Product Description

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. PulitzerPrize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

Customer Reviews (237)

Heat Wave ....Not!
I was disapointed in the book. I guess I expected it to be more like the program Castle. It lacked that "okay, one more chapter & I'll put it down" quality.

If you like the show...you'll enjoy this
I watch the TV show "Castle", so the characters, although sporting different names, are as comfortable as a pair of worn shoes. I like the banter between the principals, and the plot is just a device to provide opportunities for the writer and the cop to joust with one another. If you read this and don't picture Nathan and Stana, and the precinct room from the show, you have far more imagination than I do. If you have no experience with "Castle" then I am not sure how this will go over. I expect it will still be fun, but go to Hulu and watch a few episodes before you dig into this.

Loved it!
If you love the show, you will love this book!I'm not a big reader, but reading this is so easy.I could hear and see the characters from the show, in my head, as I read this book.

An unremarkable but satisfying pulpy detective novel, but hardly convincing as a "real" Castle book. Moderately recommended
In the middle of a New York heatwave, a murdered real estate tycoon calls detective Nikki Heat to the case--and along with her comes the intrepid, aggravating journalist Jameson Rook. Heat Wave is almost precisely the book that you would expect it to be. The writing is indulgent and silly without ever going so far in that direction as to be bad. There's some purple prose and some clever quips, and it reads fast and easy. Those clever quips make for entertaining dialog, and characters are caricatured without being flat. The mystery itself is pleasantly unpredictable (and perhaps a smidgen too unsolvable), and while the big reveal is too staged it's nonetheless a satisfying conclusion. In most ways, the book is just solid entertainment--and has no pretensions of being more. It's a just pulpy detective novel, quick and fun, and perfectly satisfying (if unremarkable) in that regard.

The book's biggest drawback is that it feels like little more than a novelized episode of Castle. The character names are different and the relationship between Castle and Beckett, i.e. Rook and Heat, is sped and spiced up (and as a result, more indulgent than intriguing--which suits a pulpy crime novel, but misses the core of Castle's appeal), but just about everything and everyone here will be familiar to fans of the show. It's not convincing as Castle's "actual" novel--it begs length and creative licence, and perhaps a bit more skill, in order to resemble those big, bestselling hardcovers. This feels like a transcription peppered with psuedonyms and wishful thinking (and a sex scene), which is fun--but doesn't fulfill the promised conceit of being a real book by the famous Rick Castle. In that regard the book is a bit of a let down--and since most readers will be drawn by that premise, they should be so warned. But as an entertaining, unremarkable, quick detective story, Heat Wave does deliver. I recommend it moderately: this isn't my preferred genre, and the book doesn't live up to my highest hopes, but it's a fun yarn.

Fantastic for fans; not a lot for other readers
If you don't watch the show, you probably won't get that much out of the book. It isn't particularly meaty if you can't enjoy the extra nuances brought out by knowing that the characters in the book are based on those in the show. That said, if you really just want a quick, easy, entertaining mystery, you could certainly do a lot worse!

Whoever wrote this did a great job of writing it as though the fictitious Rick Castle really was the author. If you're familiar with the show, you can see the ways in which he puffs up his own stand-in character, Rook; engages in a little wish-fulfillment with regards to the chemistry between him and Nikki; and beautifully captures the banter between Kate/Nikki's fellow detectives. Thanks to the fact that Castle is in love with Nikki's strength, this in no way compromises her as a strong and kick-ass female character.

The mystery definitely has its twists and red herrings; it gets a little confusing in a few places, but overall manages to keep things interesting. The characters are one of the highlights of the book--they engage in the same witty banter we're used to in the show, and thanks to Castle's lack of self-awareness, he still manages to convey his own character's somewhat bumbling tendencies.

Not the best book to come out this year, but for fans of the show it's certainly a fun several-hour diversion! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (17)

Very cool
This is a very cool book.Okay, enough with the jokes.The topic is serious and it's likely we'll face more of these in the coming years.How we deal with the problem and the choices we make about our environment will count a lot towards how we come out the other end.For policy makers and others plainly interested in the urban environment and how that environment can be deadly, read this book.

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (Illinois)
Informative, well written and puts the reader in a place where man fail miserably against nature....excellent read!

Excellent Book
I first heard about this book on NPR, and the topic really disturbed me.When I got around to reading it, I found out there was much more to this tragedy than the ghastly headlines, it really takes you in so many directions.I did hear of this terrible event in Chicago when it occurred, but did not realize how high the death toll was, or the causes of the disaster.After reading this book, it really shows you how much you miss when you rely on mainstream media sources without exploring other avenues of information.This book not only shows us how something so horrible could happen in an advanced country such as ours, but also shows us how to prevent this from ever happening again.I really hope that government officials from all levels read this book.Highly recommended.

A detailed exploration from an unconventional perspective
Heat Wave was one of the required readings for my class on medical sociology, and it is almost single-handedly responsible for sparking my interest in public health. Klinenberg takes an in-depth look at the patterns of decay underlying what seemed to be isolated and exceptional deaths, and in doing so, at the role of community and society in health.
He manages to combine methodological discussion, neighborhood history, statistics, personal accounts, and sociology into a narrative of a local disaster that goes beyond the news stories and the simple assumptions that can be made about a string of hot days. It's a thought-provoking read, especially for anyone interested in public health or on the front lines of healthcare.

A great expose into the frailty of our social structure.
When asked about weather related events that incur the deaths of hundreds of people, most think of hurricanes, floods, or large tornado outbreaks.Few would think that summer heat would bring on the deaths of over 700 people.Heat, in temperatures as low as 80 degrees Fahrenheit is responsible for more deaths annually than all other weather events combined. As a life-long weather enthusiast, I'd have enjoyed reading more about the atmospheric conditions that brought about the heat wave.But, that's not the authors intentions.His focus is on how a large metropolitan area can be brought to it's knees by a sustained heat wave.It's also largely a story of the "have's" and the "have nots".People in poverty-stricken areas or living on a low or fixed income suffered the most.Deprived of relief from the heat in any way, some literally suffocated to death in their apartments.While a heat wave like this is almost an annual occurrence here in Oklahoma, for the residents of Chicago, it was indeed a tragic yet forgotten disaster of historical proportions. ... Read more

Product Description
What happens when a heat wave descends on the family farm?Why, the corn stalks turn into popcorn in the fields, flowers pluck themselves and hide under the porch, and the cows jump so much from the hot air that they churn their own milk into butter, that's what!In this delightful tall tale, illustrated by Scott Goto (Shooting Star, Shoeshine Whittaker), a young girl saves the day (and the farm) using her own ingenuity, every crow in Kansas, and a packet of lettuce seeds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great introduction "set" for a science class.
Believe it or not, I use this book as a read-aloud for my 8th grade (13 year olds!) science class.I read it to them before beginning a unit on weather.Even this age finds it humorous.Add this to your collection!

