Wendy the Super Librarian‘s Duckies Do Series review of Mystery Men #3 through #5 by HelenKay Dimon
Romantic suspense published by Harlequin Intrigue Feb 2011 – Sep 2011

I easily get distracted by The Shiny, which means when it comes to connected books, I inevitably fall behind.  I’ve really been enjoying HelenKay Dimon’s Mystery Men series for Harlequin Intrigue, likening them to action movies on paper with some mushy “love cooties” thrown in on the side.  Because of various shiny bits, however, I found myself faced with the final three books languishing on my e-reader.  Seemed like a good way to make myself feel productive was to bang out reading the final three in order.  So what have the final three uncoupled men in the qausi-governmental Recovery Project been up to?  Well, gee – what haven’t they?

Gunning For Trouble (Mystery Men #3)
February 2011

Caleb Mattern came to the Recovery Project after getting canned from his lab technician job.  His job was just to do the work, look at the facts.  But no, not good enough for Caleb, who also wanted to play crime-buster.  Going rogue got him fired, but it led him to Recovery – where he now works as their in-house science/medical/forensic guru.  With their boss, Rod, missing in action and a corruption scandal in the Witness Protection Program they’re trying to get to the bottom off, Caleb really doesn’t have time to deal with his ex-lover, Avery Walker, showing up on his doorstep.  Especially since she claims Rod sent her, and oh yeah, there are armed goons gunning for her.  Did I mention the bit about Avery being Caleb’s former boss?  The one that fired him from his last job?  Yeah, awkward.

What we have here is a straight-up reunion story, with some misunderstandings tossed in, and a bit of rescue fantasy thrown in for good measure.  Avery knows something about the WitSec corruption that could get her killed, and in fact some very bad men are trying to do just that.  Caleb is trying to keep her safe, but their past baggage is making things a bit complicated on a personal level.  The suspense here is handled well, with a definite thriller edge.  What didn’t work as well for me was the romance, mostly because Avery and Caleb seem to bicker a lot.  Right up until the bitter end.  Still, they do work past it, the bad guy problem at hand is dispatched, and the continuing mystery continues on….

Grade: B-

Summary:

When he was recruited by the Recovery Project, Caleb Mattern found a new lease on life. Tracking missing persons. Protecting witnesses. But even after stretching his muscles and becoming one of the company’s elite agents, he couldn’t leave his past behind. Avery Walters wouldn’t let him.

His former boss had also been his onetime lover, and now she’s burst back into his life with dangerous consequences. But settling old scores won’t be on the agenda—not yet! With the nation’s security depending on them to act appropriately, Caleb must pull off the most impossible assignment of his career. Now that Avery’s put her life in his hands, what will Caleb do with it?

Read an excerpt.

Locked And Loaded (Mystery Men #4)
August 2011

The WitSec scandal involves the exchange of cash for information on participants in the program.  Two women are already dead, and a third woman, Maddie Timmons, is on the hit list.  Recovery Project computer expert, Adam Wright, has been dispatched to West Virginia to keep an eye on her.  Moving in next door, eating pie at the diner where she works, and watching her every move gets to be mighty tempting though.  Even though this woman testified against a brutal drug-dealing ex and presumably was intimately involved in that business operation.  When bad guys come calling, Adam rides to the rescue, only to discover a woman who is pretty capable of trying to rescue herself.

What I really like about this story is that Maddie has a bit of a harder edge than the previous heroines.  She’s living in the WitSec program, which means she’s never idle, never rests, and always has a contingency plan.  Adam has sexy geek written all over him, and I’ll admit that I’m shallow enough that I actually swooned.  The ending here isn’t quite as tidy as in the other books, namely because Maddie being part of WitSec means she won’t be totally in the clear until after the resolution to that mystery.

Grade: B

Summary:

Nothing was as it seemed… Not even the protection Maddie Timmons was promised when she’d entered the Witness Security Program. One of her handlers was missing, the other had burned her, and now Maddie was at risk.

All that stood between her and certain death was one sexy stranger.

Deep undercover, Recovery Project agent Adam Wright vowed to keep Maddie safe from the leak at WitSec. But Adam wasn’t prepared for the confident woman he’d rescued, the sensuous lover who got under his skin. He could do nothing about her past being taken away, but he’d do anything to secure her future…even if it meant forsaking his own….

Read an excerpt.

