Joyce Sullivan returns with "Urgent Vows," a page-turner with good action and nicely developed characters. More of a suspense thriller than a mystery, it isn't the kind of book the reader can try and follow clues to figure out who the villain is. There are suspects, but it's clear who the author is pushing all the attention toward for most of the book. That isn't a criticism. Her approach works; those looking for that kind of mystery should simply know it isn't that kind of book.

What it is is an irresistible mix of fast-paced action and high drama. The story begins after Quinn's brother and sister-and-law have been murdered and he is already on the run with their children. The emotional tension stays at that consistently high level for much of the book. The characters are smart and likable and their dilemma is compelling, the kind where many readers will be asking what they would do in the heroine's place. The story moves with a swiftness that breezes the reader past some of the more far-fetched elements of the tale, making them more acceptable than they might be if we stopped to examine them. The shifts from scenes from the leads' perspective to the killer's and some secondary characters' give the story a wider scope and effectively adds to the suspense.

Sullivan enriches her tale with a lot of new, interesting facts and information, all seamlessly integrated in an unobtrusive way. Even without the list of acknowledgments, it's clear she's done her research, a nice change from so many stories that are fuzzy on some details or authors who use generic plot elements to avoid doing actual research. It's the kind of book where I felt like I learned something while being entertained. A roller coaster ride of emotions and suspense, "Urgent Vows" is a most successful romantic suspense novel.

One of a few books I have read based in Canada. Really great for a change.
Another hard to put down book - thoroughly enjoyed the authors description of the workings of the police force in Canada.
I would have found it hard to name a pair of twins Quinn and Quentin but did like the way the author made the play on names work.
I got caught up in Quinn's dilemma especially his attempts at taking care of the children and was cheering on Hope's agreement to help Quinn and his niece and nephew.
But really, couldn't she have been a lot more suspicious when she was by herself with the children? Granted it would probably have changed the way the outcome happened but, ah well, I am not going to second guess the author.
I was totally surprised with Oliver Wells. And who is Gordon Swenson?
The human side of the tragedy was heart rending and made the story more gripping.
Do highly recommend this book.

I am big fan of Sigurros and Björk and it was intersting to read about the roots of their music in Iceland. It was a easy and enjoyable reading

"Paul Sullivan's WAKING UP IN ICELAND is The Best, and Most Important, book on Iceland ever written ever published. As a student and appreciator of Iceland's majestic nature and magical culture, past and present, I tip my hat in gratitude to Paul Sullivan and Sanctuary Publishing. I hope the people, and government, of Iceland will do everything possible to let the world know about WAKING UP IN ICELAND. I will do all I can to spread the word about this brilliant book."
Ron Whitehead, may 21, 2003, Kentucky

Without a Past by Debra Salonen

The second book of a three book series, WITHOUT A PAST continues the story of the Sullivan triplets, Jenny, Andrea and Kristin. Book number one, MY HUSBAND MY BABIES, was Jenny's story. Book number two is Andrea's.

Andi, as she is known by all, is an ex-marine and of all the sisters, seems to be the most independent and strongest of the three. She is currently helping their elderly Aunt Ida Jane run the antique shop that Ida Jane has owned for many years. Because of the affects of aging, the sisters feel that someone needed to help out Ida Jane, who was starting to become forgetful and absent-minded.

There's a new guy in the town of Gold Creek, and he's come to live and work for Sam, the sisters' future brother-in-law and Jenny's future husband. But the spin on the new guy is that he has amnesia. Who is this gorgeous man, Andi wants to know. And as she gets to know the mystery man who calls himself Harley, she offers to help him find his past.

Debra Salonen has come up with another wonderful romance in WITHOUT A PAST. As with her other novels, Salonen is able to create likable characters with depth and dimension, and place them in real surroundings that makes one want to go out and find these small towns on the map. She brings the fictional town of Gold Creek, California to life, modeling it after the small towns surrounding the Yosemite Valley and Oakhurst, California towns. I'm looking forward to reading book number three, THE COMEBACK GIRL, Kristin's story.