The cream of the crop
Again terrific illustrations in a children's book. The colors are dynamic and the silliness will grab your attention on every page. The author takes the impossible (only skips a few steps in each process)to make thingshappen! The ending is a surprise and could only come from Kansas!

Fun and amusing
My four-year-old has requested this for one of his bedtime stories for over one week running. The story itself is a humourous tall tale about a farm in Kansas.The illustrations are hilarious, and the expressions onthe characters (including the farm animals) are expressive and funny.Agreat children's book, but wacky enough to make adults laugh, too. ... Read more

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Product Description
Offering a comprehensive overview of Charles Burchfield s work, this book presents the artist s expressive watercolors and provides a definitive
account of his life and career.

Working almost exclusively in watercolour, Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) focused on his immediate surroundings-his garden, the views from his windows, snow turning to slush, sudden atmospheric changes, or the forest at dusk. He often imbued these subjects with highly expressionistic light, creating at times a clear-eyed description of the world and at other times, a unique mystical and visionary experience of nature. The book includes drawings from his 1917 sketchbook, Conventions for Abstract ThoughtsA"; watercolors from 1916-18 that were the focus of the first one-person exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1930; camouflage designs from his tour in the army and wallpaper designs from the 1920s; watercolors from the 1940s showing the artist's unique technique of expanding and reworking earlier works by pasting large strips of paper around them to dramatically increase their size; and finally Burchfield's large, transcendental watercolours from the 1950s and 1960s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A different perspective on the work of this American watercolorist
This book was published on the occasion of an exhibition of Charles Burchfield's works (2009 - 2010) that was curated by the artist, Robert Gober.Even if you've read other books about Burchfield, or have viewed other exhibitions of his watercolors, "Heat Waves in a Swamp" offers a new perspective, with an emphasis on the symbolism in his works.Essays by Cynthia Burlingham, Dave Hickey, Tullis Johnson, and Nancy Weekly are also included, and offer fresh points of view about this artist's life and work (not all of them raves).Charles Burchfield was a synesthete who worked all of his creative life to translate his sensory visions of nature into art.

Other treatments of Burchfield's symbolic content usually focus on his incorporation of vision and sound into his paintings.He used `agitrons' (cartoon-strip squiggles) to indicate movement, `squeans' (asterisks with empty centers) for shafts of sunlight, and `blurgits' (Burchfield describes them as `shrill high pinpoints') for the sounds of insects.

However this book stresses the artist's invention of a shorthand for abstract thoughts and emotions such as 'insanity' and 'morbid brooding' ('emoticons' you could say, although this book doesn't use that term).When I paged through 'Heat Waves' for the first time to look at the pictures, I wondered why so many of the full-page color plates were devoted to Burchfield's doodles.This emphasis was made clear in Nancy Weekly's essay, "Conventions for Abstract Thoughts" which decodes his language of symbols and shows where the symbols occur in his paintings.Here is her partial deconstruction of Burchfield's "Childhood's Garden" (1917) with his motifs in single quotes:

"...Six tiny Johnny-jump-ups with grimacing faces surely represent Charles and his five siblings huddled by their mother--a salmon nasturtium with a crying 'Melancholy/Sadness' mouth...Billowing clouds loom as 'The memory of pleasant things that are gone, perhaps forever' and are punctuated with 'Aimless Abstraction (Hypnotic Intensity).'"

Tullis Johnson follows Weekly's essay with his "A Seemingly Idle Diversion:The Doodles of Charles Burchfield" which continues the theme.

The overall effect of this symbolism shapes this artist's unique, mystical vision of nature--a vision that resonates in harmony with the world that I see outside my window. This book is a very stimulating treatment of his art.

Most excellent art/coffee table book
This book not only shows off the excellent work by Charles Burchfield, but also provides insight into his life, the life of an artist.The organization and editing was very good, easy to read.

You can't judge a book by its cover
Although the cover of this book looks as if coffee has been spilled on it the paintings are beautiful and there are many insights into the artist's psyche. Good value for the money.

Bravo!
Beautiful reproductions of the work of one of my favorite artists. Burchfield is a true mystic. His vision is psychedelic. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

The Days Before AC
The book opens: "Sun sizzled. Hair frizzled," but it might as well start out: Once upon a time there was no AC. Spinelli enshrouds the story of Lumberville's big heat wave with a nostalgic haze that's just this side of longing. The townspeople, all with names that are fun to say like Lottie Sims, the Pettibone sister, and Mailman Mike Morello, get creative in their efforts to cope with the heat. They set up lemonade stands, sleep with teabags on their eyes, wrap damp kerchiefs around their necks.
Eventually, the whole town gathers on the riverside with pillows to try to sleep. The mayor treats them to popsicles (accompanied by campaign fliers), and everyone dreams of rain - charmingly depicted by Lewin as drops of blue watercolor paint. This is a wonderful book, but -- I hope -- not a prophetic one.
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Customer Reviews (11)

very interesting but dry
although i love american history especially the progressive era, i found it full of facts & figures which i usually like but it never takes off.i think theodore roosevelt was a great man but not here. he was portrayed as more a beaurocrat. the premise of the book was brilliant but al in all very dry

Fascinating story, well-written
I had heard the author discussing his book on NPR and thought it sounded good, and it didn't disappoint.The story is fascinating on several levels:(1) about a nascent public health effort, (2) about the failures of local government, and (3) about the rise of a truly remarkable politician, Theodore Roosevelt, and his grappling with the politics that imbued (1) and (2).Highly recommended!

It wasn't the heat and it wasn't the humidity
When it gets sultry enough to kill, it's not the heat, and it's not the humidity. It's the housing.

Despite rumors you may have heard to the contrary, the world is not measurably hotter today than it was 100 years ago. Whether people die in heatwaves is mostly a function of how poor and ignored they are, as Edward Kohn demonstrates in his recounting of the forgotten horror of August 1896 in New York, where in 10 days about 1,200 people died of heat-related troubles in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Kohn, a historian who teaches at Bilkent University in Turkey, is a specialist in Teddy Roosevelt, and "Hot Time in the Old Town" is as much about how Roosevelt's actions during the heat wave revived his political career as it is about the heat wave. This heat spell changed world history, since Kohn contends that Roosevelt was about to finish a term as president of the New York Police Commission "as a laughingstock," because of his enforcement of Sunday liquor laws.