The Big Guns (Mystery Men #5)
September 2011

Sela Andrews is the personal assistant to Trevor Walters, a very bad, very crooked man who is neck-deep in the WitSec corruption.  For that reason, the Recovery Project has been keeping an eye on her.  Well, not the whole team, just Zach Bachman.  An explosives expert, Zach is the strong, silent, borderline aloof member of the team with a haunted past and quiet disposition.  Admittedly though, watching Sela gets under his skin.  She’s sexy as hell, but rumor has it she’s boff’ing the boss.  And given Trevor’s activities, this doesn’t say good things about her.  However, when Sela is kidnapped, it’s up to Zach to save the day.  Which he does.  But not before there’s a lot of gun play, a lot of falling in love, the resolution to the WitSec corruption and missing Recovery Project boss, Rod.

I’ve read all five books in this series, and this one is my favorite.  Not only do we finally get the resolution to the overarching suspense, but the romance here is very strong.  Zach definitely fits the strong, silent type, is Alpha to the core, and definitely has a bit of a rescue complex.  He’s a good, solid man though, and Sela is a smart enough girl to weigh her options carefully.  Being Trevor’s assistant means she knows about Recovery, and doesn’t necessarily think of them as “the good guys” – but she’s smart enough to read the signs.  She’s smart enough to not constantly fight Zach when it becomes very apparent that he’s keeping her alive.  And she’s also smart enough to challenge him at every turn, confront him, and bring him emotionally to his knees.

Grade: B+

Summary:

When he saw his mark being kidnapped, Recovery Project agent Zach Bachman had no option but to rescue her. Even if it endangered his assignment. After weeks of watching Sela Andrews from afar, he was now trapped with the blonde beauty as her bodyguard.

Her brave protector relished the heat of gun battle but retreated from his own emotions. Sela learned that when, in the dead of night in a darkened safe house, the loner became her lover. Still, as her would-be killers closed in on them again, she had no choice but to put her life—and her heart—in the hands of her reluctant guardian.

Read an excerpt.

Harlequin Intrigue is a tricky line because it does put a bit more emphasis on the suspense than the romance.  For that reason, Insta-Lurve can creep into the books, which usually operates on a short timeline.  The final three books in this series are not immune to that.  However, Dimon writes this style of suspense so well, and the overarching mystery thread is interesting enough, that I’m willing to shut-up and enjoy the ride.  This has been a fun, exciting series, and here’s hoping for lots more Intrigues from Dimon.

Overall Grade: B

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s DDS Review of Honky Tonk Series by Carolyn Brown
Contemporary Western Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca Jun, Aug, Oct 2010

I read a couple of Ms. Brown’s books in her Lucky series last year, and while I liked parts of them, there were larger parts that just didn’t work for me. I got frustrated with multiple points of view occurring every few paragraphs, and what I called negativity in her characters took away from what fun and laughter there could have been for me as a reader. So with her new Honky Tonk series, I wanted to give her a second chance and this seemed to be a good place for that.

I Love This Bar
1 Jun 10

Sigh. I’m sorry to say that not much changed from Ms. Brown’s previous series and this one. The points of view changes are still front and center and very frustrating to read. You get used to it a little bit, but when it happens within a couple of paragraphs instead of a number of paragraphs, it’s hard to follow and just plain hard to read. In the first chapter there were 13 POV changes, at a very quick count. I was flippin’ all over the place, and I knew it wasn’t going to alter throughout the book, so I just had to grin and bear it.

Consistency is a tad of a problem too. An example: Jarod arrives home late one night. So he doesn’t disturb his ill uncle, he takes his boots off at the bottom of the stairs and treads up in his socks. Three paragraphs later has him taking his boots off in his bedroom.

I still have a problem with the dialogue of the characters in these books, as I did with the previous stories. Most of the time conversations are stilted, it’s just not the way people talk to one another. Then there’s the meanness that seems to permeate the way these people interact with one another. I have a feeling Ms. Brown is going for feisty independence for her heroines and it just doesn’t come out that way.

Daisy has inherited the Honky Tonk, her home for the last eight years, when she had nowhere else to go and Ruby, the former owner, took her in, mothered her, and eventually gave her the bar that’s come to mean quite a lot to her. One night when crossing the crowded dance floor, she collides with and ends up in a jumble on the floor with a good lookin’, sexy cowboy. I actually like the beginning of this book. It’s cute and fun. But it doesn’t last long, because Daisy suddenly becomes a female no one would want to be near with her immediate attitude toward Jarod.

At least Ms. Brown’s heroes are fun characters. But they take too much guff from the heroines. Jarod has had his fill of being unlucky in love and vows not to get involved again. He doesn’t count on a pretty little flower named Daisy, though, despite the fact she’s a barmaid. They have some misunderstandings along the way, he doesn’t find out she’s also a vet tech until much later in the relationship, but by that he’s smitten and doesn’t care she owns a bar. He tosses his preconceptions out the door long before Daisy ever does. She hangs on way too long and is lucky Jarod is a very patient man.

