have you?”

Georgiana, bending over her saucepan, straightened, laughing. “Cognac on the dresser. I like to put a little in the milk.”

“It sounds revolting,” he declared, finding the decanter and filling a glass. “What did you do to Belton?”

“A jab in the kidneys,” she said easily. “Undetectable but most effective.”

I love how unrepentantly rude he is, and how blithely she talks about streetfighter tricks. She’s in a nearly untenable situation, but she is not without resources. The fact that Ned happens along when he does is a major advantage for her, but you get the sense that she just might have worked her way out of her problem on her own.

When Sparks Fly from Sabrina Jeffries is, at bone, a very simple story of two lonely people finding each other, and finding their way past the defenses that lonely people have a way of constructing. The hero Martin is touchingly human, and Ellie is so perfectly direct, so perfectly right, especially in this scene, where he has told her that she couldn’t possibly want a life with him away from London society:

”I choose to do what I think is right for you. You deserve better.”

“Absolutely,” she said hotly. “I deserve a man who wants me.”

“I do want you!”

A blush darkened her fine skin. “If you wanted me, you’d find a way to have me, instead of making a lot of excuses.”

I mean, HEAR HEAR! How many times have you read a romance where you wanted to yell exactly that at one or the other of the main characters? And I love her line, “I deserve a man who wants me.” Words to live by, baby. (And some people think romance is anti-feminist. Ha.)

Snowy Night with a Highlander was definitely my least favorite of the three. I really like Julia London’s contemporaries, especially the Extreme Bachelors, but this was a bit of a dud. It reads like a far-too-long prologue to the story of the heroine’s brother, who’s gotten crosswise with the Prince Regent. Fiona is rushing to warn him that he needs to go into hiding, which provides the excuse for her to be on the road in a season when few people of that time and place traveled. I’m not fond of the device where the hero pretends to be a servant, either. Fiona’s character does sparkle, she has plenty of personality, but there just wasn’t enough of a story for me. Which is tough anyway in a novella… and this one merely proves that point.