Along came a spell of warm weather. It was not unusual for August, then or now. In fact, just before it began the high temperature as reported by the Weather Bureau had been a mere 71 degrees. A few days later, the government thermometers were registering in the high 90s.

They never got to 100. Many 100-plus days have been reported since, so it might appear that, indeed, the globe, or at least the parts around New York Harbor, have warmed considerably. However, as newspapers noted at the time, the government thermometers were mounted high and bathed in cool breezes.

Kohn reveals that there were three series of temperature measurements available, the official record, the newspapers' reports and a third, private research series. They differed among themselves by 5 or 10 degrees. So much for claims that a reliable record of global surface temperatures back to 1850 (or 1880, depending upon which phony climate alarmists you are listening to) exists that can be used to determine the effects of increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In an act of almost unbelievable restraint, Kohn manages to write his book without mentioning global warming. He deserves a medal.

Down where the poor people lived, in airless tenements, whose bricks stored heat in the day and baked inmates at night, measured temperatures were at least 10 degrees hotter than Weather Service reports. In bedrooms, temperatures of 120 were usual. Physicians who took rectal temperatures of corpses routinely made readings of 110 degrees.

The '96 heat wave has been forgotten in popular memory, and Kohn says that even in historical treatments the death toll has been given as about 400. By comparing the 1895 and 1896 bills of mortality, he raises the toll to about 1,200, figuring that the excess was almost all due to heat in one way or another.

Babies and old people were most vulnerable, but laborers who should have been in the prime of life died in numbers, too.

The reason was, they weren't in their prime. The Panic of '93 was still on, and unemployment was high. Workmen could not take a day off, and they were paid so little that they could not afford decent housing (with windows) or ice, or fresh water.

Among the things Roosevelt did was to distribute hundreds of tons of ice from police stations on the Lower East Side. Kohn concludes that simple and cheap response -- when other politicians considered that it was "not the business of government to take care of people," as President Grover Cleveland put it -- saved hundreds of lives.

It may have cost hundreds and thousands of Filipino lives in the longer run, because his compassionate response to New York's dying poor helped propel the imperialist Roosevelt into the presidency, with global consequences. But that is another story.

Disappointing
The title indicates that the book will show how the New York heat wave of August 1896 influenced the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. If that really is the author's intent, then the book is a frustrating failure. TR is a tangential figure in the narrative, no matter how many anecdotes the author tells about Roosevelt's tenure as president of the police commission. In fact, the book only shows one effect of the heat wave: that people suffered, including those who attended William Jennings Bryan's speech at Madison Square Garden, and Bryan himself. The author suggests that the poor speech derailed Bryan's chances of winning the election, but there is no evidence for that assertion.

On the other hand, perhaps the title was some sort of editorial compromise, because the majority of the text covers a slice of 1896 presidential campaign politics. The heat wave figures in to the campaign, we are told, because of its effect on Bryan and those around him, but the political effects of the heat are not as prominent in the book as the personal tragedies of random New Yorkers that get tossed into the book every few pages or so. The repetition is numbing and boring, but it is the sense of padding that really distracts the reader. The book seems little more than story after story about the campaign, punctuated with tales of heat wave victims, none of it tied into a cohesive whole. Even at the end, the author makes assertions about TR and Bryan that are unsupported by the text.

In fact, nothing is supported in the text. There is a bibliography, but it is more like a list of suggested works for further reading. The book has no footnotes, and there is no way to verify the author's work. He doesn't say where he got this or that fact, or why he comes tothe various conclusions he does throughout the book. We can take him at his word that he reviewed the dozens of death certificates that he says he did, but we shouldn't have to trust him for his political observations unless we know exactly what their bases are.

The book is superficial and repetitive, and it jumps here and there among several topics that the author fails to unite coherently. I recommend this book for people who don't read a lot, and therefore will not be put off by the simplistic writing; for readers who get bored easily, and want a narrative that jumps among its disparate topics without threading them together; and for the easily distracted, who need to have the same point repeated ad nauseam.

Interesting look at politics during disaster.
This was a very interesting read. The book spends alot more time on the campaign of William Jennings Bryan than Roosevelt or the heat wave, but it still offers an alarming glimpse of what life was like in NYC at the turn of the century. ... Read more

Product Description
Allowing herself to start caring for Tosh, Kate is alarmed when Justin returns, vowing to win her back, while Marta discovers that Dominic is responsible for the terrible event that changed her life, and Chelsea realizes she still needs Connor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heat wave
A very good book. It gets a bit obvious about marta's relationship with Domonic and what he is upto though. It is a great read! ... Read more

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A little con
Investigator Lucy Bell is looking for a runaway groom. Fortunately, the almost-best-man (who's tastier than a double chocolate cheesecake) likely knows where he is. All Lucy needs is a little deception and a whole lot of hot 'n' sweaty persuasion!

A little magic

Customer Reviews (2)

Heat Wave-A Joyfully Recommended Title!
Rex on the Beach by Stephanie Bond

Lucy Bell is a private investigator that has been hired to find a runaway groom.Rex McCormick is her best lead. Lucy is sure that the groom's best friend, Rex, knows exactly where her target is and she sets out to tempt him into giving out the information she's looking for. Rex McCormick is taking some time out to decide if he really wants to take his relationship with his girlfriend to the next step, marriage, when he meets Lucy. It doesn't take long before Rex knows that Lucy is what he wants and a commitment to another woman is just not in the cards, at the same time Lucy knows that she has moved way beyond using Rex to find her missing bridegroom and is falling in love. When Lucy finds out that Rex has not been honest about his girlfriend and Rex finds out that Lucy is really a PI, can they overcome the rocky start to find each other?

Rex on the Beach is a wonderful beginning to this anthology!Lucy and Rex are both hiding things from each other, but that doesn't stop them from heating up the pages or feeling the building emotional connection between them. Stephanie Bond always delivers a romance that leaves me wanting more after the last page has been turned.