Even the secondary characters, as much of a hoot as they are, get to be a little much with the mean gene making its way into their speech. They are good for a laugh, however, now and again. And that’s the crux of this series for me. There are moments when I did giggle at something. There are moments when I enjoyed a scene here and there, but those moments come late in this book, either half or a quarter of the way through. It’s after, of course, the heroine has finally come to her senses and she and the hero are close to declaring their love for one another and the meanness is gone. That’s so much more fun, makes it a more enjoyable read.

See LauraJ’s review here.

Grade: C

Summary:

She doesn’t need anything but her bar…

Daisy O’Dell has her hands full with hotheads and thirsty ranchers until the day one damn fine cowboy walks in and throws her whole life into turmoil…

He’s looking for a cold drink and a moment’s peace…

Instead he finds one red hot woman. She’s just what he needs, if only he can convince her to come out from behind that bar, and come home with him…

Read an excerpt.

Hell Yeah
1 Aug 10

Not much changes with this book either. Cathy O’Dell is now owner of the Honky Tonk after her cousin Daisy marries Jarod from the previous book.

It’s New Year’s Eve and the countdown is on as the book opens. Travis is in town to work on the local oil rigging crew for the next couple of months. He’s just come into the bar and has spotted a very long-legged and sexy woman, whom he can’t help but lock lips with, especially since he has the excuse of approaching midnight. So he does just that. Right in the middle of the dance floor. Once again,  a good start. Things just doesn’t stay at that level once we move on.

I really was hoping for a different formula in this series from Ms. Brown. It would be nice to have a hero and heroine come together and have fun, be nice to each other, work together just because, instead of the heroine starting out mouthy and bitchy. But Cathy is down on men because of her ex-fiance. He turned on her one day, hit her, and she was out of there. Smart on her part, at least. But Cathy continually says she’s a woman who can take care of herself, so I wondered why she didn’t do that with Brad, the ex. It’s not until much, much later that we find out she did. I would have liked to have known that earlier, giving me a reason to like Cathy more than I do, knowing she actually did as she boasted, that it’s not all talk, which is what it all seems to be for much of the book.

So she’s committed to the Honky Tonk for the rest of her life. Her feelings for Travis grow, of course, because he is a great guy. I like him a lot. He’s a wanderer, going from state to state wherever the job leads him. He begins to question that existence, though, the more he comes to know about and love about Cathy. When she’s kidnapped, a plot turn that didn’t quite work for me – seems a little too contrived – he goes to her rescue, as she knew he would. She had faith in him whether she knew it or not.

But then this is the point in the book where I really started to enjoy it. Cathy’s tone changes and so does the tone of the story. Though the kidnapping concept lacks somewhat, it does lead her to taking care of herself as she should have done months before, and I do like the reckoning she dishes out. Her ordeal also makes her realize she loves Travis, but, as she describes their individual places in life at that moment in time, she’s rooted to the Tonk and he’s got wings to make him happy. She doesn’t want to clip his wings. Travis also doesn’t want to uproot her, so they both go their separate ways. It’s Travis who gives in first, and I personally think it should have been Cathy after all she put him through. But that’s just me.

Again, there were consistency problems a few times throughout the book. Also, we spend the first nine and a half chapters on smoldering looks and sinful kisses, then suddenly out of nowhere Cathy thinks of Travis as a friend.  I wasn’t ready for that in the relationship at that point, so it struck me as out of place. However, those sinful kisses are great scenes, and when they finally make love, those are also good scenes. I just wish they’d go a little farther than they do. I feel a little cheated when I keep getting rumpled sheets and kiss-swollen lips and nothing more after a night of passion.

As before, there are good parts I like, but they’re few. Ms. Brown has a terrific sense of humor and that comes out now and again and it made me chuckle. The romance is nice once past the halfway point of the story. Give me a difference in heroines’ attitudes and things might look up a bit.

Grade: C

Summary:

She’s finally found a place that feels like home…

When Cathy O’Dell buys the Honky Tonk, the nights of cowboys and country tunes come together to create the home she’s always wanted. Then in walks a ruggedly handsome oil man who tempts her to trade in the happiness she’s found at the Honky Tonk for a life on the road with him…

He lives the good life…

Gorgeous and rich, Travis Henry travels the country unearthing oil wells and then moving on. Then the beautiful blue-eyed new owner of the Honky Tonk beer joint becomes his best friend and so much more. When his job is done in Texas, how is he ever going to hit the road without her?

Read an excerpt.

My Give a Damn’s Busted
1 Oct 10

Now, this book I really enjoyed! The heroine came with no relationship baggage like the two previous heroines, so maybe that’s the difference to Ms Brown when she writes these types of characters. We met Larissa in Hell, Yeah when she ends up in Mingus and the Honky Tonk trying to find herself. She definitely found herself and I found a new side of this author.

