One of the things I love about travel is learning new things. Travel is an excellent educator. Before our visit to Churchill I knew nothing about polar bears, apart from the fact they are white. I even got that wrong because while the cubs can be quite white the adults are a vanilla color.

Things I learned about Polar Bears:

1. Polar bears inhabit the Arctic in areas where they have easy access to sea ice such as Canada, Alaska, Russia, Norway and Greenland.

2. Around 60% of polar bears live in Canada.

3. Polar bears are perfectly adapted for the cold weather of the Arctic from their fur, their black skin to their claws.

4. Polar bears rely on the sea ice since they feed on seals and they are strong swimmers.

5. Polar bears communicate with body language, the way they vocalize and with scent

6. Polar bears keep themselves clean, which helps keep them insulated and warm.

7. The bears sleep for seven to eight hours at a time, much like humans.

8. They sleep in shallow pits or sheltered areas. During the summer, they’ll seek out ice to keep cool.

9. Mating takes place between April and June while the bears are on the sea ice.

10. The eggs do not implant until the following fall. If the mother does not have enough body fat to sustain her cubs and herself, then the eggs do not implant at all.

11. Most cubs are born in December. A mother can have 1 – 4 cubs. Twins are common.

12. Newborns are blind, toothless and covered with short fur. They are completely dependent on their mother and nurse for around 20 months.

13. Cubs stay with their mother for 2 – 3 years and she teaches them to hunt, feed and swim.

14. The ringed seal is their main prey, although they will eat whales, eggs, and other small mammals.

15. Polar bears don’t hibernate, apart from pregnant females who den up to have their cubs and stay in the den until the cubs are strong enough to leave.

16. Polar bears can go up to eight months without eating.

Source: Polar Bear International

From #1 bestselling author Lora Leigh comes Collision Point, part of the thrilling Brute Force series—packed with powerful men, steely women, and explosive passion.

SHE’S NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
Riordan Malone is more than a bodyguard. As an Elite Ops agent, he’s ripped, raged, and ready to rumble—a true warrior, inside and out. But no war zone can compare to the battle in Rory’s heart when he lays eyes on the only woman he’s ever loved—and thought he had lost forever. . .

HE’S EVERYTHING SHE NEEDS
As the daughter of a crime lord, Amara Resnova has endured the cruelty of her father’s enemies—and has tried to escape that world ever since. Now, she must reach out to the one man who saved her life, even if she’s never forgiven him for breaking her heart. But Amara is tougher today than she was then. She’s also more desirable to Rory—and dangerous to love. Can he protect her from her father’s enemies without surrendering to his own passions…or will love seal their fate for good?

Review:

Lora Leigh is one of the first authors I read when it came to erotic romance, and although I haven’t read her books in recent years, I grabbed the opportunity to review this one.

In a brief precis of the plot we have Amara Resnova who was abducted and badly injured six months ago. Also injured during her rescue, we have her lover Riordan Malone, soldier and protector. We meet our two lovers when they come together again. Amara doesn’t recall much about what happened or who did it and while Riordan knows more, he’s playing his cards close to his chest.

Amara is strong and determined. She’s feisty too, and her father’s overprotectiveness drives her crazy. She also has vulnerability due to the abduction. Now someone is attacking her anew and she seeks help from Riordan, bringing them together again.

Riordan is strong, arrogant and confident. He knows what he wants and that is Amara. He is determined to keep her safe. He and her father know more about her abduction, but they’ve been advised to let her remember on her own.

Emotion drips off the page, and the heat between Amara and Riordan is combustible. They push each other, yet the love between them is palpable, especially toward the end of the book.

The layers of this story unpeel slowly as Amara recalls the things that happened before and during her abduction. Danger lurks in this suspenseful read and everything comes to a suspenseful climax. The epilogue gives us the seeds of the next romance in this action-packed series.

There is a fated mates feel to this series that I like very much. I mean who doesn’t want to find the soul that completes them? This is the first book in a new series, but it feels as if it is the second because it ties into another one of Ms. Leigh’s series.

My one criticism is that the type of characters and the dynamics between them are very similar to those in other Lora Leigh romances. While I enjoy the bossy arrogance of the hero and the spirited heroine, I’d love to see something slightly different from Ms. Leigh.

I enjoyed this romance for its suspense, the heat and the emotion, and I ended it wondering why I’d drifted away from this author. Big mistake! She writes a steamy and highly enjoyable, highly emotional romance. 4 stars.

Grab your copy today!

Ask most people living in Canada or the United States and they have problems stating the exact location of the town of Churchill. As a New Zealander, I didn’t know anything about Churchill until I picked up a National Geographic Travel magazine. I flicked through and stopped at the pictures of polar bears.

“We should do this,” I said to my husband when he came home from work.

I half expected him to say, “No, that doesn’t sound very appealing.”

I was wrong. We investigated further and booked. This was my introduction to the remote Churchill, the town billed as the polar bear capital of the world.