This second book in Debra Salonen's Sullivan Sisters series continues the story of the triplets raised by their Aunt Ida Jane in the California Gold Country town of Gold Creek.

Andi, an ex-Marine returns to care for Aunt Ida Jane who is becoming increasingly forgetful and unable to run her antiques shop. While Andi struggles with the increasing financial burden of restoring the old building, once a bordello, and finding ways to build the business, she encounters Harley Forester who works as a hired hand on her soon-to-be brother-in-law's ranch.

It's instant attraction for Andi and Harley, who is kind and caring, and obviously not the cowboy he appears to be. Unfortunately, Harley suffers from amnesia, and Andi decides to help him find his past. But will learning who he is destroy their budding romance?

Ms. Salonen has created a host of likable characters in her Sullivan Sisters trilogy. Several characters from book one reappear in her second book, and the reader is given a taste of the final story in the series. Each story stands alone, but you'll want to read all three. Without a Past is a sensitive portrayal of family struggles and triumphs, a glimpse into small-town life, and a story to warm your heart. Very highly recommended.

First time author Steve Hamilton does a wonderful job of keeping you guessing in 'A Cold Day In Paradise'.

His flawed hero, Alex Mcknight a ex-policemen from Detroit, is tortured by a single event that changed his life forever. Alex's partner was killed by a madman who calls himself 'Rose'.

The problem is that Alex lived, with a bullet one inch from his heart. It's a reminder and a hollow pain that won't go away.

Alex tries to 'get away' to a small town in the upper Michigan Peninsula, to forget, and find some inner peace. He succeds for awile until a couple of murder's barring the unmistakable signature of 'Rose' appear in his quiet little town.

Has Rose come back?, how could this be?

Mr. Hamilton does a excellent job of weaving a fasinating mystery, the plot rarely slows, it's tight and as crisp as a artic breeze from Lake Superior.

Alex Mcknight is a very likable character, i particularly enjoyed the atmosphere Hamilton provided and the local people that Alex interacts with. They all come across very real..Highly Recomended

Steve Hamilton's award-winning debut is a very involving and well-written novel. The main character, Alex McKnight, is an interesting, if flawed, hero, one minute being Superman and the next Supersensitive. But he's likeable and he seems real.

The background of Alex's shootout with a madman named Rose is fascinating in that a bullet was left lodged in his heart, although his partner died in the onslaught.

Fourteen years later, McKnight is back home in the upper Michigan peninsula, running cabins his late father built, and becoming a reluctant PI assisting a smooth lawyer named Lane.

McKnight is then embroiled in a thick noir plot involving his somewhat best friend millionaire and his wife, whom McKnight once had an affair with.

The book moves at a very quick pace, and as it appears that the madman responsible for his injury is somehow murdering bookmakers, the plot thickens.

The denouement is unusually abrupt, but it certainly does smell of a sequel.

All in all, a very good read and I'm looking forward to reading the second entry in the Alex McKnight series, which I shall do as soon as I finish this review.

and winner of the Edgar Award, A COLD DAY N PARADISE, is truly outstanding in it's characters and story line. It was a book recommended to me by Amazon and they were right....I couldn't read it fast enough. It immediately gets into the story wih Alex McKnight as the retired cop turned private eye. The way in which the plot is developed, the introduction of the characters, the characters themselves and the insertions of McKnight remembering his past make a marvelous, intriguing package - tied together very, very expertly at the shocking and truly amazing ending. I have already puchased "WINTER OF THE WOLF MOON" , Hamilton's second novel and I will bet "dollars to donuts" that it will be just as suberbly written and even more suspenseful than the first. If you like intrigue, suspense,surprises, excellent character and plot development and an answer to the mystery that is at your fingertips but just out of your reach- read this: "A COLD DAY IN PARADISE'; and no matter how warm the summer weather is, keep a blanket handy because besides everything else this novel contains, it is chilling! Have a wonderful read!