This is not to say there aren’t still some issues in the book, but this is such an improvement over those before it. The heroine has a much better attitude about life and her situation and men now that she has found what she’s looking for — friends, a home, and a business she’s happy to run — after scouring the world, literally, for herself. Larissa is a breath of fresh air in this series.

When Cathy, the heroine of the previous book, finally falls in love and decides to give up all to wed Travis, she gives the Honky Tonk to Larissa lock, stock, and barrel. No money involved. It’s tradition with the owners of the bar. Since everything about this little town in Texas is now home to Larissa, she’s telling folks loud and clear she’s there to stay, will never give up the Honky Tonk. LOL, well, there’s tradition where that’s concerned too.

Hank Wells is in Mingus looking for Larissa Morley and he finds her quickly, in a way that’s probably going to have her pissed at him. I do enjoy the first meet of Ms. Brown’s heroes and heroines. Each one has actually been fun so far. Hank swerves to miss a deer in the middle of the road, which causes the car behind him to do the same and she ends up in a ditch. And ends up being Larissa. This is where the book could have reverted back to the heroine-with-an-attitude theme, but I’m glad to say Ms. Brown stayed true to Larissa’s character. She got a little snippy after the accident, as she did at other times in the book and as people are wont to do sometimes, but for the most part Larissa’s attitude is terrific.

These two hit it off right away, and that’s what made reading about them more enjoyable, instead of bitchiness thrown around all the time as the first two heroines did. There’s a couple of great scenes that I really love. The first is the picnic by the lake that Hank takes Larissa on. They make love for the first time there and that scene is tender and very nice, the best love scene of Ms. Brown’s I’ve read to date.

We get little hints that all is not as it seems with Hank. This has to do with a man by the name of Hayes Radner, who’s been trying to buy the Honky Tonk and other properties in and around Mingus throughout the series. He’s been turned down flat every time, but he’s persistent. It seems Hank is associated with this man, and he’s fighting a guilty conscience in not telling Larissa the truth, especially before the town meeting she and others have called to talk about the situation. He does try to explain it all to her, but they get interrupted. So we know trouble is on the horizon.

Larissa tosses Hank to the street when she learns the truth, and he realizes he’s made the mistake of his life. This is another time when that heroine negativity I don’t like could have come back into the story, but again Ms. Brown pulls it off and Larissa has her good cry at losing a good man and tries to get on with life. Hank gives her a call now and again and when they finally do talk, they come to an agreement to start again, go slow, and see where things lead.

This is where my second favorite scene comes in. Hank’s dad is a rancher and wants his son to take over eventually, so he’s grooming Hank to do so. At least he hopes so. Every year he hosts a rodeo for kids, and I had a blast reading about that rodeo and its little people events.  It’s the cutest darned thing I’ve read in a long time. Larissa is also involved, one of those baby steps in making up with Hank. A lot of fun all the way around.

Along with Hank’s dad he also meet his mother as well as Larissa’s mother, and what a duo that is. I did have some fun with them, though. Other secondary characters include those we’ve met since the first book, so the snarky attitude is back with them and they still rub me the wrong way now and again, as do some new characters who now hang out at the Honky Tonk.

Needless to say, this is my favorite book of the series so far. I’m hoping that Sharlene, the heroine of Honky Tonk Christmas, is more like Larissa than Daisy or Cathy. She’s baggageless too, so my hope may be answered. But I’m crossing my fingers just in case.

Grade: B

Summary:

He’s just doing his job…

If Hank Wells thinks he can dig up dirt on the new owner of the Honky Tonk beer joint for his employer, he’s got no idea what kind of trouble he’s courting…

She’s not going down without a fight…

If any dime store cowboy think’s he’s going to get the best of Larissa Morley—or her Honky Tonk—then he’s got another think coming…

As secrets emerge, and passion vies with ulterior motives, it’s winner takes all at the Honky Tonk…

Read an excerpt.

Honky Tonk Christmas
1 Oct 10

I’m glad to say that I didn’t really have to cross my fingers. This book is written in the same vein as My Give a Damn’s Busted and not its other predecessors. Again, the hero and heroine have their issues amid an attraction that starts from friendship, but we have an interesting backstory for the heroine and she doesn’t jump down anyone’s throat at the drop of a hat. I enjoyed HTC as much as MGaDB, even with its few problems.

What we don’t learn about Sharlene in the previous book when we meet her is she’s an Army vet with two stints in Iraq behind her. She still has nightmares about her time as a sniper, something women aren’t trained for as a normal course of business in the military. But when the higher-ups learned of her skill with a gun, she was recruited to take out threats to U.S. troops doing their duty.

