DEADLY VOWS by Brenda Joyce with Book Trailer

PUBLISHER: HQN, 2/2011
SETTING: New York, 1902
GENRE: Historical Romantic Suspense
SERIES: Francesca Cahill, book 9
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: On the morning of her wedding to Calder Hart, amateur sleuth Francesca Cahill is lured away to a private viewing of a portrait that could destroy her entire family: the nude Hart commissioned of her. Her desperate quest to recover the scandalous portrait leads her into a dangerous trap with no way to escape—until it’s too late. And when Francesca finally arrives at the church, it’s vacant. She has unintentionally jilted Hart at the altar.

When Hart tells her their estrangement is for the best, Francesca is devastated. With a blackmailer intent on destroying her reputation, Francesca turns to Rick Bragg, the city’s powerful police commissioner. Together they scour the sordid streets of lower Manhattan, following a deliberately laid trail of clues in a race against the clock. And once it becomes clear that Bragg’s marriage is failing, Francesca must war with her feelings for him, battle Hart’s jealousy and escape a killer—all as she fights to win Hart back. But sometimes, passion just cannot be denied…

MY THOUGHTS: This story takes place about three weeks after the previous novel, Deadly Kisses, ends. It’s June 1902, twenty-one year old Fran and Calder’s wedding day and Francesca receives shocking information. That information leads Francesca on the hunt for the missing portrait. For Francesca it’s a race against time to find the person(s) responsible for trying to ruin her. It’s very hard to not give spoilers so I’ll just say that I was very entertained by all the characters and couldn’t wait to find out who was behind the theft. What I liked best about this particular book is that Francesca is the one smack-dab in the middle of her own mystery. There is another crime to solve within this story too and Francesca and the gang do not disappoint!

In this novel, Calder’s violent temper comes out. He’s also more jealous and insecure than ever. I don’t like his personality in this novel.

Poor Leigh Anne, Rick’s wife, continues to decline emotionally and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with her in future novels.

Bartolla Benevente shows us, in more ways than one, even more of her awful true colors and the answer as to whether she’s pregnant by Fran’s brother Evan or not is revealed.

Things heat up between Evan and Maggie Kennedy and I really like where the author may be going with that. I do love the Kennedy clan. Unfortunately for them, something terrible lurks ahead. Will Francesca be able to help?

Are there wedding bells for Fran and Calder? Do they finally consummate their relationship? You’ll have to read it and see.

It was a very satisfying read and was worth the almost five year wait between this and the previous one. I so hope that there are more to come in this series.

The books in this series are:

1 Deadly Love 2001-01
2 Deadly Pleasure 2002-03
3 Deadly Affairs 2002-04
4 Deadly Desire 2002-05
5 Deadly Caress 2003-04
6 Deadly Promise 2003-11
7 Deadly Illusions 2005-02
8 Deadly Kisses 2006-02
9 Deadly Vows 2011-03

Brenda’s complete booklist can be found here. You can visit her site too.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

DEADLY ILLUSIONS by Brenda Joyce

PUBLISHER: Mira, 2/2005
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romantic Suspense
SETTING: New York, USA 1902
SERIES: Francesca Cahill, #7
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: Despite the misgivings of her fiancé, Calder Hart, Francesca cannot turn away from a threat that is terrorizing the tenement neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. A madman has attacked three women, but while the first two victims survived, the third is dead, raising the stakes. All the victims are impoverished but beautiful Irishwomen—and Francesca fears that Maggie Kennedy and Gwen O'Neil, two friends who live nearby, could be next.

Soon she is working with her former love, police commissioner Rick Bragg—Calder's half brother and worst rival. But even as Calder's jealous passions leave his relationship with Francesca teetering on the brink, Francesca is frantically on the killer's trail, certain The Slasher will strike again—afraid she will be too late.

SPOILER SUMMARY: Francesca is twenty years old, has blond hair and blue eyes. She comes from a wealthy family. The hero is Rick Bragg. He is the oldest son of Rathe Bragg, who has his own story in the novel Violet Fire. Rick is twenty-seven or eight. He has dark golden hair and golden eyes and is a little over six feet tall. He is part Apache and gets his coloring from his father, Rathe, who’s father Derek is half Apache.

It’s April 1902 in New York. This story, like all the others in this series, revolve around Francesca Cahill helping police commissioner Rick Bragg solve some murders that are being committed by the Slasher. I won’t get into any of that or tell who the Slasher is. I’ll just say it’s not someone you’d really suspect. This review will focus mainly on the relationships between the main and secondary characters and what has transpired since the previous novel.

In this installment, Rick’s estranged wife, Leigh Anne, is recovering from a bad carriage accident which has left her paralyzed from the waist down. She really regrets showing back up after being estranged from Rick for a few years. She was jealous and came back into his life.

Fran’s brother Evan’s mistress, red-haired Bartolla Benevente, tells him that she’s pregnant. Evan is really unhappy about it but plans to elope with her anyway. He’s addicted to gambling and has been disowned by his father for being in debt heavily.

In the previous book, Calder Hart, twenty-six, with dark hair and blue eyes, Francesca’s fiance and half brother to Rick Bragg, got Fran to pose nude for a painting. The painter was Fran’s friend Sarah Channing, cousin to Bartolla. In this book Francesca is there when Sarah reveals the painting to Calder. He loves it and plans to display it privately in their home after they’re married.
Francesca’s father has never liked Calder. He senses some tension between them at a party and notices that Calder is talking with another woman. He calls off their engagement. There’s drama but Calder and Fran discuss it and plan to stay engaged.

Calder Harts ex-mistress Daisy is causing problems between them. She’s very hurt and jealous that he’s left her for Francesca and is having trouble dealing with it. She shows up at the funeral of one of the Slashers murder victims just to start trouble with Francesca. Calder can see that Fran is upset and she tells him Daisy was there causing trouble. Calder threatens take care of Daisy. Coincidentally in the next book in the series, Deadly Kisses, Daisy gets murdered. Did Calder do it?

Right near the end of the story, Fran’s nude portrait gets stolen. That is my favorite part of the novel. We don’t find out in the next book who stole it but I’m hoping that mystery is solved in the newest book, Deadly Vows, book nine, which is to be released soon. When Rick finds out that Calder was behind Fran posing nude, he tells Calder that he taints everything he touches and that he’ll never be good enough for her. I felt bad for Calder because that’s exactly how he feels.

MY THOUGHTS: What I like best about this series is that Rick Bragg is the son of one of heroes from a previous series of hers. This series started with a love triangle between Francesca, Rick and his half brother Calder but that gets resolved a few book into the series.
Rick and Calder have the same father, Rathe. Calder came to live with them when his own mother died. Calder has always been jealous of Rick for no reason. He’s always felt left out and inferior.

I really like Fran’s sidekick, Joel. He’s only eleven years old. His mother, Maggie, is featured throughout the entire series, as is Joel and his siblings. In this book, Maggie and her kids stay at Calder’s house because she lives near where the women were murdered and she’s scared. I really like that family and hope Joel gets his own series in the future. If he did, it would have to be set ahead ten or more years, as Joel is so young now.

This is the reading order of this series. And yes, they should be read in order because only a few weeks go by between each novel.

1 Deadly Love 2001-01
2 Deadly Pleasure 2002-03
3 Deadly Affairs 2002-04
4 Deadly Desire 2002-05
5 Deadly Caress 2003-04
6 Deadly Promise 2003-11
7 Deadly Illusions 2005-02
8 Deadly Kisses 2006-02
9 Deadly Vows 2011-03