Andrea Thompson Books

Seduced By A Spy was a great read. I could hardly wait to turn the pages.
Former students of Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies were well-trained spies. The highly regarded academy took in orphans from the slums of London. Shannon was one of their former students. Alexandr was a Russian spy. The two were unknowingly given the same assignment. Their employers decide to work together. Shannon and Alexandra are sent to a remote Scottish castle to protect a ballistic expert's family. She works under the guise of a governess, and he works as a tutor. They come to love their charges and each other.
The action never stops in Seduced By A Spy. Andrea Pickens captures the reader's attention from the first page and does not let them go until the last page. She uses a combination of humor and romance to stir emotions and engage the reader. This is the second in this series. Fans of Regency Romance will enjoy Seduced By A Spy.

This is the second book in a series of historical romances, following The Spy Wore Silk

I love the premise behind this series. An English nobleman has set up a school for girls - where in addition to the usual skills of the time (reading, writing, art, music, languages, dancing, horseback riding, etc) they learn how to be assassins, spies, and courtesans. The girls who gain this education are orphaned girls whom he finds in the most vile slums of London, living on the streets. He literally gives them a chance to not only live but to serve their country as "Merlin's Maidens" - members of a top secret and elite highly trained spy corps.

This particular book follows the adventures of Shannon (all of the girls are named for cities around the world, so they have names like Sienna, Shannon, Seville, and Sophia) as she faces off with one of Napoleon's top assassin spies in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. With the help of a handsome Russian agent, she is assigned to prtoect the children in the family of a top military scientist, as they are the apparent target of the French assassin.

While Shannon has a bottomless well of courage and physical fighting ability, she always has to watch her temper and her passions. And having to work so closely with the handsome womanizing Russian spy Alexandr Orlov will prove to be as great a challenge for her as protecting two innocent young children (whom she learns to love) from a stone cold assassin...

She, like her peers, was taken from the London slums and sent to attend Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies where she learned espionage skills including weapons usage. By 1812 as Napoleon wins every battle, this member of Merlin's Maidens, espionage operative Shannon having proven extremely competent with a gun is assigned to kill French spy D'Etienne who her superiors know is making trouble in Ireland, expected to cause waves in Scotland, and ultimate believe he plans to assassinate the family of a ballistics expert. Russian agent Alexandr Orlov is assigned to work with her, but she distrusts him; writing him off as a rogue while he has doubts about her competency.

The duo pursues their target into Scotland. However, the prey proves diabolically clever ready to use innocent pawns to keep his mission functioning. Shannon knows she has no choice but to trust her teammate if they are to prevent D'Etienne from achieving his objectives as well to stop him from killing people. As they fall in love, time is running out on their assignment.

The latest Merlin's Maidens espionage Regency romantic suspense (see THE SPY WORE SILK) is an exhilarating action-packed thriller starring two fascinating lead characters whose relationship initially reflect that of their respective countries; needing but distrusting one another. The story line is fast-paced once Shannon negotiates her way to an apprentice under fire role and never slows down as she and Alexandr must learn to believe in one another if they are to achieve the mission and follow up on their love for one another. Andrea Pickens provides a fun historical.

Harriet Klausner

Author Andrea Pickens understand how to write so you feel like part of the action, and her characters are delightfully three dimensional. Seduced by a Spy is her second book about the Young Ladies of Mrs. Merlin's Academy. While there are some repeat characters, the books all stand alone and can easily be read without reading earlier ones.

Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies is not what it appears to be. Rather than being a respectable school for young women, it's an academy that helps young orphan girls by removing them from the slums of London and giving them a career-a career as a spy.

Shannon is one of these orphans, and as the tale begins, she is sent out on a mission to take out D'Etienne, one of Napoleon's agents. Unbeknownst to her, Russian spy Orlov, is sent out on the exact same mission-and they meet up at a very inopportune moment. Their mission failed, they travel back to England, only to discover that their respective employers have decided to join forces and use Orlov and Shannon as a team, sending them to Scotland where D'Etienne is likely to show up next.