Holt Jackson is a building contractor whom Sharlene has hired to build an addition to the Honky Tonk since her business is booming. She needs the room so folks aren’t forced to wait in the parking lot to get inside to do some boot scootin’. Holt has two kids – his niece and nephew – he’s now responsible for since his sister’s death. Judd and Waylon figure prominently in the story, Sharlene falls in love with them before she does with their uncle.

What I like most about the story, and I wish there’d been even more of it included, is the fact Sharlene doesn’t have her horrific dreams when she sleeps in Holt’s arms. Don’t get me wrong, there’s several instances of this, I just wanted more. The fact it’s done with no sex makes it all the more satisfying, for the reader as well as Sharlene. There’s plenty of sexual tension between this couple too. The scene in the hayloft later in the book is a lot of fun, and I’m still torn whether I want it to go further or not. I do want Holt and Sharlene to consummate this relationship much sooner than they do. However, it works having them wait because of their dilemma overall.

Sharlene is from a very small town – Corn, Oklahoma. Yeah, it’s as small as it sounds. It’s also Mennonite country, so folks, including her parents, won’t appreciate the idea she owns a bar and still isn’t married. She’s not cut out for small town life and will never go back to Corn to live. Holt moves around a lot with his job, so it seems their relationship is doomed from the start. He even stabs it deeper through the heart later on when he decides to move to Corn himself because there’s a lot of work there that will give stability to the children’s lives. Now Sharlene has to decide which she loves more – her bar or Holt. You’d be surprised at her decision.

The kids are cute, but they get a little irritating at times. Okay, I know youngens ask a lot of questions and can’t keep quiet for anything, but I don’t need quite as much of that in my romance books. And their dialogue is very inconsistent, sounding like kids at the beginning of a sentence or question but then sound like an adult at the end of it. They do add some fun here and there, though.

All in all, with the same issues as in the other books, this is a solid read, entertaining and emotional. There is a section that seems a waste of paper and ink, let alone reading time, however, when Sharlene literally tells Holt in somewhat good detail all about the previous books. That is not needed at all. Ms. Brown’s sense of humor, especially due to her southern upbringing, once again comes through.

Grade: B

Summary:

She Means business…

Sharlene Waverly is determined to have the “new and improved” Honky Tonk up and running before the holiday. For that, she’ll need Holt Jackson, the best darn carpenter in the state. But his warm, whisky-colored eyes make her insides melt, and before she knows it, she’s sharing her darkest secrets and talking about the nightmares…

He’s determined to keep things professional…

Holt Jackson needs the job at the Honky Tonk, but is completely unprepared to handle the beautiful new bar owner he’s working for.

Sharlene and Holt try like crazy to deny the sparks flying between them, but their love may just be the best Christmas present either one of them ever got.

Read an excerpt.

I guess half good and half okay isn’t bad when reading a series. I got a little more with this one than I had anticipated coming off reading two previous books in another of this author’s series. I’m really glad Ms. Brown got away from the snappishness of her heroines. It doesn’t make them ballsy or self-assured or nervy, whatever adjective you want to use. For me, it just made them sound bitchy at times, but I still like the characters despite that. I had a much better time reading her gals once she changes the attitudes. The head hopping is quite distracting, even if you do get used to it after a while. The inconsistencies pop you out of the story very quickly. Seems those should be caught by the editing department. The books do get bogged down with what practically every character is wearing and also describes nearly every song that plays on the jukebox. I know that goes along with the bar backdrop of the whole thing, but it could have been kept to a minimum. The dialogue does need some work too. It’s stilted and awkward at times, even in the two latter books.

The heroes in these books are all very likable and give the series part of its fun. Ms. Brown’s use of southern-isms cause a chuckle here and there, even when a few of them are a little over the top. Her first encounters for the heroes and heroines are entertaining. I would prefer a little more heat in the love scenes, though. I felt cheated a couple of times when I was taken only so far and the door was closed in my face, so to speak. It doesn’t have to be overly explicit. Just more heat, steam, and sizzle would make reading them better.

Overall Grade: B-

Sandy M’s DDS Review of The McKettricks of Texas by Linda Lael Miller
Historical Western Romance published by HQN Jan, May, Jun 10

Darn that Sybil. You can’t argue with her. And she forces you to look at things differently than usual. I’m a very within-the-box type of reader. I go with what an author gives me, very rarely thinking outside that box. Sometimes I have to look outside, however, when something is too silly, too dark, too lame, too whatever even for me. So when we discussed this trilogy, she pointed out a couple of things that never occurred to me during my reading. While I still maintain my enjoyment of the books versus her dislike of them, I do see her point here and there. But not enough for me not to like this new generation of McKettricks.

