Quilts and Books

I have quite a weakness for these little books and I wish I could tell you why. They’re like candy—super sweet and if you eat too many you’ll get sick. I find myself reading several of these all at once and then not going near them again for months at a time. They have the most awful titles and their plots are often based on communication failures. The “Big Misunderstanding” is frequently used as is the ever popular/most despised secret baby plot. There’s really a lot to hate here, yet lots of intelligent, rational romance readers go back for more time and again. I’m one of them. They’re so darn cheap on Fictionwise and if they’re awful, I can delete the electrons back into the ether. No trees have been harmed. If I understand it right, Harlequin Presents are supposed to be strong emotional books involving ruthless, rich, gorgeous heroes who are brought to their knees by the plucky heroine who generally seems to be down on her luck, but is determined to make it on her own. The good one...

I don’t really have time to review as many books here as I’d like, but I think I’d be remiss if I’d let this one go by. Once again I’m in awe of an author’s ability to not just write a novel, but to carefully craft it so that each word is important and if you read it too quickly you might miss an important point. The Scottish Companion is Karen Ranney’s latest book. I have a couple of her recent books on my TBR pile, but decided to read this one out of order as I’m not aware that it’s connected to any of her previous books. TSC is the story of Gillian and Grant—two people who’ve known tremendous loss. They are thrown together when Gillian, the paid companion of the title, accompanies her employer on a visit to Grant’s estate. Gillian’s employer, Arabella, is a very strange young woman who is obsessed with medicine to the point that she has absolutely no interest in anything that goes on around her unless it has to do with a medical ailment. Grant needs a wife and as he has no interest ...