Shannon and Orlov decide on a temporary truce, but disguised as governess and tutor they find more than they bargained for in the wild moors of Scotland. Love for both their charges and each other threatens to break through their cold and cynical facades. Will they ever be able to go back to being cold and disengaged again?

Seduced by a Spy is a wonderful action novel with an atmosphere typical to that of regency novels, and lovers of Georgette Heyer's work will be delighted to find this modern-day alternative. Slow to start, it quickly picks up pace and captivates you completely, and I found it difficult to put down before the last page was turned.

Combining action and romance with a good sense of humor and you end up with "a ripping good tale," as Orlov's pupil would put it.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

If you thought Parker was good, you don't know how good he is until you read this one. The confrontation in the restaurant is the best scene I have read in a mystery. Hold your breath!

This is the first book I have read by Robert B. Parker so I cannot compare his newly minted heroine, Sunny Randall, to his previous protagonists or previous books.

Sonja "Sunny" Randall is a 35-year-old chip off the old block. Like her father, she was a cop, but then left to become a private detective. She's tough and beautiful, but frankly there is little about her disposition that seems to evoke her nickname. She's actually a rather abrupt individual who is a little too much of a smart alec to be truly endearing. Her wit is clever, but often a bit abrasive and she prefers witty one liners to deep thought. After a while, the one-liners become tiresome and seem to be mostly a way for Sunny to cover up her own issues with a fiesty shell. She's a loner - in fact, it's what led her to leave the police department for private practice, and it's a large part of what led her to divorce her husband of 9 years, Richie, with whom she remains good friends. Her constant companion is Rosie, a miniature bull terrier who Sunny seems to like much better than most people, particularly children.

The plot of this book centers around Millicent Patton, the 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy Boston banker and his socialite wife. When Millie runs away from home, Sunny is hired by Millie's parents to find her and bring her back home. It isn't long before Sunny catches up with Mille, but when she finds out what drove Millie out of the house in the first place, she has a decision to make: should she return Millie to her parents or not? The plot weaves the lives of Millie, Millie's parents, and Sunny directly into the middle of Boston's organized crime, and what starts out as finding a runaway teen ends up being an elusive contest to keep them both from getting killed.

I still haven't decided if I really like Sunny Randall. She's just a little too fearless and flippant for my tastes. Also, Parker's writing style is rather terse. He seems to prefer language that spurts rather than flows, with prose that is often truncated. In fact, I don't think I've ever read a novel in which so many sentences had less than 10 words in them. It's OK for periodic busts of dialog, but as a steady diet in narrative and dialog, it isn't really my cup of tea. I often found myself feeling as though two or three sentences should have been joined by commas or some other punctuation besides periods.

There isn't generally a whole lot of suspense here, as Parker reveals the answers slowly throughout the book rather than taking us breathlessly to the final few pages for the climax and resolution.

Although it's nice to have discovered a new author in this genre, I'm not sure I can count him among my favorites. I will say this: he certainly beats James Patterson, but that isn't saying a whole lot these days with Patterson churning out mediocre books like a drive through window.

If I were to award a letter grade, I'd give this book a B-. I'd also recommend starting with this book since it is the first in the Sunny Randall series, and the other books sort of build chronologically with many of the same characters appearing over and over again, such as Sunny's friend Spike, her ex-husband Ritchie, her sister Elizabeth, and her friend Julie, not to mention several repeat appearances by member's of Boston's underworld. If you like this book, continue on in the Sunny Randall series. If not, you'll probably want to pick something else since I'm now on my 3rd Sunny Randall book and have found the style of each to be essentially the same.