Tate
26 Jan 10

Tate and Libby were high school sweethearts, on their way to a happily ever after until one liquored-up night Tate strays, finds out he’s going to be a father, tries to do the right thing and breaks Libby’s heart in the process. Of course, the marriage doesn’t last and Tate has joint custody of his twin girls, which reduces him to pieces each time he sends his children back to their mother.

He and Libby have seen each other over the years, there’s no totally avoiding seeing or interacting with the other in such a small town, but little by little they begin to talk and then when Tate gives her an opening, she hesitantly takes it, and then feelings and wishes begin to happen again for them both. Libby is afraid he’ll go back to his ex-wife if only for the kids. Tate fears she hasn’t forgiven him for leaving as he did six years before.

I like both of these characters. They have their vulnerabilities, but when push comes to shove, they do what they need to. Syb didn’t like the fact there’s not enough groveling and/or apologizing on Tate’s part for the way he treated Libby. I felt he showed that in deed rather than the spoken word. And, hell, he’s a McKettrick. They do their own thing, including their own brand of apologizing and whatnot. I know that won’t satisfy a reader like Sybil, but for me it works. It never entered my mind that Tate didn’t explain to Libby why he did what he did until my talk with Syb. Maybe it should have. I don’t know. I do know it still doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of the story.

There’s mystery surrounding cattle rustling that spreads out over the three books, a come-home again mother whose efforts are too little too late, and death that affects them all. I enjoyed the interaction between the brothers, the teasing, competitiveness, and fighting but having each other’s back when need be. The same goes for the sisters, they’re just as fearsome when it comes each other. The children are also a hoot, though a lot can be said for the fact that children don’t speak the way these do. But they were fun, so it didn’t really bother me.

A good start to the trilogy for me. It made me want to pick up the next one.

Grade: B

Summary:

For divorced dad Tate McKettrick, there are barely enough hours each day to run the Silver Spur ranch, do the suit-and-tie thing for his business and run herd on his beloved six-year-old daughters. But time stands still at the sight of Libby Remington. When they were high school sweethearts, the wealthy McKettrick made a mistake that cost him the love of his life. But now they’re both back in Blue River, Texas. And cattle rustlers, a manipulative ex-wife and a killer stallion can’t keep Tate from trying to win Libby again.

Libby has her hands full caring for her mother and running the Perk Up Coffee Shop. Caffeine she needs. Tate McKettrick—with his blazing blue eyes and black hair. No way! Oh, heck—yes! But can Tate and Libby really hope for a second chance?

Read an excerpt.

Garrett
25 May 10

I think Garrett is my favorite of the three books. He’s the brother who’s left Blue River with aspirations of one day becoming President of the United States. He’s the top gun for a senator, who’s married to Garrett’s mother’s best friend, and Garrett has defended the man at every turn. However, the senator’s latest debacle is too much even for Garrett and his eyes are finally wide open.

So he heads home to regroup. There he runs into Julie Remington. He’s known her for years but now takes another look at her and likes what he sees. Her son even burrows into Garrett’s heart, a boy who is starved for a man’s attention. I love those scenes between man and boy throughout the book, especially when the biological father resurfaces.

Julie is a hometown teacher, goes to bat for her students, is afraid her ex-husband will try to take her son, and is beginning to have feelings for a man she’s been friends with for years. She and Garrett are thrown together while she’s living in the McKettrick home due to the huge termite balloon currently covering her own home, as well as the fact her sister is marrying his brother.

Trying to fend off the repercussions of a political scandal is not that easy and Garrett finds himself grudgingly pulled back in the fray before too long. That’s when he realizes how much home means to him. His brothers, the ranch, and especially Julie are where his home is. Julie has to learn to let go of some things she just can’t completely control and let a certain cowboy into her heart for good.

The rustling mystery continues in this book, escalating more and more so that the sisters are afraid for their men, who go galloping into the danger head on to protect what’s theirs. Again, the camaraderie among the brothers, as well as the sisters, is a fun part of the story. But it’s Garrett learning to be a father that won me over for this edition to the trilogy to be my fave.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Fast track up the political ladder, fast cars, fast women—that’s Garrett McKettrick. Make that was. A scandal has brought him home to Blue River, a place where a man can slow down, take stock and plan his next move. Which doesn’t include staying at the family ranch with his brothers. A city boy for a long time now, Garrett doesn’t think he has the land in his blood anymore. But Blue River has other attractions, like his former high school nemesis, Julie Remington.

