[[nid:554]]I have been a fan of the Warden for a while now. When her Black Dagger Brotherhood series came out, I thought it was awesome. Now that it has a few years on it, I’m starting to get a little annoyed with the Brothers and their quirky language, true? And don’t even talk to me about her Fallen Angels series. I could do 14 separate posts on what was wrong with it. I was never so happy that something came to an end and I don’t think I’m alone in this.

My colleague, Sharra, posted about the book release a month or so ago, and I’ve been intrigued ever since.  Plus, I had a feeling that the characters wouldn’t talk like drug-dealing morons (come one BDBers, you know I’m right). Ward sets her story in the fictional town of Charlemont – which sounds a whole lot like Louisville, Kentucky. The Bradford family is world-renown as the best producers of bourbon, and they like to show off their wealth. But like many uber-wealthy families, theirs is completely dysfunctional. It’s derby time and somehow the whole clan finds itself together again for the big race day. Will everyone survive all this wonderful family togetherness?

It’s a good thing I grew up watching soap operas, because is this ever one. For a minute I thought we were in Dallas and someone was gonna shoot JR. My only real complaint is that if you are going to write a book about a city like Louisville, at least do us the courtesy of calling it Louisville. In the BDB, she invented the city of Caldwell just outside of New York City. She could have done the same thing here just as easily. Every time they refer to Charlemont, it pulled me out of the story because I knew they really meant Louisville. It’s not like it’s trademarked or anything. But overall, I would say this was a pretty good book. It definitely grabs you and you don’t want to put the book down. Plus, there’s a big scene with a thunderstorm and honestly, she had me at the boom! All it needed was an evil cloned twin who was stolen by Russians at birth to be perfect. It looks like this is going to be her new series, and I’m in to see what happens to the Bradford family. (Insert creepy soap opera music here…dun dun dahhhh!)

Happy reading...