Sonya (Sunny) Randall is the daughter of a retired cop, ex-wife of Richie who is the son of a mobster, beautiful, yet capable of deadly force and a private investigator in the Boston area. She is also a painter and pursuing a degree in the fine arts. The parents of Millicent Patton, a fifteen-year-old girl who has run away from home, hire her. Sunny immediately realizes that all is not well in the Patton household, as there seems to be no great concern or passion in her parents regarding her disappearance. It is also clear that Millicent is probably hooking to stay alive, as there is very little else that she can do.
Although she is reluctant to seek his aid, Sunny asks Richie to help her locate Millicent, which turns out to be rather easy. Once Millicent is found, Sunny finds herself becoming a parent to Millicent and when two men arrive at Sunny's apartment, she blows one away with a shotgun while dressed in nothing but a silk robe that flows in awkward and revealing ways. There are many characters in the story, Spike the gay man who dresses like a dandy but is as deadly as a venomous snake. Mobsters and vicious killers are everywhere, and she actively seeks out their assistance, talking with then as an equal. Sunny also makes friends with cops, eventually having intimate relations with one.
While she is female, Sunny shares many characteristics with Spenser; one of Parker's other great P. I. characters. She is sentimental and emotionally entangled much beyond what her job requires. Spike is very similar to Hawk of the Spenser series, a dear friend who stands by her even in the face of danger and without pay. Nevertheless, the combination of similarities and differences makes it a great story worthy of the Parker tradition of deadly sentimentalists.

FAMILY HONOR lived up to its title as the pilot for this delightful series which felt at first like Spenser was toning himself into a female roar heard round the literary arena, while extending his slant on gangster Vs cop family backgrounds (in which neither is all bad or all good) in this Juliet and Romeo romance.

I hadn't thought I'd be able to get into a female private eye series by Parker, especially after having become addicted to his 34 Spenser novels. But FAMILY HONOR was a perfect appetizer with appealing percolation. I don't doubt that Parker can carry both his new series (see my review of NIGHT PASSAGE, Jesse Stone # 1).

It didn't take more than a few chapters for Sunny to split off from the long-wrought, well-writ Spenser mystique and into her own, as a full character... maybe with Spenser speaking into her ear as an angel from an alternate reality, for a while. I enjoyed the slips connecting to Spenser, i.e., how Sunny might deal with a particular hairy situation if she were a 200 pound, male boxer. In humorous yet realistic contrast to Spenser and Hawk types, Parker dramatized what a small female can do to compensate for not being a testy, taut, towering gorilla-with-gonads, in a plot which will had me smiling. I'm excited about this series; I enjoyed the upbeat feeling of this first offering in it. I relished hearing Randall use Spenser's trademark words in dialogue, like "some more" and "eek."

Reading the first few chapters of FAMILY HONOR I kept seeing Spenser in high heels, noting how uncomfortable they were, and wondering where/how to effectively house a big enough gun on a 115 lb, 5'4" body... as he seemed to be having great fun adapting to this recent female incarnation, shaking out the form and personality. Of course, that image alone got me grinning. By the time the intense ending called up, I was liking Sunny Randall every bit as much as Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton's P. I.).

For this unique pilot, Parker designed a stylish, italicized prologue in third person observation of Sunny and Rosie, accomplishing an artistic, literary feel, giving a light-touch, sensitive contrast to chapter one opening into a first person narrative style with Sunny telling her own story in the classic private eye genre mode.

The included cultural icons of cooking, dress, habits, and thinking were precisely on target with the copyright date of 1999, when the Great Chefs TV episodes were running hot and heavy, with their long-handled saute pans being shook (contents were no longer stirred on TV) above gas-lit burners on commercial grade stoves, featuring Spike, Sunny's gay, tough-guy chef friend.

The plot here gave hints of EARLY AUTUMN (# 7 Spenser) and CEREMONY (# 9 Spenser) as Sunny took in a young teen, Millicent Patton, runaway, hooking daughter of her clients. Enlightening entertainment was easily obtained through Sunny's ways of dealing with and drawing out this young human lost in the sump and shrug of a lack of love.