Now a striking woman and much-respected teacher, Julie comes complete with a precocious four-year-old cowboy, a three-legged beagle and deep ties to the community. Good thing they have nothing in common—except their undeniable attraction and a future brighter than the Texas sun.
Read an excerpt.

Austin
29 Jun 10

Austin almost trumped Garrett in the favorite category. He’s the rodeo bull rider who was quite seriously injured in Tate, and he’s determined to again ride the bull that bested him. It turns out it wasn’t the best idea he’s had when he ends up with a hernia that knocks him off his feet for a bit. With his devil-may-care attitude and endless restlessness, he finds being nursed by the youngest Remington sister both heaven and hell, especially because they had something going a while back and he messed it up big time.

Paige wants to avoid Austin as much as possible, but since they’re going to be family now, that’s a little difficult to do. Then his older brothers ask her be the man’s nurse after his bull-riding incident. Austin doesn’t know when to or like to ask for help, so she’s not keen on being his babysitter. But then again, maybe it will be worth it to rub the man the wrong way as much as she can, the way he’s done her for years now. Thus, the balance of being off balance in each other’s company equals out. Until they tumble into bed again.

His brothers are constantly trying to shield him in every aspect of his life just because he’s the baby of the family. But Austin’s had enough. Of course, he’s just like them, so he runs headlong into danger and ends up injured again when the cattle rustling part of the story escalates even more. It’s his relationship with Paige he’s determined to keep them out of any which way he can. And what a relationship it is. Their love scenes are the hottest of the trilogy for me. Enjoyed every one of them.

Learning he can give up the rodeo and make a life on the Silver Spur, Austin opens himself to his love for Paige, telling her his reasons for his behavior ten years in their past and hoping for true forgiveness to have a life with the woman he never stopped loving. Paige, however, is now able to leave at any time after receiving an unexpected financial boon. Maybe leaving is the easy way out, though. Does she have what it takes to stay to face the feelings she never lost for Austin.

Grade: B

Summary:

World champion rodeo star Austin McKettrick finally got bested by an angry bull. His career over, his love life a mess, the lone maverick has nowhere to go when the hospital releases him. Except back home to Blue River and the Silver Spur ranch. But his overachieving brothers won’t allow this cowboy to brood in peace. They’ve even hired a nurse to speed along his recovery. Paige Remington’s bossy brand of TLC is driving him crazy. As is her beautiful face, sexy figure and silky black hair.

Paige has lost count of the times Austin has tried to fire her, but this determined nurse is not going anywhere until he’s healed, body and heart.

Austin’s brothers are laying bets that Paige’s place in his life just might become permanent.

Read an excerpt.

Okay, Sybil, these books aren’t perfect. But even with a few faux pas, they’re light and easy to read, have engaging characters, especially the sexy men and the precocious children, and I still had fun with them. I don’t mind that real-life things get overlooked, that’s not part of why I read anyway. Entertain me and I’m happy. Yeah, sometimes I’m a darned easy but happy reader.

Overall Grade: B

Ash’s Duckies Do Series Review of The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Young Adult Science Fiction published by Scholastic Sept 08 – Aug 10

I’ve been wondering for days how to write this review, because I don’t think I can do these books justice. Suzanne Collins is an amazing author, and these books are some of the best I’ve read.  There is also no way for me to avoid spoilers, so be warned.

The Hunger Games
14 Sep 08

These books are one long, intense, heartbreaking journey. What starts here does not stop until the very end of Mockingjay. Right away I was drawn into Katniss’ life, her thoughts, her relationships. She is a strong character and it’s easy to root for her. The idea of children fighting to the death as entertainment is truly awful, having to see it through Katniss’ eyes makes it even worse. Watching her change from a teen who supports her mother and sister to someone who will kill to stay alive is at times agonizing. When she holds and sings to another girl who lies dying, I lost it.

Then there is Peeta. When I read this book the first time, I was Team Gale (her friend and hunting partner) all the way. The second time around I’m able to see just how special Peeta is. He is the heart of this series. At the end, which is really just the beginning, Katniss doesn’t yet know about the war that is brewing. Or that she will be the catalyst to set it off.

I think the build-up to book 2, Catching Fire, is done perfectly.

Grade A+

Summary:

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.

Read an excerpt.

Catching Fire
01 Sep 09

As much as this book is a bridge between The Hunger Games and Mockingjay, it also stands on its own as a very important part of the story. Katniss doesn’t get a break and neither do the readers. There really is no rest for Katniss and Peeta, they have to go on their victory tour and they find out just how evil President Snow is when he calls for previous winners to go back into The Hunger Games.