Getting Into Trouble by Leslie Kelly

Allie Cavanaugh has had her heart broken before and that's how she ended up a single mother.So, when she finds herself totally enthralled with carnival hypnotist, Damon Cole, she can't believe it when she finds herself taking a chance on love and embarking on a steamy romance. There are things about Damon that she doesn't know.Damon Cole was a social worker when a judge ignored his recommendation and caused the death of a child in his care. Disillusioned, he feels as though he can no longer continue in his profession or take responsibility for the welfare of a child and he decides to spend time working in his grandparent's carnival as a hypnotist. As soon as he sees Allie he's instantly smitten, but he's still traumatized by the events of his past and determined to never have children.Although Allie understands his reasons once she finds out the reason for his aversion to having children, how can she continue a relationship with him?

Getting Into Trouble proves that even with a short anthology story, Leslie Kelly is a must read!Both Allie and Damon are victims of their past and I desperately wanted them to find a way around the problems separating them. Worth a second time around, this story is perfect for beach reading!

Shaken and Stirred by Heidi Betts

Abby Weaver's best friend, Rachel, has convinced her that a girl's only week at the beach was the perfect place to get over the defection of her boyfriend. At the last minute when Rachel is suddenly forced to work Abby finds herself alone at the beach.While spending time on the beach she meets Marine Mike Mastriani, who is on leave and visiting his family. Abby throws caution to the wind and embarks on passionate vacation affair with the too yummy for words Mike.What begins as a vacation fling quickly turns into something much much more, for both of them. A trip to introduce Abby to his parents leads to unexpected complications. Can Mike convince Abby that he was not playing with her and that he wants to take this much farther than a temporary vacation fling?

Shaken and Stirred is a sultry romance that is the perfect ending to this fabulous anthology. Mike and Abby quickly had me absorbed and wanting more.From the first page to the last Heidi Betts keeps the story moving so that I is unable to quit reading. Shaken and Stirred is simply an awesome story!

I can not recommend Heat Wave highly enough! Readers will not be disappointed by any of the stories in this stellar anthology. Heat Wave will quickly be finding a place on my keeper self so that I can read it again and again!

Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

three heated tales
"Rex on the Beach" by Stephanie Bond.Private investigator Lucinda Belvedere is hired to find a runaway groom, but instead locates the best man Rex McCormick.

"Getting Into Trouble" by Leslie Kelly.Counselor Damon Cole decides to take the summer off at his family's carnival.However his goal of no stress ends when single mom Allie Cavanaugh mesmerizes the mesmerist.

"Shaken and Stirred" by Heidi Betts.After the end of a rather disappointing relationship Abby Weaver plans for a beach getaway with a female friend.Her pal cannot make it, but Abby goes anyway where she meets Marine Mike Mastriani, who occupies her time even when he is not with her.

These three heated tales star genuine protagonists whose respective romances are fun, hot, and plausible.Contemporary fans will enjoy this summer HEAT WAVE emitted by this anthology.

Harriet Klausner

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fun Book
I got my book in time to go on vacation. I enjoyedreading it.I got it in perfect condition and would buy from this seller again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mixed Bag
This is the earliest work by Katie MacAlister so I picked it up used.It's 3 short stories told about a reality show on an island called Eden.50 men, and 50 women come on the island to find love, and the winner gets a trip around the world and $1million.

MacAlister's story is typical zaniness.Hero North thinks herself fat (and thankfully she isn't a skinny minny but a 'real' size) and is sent as an expose writer for a London tabloid.Adam Fuller is a private investigator who's been hired to follow a contestant on behalf of a stalker NFL player.But he's had to infiltrate as an approved contestant, an agoraphobic radio sex therapist with the tagline of "And then my nipples exploded".He needs this job b/c his cat, Jesus, is suicidal over his neutering and Adam needs to buy him prosthetic testicles.See? MacAlister!

The second story, Archer's is about a cameraman (Mitch) trying to get an interview with the producer of the show since he's filming a documentary in Africa.He hates recording the confession booths.He during a power outtage meets the only 'committed' couple on the show...well the woman anyway.Her fiance convinced her to come on the show for the prize money and they pitched it as a "testing our love" game to get on the show.This was a good story generally.

Last and least, was Smythe's.Whitney is signed on by her busy-body mom and friends to go and get a life, a man, and oh...meet her father the host of the show who doesn't know Whitney exists.Rand is 5 years widowered.His wife's will took away the life-sized statue of hers (with huge boobs) and her teddy bear if he didn't marry within 5 years of her death.Rand's been staying true to his vows and lonely.The story might have been better had it had an additional 20 pages on it.As it was, it had a cliched end and wrapped too quickly.

Yummy Yummy Yummy
I loved loved loved this book. I had a very hard time finding this book (for a reasonable price) but loved it when I did. I read it in one day, much to my delight I couldn't put it down. I'm a huge Katie MacAlister fan and she didn't disappoint with this book.

Look out for the kitty in a life preserver!!
Katie Macalister, who does nothing but write 24/7 so that I have lost track of HOW MANY books she has out this year, gives us BIRD OF PARADISE story in this trilogy. It is a gem of a comedy that says big is beautiful and a man and his cat should not be parted! Poking fun at the "reality" telly shows, this one groups a bunch of bachelors and bachelorettes and puts them in competition to find true love. The one that does wins a million dollars. But there is shady dealings doing on, as Adam is not really a contestant - neither is his cat named Jesus!! He is a private eye on the trail of his best friends ex-girlfriend. Girlfriend is fed up with Superjock friend and has joint the hunt for true love, so friend bribes another contestant to let Adam take his place so he can spy on the lady. Only, she spots him and knows what the game is. Into the mix is another not there for romance, Hero. She is there in a last ditch effort to save her job and get the inside scoop on the show for the rag magazine for which she works. Between Adam, Hero and Jesus the cat...love is a forgone conclusion. Katie once again give you a lovable, less than perfect heroine in Hero and anyone who loves kitties will adore Jesus the cat. The Story will have you HOWLING with laughter.

Jennifer Archer offer us BREAKING THE RULES, continuing the theme of men and women seeking romance - and a million dollars!!
Claire and her fiancé, James, are contestants. THey are there because of James' not so brilliant idea - thinking the tropical local would bring them closer. Enters Mitch and sudden that plan is out the window. James not only lose a shot at the girl but the big bucks!!

Sheridon Smythe's entry is HOT SHOT, and is another story of contests. This time Whitney and Rand as centre of focus. Whitney, again is not there for romance, but has come in search of the father she never knew. Daddy dearest is the host of the game show and she figures this is a good chance to see daddy up-close and judge him. Rand is there only because of his dead wife's fruitcake will. Since neither are there for romance, they figure they can give each other a cover and keep the other contestants from bothering them. What they did not count on was find love in paradise.

Who wins???? I won't tell...you have to read!! ... Read more

Product Description
What could be sexier or more seductive than tanning oil on bare, sun-warmed skin?