This novel has all the ingredients of an engaging thriller: a larger than life ex-marine hero who anyone in trouble would want on their side, impassioned and embittered ex-commandos who have moved from protecting the country from its enemies to protecting it from its leaders, a cast of vile, arrogant politicians collectively cast as the antagonist, and a complex (though pretty improbable), makes-you-think plot.

Though the novel isn't perfect--as I said, the plot is pretty improbable and some of the characters are little more than straw figures--it's very fast-paced and pulls you so totally into the inner world of DC's power corridors that you won't notice the book's relatively minor flaws until after you've finished it and had a chance to think it over.

Some of the criticisms of Term Limits seem to be written by people who read the book way too literally. Term Limits in no way celebrates commandos that kill off crooked politicians, nor does the book's hero, Michael O'Rourke, think they've done a particularly noble thing. To suggest that it does colors a good book that's just meant to be entertaining with a mean-spiritedness and cynicism that simply isn't there.

Many books being published to-day have the same repetitive theme to them - - - us against the outside world. Vince Flynn reverses this premise and describes the enemy inside, namely crooked politicians whose only pursuits are promoting their own selfish interests, at the expense of the voters who put them in power in the first place. The selected assassination of some of these politicians and the panic and irrational actions that ensues in Washington from the President on down ensures the reader a story line that is gripping in its telling. As the story plays out, the reader will eventually gain a grudging admiration of the assassins and then be in total empathy with them. This book will hit a sensitive spot with most readers in their attitudes to-wards a certain breed of to-day's politicians. If Mr Flynn's next book is half as thought provoking as "Term Limits", he is a real winner.

Thanks, Mr. Flynn, for sharing this gripping, believable story with me. As a conservative with tremendous respect for members of our Special Forces (no, I'm not a radical right-winger), I found myself feeling the same frustration the SEALS were dealing with in Term Limits. Oh, yeah, some of the targets were recognizable--and I loved that--and the methods used for imposing their term limits were pretty "out there," but gosh they were good at what they did! As soon as I finished the book, I insisted my husband read it (he's big into Clancy, etc.) and he loved it as much as I did. Even missed a baseball game to finish it...and our daughter just finished it and raved about it. She's always been into fantasy novels, but has now asked for more books like Term Limits. Shame to say, there aren't many out there as well done as this one. Hope Flynn will write more about Michael O'Rourk and his friends!

Sick Puppy has all the elements of a classic Carl Hiaasennovel: a slightly off-kilter love story unfolding in the midst of anexplosive mix of sleazoid exploiters, deranged eco-defenders, and corrupt government officials. That said, however, it lacks the one element that sets Hiaasen's other (and better) novels apart from others in this genre--Sick Puppy simply wasn't funny. Whereas Hiaasen's trenchant wit normally breathes life and side-splitting humor into his stories, this one remained flat and predictably formulaic, not to mention overly drawn out. Hiaasen obviously was reaching when the dog became the main character in the middle of the book.

We've read every one of his books and eagerly await the arrival of each new one. We hate to say it, but if we had it to do over again, we'd borrow the paperback copy of Sick Puppy from someone rather than buying the hardcover. Better yet, we would reread a funny Hiassen book such as Double Whammy, Skin Tight, or Lucky You.

Carl Hiaasen's "Sick Puppy" brings back his usual madcap hijinks, something that I felt was missing in his last novel, "Lucky You". The crooked politicians are there as is an environmental terrorist and the ever popular ex-Governor of Florida, Skink.

The story has some extremely hilarious moments. I particularly liked the 911 calls listened to by Mr. Gash, they were hilarious! The bad guys get their (unusual) due at the end, always a fun thing about a Hiaasen book and Skink rides off in the sunset waiting to appear again (probably in Hiaasen's book after the next one - he has a pattern of showing up).

My only criticism is that Hiaasen's books are starting to sound the same. Twilly Spree, the environmental terrorist, is like Skip Wiley from Tourist Season. Palmer Stoat is like Francis X. Kingsbury from Native Tongue and Desiee Stoat is like the lead female character in every Hiaasen book. The only thing he didn't do this time was have a reporter or former reporter (Hiaasen's regular gig) as a character in this book.