Churchill is a small town, situated on the Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada. The town can only be reached by plane. (They used to have a railroad but storms damaged the line and the owners have decided not to fix the track)

Each year, the polar bears congregate in the area to wait for the sea ice to form on the bay. The bears sometimes wander into town, searching for food, which makes life in Churchill dangerous for the unwary.

The town started life as an outpost. It grew in the 1920s once the railroad brought people into town and the addition of a shipping port. The military came to town in the 1950s and 1960s, further bolstering the population.
These days the permanent residents number around 1000. This number is boosted by tourists who come to visit the polar bears (Oct – Nov) or the beluga whales that mass in the warmer waters of the Hudson river during the June – September period.

Although remote, the town has cell phone coverage and internet. They even have great coffee!
We enjoyed our visit very much, although I suspect it isn’t as pleasant during the dead of winter. We had snow during our visit but found the temperatures comfortable. The locals are friendly and hospitable, and hubby and I are eager to visit again during the summer to see the beluga whales.

Source: Everything Churchill

This is a view of the town and the bay from a helicopter.

These are both views of the main street of Churchill – Kelsey Boulevard.

A view of the tundra outside the town of Churchill.

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MURDER AT THE BREAKERS by Alyssa Maxwell
Guilded Newport Mysteries 1

Newport, Rhode Island, August 1895: She may be a less well-heeled relation, but as second cousin to millionaire patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, twenty-one-year-old Emma Cross is on the guest list for a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer home. She also has a job to do—report on the event for the society page of the Newport Observer.

But Emma observes much more than glitz and gaiety when she witnesses a murder. The victim is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s financial secretary, who plunges off a balcony faster than falling stock prices. Emma’s black sheep brother Brady is found in Cornelius’s bedroom passed out next to a bottle of bourbon and stolen plans for a new railroad line. Brady has barely come to before the police have arrested him for the murder. But Emma is sure someone is trying to railroad her brother and resolves to find the real killer at any cost…
 
 

View of The Breakers from the cliff path

 
Why?

I picked Murder at the Breakers to read after visiting The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. They were selling the book in the gift shop, and I decided I had to read it since I enjoyed my visit so much.

Quick highlights: This is a historical mystery set in Newport during the heyday of the Vanderbilts and it contains a slight romantic element. There are lots of suspects and the main character does a wonderful job of ferreting out clues. I enjoyed it, especially since I’d visited the property.

The Story: Cornelius Vanderbilt’s secretary is murdered during a ball at The Breakers, and Emma’s brother Brady is blamed for the death. Everyone believes the murderer is now in jail, but Emma is determined to clear her brother’s name.

The Characters: Emma is the main sleuth. She is a poor cousin of the Vanderbilts and must scrimp and save to survive. Her parents are overseas, and Brady is her only other family. She’s determined, resourceful and clever. To some readers, her actions might tip into the TSTL category, but I enjoyed this facet of her character.

The Vanderbilts feature too—her uncle, aunt and cousins. The police and several family friends, members of the 400 (the top echelon of society) and servants also form part of the mystery.

The Writing: I enjoyed this story, although I found the start a little slow. The setting is strong and places the reader right in the period. The romantic element totally worked for me. Obviously, we’ll see more development of this in the later stories in the series. I wasn’t certain who the murderer was until the end.

Conclusion: This mystery is the perfect souvenir of a visit to The Breakers. It’s a trip back to the time of the Vanderbilts and the wealth of the period. I recommend this first book in the Gilded Newport series.

Rating: 4 stars

Amazon | Goodreads

The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island was the “summer cottage” of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Fire destroyed the original cottage, and Cornelius ordered the existing mansion built on the same site in 1893. It took several years, and Cornelius didn’t spend much time in his new mansion before he died in 1899.

The mansion overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and it takes it name from the waves pounding the cliff below—The Breakers.
In a word—it’s impressive. It’s full of marble, beautiful wallpapers and furnishings. The marble bath tubs are something to be seen (evidently, the servants had to fill the tub to warm the marble, then refill it for their master’s use). The butler’s pantry and the kitchens were the best I’ve ever seen. My photos don’t do them justice.

My husband wasn’t keen when I dragged him off for his daily dose of culture, but he enjoyed The Breakers and later thanked me. Of course, it didn’t hurt that we visited the White Horse Inn for drinks and a snack—reputably America’s oldest inn since it opened in 1673.

I highly recommend a visit to The Breakers and the White Horse Inn, should you ever find yourself in Newport.

This is me at the front of The Breakers.

This photo is taken in the ballroom, looking toward the grand staircase. It’s said that it was a tradition for the Vanderbilts and their guests to slide down the bannisters on trays.

One of the many decadently decorated rooms.

Another room interior.

Mr. Vanderbilt’s room.

The amazing marble bath that required filling twice so that the marble heated and didn’t freeze a backside!

The kitchen was amazing and full of all sorts of mod-cons for the time.

A view of The Breakers from the side.

Hubby at the White Horse Inn. Our last bit of “culture” for the day and a welcome break with local beer and a bowl of clam chowder.

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