Best-selling erotica author Alison Tyler gathers explicit stories of summer sex bursting with the sweet eroticism of swimsuits, sprinklers, and ripe strawberries.

Raise your temperature with Matthew I. Jackson's "Spectators," in which a couple taking lunch on their veranda are serenaded by an unknown woman's cries of passion. Get steamy with Tom Piccirilli's palm-dampening "Double-Click to Enter," the story of a work-at-home writer who confirms his suspicions about what his blonde neighbor does with her web cam. And bring a flush to your face with Simone Harlowe's "Bikini," in which a businesswoman nervously shopping for swimwear finds a tall, insistent stranger at her dressing room door.

The very definition of hot erotica, Heat Wave calls for an icy drink, fresh towels, and a fan in an open window. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Scorchingly hot erotica!
Don't burn yourself! These scorchingly sexy tales will make you forget about the cold, dreary weather and warm up real fast as they transport you to beaches and tropical locales where all there is to do is relax and enjoy yourself. These stories of hot summer sex do their job and then some, and certainly made me hot all over!

A rip off
Not much on offer here to warrant five stars, let alone one. As usual, Tyler has put out yet another book of monotonous sex stories that all sound exactly the same. Nowhere near as good as the anthology series which this so blatantly copies.

Hot, hot, hot!!
This is a red-hot collection of short stories! My favorites were Helena Settimana's "Highway 69" about a motorcycle chick and her outdoorsman, Sage Vivant's "The Yacht" about three women on vacation with three hunky sailor boys (with a fantastic on-deck scene! You could practically smell the suntan oil), the almost indescent "Tan Lines" by Thomas S. Roche featuring a delicious outdoor escapade, and "In Dependence Day" by Savannah Stephens Smith featuring a really hot dom/sub relationship. All of the stories sizzle. If you can't go on a vacation right now -- get this book instead! ... Read more

Product Description
It is a long, hot summer at World's End, a two-family grey stone cottage in the English countryside. Pauline is editing a romance novel in the smaller dwelling, and the larger part is occupied by her daughter, Teresa; Teresa's baby; and her husband, Maurice, a writer, whose infatuation with his editor's girlfriend is growing.

Pauline fears for Teresa, who is passionately in love with her husband, for she senses Maurice's imminent betrayal. She remembers a time when her possessive passion for Teresa's father eroded her own youth. A stunning and unexpected denouncement irrevocably changes the order of things for this family, whose intimacy the reader abandons reluctantly at novel's end.Amazon.com Review
The weather is blistering but the emotions are chilly in thisintimate, elegant novel set in the British countryside during a summer ofrecord heat. A mother is watching the end of her daughter's marriage whileconfronting her own simmering anger over the infidelity of her own departedhusband, years before. Penelope Lively's intense but muted style mirrors thedetached anguish of her characters, who are groping toward their true feelings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Heat Wave
Penelope Lively is a wonderful writer, taking us into the thoughts of her characters with intelligence and humanity.Unfortunately, this particular novel doesn't live up to her usual storytelling.There is too much description of landscape and extraneous detail that takes away from the story which, when boiled down, isn't that complicated unlike The Photograph which punched you in the stomach and made a lasting impression.So much so, I read it twice.

Feeling your child's pain
"Heat Wave" is another superb book by Penelope Lively.The writing is powerful right from the start. The reader experiences the pain of having an egoistic spouse.What is new, at least in my reading, is the pain of a parent seeing her daughter go through the same experience, and being unable to do very much to provide comfort or advice.As Chris Rogers puts it, feeling your child's pain is a life sentence for many parents.

While Pauline cannot do much, I think Lively carries this idea a bit too far.I cannot understand why Pauline is not more giving when Teresa finally acknowledges the situation (end of chapter 15): for example, when Teresa asks how is it possible for a man to act as Maurice does, Pauline says she doesn't know, "But she does" the author states.Maurice's death at the end is neither melodramatic nor an unnatural plot twist, but it isn't really all that important to the novel; I still enjoyed it.

Potent, capable, slow-moving, tragic, venomous
Lively is a capable professional writer. As she describes some of the scenes you can see past them to the novelist carefully surveying a place, taking notes and returning to proficiently write them up. The novel moves incredibly slowly, as if Lively can't bear to leave any detail overlooked, any hint of shoddiness.

We get such a strong feeling of being inside Pauline, and Pauline is a triumph of authenticity. Lively, like Lodge, has the sense (and brave candour) to write mainly from the perspective of someone she could best understand - someone almost autobiographically like herself. This is not to say this is anything but imaginative fiction, and the events some sort of thinly disguised `tell-all'. Rather the way the central character views herself and the people around her feels very true. Hey, I'm not an introspective middle-aged woman, how would I know, but I suspect I've got a better idea of it after reading this book.

Slow paced, sure, but Lively analytically explores a classic common domestic tragedy: adultery. She doesn't rage about it - these are educated English characters, there's no swearing, slamming doors or gunplay. But don't mistake it - there is an ice-cool venom here too.

There's also despair at impotence: Pauline watches her daughter's innocent contentment being punctured; she understands to several decimal places exactly what is going on - and what will ensue; how awful and unjust it is; and how there is essentially nothing she can do about it.

The novel eschews the satisfying relief of offering the characters (and the readers) the `answer': "Now listen, Teresa, what you need to do right now is...". Rather it more insightfully forces us to endure the ugly tension of living and conversing with someone who has betrayed and is essentially unrepentant and relatively unscathed. While the one deeply hurt through no personal fault is made to feel guilty. The conversations, the situations, the irresolvable tensions are played out in this awful understated but plausible way. Indeed, we get to feel it twice as Lively seamlessly moves between past and present.

I'm still left a bit uncomfortable with Pauline's (Lively's) utter certainty. In her world, much as in that of Passing On, we know precisely what to think of each character. I don't really like having it spelt out for me quite so restrictively, and I'm forced towards suspicion of her implacable judgements. Oh, she's careful to make sure we know this is not simply an `all men are bastards' diatribe: Pauline has genuine affection for Hugh, and shows motherly care for Chris Rogers. But can we just write some folks off the way they are here? Maybe we can: if I was writing an honest novel about my feelings there'd be some irredeemable turds in there, and I'd not give them the time and space Lively gives to Maurice and Harry. But, as I say, this book gives you no room at all to move.

Spoiler warning:

If you've read the book, you know exactly what I'm about to address. If you haven't read the book, show some sense and stop reading this review now.