A few quirky questions came to mind as I began reading this novel:

What might Rachel Wallace (# 6 SPENSER, Looking for Rachel Wallace) say about Spenser's (Parker's) ability to understand being female, if she were to read FAMILY HONOR. And what would she think about macho if she had read all 34 Spenser novels. Can novels help us understand that which we would have to stretch outside our bodies and into another form to get? I'd say they can, especially if penned by Parker.

Rachel Wallace may have to give the gauntlet on this one. Spenser understands.

Yet... can testosterone ever fully comprehend powerlessness...

Maybe any person who has ever been depressed, grieved loss of a loved one, or desperately wanted something he couldn't have, for whatever reason, has the capacity to comprehend the initial feeling of hopelessness which sometimes comes at those times of leached strength and slow coming answers. We each have a spirit, though, which seems to believe that morning comes daily. Parker has made a good case that sunny weather can dog the footsteps of storms.

Linda Shelnutt

Family Honor by Robert B. Parker is the first in his Sunny Randall series, and like all of Parker's books, it's sharp, witty and entertaining.

Sunny Randall is a young and pretty cop-turned-private eye who is just getting over a divorce. Her former husband, Richie Burke, comes from a Boston mob family. Although they still love each other, the cop-mob conflict got in the way (Sunny's cop father kept trying to put Richie's father in jail). Sunny is hired by a prominent Boston couple whose 15 year old daughter has run away. The father has political aspirations but when Sunny starts digging, it turns out that the daughter has many reasons to not wish to return home. Sunny finds herself in the middle of a mob war that involves the Italian Mafia trying to move in on the Irish Mob.

I don't think that anyone writes dialogue as sharp as Parker. Sunny is actually a female Spenser, and while Spenser has one sidekick (Hawk), Sunny is surrounded by a host of oddball characters. In addition to Richie, there is Spike (her gay bodybuilding friend), her therapist/friend Julie and her dog, Rosie. Sunny needs the assistant of all her friends while trying to solve this mystery and stay alive at the same time.

As a Spenser fan, I'm not sure how close Parker comes to the success of his Spenser series with Sunny Randall. However, I definitely plan to read more.

The author substituted Elvis trivia for character development and made EVERY major character spout said trivia at the drop of a hat. Maybe having one avid fan pop in with some tidbits now and again would have been bearable, but this felt almost like a lecture with a few murders thrown in. The lack of susbtance shows.

I've read all the Louie mysteries up through this one (awaiting my copy of "Kiwi Con") and this one was, as another reader said, much more of a chore to finish than the others.

IMO, all the Elvis trivia and the sheer amount of time spent on the Elvis con/competition/hotel opening was filler for what was a thin plot to begin with. I normally enjoy spending a few hours with Temple, Louie, Matt, et al, but this time there was none of the internal dialogue or the conversations that really make each of these people "spark". Temple seemed to be there just to help move point A to point B or ask the pertinent question that would let the Elvis information pour forth. Matt was much too one note; his sole purpose seemed to be to show up, wonder about being a local media star for a few moments and then disappear again. It was like reading a book where all the main characters were reduced to cameo appearances by an unwieldy, boring plot that forced its way to center stage like a 300 pound diva.

One of the things I've really enjoyed about the series is the way Douglas lets us into Matt's, Temple's and C.R. Molina's minds. It makes them much more well-rounded as characters and I feel I "know" them. This book was incredibly short on that aspect as compared to the other novels in the series.

