Tag Archives: reviews

feb 2023

February 2023: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

feb 2023

February Posts

It’s a new month! For your convenience, we’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in February 2023.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

romance book blog

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we wrote or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future?

Please drop us a comment, and let’s talk romance.

JSN 2023

January 2023: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

JSN 2023

January Posts

It’s a new month! For your convenience, we’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in January 2023.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

romance book blog

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we wrote or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future?

Please drop us a comment, and let’s talk romance.

Copy of monthly wrap up dec 2022

December 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

december 2022

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in December 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

monthly article wrap up

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we’ve written or reposted last month.

No posts found.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future? Please drop us a comment and let’s talk romance.

november 2022

November 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

november 2022

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in November 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

monthly article wrap up

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we wrote or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future?

Please drop us a comment, and let’s talk romance.

october 2022

October 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

october 2022

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in October 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

romance book blog

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we’ve written or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future?

Please drop us a comment and let’s talk romance.

september 2022

September 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

september 2022

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in September 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

monthly wrap ups

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

monthly article wrap up

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we’ve written or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future? Please drop us a comment and let’s talk romance.

august 2022

August 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

sweet savage flame august 2022

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame‘s posts in August 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

book reviews

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

monthly wrap up

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we’ve written or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week wrap up

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

No posts found.

Your Opinion

What do you think about last month’s posts on Sweet Savage Flame? Are there reviews, covers, or articles you’d like to see in the future? Please drop us a comment and let’s talk romance.

july 2022

July 2022: Sweet Savage Flame Wrap-Up

july wrap up

It’s a new month! We’ve created a wrap-up of Sweet Savage Flame’s posts in July 2022 for your convenience.

Romance Book Reviews Posted

book reviews

The following list consists of the romance novels we reviewed last month.

Articles Posted

monthly articles

These are the articles, quizzes, lists, puzzles, and other romance or book-related blog posts we’ve written or reposted last month.

Covers of the Week Posted

covers of the week

As always, we publish our favorite Covers of the Week every Sunday. These are the posts for the month gone by. You can also access the past Covers of the Week via the main menu at the top of every page.

liar's moon heather graham

Category Romance Review: Liar’s Moon by Heather Graham

category romance
Liar's Moon by Heather Graham
Rating: three-stars
Published: 1987
Illustrator: Unknown
Imprint or Line: Candlelight Ecstasy Supreme #159
Published by: Dell
Genres: Category Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 286
Format: eBook, Paperback
Buy on: AmazonAbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader


Category Romance Review: Liar’s Moon by Heather Graham

SPOILER ALERT ⚠

The Book

Liar’s Moon, a Dell Candlelight Ecstasy Supreme by Heather Graham is an overwrought foray into romantic suspense.

There’s intrigue, murder, and a long-ago love affair between a teenage girl and a much older, close family friend.

Events lead to a dramatic and happy conclusion in this so-so-category romance.

The Characters and the Set-Up

Tracy Kuger has come to New York for her father’s funeral. Who was her father? He was Jesse Kuger, Liar’s Moon’s version of The Beatle’s John Lennon. Only in Liar’s Moon, these Beatles consisted of Jesse, Leif, Tiger, and Sam, and they called themselves The Limelights.

(Incidentally, this was also the name of a string of nightclubs run by entrepreneur and Ecstasy kingpin Peter Gatien. The most (in)famous of the clubs was located in an old, converted church in Manhattan. Lots of memories for me from the mid-1990s! Today it’s a gym. Do techno dance clubs even exist anymore? I’m old, so I don’t know about these things.)

Tracy’s father was inexplicably killed, and his murderer was shot dead by police in a subsequently prompt fashion.

Tracy’s instincts tell her this was not the work of a mere maniacal fan.

Leif Johnson was Jesse’s best friend. Years before the book starts, a “sexually precocious” yet virginal Tracy threw herself at Leif, and he being the mature Rock Star that he was, just couldn’t say no to his BFF’s daughter.

Tragedy and circumstances forced Tracy into exile to Switzerland for seven years. The Tracy who returns from Europe to bury her father is now a thriving and (supposedly) independent businesswoman.

The Plot

The plot may be uncomfortable for readers who dislike significant age differences. Tracy was 17 years old when she “seduced” Leif, who was in his late 30s. But she came on to him, not the other way around! You can’t blame the guy, right?

Complicating matters is that Tracy became pregnant from the fling. As a result, her parents conspired to make Tracy believe her baby died at birth.

Then they shipped the baby off to Leif, who raised his son with his wife Celia, whom he deeply loved. The reader knows from the opening pages about Leif’s happy marriage, even as his dreams are haunted by images of an alluring Tracy in the moonlight.

Leif (with a name like Leif, you’d think he’d be a blond, but no, he’s a dark and hirsute stud) is concerned for Jesse’s children’s safety. He, too, suspects the killing was not an isolated incident. Jesse’s 20-year-old son Jamie is an up-and-coming musician whom Leif has taken under his wing.

And of course, there is Tracy (an independent woman, remember?), who does not need Leif’s role as her–ahem–guardian. But guard her he will, whether she likes it or not.

Leif and Tracy are still hot for one another, and passion rears its purple head. All the while, danger lurks as the pair search for clues to the mystery.

Someone had reason to murder Jesse, who wasn’t the saintly icon everyone painted him as being. Assembled together is a cast of assorted characters, with members of the old band, friends, and family forming a list of potential killers.

In the end, major revelations come to light, the bad guy’s identity is revealed, and he/she receives their punishment.

The lovers get their happy-ever-after ending.

However, the conclusion left me feeling like I’d been forced to swallow a pint of sour, curdled milk.

My Opinion

Liar’s Moon has “sort of” an icky plot with a big age gap between the main characters. But that wasn’t the icky part of it.

What skeeved me out was Leif’s role as the best friend of Tracy’s father. He was practically an uncle to Jesse’s kids.

Even worse is how Leif rides roughshod over Tracy. He confronts her with the truth about their “dead” baby in a sadistically cruel manner. Leif dismisses Tracy’s pain over the perceived loss, then forcefully demands Tracy be his wife.

Finally, Leif introduces Tracy to her own child as the boy’s new stepmother. A cheerful epilogue doesn’t make up for Leif’s atrocious behavior.

Final Analysis of The Book

Liar’s Moon was an angsty read, for sure. Regardless, the unheroic hero’s faults were too numerous to overlook. I mean, how could Graham name the main male character Leif and not make him blond? Unforgivable.

Still, Heather Graham is a solid author, even when writing for a restrictive category line. I can’t blame her for trying.

Liar’s Moon is an alright story that could have been better if the hero hadn’t been such a pompous and domineering jerk.

2.95 Stars

Rating Report Card
Plot
3.5
Characters
2.5
Writing
3
Chemistry
3
Fun Factor
2.5
Cover
4
Overall: 3.1

Synopsis:

She’d been a wild teenager willing to risk anything for revenge. But when she seduced Leif Johnston, she hadn’t counted on falling in love…hadn’t believed her family would intervene and sweep her off to Switzerland.

Seven years later, Tracy Kuger was a successful, independent woman. But her determination to find her father’s killer would carry her right back into New York’s deceiving limelight…into the treacherous bosom of her powerful family…into Leif’s lean, hungry arms. Passion and peril bound them together even as doubts and dangerous secrets tore them apart.

Tormented by the past, could Tracy face the truth and embrace the future—a love born under a liar’s moon?

LIAR’S MOON by HEATHER GRAHAM