Blimey - that was not the finish I was expecting, even if I might have wanted it. Very much like Passing On - all the action is crammed into the last chapter, or in this case, the last pages. Blam. That venom thing I was mentioning earlier .... Here's this articulate, utterly civilised, educated, thinking, academic caring older woman, and the moral to the story: "It'd be better for everyone if you were dead." No, this is not hyperbole.

Lively takes the liberty of fiction to apply a solution that does all it can to shake off the complacency of the adulterer.

Worth reading but...
"Heat Wave" was my first Penelope Lively novel. To be honest it took me some time to finish it. Midway, I'd wish there were more incidents to light up the drab life of one middle-class fiftyish copyeditor (Pauline), her daughter and their family snuggling up in a humdrum English rural outpost. The momentum of the book is sustained by flashbacks of her divorced husband's marital infidelities as she watches her daughter and son-in-law plunge into a similar marital crisis of sorts.

It was not that Lively's prose drags (it is wonderfully crisp and at times, witty) but rather that she is describing the mundane everyday going-ons between a family trio (or quartet, if one takes into account the toddler grandson), which the material was stretched too broadly on the canvas to my taste. Lively's observations of suspicion and growing mistrust within a marital union are the best parts of the book. The twist at the end provides a welcoming relief -- I was just wondering whether the "crisis" would drone on indeterminately. What would please other readers is that Lively's characters are well-drawn, believable figures like you and I. Personally I felt that given the paucity of events, the book might do better as a short story or a novella -- however the quality of Lively's prose would surely invite me to read another of her books.

A Summer At World's End
It is a May day at World's End. The beginning of a long, hot summer in Pauline Carter's greystone cottage in England, about two hours outside of London.Pauline is copyediting an allegory of romantic love. Her daughter, Theresa and her husband Maurice, and their son, Luke live in the second half of the cottage.

Maurice is a professor and writer and is busy writing a travel journal of local places.He often invites his editor and his girlfriend down for the weekend to help with each chapter. The issue is Maurice's infatuation with his editor's girlfriend. Oh, what memories this stirs in Pauline's heart. She fears for Theresa, who is so in love with her husband.

Years ago, Pauline fell in love with Harry, a professor and bon vivant. Pauline and Harry married much to everyone's surprise. Harry was known as a lady's man and not the type to marry. And, in due course, Theresa was born to Pauline and Harry. Harry was not much of a father, he loved Theresa but was not involved in her life. Much the same could be said of Maurice and his behavior with Luke.Pauline is so afraid for Theresa, she could sense imminent betrayal, and no one was speaking of it. Pauline was much respected by Maurice, but he offered no excuses nor did he feel he needed to excuse his behavior. This type of thing just happpened.

Penelope Lively has given us an elegant portrayal of fragile family dynamics that have already been greatly affected by adultery. Pauline will do anything to assist her daughter, and she opens her heart to Theresa. She discusses her own life with Theresa's father, and the fact that she should have left him long before she did. However, Theresa is not ready to discuss anything about her husband with Pauline at this time- denial is the name of the game. Pauline must take little steps with her daughter and support her as best she can.

This is once again, a book not to be put down. Penelope Lively has a habit of writing this kind of novel. The conclusion adds a form of the unusual and unexpected. I was not ready for this story to end, but the author knows best. We realize that the anxiety and suspicion we have felt has led to frustration, and now we can look at the situation with clearer eyes. This is Penelope Lively's eleventh novel, and I must read each one. She is an author unlike any other. Each book is better than the last, but how can that be? A witty and intelligent author with every novel a number one in my book! prisrob ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A definite keeper! ......
Heat Waves by Janelle Denison
Harlequin Blaze # 12 - October 2001
Sexy City Nights # 3

Ian lost his fiancée tragically eight years ago, and ever since has buried himself in his work. For awhile now he's been listening to a late night radio talk show, Heat Waves, and has been totally captivated by the sexy voice of the DJ and her provocative topics. Erica's fear of becoming dependant on abusive men, just like her mother and sister, prompted her to run across the nation from California to Chicago. After three hard years, she's finally starting to make something of herself, and all without a man's domineering influence. When Ian starts calling in to her radio talk show, Erica finds herself sweating in the radio booth, and not just because the A/C is broken. Their nightly on-air debates jack up the ratings. When Ian asks Erica out on a real date on-air, she's forced by her listeners to agree. The chemistry is even stronger in person than over the telephone, so the station prompts them to go on a series of dates following a recent magazine article of erotic photos taken from various public places around the city, and then share the dates with Erica's listeners. The heat cranks up even more!

This was an exceptional read! Ian and Erica both share a scarred childhood and a lonely climb up the career ladder. The love scenes are very hot and extremely well written, esp. the scene in the limo. From the beginning, Ms. Denison brings emotional life to both Ian and Erica. Their story is both passionate and endearing. A definite keeper! And to me - a five star rating all the way!

Sexy City Nights - Multi-Author series
Exposed by Julie Elizabeth Leto - HBZ-12 - August 2001
Body Heat by Carly Phillips - HBZ-8 - September 2001
Heat Waves by Janelle Denison - HBZ-12 - October 2001
L.A. Confidential by Julie Kenner - HBZ-16 - November 2001

Storyline from publisher . . .
Radio personality Erica McCree really likes sex.Talking about sex, that is . . .

Ian Carlisle has already seduced Erica's imagination.Now he's trying for the rest of her . . .

Erica knows firsthand that you can hide a lot behind a microphone.Although she's earned a reputation for discussing every aspect of sex on her show, she's never had to back it up . . . until a sexy mystery caller proves to be even more irresistible in person.Their on-the-air chemistry sizzles and they heat up the airwaves, debating any and all provocative issues possible.As the ratings soar, so does the sexual tension.But what will Ian do when he discovers Erica's not the sex expert she professes to be?

Ian and Erica-Heat Waves-SPOILERS
favorite scene with erica-
the end where she's pouring out her feelings over the air to ian and her listeners.

favorite scene with ian-
gayle telling ian to go for it.

favorite scene with erica and ian together-
the fight they have about ian buying the company.

Hot read?Oh my!
This was the second Blaze I've read and it certainly looks like the series is holding it's own.Janelle Denison's writing is tight, she's drawn up two great characters with hot action, and I will say, yes, the limo scene was hot!

I would like to see a novel on the other two lovers in the book though, I bet it'd be just as hot.But Ian and Erica, wow.Her treatment of Erica's past was handled differently than I expected, which made for better reading.I couldn't put this book down!