I think Carl Hiaasen needs to look at a whole new type of plot for his next novel, one that doesn't involve trying to save the ever-shrinking Florida landscape. I think he could really write the ultimate comedy novel if he broaded his horizons. And with all of the crookedness in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem.

After reading Luck You, I was extremely pleased with Sick Puppy. A trust-funded young man with anger-management problems by the name of Twilly makes it his mission to keep South Florida clean. His main target is a lobbyist with some fetishes that might be considered strange, until you read about the other characters. Twilly attempts to teach the man a lesson...several times, but he just doesn't get through to him until he gets the man's dog, renames him and then starts to sabotage one of the lobbyist's biggest projects, the ripples of which reach far into the politics of Florida, which is already funny itself. An enjoyable addition to this book is that the dog is used as a great character too. The description of what Boodles/McGuinn is thinking and doing is excellent and doglovers out there will be nodding along with this. Twilly is an okay character that is actually the most normal of them all along with Desi, the wife of the lobbyist. The rest of the characters are where the real fun can be found. The plot is fantastic in both senses of the word, but the characters have basis in real world politicians and slick businessmen, or rather how we might perceive them to be. Overall, a great book that is refreshing and humorous.

if you've taken remedial english classes all through school (or the parts of which you finished, at least), then you shouldnt be surprised when you're confused by words longer than 6 letters or those which havent been used for a couple hundred years or so. The plot's only boring if you don't pay attention, and hey- don't get mad 'cause kim went to school in the middle of the book- it's supposed to be somewhat like kiplings life ( read the short story Baa Baa Black sheep, you'll see ). it's not about a little british boy overcoming India either. there's nothing british about kim but his blood, and if you can't see past that, you're more racist than you accuse kipling of being. I loved the book. I found the plot adventurous, the protagonist easily likeable, and the vernacular not too confusing- for what it was (and I read it in my junior year of public high school). I also thought the characters weren't just stereotypes. (by the way, you shouldn't presume to know more about a culture you've never experienced than a writer who had spent his life immersed in it.) in short, if you have any sense of adventure, you'll be in love with this book. if, however, your eyes rarely leave the confines of this computer screen, the entire book may be a wholly foreign and confusing thing to you.

I first read this book-or tied to-when I was 10. Having already read "Nicholas Nickleby" and enjoyed it I hadn't expected "Kim" to be too hard. Halfway through the book I had to give up in disgust- it was too deep for me. Later on I came to love the book.It flung me into colonial India with all its native intrigue and wonder. We follow the journeys of an eleven year old boy,Kim or "Friend of all the World", a white brought up among the natives. We watch him travel around India with an old lama who becomes something like a fatherto KIm. The book is jam-packed with characters that will dazle you but that are still believable. People complain of the jargon Kipling uses; to me it was an added beauty, it made the atmosphere more tangible. Another thing I loved was the habit Kipling has of inserting verses before some chapters.At first you might not understand the relevance of the verse but the time you've finished the chapter you'll get it. This is a book that deserves to be respected, but also to be actally thought about, too.You have to have a certain amount of patience. Once you get over that, this book will enthrall you.

Other reviewers are correct when they complain that this book is extremely difficult to read; it is however brilliant.

You need a map of India and some knowledge of the Indian caste system to truly understand it. I had the map but admit that Kipling's use of slang when referring to certain characters was maddenning.

The odd assortment of charcters are great but Kim is the star of the show. Kim, an orphaned son of Anglo parents, is raised on the streets of Lahore where he befriends an old Tibetan Lama. Kim accompanies the Lama on his serach for a mystical river.

Along the way they come across the regiment in which Kim's Father served. Kim is adopted by the regiments two chaplains who turn Kim over to Colonel Creighton who runs a sophisticated spy system. Kim is sent to an English speaking Catholic school.The allure of the road to Kim is too enticing and during school holidays Kim goes on adventures with the likes of his friend the part time Afgahn horse trader and part time spy for the British.

