Savannah Russe

"Best Wishes Always" is author Lucy Finn's third 'genie' book and the second I've read by this author who also writes paranormals under the name Savannah Russe. These books are much sweeter and lighter than her paranormal fare and fun, feel-good escape read.

Antique dealer Larrie is having a hard time getting back to normal after the death of her young-love, sweetheart, soldier fiance in the Middle East. She's having a hard time shaking her depression, but when she gets an unbelieveably good show more deal on an estate she starts to perk up. Then she polishes the lamp that was the deceased's prize possession...and now she's got a genie!

Interesting that the genie in this book is a British one. He was cursed into genie servitude during the 1800s while in India and has to learn to love and think of others to break his curse.

Fun, sometimes funny, and a fairly quick read. There's some time-travel, a bit of a mystery, a quickie secondary romance, a dotty grandma, an elephant, dogs, goats, a tiger, orphans, and mobsters. This is a book I would have no problems letting a teenager read. show less

Wow! This was an awesome book, and a debut from this author no less. No wonder NeedSun had to immediately buy/locate book two. If she hadn't, I might've had to. ;)

This book is classified as a romance, and though I can see the romance aspect, it definitely wasn't the primary focus of the book which made me enjoy it even more. I like books where romance, if included at all, is more of an afterthought than part of the main story line.

Daphne is a strong, tough character, the kind I like, and a show more vampire to boot. Plus she's a Monkey in Chinese Astrology like me. :) In Beyond the Pale, Daphne, a nearly 500 year old vampire, is approached to join a team of vamps working for the US government to help catch terrorists. Vampires aren't widely recognized and accepted here like they are in the Anita Blake books, instead only certain government officials, and the Vamps themselves, really know of their existence. And with their superhuman strength, Team Darkwing makes a great set of heroes!

Though I just finished saying I don't care for the romance aspect, I'm curious to find out what happens between Daphne and Darius in the next book. Joanne, hurry up and read book 2 so I can be next! ;) LOL show less

A likeable story but I still found that something was missing...
Probably the fact that I didn't like the main character that much has something to do with it! It's just that she was presented as an extremely powerful vampire with a super IQ but, during the story, she didn't exactly play the part!

Ugh. Not great. I love fantasy, and I like romance books where the romance isn't necessarily the only thing propelling it, so I was hoping this book would be like that. Unfortunately, our protagonist is almost anti-feminist in her attempts to assert herself and wavers back and forth so quickly at the slightest motivation that I really didn't care much if she ended up with her guy. She actually said the words "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, I'm not going to tell you." Ew... Finn tries show more to elevate the book above a simple romance by over-quoting classic literature and trying for eloquent descriptions, but I didn't really feel that it worked. Gene's great though--I enjoyed the manly Australian genie being kind and devoted and doing the dishes. Can I have one? show less