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!TURN UP THE AIR CONDITIONER!!!!!!!!!
Ian and Erica, holy cow!!!!!!! All I can say is the limo love scene is worth buying this book for, it is HOT, HOT, HOT!!Oh, and the story is good to!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! ... Read more

Product Description
A fascinating and easy-to-understand exploration of hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, heat waves, and more, complete with hundreds of full-color photographs and descriptive illustrations, charts, and graphs.

Category 5 hurricanes, deadly tsunamis, record-high winds; now more than ever it seems that "extreme weather" has become a reality and a concern throughout the world—and in our own backyard. While these natural events are frightening, few of us really understand what causes them—and we're left to wonder how and where disaster might strike next, what we can do to protect ourselves, and whether such things can be prevented.

Extreme Weather answers these questions and many more in a thorough, scientific, yet absolutely clear and easy-to-understand manner. Along with numerous color photos and illustrations, each weather phenomenon is accompanied by comprehensive visual aids that make learning about the subject as easy as it is fun. Organized by weather-related events including hurricanes, winter storms, lightning, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, and heat waves, the book explores weather patterns and other factors that contribute to extreme climate conditions. It offers an unprecedented, comprehensive picture of where our weather is headed tomorrow and in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good graphics, biased presentation on climate change
Mogil's graphics and photos are very good, as are his explanations of atmospheric phenomena. My main gripe with this book is his quite obvious bias that the concern over the human impact on climate change is overdone. He acknowledges his skepticism about the human impact on climate and then seeks to present a presumably objective analysis of weather extremes. However, in several chapters, he uses quotes from his own writing or comments to support chapter themes. In the space of 4 paragraphs [p. 83 and 84] on the relative incidence of hurricanes, he uses the phrase "flies in the face of" claims of increased hurricane danger. His satisfaction in finding a counter argument is quite obvious. This is not good objective scientific writing. Rather than objectively evaluate the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]report or the IPCC analysis, Mogil uses counter arguments about the relative frequency extreme weather incidents to downplay the importance of human impact on climate. On page 33, Mogil writes "...people think climate change can be determined by recent extreme events." However, much of the book is devoted to just that--an analysis of extreme events, as is evident in the title.

For a far better analysis of climate change, I recommend Richard Somerville's "The Forgiving Air."[[ASIN:1878220853 The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change, Second Edition]

Extreme Weather, Extremely Interesting!
I just finished reading a new book by H. Michael Mogil titled "Extreme Weather".Unlike many weather books which focus on a dynamic approach (highs, lows, jet streams) to explain weather this book looks at extreme weather by event type and discusses the processes and history behind them.By "extreme" I'm talking about tornadoes, ice storms, flooding, lightning, droughts and so on.The book includes stunning photographs and clear illustrations.Some of the events mentioned are as recent as this year --which for me made the book even more relevant and fun to read.
What I really found interesting about the book is the way Mogil looks at weather extremes within the context of today's global warming discussion--something in the news every day and now even more controversial due to Al Gore's announced Nobel Prize.He doesn't outright deny the existence of global warming and our impact on the environment but rather he illustrates how factors such as long-term climate changes (our coming out of a mini ice age), relatively short weather record-keeping history, the media's preoccupation with hype and sensationalism, and people's selective memory of significant events all conspireto influence our perception.This can lead some people to believe we are in an immediate "crisis".Mogil shows how the media likes to say things like "this is the heaviest snowfall in 10 years"--something which certainly sounds extreme in the short-term but in terms of long-term weather it's probably a relatively common event.He also shows how factors such as the media's incorrect use of the term "normal" (as opposed to the more correct term "average")make extremes (which are in fact a natural range of conditions) seem even more extreme and unusual.For instance, when we say the "normal" high for today is 60 degrees and the actual high reaches 80 there's a tendency for people to say "wow, something is really wrong!"Yet in fact though this book we discover that the high temperature on this day, throughout recorded history, may have ranged from 40 to 100 degrees!Thus the average figure of 60 degrees is meaningless and misleading and the figure of 80 degrees may not be as extreme as we think.

While extreme deviations from the climatic average may be rare they don't all necessarily occur because of human influence.Factors such as improved real-time TV reporting of things like as tornadoes, brush fires, and hurricanes all bring these naturally occurring events to the forefront.The book shows how recent events such as California's brush fires, hurricanes like Katrina, and the drought in the southeast aren't necessarily more intense (in a physical sense) than past "extreme" events but rather it's their impact on people which is greater as a result of where we choose to live, how we construct our homes, and how densely we are populated.This subtle point can lead people to confuse the effects of an event with the physical intensity of an event.Mogil illustrates how easy it is to claim everything is the result of global warming when in fact many of the extreme variations can be explained by other factors --many which predate the industrial revolution.

The last chapter of the book really summed things up foe me.In fact I thought it might have made a better introduction than a conclusion.While I personally believe we humans are warming the planet I agree with Mogil that the dire predictions are probably overdone.Although our study of hyper-long climate histories through techniques such as ice core drilling and fossil stratification gives us general information about average temperature, precipitation, atmospheric gas content, and plant life, these records cannot speak for individual record events such as tornadoes, floods, droughts, and heat waves--the extreme weather--which may have occurred throughout history.For all we know the massive EF5 tornadoes we have today may pale in comparison with tornadoes that occurred 50,000 years ago.We just don't know.In short, Mogil cautions readers not to automatically attribute extremes in weather to man-made global warming and encourages them to continue seeking and evaluating new information.

After reading this book I haven't changed my mind about our need to cut down on pollution.I haven't changed my mind that we are affecting our environment in a negative way.I also haven't changed my mind about the need for our country move away from foreign oil and our seemingly endless desire to use guns to solve problems rather than our brains.I do feel however, that I am in a better position to analyze what I'm being fed by the media and to consider that my short time on this planet is just a blink of an eye in terms of geologic time and weather history.While I still plan to purchase an electric car in 2009 I no longer feel compelled to sell my house in Oklahoma under the looming threat that it will soon be under water when the polar ice caps melt! ... Read more

Product Description
Throughout her dazzling career, bestselling author Jill Marie Landis has consistently written stories filled with unforgettable sensuality, creating characters whose vibrant emotions instantly sweep you into their lives. Now in Heat Wave, Landis turns up the heat and delivers her most riveting novel yet.