Kim completes his education both in the school and on the road and he becomes an important member of the spy system.

Kim seems to benefit from the experience of everyone he touches and in turn evereyone Kim encounters seem to be better off by the experience.

His relationship with the lama is truly special and transforms Kim from street urchin into a compassionate young man whose strength keeps the Lama alive as they travel the Himalayas.

Kim is a truly delightful book if you are up to the challenge.

When I buy a paperback book with a brightly colored cover and a title like: "Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married", this is what I expect: a lighthearted comedy about a slightly shallow, single, city-dwelling, young woman and her love life.
So when I read, "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married" I was a little confused. Paperback, Pretty Cover, Cutsie name...so what is this? A heroine with bouts of depression? Alcoholic fathers? Broken Homes? How...how...realistic!
Yes, that is my main complaint about Marian Keyes witty yet occasionally grim novel; "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married" it is far too realistic.
Set in downtown London, the book stars (surprise, surprise) Lucy Sullivan, an insecure, nine to five worker with an infamously unsuccessful love life which takes an interesting twist when a fortune-teller predicts that she will get married within the year.
Keyes' style is intelligent and funny, and her characters are likable and diverse. However, as I said before, this book is not the light piece of fiction is appears. Lucy suffers from depression and major insecurity and around three-quarters of the way through; the book takes a strange and unexpectedly dark turn.
I liked it, but while I originally thought that it belonged to the same category of books as the 'Shopaholic' series, I now see that it is quite different.

Perhaps because I have 2 children ages 2 and under, but I truly appreciate my reading leisure time more than I ever did before. That's why I was relieved to discover how much I enjoyed "Lucy Sullivan" (the last book I read was "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing", and it stunk on ice). I also loved "Briget Jones' Diary", and apart from the fact that both characters are British, I fail to see how "Lucy" is trying to be Bridget! Lucy and her 3 co-workers go to a fortuneteller to have their tarot cards read, and Lucy's "prediction" is that she'll get married within one year. Although her realistic sense tells her these readings are "for entertainment purposes only", she can't help but think about them seriously when her co-workers predictions start to come true. From there on, she looks at every man in her life as if he could be "the one", from a bad blind date with an American in the personals ads to her video store clerk. Marian Keyes is hilarious. I love her sense of humor and style of writing. I appreciated the way she allowed Lucy to slowly, and only through learning the hard way, realize her father is an alcoholic, even though everyone, includuing the reader, knows this from the first time he's introduced. At first I was so frustrated with Lucy for putting up with Gus. But, in all fairness, she did warns us at the beginning of the book that she avoids nice safe men. And, she comes to that revelation on her own, but I won't give away the entire plot. My sister-in-law is from England, and she gives me some of the best Brit authors to read. She, of course, handed me "Lucy Sullivan", and I am grateful to find a new favorite author. I can't wait to read "Watermelon" now! If you want a fun, realistic read, pick up a copy.

This was my second venture into the words of Keyes. She's a talented writer--able to capture the essence of a woman's brain with accuracy and wit. Now, onto my specific review of LSIGM.

Lucy's life isn't really in turmoil. She's got problems, but they're the problems of a million other women--chosing the wrong guy time after time, liking the 'bad boy,' dysfunctional family, partying too much, hating her job, etc. She's living the young, single life that happens in Seattle, New York, London, and a hundred other large cities. We like Lucy, no--we love Lucy, because we get a glimpse into her neuroses, and into her thinking as she realizes she IS neurotic.

The claims of predictability are all to true, however. Read the first three chapters and you're pretty sure you can guess the ending--and unless you've never seen or read a romantic comedy, you're guess will be correct. Nevertheless, the unique laugh-out-loud writing kept me going and despite the unoriginal plot, I really liked the book.

I didn't love the book, even if I loved the characters. I kept picturing the movie that ought to be made out of it--it seemed it was written with a movie in mind. I finished the book in two days, skipping ahead to the ending at one point and then going back to read the rest. My interest in the book almost waned, and it was going to be banished to the nightstand never to be read again. But I made it through the end and have to say that the book is a good, if not terribly insightful, read. It's great for a boring Tuesday night (don't give up your perfectly good weekend for it). A nice airport read perhaps.