I'm also very tired of Max/Matt/Temple triangle. I suppose the main reason is I don't care for the Mundane Max very much. I find him more a convenient plot point than anything else. Need something that might be a little extralegal? Max shows up! Need to remind everyone there's a romantic triangle? Max pops up out of nowhere! *yawn* I find him to be the weakest character in the series because I have very little to base him on in my mind. I don't know whether it's Douglas' intention to make him appear mysterious or what, but one or two glimpses into what Max is thinking other than "Kinsella thought that he had the upper hand" type stuff or appearing to be jealous when Temple seems to have Matt foremost on the mind would go a long way towards filling him out as a character and making him seem more like a real person than simply someone invented for those times when you need someone with extralegal access to the info needed to move the plot along. The background she gives him doesn't ring very true to me for several reasons too long to go into here. I will say that it just ended up feeling like another smokescreen. I generally end up skimming the Max chapters for the necessary info and then jumping back into the story.

All in all, I enjoy the Louie series immensely. They may not be entirely logical at times or gritty and real, but they're (for the most part) well-written, fun, full of people with very individual voices (including Louie), and I think Douglas has done a fantastic job with the character of Matt and showing what it might be like for someone to try and become part of a world that he never really knew. But after such great previous novels, I found "Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit" to be below the standard of the other Louie books.

I have read all the books in the Midnite Louie series, and this one was definitely my least favorite. Maybe because I was never an Elvis fan, but I just didn't find all the Elvis trivia and impersonator stuff interesting. Like several other readers, finishing the book was a chore, not really a pleasure like usual. I hope the next book gets back on track.

Great book for Louie lovers & Elvis fans. And for those who aren't Elvis fans or too young, there's something to be learned. Another fun adventure for Louie, Temple & you.

I returned home from a recent trip to Memphis, where we toured Graceland, to find "Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit" in the mail awaiting my arrival. The coincidence was amazing. Finished reading it last night and think it is one of the best books I have ever read. The author's thought process gets deeper with each book and her exploration of the never-ending Elvis mystique casts an accurate eye on the sociology of the 50's and 60's and the perception of those times having been so innocent. Having been a teenager in the 1950's, I could also totally relate to the Electra character. The author's use of words gets cleverer and funnier with each book. As with any "whodunit," you have to keep reading to find out who was the perp, but you finish the book with sadness because there will be no more show-stoppers on each page. Thank you, Carole, so much for Temple and Louie and Chatter and all the rest of them!

This is the right book if you're looking to come to grips with having an only child, and feel like you "need" to bring another child into the world for the primary purpose of keeping your already existing one company. This book will talk you out of that with kindness and care, and let you know your only will be ok, indeed probably better off. It will also help you see to it as a parent that they will, and not fall into the traps that some parents of onelies fall into.

What is wonderful about this book is that it includes and speaks directly to parents who may not have originally intended for their child to be an "only". Parents who may have wanted a larger family, but cannot due to circumstance are dealing with their own feelings as well and this book does a great job of identifing and advising on this aspect. This book is well written, well organized and offers practical advice in an intelligent and reassuring way.

I found this book disappointing. It was very basic and anecdotal, and seemed to only brush the surface of many of the issues I am seriously struggling with. Some may find it useful, but being fairly educated and knowledgeable as a parent, I found it rather insulting.

I found this book to be mostly a Feel Good About Yourself kind of book. The issues that were brought up were all issues those of us with onlies already know and are dealing with. The book offered very little advice or 'how to's' on how to deal with these issues, and the advice it did give was just common sense. Also, the constant references to "Studies" that show how great things are going to be for your only and how wonderful he/she is going to turn out, were a bit too much, in fact I began to doubt if those studies were real.

I liked this book. It had some helpful tips on raising an "only" child. I grew up (happily) with seven siblings and was afraid that my son would be lonely but this book made me feel that he can have a perfectly happy childhood.

Once again Carole Nelson Douglas has written another wonderful continuation for the Midnight Louie series. I have loved this series from the first time I read Catnap and It gets better with each book. I'm sure we all feel for Mister Matt Devine now that Temple Barr is back together with the "Mystifying Max". and poor Louie!!! He has some luck with the ladies of the feline purrsuasion. All I have to say is, Carole Nelson Douglas, Keep up the AWESOME work.