Private investigator Kat Vargas once cared about someone so much it hurt. Once she lived a dream life with her first love and fiancé—until betrayal followed by shattering tragedy ended it all. Kat has sworn never to get too close to anyone again. But now the peace and quiet of Twilight Cove is driving the straight-talking, no-nonsense P.I. crazy. Then a prospective new client shows up at the door. Moved by his stubbornness and sincerity, Kat takes his case, breaking a promise to relax, recoup, and rethink her solitary life.

Ty Chandler is desperate to locate the child he fathered nineteen years ago—a child he never knew existed until now. Although he’s no stranger to heartache, he is irresistibly drawn to the exotic, vibrantly alluring P.I. Their search not only leads them to Ty’s troubled, strong-willed daughter, but into each others’ arms. Though Kat courageously works to help Ty reunite his family, she’s terrified of confronting a painful secret of her own—one that will cost her the love of the only man capable of tearing down the walls she’s built around her heart.

From the tranquil beaches of the central California coast to the fast and furious streets of L.A., Heat Wave is a passionate and heartfelt story of families divided and brought back together, the magic of hope for new beginnings, and the overwhelming power love has to heal even the most battered hearts.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

The "Jan Brady" of the Twilight Cove trilogy...
PI Kat Vargas swore off relationships after having her heart ripped out by former fiancé and pro-surfer, Justin Parker. After getting injured during a routine check on a spouse's infidelity, she is shot and recoups in Twilight Cove while house sitting for former partner, Jake.

After a torturous couple days in the fresh air, she is contacted by Ty Chandler, who wants her to locate the daughter he never knew about. Now 19, finding her may prove to be difficult. After a brief search, they not only locate her, but also his granddaughter. Sunny grew up in a commune until her mother was arrested and subsequently died of an overdose. She and the other kids from the commune live together and survive by street racing and stealing cars. Wanting something more for her baby, Sunny visits Ty, with the intention of leaving her daughter to be raised by him. She does not count on actually liking him though (or his best friend).

Meanwhile, Kat is tortured by her past and failed romance, but reluctantly starts seeing Ty. As soon as things heat up, she is at odds with Sunny, who has a weird feeling about her. Ty and Sunny have a blow up when Sunny starts putting the moves on Ty's best friend.

Kat soon runs away from her feelings and decides to try to reconcile Sunny and Ty by getting Sunny away from her "gang." But Ty is hot on her trail, and not willing to give her up. One ting I really liked was the significance of "beach glass."

The story is totally predictable - you can see Kat's dilemma almost from page one.Not Landis' best effort; recommend the other two books from the trilogy - they are better developed and more engaging.

Great page turner!
Not only was this a great love story, but it surprised me by being full of suspense.I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did.I highly recommend it!

An Engrossing Romance and a Great Beach Read
In HEAT WAVE, the second in a trilogy of books by Jill Marie Landis, Kat Vargas is a private investigator who for many years has focused only on her career, to the exclusion of her family and any serious love interests. She's too busy to have a long-term boyfriend and she likes it this way. When her friend and ex-partner Jake needs a housesitter for his beachside home near San Luis Obispo so he can take the family away on a long vacation, Kat is coerced into taking the job. She had just come off of a very dangerous situation, ended up in the hospital and now needed time to recuperate. She leaves her home in Long Beach, California and drives up the coast to a small beach town called Twilight Cove.

Kat isn't there very long when a neighbor comes by Jake's house to see her. Ty Chandler, one of the residents of this small resort town, has heard about her and asks if he can hire her to do a job. He has just found out that he has a daughter, born nineteen years ago to an old girlfriend from high school, but was never told about the daughter until recently, right before his mother passed away. He's angry with his mother for hiding this information from him. She had never liked his girlfriend Amy and wanted to protect him, but his mother and Amy are now both gone, and it was time to make up for the time he had lost. He's ready to find his daughter.

With only a few clues to go by, Kat and Ty work side by side, searching the Internet and making phone calls, following the trail of the missing girl. While this is strictly business for Kat, she senses that Ty is growing fond of her, but Kat does her best to tell him "no." She insists that she does not mix business with pleasure, but she also remembers what Jake has told her --- that she needs to relax and let someone new into her life. It was about time she moved on from her tragic past, a past that she hides from everyone she has met since leaving her home in Hawaii. Her career as a private investigator had come about because of what she endured on Hawaii due to a tragic accident. Only her family and friends back on the island of Kauai know of her tragic loss and the pain she kept buried inside her all these years.

Ty and Kat have enough clues to find Ty's daughter, who they discover is now living in Southern California with a number of other people her age, all of whom seem to be destitute, shady-looking and lacking any financial means to make ends meet. Upon meeting them, Sunny, Ty's daughter, looks upon both of them with distrust and lets them know that she is not interested in going back with Ty to Twilight Cove. But Ty hands over his phone number to her, hoping that she changes her mind.

Sunny does take Ty up on his offer and comes to find him in Twilight Cove. They get to know each other while she tries to make a home for herself and her baby, another surprise for Ty. While Ty is dealing with a new family, Kat is dealing with her own feelings, not sure whether she is falling in love with Ty or wanting to run away again. She's also not sure about Sunny, and decides to investigate Sunny's past to see what kind of trouble she may have gotten herself into.

HEAT WAVE was a surprise to this reviewer. It was a lot more than a romance. The story of Ty and his long-lost daughter was a great story-within-the-story, allowing the reader to get to know Ty's character much better than simply as a love interest. And Sunny's account of her life in Southern California was another interesting side-story that fit in with the rest of the book. Landis does a good job at creating characters that the reader will relate to, although this reviewer was not totally sure she liked Kat Vargas at first. As is the case with any romance, the most important feature should be the reader's ability to relate to the characters, and whether the story is believable or not. Based on that, this reviewer recommends HEAT WAVE to any person looking for an engrossing romance and a great beach read.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton

Another Jill Marie Landis Hit
Lots of twists and turns in this one that kept me turning pages into the wee hours. Jill has once again sent her characters on their intricate journey filled with surprises around every corner.Romance, suspense, humor.This like, many of Jill's book, has it all.I'm looking forward to the next Kat Vargus novel!

A Great Romance Writer Turns to Mysteries
Jill Marie is one of my favorite writers of historical romances and I'm thrilled she is writing contemporary mysteries.I loved Lover's Lane and was glad to see Kat Vargus back in another book.This is a great read and hard to put down like all of Jill Marie's books.Like the other reviewers, I liked the relationship between Ty and Sunny which is nicely done and more nuanced than most mysteries.

If you like mysteries, try her earlier historical romance Jade.I'm not sure it's still in print but it's great too!

A Reader from Asheville ... Read more