The Inside Ring by Michael Lawson

This is the first book in a series featuring Joe De Marco, a lawyer and trouble-shooter for the Speaker of the House.

Joe DeMarco works as a fix-it man for the Speaker of the House. He describes his job as taking care of "little stuff" causing problems for members of Congress, like kids on drugs and cheating spouses. He doesn't do anything illegal, he's strictly focused on trying to prevent scandal. After an assassination attempt on the President the Speaker sends Joe to help the Director of Homeland Security, Andy Banks.

A few days before the assassination attempt Banks received a note warning that him to cancel the Presidents trip because the inner ring of security had been compromised. Banks showed the note to the head of the Secret Service, but the two men decided that it was a hoax and ignored it. After the shooting Banks is filled with guilt, but doesn't want to admit what happened and destroy his career if the arrival of the note really was just a coincidence. He needs someone discrete to look into the situation and that's were Joe comes in. He's soon in way over his head, following clues from DC to the deep south.


I decided to try this series because Joe's rather unusual job sounded interesting and the reviews I saw were positive. Unfortunately the book didn't work for me nearly as well as it did for those reviewers. The main plot in a thriller is almost always highly improbable. That's the nature of the genre and I'm fine with that. However, for me that means that all the other details need to feel real in order to keep the story grounded and prevent it from collapsing under the weight of its own ridiculousness. In this story Joe felt real, but nothing else did. That ended up making it too difficult for me to suspend disbelief when the convoluted nature of the assassination plot was revealed.

In the end I was very glad that I had gotten the book from the library. If I had paid for it I would have been very disappointed.

Grade: C-

Will I try another book in this series?: I'm not sure. I did find Joe interesting and series often improve after the first book. If I can get the second book from the library I may give it shot.

Split Second by David Baldacci

Secret Service Agent Sean King allows himself to be distracted while guarding a minor presidential candidate and the candidate is shot and killed. The error, and King's refusal to explain why he was looking away, cost him his career.

Eight years later Michelle Maxwell is protecting another minor presidential candidate. She violate the rules by giving in to his demand for privacy to visit with an old friend. She allows him to go into a room alone and he's kidnapped.

At the same time Sean, who is now a successful attorney in North Carolina, finds one of his associates dead on the floor of his office. Michelle sees him on the news and becomes interested in the case that drove him from the Secret Service, which she sees as similar to her own problems.

Joan is another former Secret Service agent, now working as a security consultant. She has been hired by the missing man's family to find him because they don't trust the government to a thorough job. She goes to North Carolina to try to hire Sean to help her. The story follows Sean, Michelle & Joan as they form an uneasy alliance to sort out the three cases and determine why they all seem to be connected to Sean.

The book started out well. Baldacci writes interesting characters and has a flare of creating suspense. The tensions between the main characters were interesting and the action moved along well. Unfortunately the whole thing fell apart at the end. The villain was a cartoon and the plot was ridiculous. I know that this type of book requires some suspension of disbelief, but this one simply stretched that past the breaking point. By the time the cause of Sean's original lapse in attention was revealed I just didn't care.

Grade C-

Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy

Tamara is a young widow raising two young children. She's finally ready to get back into the dating scene two years after loosing her race car driver husband in an accident on the track. She just wants to find an nice, ordinary man, but her first attempt is a disaster. Fortunately for her the experience isn't a total loss because it results in her meeting Elec. He's sweet, sexy, good to Tamara's kids and willing to take things at her pace. He's also seven years younger, a race car driver and the son of her father-in-law's worst enemy.

Tamara isn't sure she's ready for a serious relationship, especially with someone who is so different from what she thought she was looking for. Elec has issues of his own, including a crazy ex-girlfriend and a health problem he'd rather not talk about. They each have to decide if their relationship is just a fling, or something more.

This is a straight contemporary---no crimes, vampires, or over the top drama. It's simply a solid story about two likable people who meet, fall in love and have to overcome a few obstacles on the way to their HEA. Both Tamara and Elec's issues felt real to me without being too angsty. Erin McCarthy's writing has a light touch, even with fairly serious issues. For example, I was worried that Tamara was going to end up being one of those annoying martyr heroines, insisting on giving Elec up because her father-in-law hates his father. Instead she was simply a nice woman who didn't want to cause unnecessary pain to people she loved.

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to get this from the library. Our waiting lists sometimes take forever. Maybe it was fate, because this book broke a bad reading streak for me. After several books in a row that were blah, or worse, I really liked this one. There were a few small things that I could nit pick, but they didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the characters or the story so I give this one an A-.

2009 TBR Challenge for January: Blind Sided by Leslie Lefoy

January TBR Challenge: Categories


Logan was a successful pro hockey player until an accident on the ice cost him an eye and his career. He made plenty of money while playing so since his forced retirement he's been spending most of his time drinking and feeling sorry for himself. The one thing he's absolutely sure he doesn't want to do is coach hockey.