I simply did not understand the story. I had to force myself to continue to read and when I was finally finished - I could hardly believe it. I felt cheated and betrayed. I could hardly understand what had happened and could not figure out the ending. Was the mystery solved? Who was the killer? I could only guess. So I visited this site to read other people's review and was stunned to find to find that the average rate was 5 stars! They must be loyal to the author or be crazy about anything that has to do with cats. Or I must be from Mars. I love books and I love mysteries - but this is the worst mystery I have ever read. Perhaps the author should consider another genre of writing. I feel bad giving a bad review but want to warn others not to read this book.

I've read all books in the series (which I'm normally fond of), but this one was just a little too overloaded with characters, plots, and angst. I didn't really care about the too out-there Shangri-la villianess or her cat, and I was annoyed with the heroine Temple (who actually seemed to be more in the background). I think Ms. Douglas does a much better job juggling a complicated storyline in the next book, Cat in an Indigo Mood.

I've read all of the first nine books, except for the first and they are absolutley incredible!. I just ordered the first one and I'm getting ready to order the tenth one INDIGO MOOD. The books are fast paced and very exciting, I read 8 of the books in just two weeks, I couldn't put them down! Cat on a Hycanith Hunt was one of my favorites in the series. If you're looking for a good read, these are definitly it!

Midnight Louie is upset because he suddenly has stiff competition for the affections of his human pet, Las Vegas publicist Temple Barr. To Louie's dismay, Temple has resumed her romantic relationship with master magician Max Kinsella, who lives in a James Bond-like world. Louie has no intention of sharing his "doll with anyone"; but Temple does not notice his displeasure.

Accompanied by his offspring, Midnight Louise, Louie returns to his former home, the Oasis Hotel, for a bit of rest and relaxation. However, the feline discovers the body of the odious Effinger, whose corpse is wrapped like a mummy.Effinger is the heavy-handed stepfather of Matt Devine, a former priest and questionable third wheel in the Barr-Kinsella romance. Only a few days ago, Effinger beat up Temple as a warning to his stepson to stay out of his life. However the death of the mean spirited person does not end the danger to Louie and his associates, especially Temple and her two male companions. It is only the opening gambit.

CAT ON A HYACINTH HUNT is the ninth entry in the Midnight Louie cat series and surprisingly the book retains the fresh and exciting perspective of its forerunners. The mystery remains first rate while the romantic triangle (or is that rectangle with Louie being the other corner) has become more complex and interesting. The brilliantly talented Carole Nelson Douglas has set in motion story line twists leading the series in a new direction that is sure to surprise yet please Louie's biggest fans.

Harriet Klausner

I bought the book in order to learn faster about the following: (a) How can (should) I use existing CIM schemas in order to develop CIM schema for my company devices. (b) How to represent all these concepts in XML (c) Relation of CIM to network management and DEN.

I expected to find some examples how all that look and work in real life. This, however, is not a book that I needed. It gives you some background in OO modeling that I did not like and actually did not need at all. I also suspect that somebody without previous OO knowledge might be confused. For example, on page 41, Properties, it is written: "A property is a value used to denote a characteristic of a class; it can be thought of as a pair of functions, one to set the property value and one to return the property value." Property access methods are confused with a property itself !

XML part is very short and general so I still have to go somewhere else to figure out how to implement XML part. Almost the same can be said about DEN - CIM relation.

The authors are obviously knowledgeable in the areas of OOA/OOD, Patterns and Enterprise management. I do not like their presentation but it may happen that I am not a part of their 'target group' for which they wrote the book. That is why I gave the book 3 stars. As far as I am concerned, I have to go to DMTF web site to learn hard way from documents. This book did not help me to do my job more efficiently.

The story is told by an adorable boy and is very short and sweet. but the remainder of the CD has just songs.

My 3 1/2 year old daughter only liked the one song that is in the back of the book. The remaining songs are not written in the book at all, so singing along with those songs is very uninteresting.