Liviania’s review of Full-Blood Half-Breed by Cleve Lamison
Fantasy published by Hydra 11 Mar 14

I’ve been watching the Penguin Random House eBook imprints tentatively since the initial furor over the contract terms.  (Which did, apparently, get resolved quickly.)  But I hadn’t dipped my toes in until the blurb of Full-Blood Half-Breed made me want to give a Hydra book a chance.  What tempted me?  Well, there was the holy martial arts, which made me think of the terrific Avatar: The Last Airbender.  (I first watched it with my niece, and then I totally watched the rest by myself. No shame.)  Then there was the promise of an action-packed tournament.  A quick read culminating in a showdown between two young warriors representing their religions?  Sounded like a fun way to spend an afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

Veena’s review of When the Duke was wicked (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, Book 1) by Lorraine Heath
Regency Romance published by Avon 25 Feb 14

Lorraine Heath is on my auto-buy list because her stories are always heartwarming. Her heroes are scapegrace scoundrels and her heroines are strong of heart and determined to win against all odds. While Grace and Lovingdon are delightful characters and there’s definitely heart in this story, the pace is so slow that I actually sighed with relief when I got to the end. Read the rest of this entry »

Stevie‘s review of The Bride Says No (The Brides of Wishmore Book 1) by Cathy Maxwell
Historical Romance published by Avon 28 Jan 14

This book has the germs of a good story in it, and less picky readers than me are bound to happily go along with it on that basis. However, it does suffer from one of my pet peeve of historical romance: anachronistic word usage, not to mention that there was the occasional moment when it occurred to me that certain words don’t mean what the author seemed to think they mean. There’s also the odd spot of over-explaining; not quite in the form of ‘as you know, Bob,’ but in the almost as irritating form of ‘she said X, referring to Y’ where Y is something most readers would either know already or be able to figure out from the context. Having got that rant out of my system, let’s move on to the story itself…

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Sandy M’s review of Steal Me, Cowboy by Kim Boykin
Contemporary Romance published by Tule Publishing Group 28 Dec 13

I’m a huge sucker for a sexy cowboy, so you can imagine my delight at all the new fun coming out of Tule Publishing Group with their western-themed series taking place in Montana. This is just the beginning for this new publishing company, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future. But in the meantime, I’m in cowboy heaven.

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LynneC’s review of Defiant in the Desert by Sharon Kendrick
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Dec 13

Sharon Kendrick’s Defiant in the Desert is definitely a book of two halves, as our football pundits over here have it. I nearly stopped reading after the first few chapters, and the dislike engendered for the hero never really wore off, but he did his best to redeem himself in the second half. If I were grading the halves separately, the first half would get a D and the second half a B. Like a Manchester United match, where they’re all over the place and then suddenly Moyes brings on Van Persie and Rooney and it all gets sorted.

But the heroine is another story. She’s stupid all the way through, and that does go to help me with the hero. Although she’s supposed to be intelligent, she is really dumb as a rock.

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Veena’s review of The Sheikh’s Last Seduction by Jennie Lucas
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 01 Mar 14

Another Middle Eastern Sheikh gives up his playboy ways to bite the dust for love of a young virginal American girl. However, Sharif is a little different from the norm. He’s not resisting the matrimonial snare. His bride has been selected for him since his teenage years. He’s been playing the field before he needs to knuckle down and do his duty but not before one final fling.

Irene Taylor might be wet behind the ears, but she still believes in love and happily ever after and is determined to resist the practiced seduction of the sheikh. But, as they say, everyone has a price and he certainly finds hers… Read the rest of this entry »

Stevie‘s review of Scent of Butterflies by Dora Levy Mossanen
Jewish Women’s Fiction published by Sourcebooks Landmark 07 Jan 14

Soraya, a Jewish Iranian woman from a rich and privileged background, is deeply in love with Aziz, her husband of twenty years. Together they have lived through their country’s political upheavals, with the support of Soraya’s parents, and that of her grandmother who once created jewellery for the Shah. Soraya is also devoted to her best friend Parvaneh, whose name means butterfly, and has supported her through a less happy marriage. But then Soraya sees her husband and best friend in bed together, and she knows she will never be able to forgive them, and equally that she will never be able to remain in her home country so long as they are both there as well. So she plots her revenge…

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Sandy M’s review of Back to You (Coming Home, Book 4) by Jessica Scott
Contemporary Romance published by Forever 7 Jan 14

I discovered Jessica Scott when I read her I’ll Be Home for Christmas during the past holiday season, and I fell in love with her military heroes. Since I can’t get to the earlier books in the series just yet, I’m determined at least to keep up with the series as it moves on from here. Meeting Trent and Laura in that previous book, I’ve been curious what’s behind Trent’s distance from his wife and what’s going to happen to them. While there aren’t too many surprises in store, what we get is much better – a look inside at how our service members give everything they’ve got and how that affects everything in their lives from that point on. Poignant scenes between husband and wife, father and children, and soldiers and their superiors.