So, with that lukewarmish review out of the way, I do have to say that my next book is "Last Chance Saloon." Keyes is obviously good enough to keep me buying her books and reading them. She makes me laugh, for heaven's sake! And we all need a laugh now and again even if we know how the story goes. Predicability isn't all that bad--it's the laughter and the oh-so-believable characters that keep me coming back.

Don't buy this book expecting a masterpiece. Buy it expecting to be simply entertained. It's not intellectual, it's not stimulating, it's not thrilling. It's just plain fun. Now, have at it!

What if you had to try and make sense of the hanging of a young cop? What if that cop was an Internal Affairs investigator? And what if that IA detective was gay? And what if he was the son of a legend of the department? Tami Hoag does just this and more in DUST TO DUST, a follow up to her previous book ASHES TO ASHES.

Minneapolis Police Department Sergeant Sam Kovac and his partner Nikki Liska are the detectives on the scene of the death of Andy Fallon, favored son of legend Iron Mike Fallon. His nude body hanging in his bedroom. Suicide? Murder? Accidental death? Kovac feels he owes it to Fallon's father, a legend in the department now confined to a wheelchair because of a bullet that hit his spine while on the job twenty years ago, to find out. No questions are easy, and each answer leads to another avenue to investigate.

Tami Hoag spares nothing in describing the homicide detectives and their all-too-real lives. Her portrayal of the workaholic Sam Kovac is realistic and honest. Single mother Nikki Liska juggles issues like bedtimes and an ex-husband while worrying about polaroids sent of her sons. I especially thought the dialogue was very authentic. Not one to mince words, one scene included a suspect's reaction to questioning: "By the time he was able to join Neil Fallon on the back steps, any gastrointestinal pyrotechnics had subsided."

If you enjoy a fast-paced police procedural full of twists and turns with a real surprise at the end, you'll enjoy following Sam Kovac and Nikki Liksa as they track down a killer in DUST TO DUST.

When I was first introduced to Tami Hoag's novels, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I mistakenly believed that they were of the romance genre, but once I started reading her many novels, I realized just how wrong I was to have made that assumption. Dust To Dust, her newest effort, reads like a sandstorm with more twists than a country back road. She brings back familiar favorites, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, and the dynamics are as wonderful as ever. The book is brimming with diverse characters who have more than their fair share of deep dark secrets that they wish to keep hidden. Tami Hoag is able to deliver a novel that deals with what some may see as a controversial issue, the death of a gay cop, without becoming mired in sterotypes; but that is just the beginning as Hoag expertly weaves this seemingly cut and dried case of suicide into something much deeper and darker than anyone could have possibly imagined. If you want a novel that will keep you guessing from beginning to end, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