Cat inherited a minor league hockey team from her recently deceased brother. Cat knows nothing about hockey, but she's trying to make the best of it. She feels that she owes it to her brother to look after his beloved team and her sister-in-law, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. She also basically has nowhere else to go. She doesn't have many job skills and she's been struggling to take care of herself and her son since her ex-husband left the country with his secretary and all their money. The only idea she has for saving the financially troubled team involves getting Logan to become the new coach, and he turns her down flat when she offers him the job.

A book about two people with such serious problems sounds like it would be a downer, but it wasn't. Logan & Cat's problems are difficult, but neither one spends an undo amount of time wallowing. Logan allows himself to be drawn out of his alcoholic stupor without too much fuss. Cat works hard at solving her problems without playing the martyr. It's easy to root for them to get together. The obstacle to their HEA is basically a communication issue. It felt real to me and didn't veer into the dreaded Big Misunderstanding.

There were a few things about the book that didn't work for me. For example, Cat has a plan to raise money for the team using a bachelor auction. That sort of thing is fine for a charity but the team is a business. In real life I think that might be a little too close to prostitution for the IRS' comfort. Still, I liked the characters and liked the book overall.

Grade: B

The challenge was to read one category novel, but I decided to use it as an opportunity to read more. I haven't been reading many categories recently so I have quite a few on my TBR. I managed to cross a total of 9 off the list.

Shadow Hawk by Jill Shalvis

Strong Medicine by Olivia Gates

Guarding Jane Doe by Harper Allen

Mistletoe and Murder by Jenna Ryan

Flashpoint, Flashback and All He Wants for Christmas by Jill Shalvis

Taylor's Temptation by Suzanne Brockmann

His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman

TBR Challenge 2009

January It’s all about the category, baby. Harlequin, Sil. Intimate Moments, Harl. Blaze, Harl. Presents. A lot of readers have been enjoying some great category titles of late. Hey, they’re quick reads, too! Did you buy any of them last year and didn’t read them? Now is your chance. Don’t have any? Grab a book out of your stacks and get to reading, you’re not excused.

February Find a DIK review book at AAR that you bought and read it. We’ve all bought some of these books and now is the time to see if they truly are DIK. Let’s demystify some of these claims or validate them. Any genre. Don’t have one (really?), just grab a book and read it.

March This month is dedicated to the historical novel (and dying breed). Do you have a good historical novel just lying around that you really, really, really want to read? If you don’t care to read a historical, follow the procedure as stated above, just grab a book out of your stacks and read it.

April Urban fantasy, fantasy or SFR…ohhhh, Patricia Briggs, Ann Aguirre, Charlaine Harris to name a few. Did you buy any of their stuff and didn’t read it yet? Now is your chance and if you’re already caught up, just pick a book out of your stacks and read it with the rest of us.

May Ok, challenges get more specific. For the month of May, pick a book that has a friends to lovers theme or some variation to it. All of us have these somewhere in our stacks and if not, you know what you need to do (see above).

June Tortured heroes are my favorite! They are usually found in historicals but see if you can find a tortured guy in your stacks or a tortured heroine (they’re even rarer!). Read and review it and if you have no luck with finding such a hero in your huge, humongous stacks, just grab a book and read it.

July Wrongfully accused or just released from jail theme books are another favorite of mine. I always seek these out and I may have to do some rereading for this month as there are some real good ones out there that I’ve read but I think I should have some in my stacks. If you don’t have such a book in your huge mountain of books, you know what you need to do (see above).

August Ok, I’m going to start assigning authors - Julie Garwood, Liz Carlyle, Judith McNaught, Nora Roberts, Johanna Lindsey, Connie Brockway, Laura Kinsale, Mary Balogh, Carla Kelly, Joan Wolf - own any of these author’s books and haven’t read them yet? Now is your chance. Already caught up - you know what you need to do.

September Linda Howard, Elizabeth Hoyt, Joanna Bourne, Sherry Thomas, Meljean Brook, Lois Bujold, Shanna Abe, Penelope Williamson, Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, Rachel Gibson, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Sandra Brown, Loretta Chase or whoever else you have in your stacks and you just haven’t taken the time to read them yet.

October Horror. Yep. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or whoever else you have in your TBR stacks and if you don’t want to read anything scary, you know what you need to do.

November Turkey day. Find a book that has a Thanksgiving theme (good luck with that!) or if you can’t find a book that does have a turkey theme, just grab a book out of your stacks and read it.

December Easy. Christmas themes and if you’re like me and can’t stand Christmas themed stories, just grab a book out of your stacks and read it. Congratulations, you’ve completed this year’s challenge.

2009 Erotica Reading Challenge

Read 10 erotica books in 2009

For this challenge I'm going to focus on reading authors that are new to me.

1st in Series Challenge 2009

Read 12 books that are the first in any series.

I have several series that I've given up on & a huge list of series that I'd like to try, so this is perfect.

2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge

Library Challenge

My goal is to read 50 books from the local public library in 2009.

2009 Suspense & Thriller Reading Challenge

12 different sub-genres of thrillers in 2009