Lynne Connolly’s reviews of the Throne of Judar Trilogy by Olivia Gates and The Billionaires’ Brides Series by Sandra Marton
Contemporary romances released by Silhouette Desire & Harlequin Presents
I’ve been in bed for a week with the flu for the past week, and all I could do was read. So, being woolly-headed, I went for Harlequin, my comfort reads of choice.
Apart from my fave Sara Cravens, I discovered Olivia Gates’ Throne of Judar trilogy, and Sandra Marton’s The Billionaires’ Brides series. Totally preposterous plots, but if you go with them, you find interesting characters and situations that the authors work hard for you to believe in.
Throne of Judar Trilogy by Olivia Gates
The Gates trilogy — Throne of Judar, consisting of The Desert Lord’s Baby, The Desert Lord’s Bride, and The Desert King — is delicious, all three, but with plots I’d usually avoid like the plague.
I’m not fond of children in my romance books, but the baby in the first book was necessary to the plot, acted its age and didn’t take up too much page time. It was also a Secret Baby, but in this book, it worked.
The writing is lush and romantic, the hot scenes tended towards the purple, but worked in the context and I found that, for me, the books improved as the series went on, mainly because of the quality of the writing. As a writer myself, I love reading writers who “come on” in their writing, and I believe Ms Gates really does.
For the Throne of Judar, B-, mainly for the purple in the sex scenes, and the fact that I couldn’t always work out what exactly was going on in them.
Overall Grade: B-
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The Desert Lord’s Baby by Olivia Gates Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Desire 13 May 08
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The Desert Lord’s Bride by Olivia Gates Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Desire 8 Jul 08
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The Desert King by Olivia Gates Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Desire 9 Sep 08
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The Billionaires’ Brides Series by Sandra Marton
Sandra Marton’s Billionaires’ Brides series is about three European princes finding their American princesses, and consists of The Italian Prince’s Pregnant Bride, The Greek Prince’s Chosen Wife, and The Spanish Prince’s Virgin Bride. (I cringe at the titles, why do they do that?)
Again, there is that pattern to the stories, but I found that interesting, to see what a good writer can do with a restrictive format. Each book conformed, but the characters in the books treated their situations differently.
Sandra Marton is an experienced Harlequin writer, and her books are really easy to read. That kind of skill isn’t in itself easy to acquire, and I found myself admiring it while I was reading. Scenes and situations flow naturally, and it’s only when you stop reading, you start to realise how daft the whole set-up really is. But it doesn’t matter, because Marton takes you into her world and lets you play there. Beautifully written and constructed, with the characters making the difference between believability and preposterous over-the-topness, they were all great reads.
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The Italian Prince’s Pregnant Bride by Sandra Marton Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Aug 07
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The Greek Prince’s Chosen Wife by Sandra Marton Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Sep 07
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The Spanish Prince’s Virgin Bride by Sandra Marton Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Oct 07
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Although one series (the Gates) was a Desire, and the other a Presents/Modern (Modern in the UK, Presents in the States), I didn’t actually find a lot of difference in the heat level. Although the Martons had one less sex scene per book, it was more explicit than the Gates ones.
These books are really hard to write, and very easy to read, which is why many women find them perfect in certain situations. On long journeys, ill in bed, or just looking for a read to accompany a break and a cup of coffee, they’re excellent.
I’ve tried a number of times to write for Harlequin, and so I know how hard it is. Taking a restrictive set of requirements (not a formula, because you can do what you want within those requirements) and writing a believable, enjoyable story within them is so much harder than writing whatever you want and letting your imagination dictate the story completely.
Actually, I have a couple of submissions in right now. Just sayin’.
How can she be pregnant with Prince Damian’s baby without his knowledge? Did he donate sperm for beer money back in college? Or is it something totally bizarre?
Inquiring minds want to know…
“How can she be pregnant with Prince Damian’s baby without his knowledge? Did he donate sperm for beer money back in college? Or is it something totally bizarre?”
One torrid night of passion – or rather, six weeks, and she went home, didn’t tell him she was pregnant.
The whole secret baby plot hinges on that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This one did, just about.
But it says that he never met her!
“But it says that he never met her!”
Where? Now don’t get me wrong, this could easily be me, because I’m just about getting my brain back after the horrendous bout of flu. They had a torrid affair, but she did it under false pretences, and because of that, she thought he wouldn’t welcome her or her baby.
Are there any in vitro Harlequin books? Just wonderin’.
Anyway, I did say the plot was a bit daft, what made these books enjoyable was the characters and the way they reacted to the situations.
But I did read other Harlequins where I wanted to slap the hero around because he behaved like a pig until the last couple of pages. If I’d been the heroine, I would have told him where to put his multibillion millions and his Lear jets and walked away from what I thought was an unhealthy relationship.
Interesting having a pure diet of Harlequin for a few days. I now have some favourite writers, and some I wouldn’t touch again.
And please, please, Harlequin, take that blasted DRM off the ebooks! I can’t use them, because I mainly read ebooks on my Ipaq on Mobipocket, and I can’t convert the files if I bought them in a different format.
” Ivy Madison claims she’s pregnant with Prince Damian Aristedes’ baby, but he’s never even met her! Is she just another gold digger, exploiting his wish for a son and heir?
But Ivy is expecting Damian’s child — as a surrogate mother! The arrogant Greek is furious, but he’s not about to let Ivy go. After all, he missed the pleasure of bedding her to conceive his baby…”
From above (The Greek Prince’s Chosen Wife)
“But Ivy is expecting Damian’s child — as a surrogate mother! The arrogant Greek is furious, but he’s not about to let Ivy go. After all, he missed the pleasure of bedding her to conceive his baby…””
Aha! Light dawns. I was talking about the first Throne of Judar book, “The Desert Lord’s Baby.” Cross purposes here. And definitely my bad.
Nope, in that book, “The Greek Prince’s Chosen Wife,” we have a turkey baster baby. Villain (not a spoiler) is the heroine’s stepsister, the ex of the hero. You just have to go along with the story, I find. I thought the villain was a bit weak, actually, I would have liked her internal motivations a bit clearer. She did it well enough to make the villain believable, and there’s only so much you can do in 50,000 words, but sometimes in these books the villain, if there is one, can be a let-down.
Aha! Sinister…
And oh, the endless research online re that turkey baster! Turns it is was a fairly popular means of artificial insemination perhaps 20 years ago, and those who want to keep things hush hush still use it. ( By the way, after all that research and pages of notes,, an amazon.com reader said such things were never, ever done.) Lastly, youre right, Lynne. I’d love to have done more with the stepsister but, as it is, my books often run longer than the 50K word limit.