Let me start off by saying you won't want to miss Tami Hoag's new novel, Dust To Dust. It's simply that good of a book. Whether you like mysteries, suspense reads, crime stories or simply like good writing no matter the genre, you're in for a treat with this all-but-impossible-to-put-down whodunnit. "It is stunning how quickly it happens. How little time it takes to go from trouble to tragedy. Seconds. Mere seconds without air and the brain begins to shut down. No time to struggle. No time to panic even." So begins Dust To Dust, which features Homicide Detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska of the Minneapolis Police Department at its center. Kovac and Liska, you might recall, were colorful minor characters in Hoag's equally enthralling Ashes To Ashes. Here they take center stage in a case involving dirty cops, sexual preference and the tragic specter of past events long since thought dead and buried. Andy Fallon -- a young, handsome, athletic and gay Internal Affairs investigator -- is found dead in the bedroom of his upscale home, hanging from the end of a noose around his neck. The only witness to his death is a mirror with the word 'sorry' scrawled across it standing several feet away. By all appearances, Fallon's death is a classic suicide. The problem is, all of Detective Kovac's instincts tell him otherwise. What follows is a narrative that unfolds over the next three-hundred-fifty pages or so at a breakneck pace as Kovac and Liska do everything they can to find out why Fallon would have killed himself. Did he do so because of being rejected by is paraplegic father for being gay? Was he despondent over a love affair gone sour? Was he upset about the outcome of a sensitive case he was working on involving not only vicious gay-bashing on the part of officers within the Minneapolis Police Department, but murder as well? Or did his death have something to do with events twenty years in the past; events that left his legendary policeman father a pitiful, bitter alcoholic in a wheelchair? Just try to stop tearing through the pages of Dust To Dust as Hoag skillfully leads you through her intricate and involving plot toward the inevitable, wholly satisfying outcome. The sheer intensity of the suspense, the colorful, larger-than-life characters, the dialogue that crackles with the harshness of real-life speech, and the excellence of the story as a whole will not let you put the book down for long. I guarantee it. I highly recommend Dust to Dust as well as the other Tami Hoag novels I have read so far including: Ashes To Ashes, Guilty As Sin, and Dark Paradise. If you find yourself liking Tami Hoag's novels as much as I do, you might also like, as I do, books involving crime, mystery, suspense and intrigue by such authors as: Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth George, P.D. James, Anne Perry, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Brad Meltzer, Steve Samuel and Diana Gabaldon (check out her historical mystery story Hellfire). Tami Hoag not only deserves the place she has carved out for herself among these literary heavyweights, but on your bookshelf as well. Enjoy!

I have at least 100 different books about the Romanovs in my personal library, and I have to say that this is the bottom of the barrel. The writing is trite, the research is flawed, and there are so many inaccuracies that I question this book being called non-fiction. There were so many things Sullivan could have developed in greater depth--especially the relationship between Victoria and her sister. Of course, Ducky was such a shallow individual that I imagine it must have been difficult to write a biography about her. Past reviewers seemed to either love or hate this book. I suspect that the raves came from Sullivan's friends. Any historian familiar with Romanov history will identify this book for what it is--a very flawed attempt to make a minor character in Russian/German/English history into a major one.

This is the biggest lot of historical nonsense. Sullivan has an
irritating style and a gushing attitude towards his subject
(either he's related to Ducky or madly in love with her). He
cannot get over how impossibly wonderful, gorgeous, perfect, etc
he thinks she was. This is a totally inappropriate stance for a
historian towards a subject. He also trashes everyone Ducky knew
to make her look better. Sullivan's treatment of the murdered
Empress Alexandra is particularly cruel and unnecessary. Bottom
line: Ducky was an overrated, frumpy, greedy historical footnote.
Cyril wanted to be Emperor, so why didn't he start by executing
traitors like himself and his wife? Their behavior was inexcusable, even during a revolution. This book is inexcusable
as a history or as a biography. Don't waste your time or money.

I was extremely disappointed by this book. I am an avid reader of anything about Queen Victoria and all of her descendants, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I knew from reading other books that Victoria Melita had lived, at the very least, a rather interesting life. I was eager to learn about her and what kind of person she was.

Unfortunately, I did not really learn any accurate, unbiased information about her character and personality. At the end of the first chapter, my teeth were rotting. Sullivan affects a nauseatingly melodramatic tone that is ridiculous and distracting. I wanted to read about Ducky's life, and instead I was informed of Ducky's (alleged) beauty on practically every single page. Innumerable variations of "little did beautiful Ducky know about the tragedy to come" littered every chapter. Please, spare me. Sullivan was clearly enamored with his subject, and wanted the reader to be too. Um, no thanks. And clearly, his infatuation with Ducky prevents the reader from getting an accurate perspective of what this woman was really like.

And don't even get me started on "uncrowned empress." Ducky could *never* have been the Russian Empress. Never mind the fact that after 1918, there was no such thing as Imperial Russia.

If you want to read a *real* historical biography, stay away from this schlock and pick up Hannah Pakula's book about Ducky's sister, Queen Marie of Romania, or her book about one of the many aunts of both of these women, The Empress Frederick.