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Veena’s review of When the Rogue Returns (The Duke’s Men, Book 2) by Sabrina Jeffries
Historical Romance published by Pocket Books 21 Jan 14

I have to admit that I’m disappointed in this book. I find the pacing slow, the story predictable and I missed the clever dialog between the protagonists, which is the hallmark for Ms. Jefferies’ writing. I have thoroughly enjoyed her stories in the past and hope to enjoy more in the future, but this one just does not do it for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Stevie‘s review of The Sweetest Thing (River Bend Book 2) by Lilian Darcy
Contemporary Romance published by The Tule Publishing Group LLC 07 Jan 14

Following on from Late Last Night, which I reviewed recently, we return to the small town of Marietta, Montana, to visit more of the residents who were involved in the tragic events following prom night 1996. Tully should have gone to the prom with Ren on that fateful night, but she stood him up, leaving town mere hours before he arrived to ride with her in one of the borrowed classic (not vintage, whatever the author seems to think) cars that we read all about in the previous book. Eighteen years later, Ren is a lawyer, still living in Marietta and in an unhappy marriage to the girl he was with when tragedy struck after the prom, while Tully is living over on the West Coast, a successful accountant in the movie industry. Then Ren gains a new client – a relative of Tully’s – with an unusual request, and Tully returns to town to care for said relative, who is terminally ill. Naturally Ren and Tully run into each other almost immediately over purchases of fancy chocolates: his a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife, hers a conciliatory gesture towards Sugar – nicknamed for her sweet tooth – the dying woman whom everyone in town has always assumed to be Tully’s sister. The attraction is still there after all those years, but neither is going to act on it under the circumstances. But then Ren’s parents step in…

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Veena’s review of Risk Taker (Shadow Warriors, Book 3) by Lindsay McKenna
Military Romance published by Harlequin Romantic Suspense 04 Feb 14

She’s a kick-ass pilot who takes insane chances to rescue wounded service men in the Afghani war zone. Being a part of SEAL Team Six, risk is his middle name. Even so, they might have just been ships that pass in the night. Except….
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LynneC’s review of Expecting a Bolton Baby (Bolton Brothers, Book 3) by Sarah M. Anderson
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Desire 1 Nov 13

At last, a book I enjoyed thoroughly and lost time in. I thought this year was a plethora of C reads. Had I lost my enthusiasm for Presents and Desire books? Perhaps not, if this one is anything to go by.

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Sandy M’s review of When the Duke was Wicked (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, Book 1) by Lorraine Heath
Historical Romance published by Avon 25 Feb 14

Lorraine Heath has done it again. Of course, there was never any doubt in my mind. In this new series, she’s taken on the children of those we’ve come to love in her Scoundrels of St. James series, and as usual her characters immediately throw angst and emotion your way, levying up secrets that cause doubt, all the while paving the way for that love of a lifetime to show them they’re much stronger than they ever realized.

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Stevie‘s review of The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley
Suspense published by Sourcebooks Landmark 14 Jan 14

Amazon classifies this one as suspense, but to me it reads more like a rather excellent near-contemporary gothic, almost as if Victoria Holt on one of her very best days had decided to write about the 1990s instead of the 1890s. The novel has all the elements I love in a gothic: an intelligent heroine, lost treasure, missing relatives – as well as a profusion of handsome men who may or may not be who they say they are and don’t all have our heroine’s best interests at heart.

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Sandy M’s review of Late Last Night (River Bend, Book 1) by Lilian Darcy
Contemporary Romance published by Tule Publishing Group 9 Jan 14

Every now and again a short story is just what you need to get through a slight reading slump when other books aren’t working for you. That’s happened for me with this story from Lilian Darcy. This is a light, quick read that’s full of romance, along with tragedy to show these characters how fragile life really is and to hold on with both hands to grab what happiness and love you can.

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