Up Close and Dangerous by Linda Howard

Bailey Wingate married her boss. Yes, he was fabulously wealthy, but she didn't marry him for the money, but as a favor. The man's son and daughter are not good people and he didn't want to leave his company and money to them. His hope was that the son's hatred of Bailey would kick him into being a better worker and person. It hasn't worked so far. In fact, the son has started threatening Bailey's life. 

But she's just going to go get away from it all. It's a rafting trip, which she doesn't love, but it's with her brother and his wife, which she loves. Unfortunately, the charter trip is not going to be fun because her regular pilot is sick and his business partner doesn't really like her. But, the day just doesn't get any better when the plane crashes and the pilot has a major gash on his head and can't help. The two have to work together to get down the mountain.

Maybe not my favorite writer but this book is pure Howard and will delight anyone that reads her books.

Three stars

This book came out July 17, 2007

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Now You See Her by Linda Howard

Sweeney is an artist. She's happy without a man in her life, just her art. But her life is changing. She's painting murder scenes, scenes that she has no possible way of knowing. And all of a sudden, she's not only noticing men, she's attracting them. 

Richard Worth is the husband of her gallery's owner. He's been trying to divorce her for over a year but it's slow going. He doesn't really care. She's after his money, 'cause he's rich. He's also not as refined as she'd've liked. But Sweeney likes him fine and he's the only one who can warm her from the debilitating cold that takes over after she's painted.

This is definitely a nineties romance with the sweet heroine and forceful hero. A little too forceful but still a nostalgic read. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out September 25th, 1998

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

The Woman Left Behind by Linda Howard

Jina Modell works in Communications. She's not a field agent... until Axel MacNamara decides that ten people from various deparments are going to be assigned to specific teams. Jina's team?  The one led by Levi "Ace" Butcher. She is not excited; that team usually gets the worst assignments. And that's before her training starts.  Jina is the only one who ends up training with her team -- all of the rest of the new "recruits" get to train together. She eventually considers herself lucky because she gets to bond with her group before they get out into the field. It's hard. The guys on her team aren't exactly excited to be working with a woman but Jina is stubborn and decides that she's going to make it, no matter what.
Ace really doesn't want a rookie on his team. Even worse, he's highly attracted to this person who is most definitely off-limits. But what is he supposed to do when they're on a mission and she gets left behind?
The title of this book was incredibly deceptive as was the description. Both make it sound like this is going to be the story of Jina fighting her way back to the teams but it is mainly about her journey joining the team. Less than 50 pages are about the mission where she gets "left behind." While I really liked the journey of Jina and Ace, I am confused by the ending.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out March 6
ARC kindly provided by Edelweiss

Troublemaker by Linda Howard

I know I have a bit of a pet-peeve with condom use but, c'mon, Ms. Howard is a veteran romance writer. There are more reasons than pregnancy to use a condom. At the very least she could sit down and have the characters talk about being tested. More than just "It's okay, I'm on the pill." Blergh. It always takes me out of the story. 
There is a special brand of Howard WTFery that I look forward to in her books. And in this book, while it was a good book, that craziness was way toned down. I mean, the books I think of when I think Linda Howard have agents whose memories have been imperfectly wiped, bear stalkings (again, black bears don't do that), the only road into a small town being shut down so a team of bad guys can retrieve a microfilm, etc. This, this was strangely devoid of any of that-- but still a good book. And what Howard does nicely is depicts small town life. There's a line in her book that even pokes gentle fun saying that people in big cities always expect small-town folks to all know one another but they don't -- one of my major major pet-peeves (see here Fool's Gold, a town of 125,000 where they somehow not only ALL know each other but everyone's extended history).
Anyway, Morgan Yancy is a super-duper, undercover agent who's had a hit taken out on him that was nearly successful. In order to figure out what's going on, his team leader, Axel, sends him to recuperate in West Virginia. The specific person Morgan is being sent to is Isabeau "Bo" Maran, Axel's ex-step-sister. It seems the two had a contentious relationship when their parents were married for eight months and Axel has never quite gotten over it. 
Bo is the chief of police in a small town but her position is supposed to be more clerical than anything, taking care of the paperwork so that her deputies can do the on-the-streets work that they feel more comfortable with. There were some plot points and character issues I had with Bo and this job (she has, like, three) but, again, used to WAY more craziness from Howard so these were minor.
Then there is the plot moppet, Bo's golden retriever, Tricks. I am a huge Goldie nerd and Tricks sounded about right for that breed of dog but, dang, half the book was an ode to the dog. I would have loved to see a little bit more about what was going on in the discovery of who was trying to kill Morgan (view spoiler) or more about their relationship development. Although, I do have to admire the deft touch of covering major swathes of time with a deft touch. It cured the book of insta-love/lust.
Overall, a nice addition to the Howard canon and I think that regular readers will really enjoy the book. I personally missed the crazy (it's the reason I requested the ARC) but others may not even notice it's gone.