One of the things with this series is that no one is safe. Suzanne Collins is not afraid to break hearts and one of the deaths I was most upset about happens in Catching Fire. Cinna is Katniss’ stylist, and he seems to be the only one who she’s able to be real with. He might have been in with the Rebels, but I feel like he saw her as more than a weapon against the Capitol. His death is one that, up until the end, I was hoping wasn’t real.

Peeta is still there by her side, and by this book I am desperately hoping that they get a happy ending together. Katniss also has to deal with Gale, who wants her to pick him over Peeta.

The cast gets bigger, we meet more of the previous winners and we get to like a few of them. Of course, it just sets us (and Katniss) up for more heartache This is the book when Katniss starts to get mad and we see her changing yet again into a soldier.

Grade: A

Summary:

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

Read an excerpt.

Mockingjay
24 Aug 10

Mockingjay is everything I was hoping for — and a lot I wasn’t. Things are just a mess and Katniss is right in the middle of it.

Peeta is being held captive by the Capitol and the war is going on stronger than ever. In this book I didn’t like who Katniss becomes, though after what she has been through it’s almost expected. Everything has just become too much at times and her mental health is definitely suffering. I think losing Peeta made her lose a part of herself, even if she doesn’t realize it. They became a team, and I felt his absence from the book just as much.

Then we get Peeta back and he is damaged, badly. The torture he’s put through has left its mark and seeing him and Katniss fighting each other is hard. Like I said, Peeta is the heart, but here he is finally broken down. The way Katniss deals with Peeta (and some other things) makes me hate her at times. He deserves better, and by the time she figures it out, I wanted to shake her.

While this is going on, they are fighting away. Katniss goes into battle and plays her role as the face of the Rebels in District 13. It’s hard to see who the good guys are, District 13 looks like it is just the lesser of two evils. The prove they will do whatever they have to in order to win, and in the end it’s the people who suffer. Both sides are lacking morals, and it makes things that much harder on Katniss.

There is also another death that leaves its mark with me, though not the same one that effects the story the most. Fellow Hunger Games victor Finnick becomes a casualty of war. I actually found myself days later thinking of a funny scene with him, and then getting sad when I remembered he died.  In the end the Capital is taken down, but  no one really wins.

My one complaint with this book is the epilogue. I wanted more closure with some of the other characters. I was ecstatic to see Peeta and Katniss together in their future, but I grew to love all the other characters. I wanted more of them, to know what happened to them. Especially Gale and Haymitch (who, though I have left out of this review, is a major character, another one I loved and hated). With Gale, I am hoping he is happy in the future and still in touch with Katniss. though I got the impression that isn’t the case. While I wanted Peeta to be the one she chose, I couldn’t not like Gale. If Peeta isn’t in the picture, I would have wanted her to end up with him.

Sadly, as great as all the books were, I’m left wanting more of the one thing I was hoping for.

Grade: A

Summary:

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

Read an excerpt.

There is a ton of things I left out, there is no way I can cover it all. So much happens, so I focused on what stuck with me the most, even then I left out so much, since I could probably write pages about my thoughts on this. I can’t say this is a happy series, it is basically one traumatic event after another. People I care about died, I got angry, I cried, I hated the characters, and I loved them all at the same time.

Then there are the bright moments, the relationships, the jokes and happy times. These books are keepers, but I don’t know if I will be able to read them again and put myself through this emotional ride. I do know that if you haven’t read these books, you are missing out on an incredible tale. The pain is worth it, and days later I am still thinking about these characters.

Overall Grade: A+

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s Duckies Do Series Review of The Ladies’ Sewing Circle by Portia Da Costa
Historical erotic romance short story ebooks published by Spice Briefs May – June 2010

I’m a fan of Portia Da Costa’s brand of erotica mostly because of her heroines.  She writes really fun, strong heroines.  The kind of girls I’d like to be friends with, have a drink at the local pub with, or watch chick flicks with while digging our way through a box of chocolates.  I also like that she has a strong contemporary writing voice.  So when I heard she was working on some Victorian-set erotic romances for Harlequin, I was immediately intrigued.  Will her “voice” work as well in historical as it does in contemporary?  And while the full-length historical won’t be out until 2012 (::sob::), Portia and Spice Briefs are tempting us with two naughty short stories while we’re stuck in the waiting room.

The Gentlewoman’s Predicament
1 May 10

Sofia Harewood’s first husband wasn’t much of a lover.  Sofia might not be “worldly,” but she’s pretty sure that sex is supposed to be better.  Some of her friends look particularly happy, and Sofia is determined to discover what she’s been missing out on.  She finds help in the form of one A. Chamfleur, the proprietress of “Intimate Advice For Gentlewoman.”  Already nervous about going to such an establishment, her uneasiness hits new heights when she discovers the A. stands for Ambrose and nothing like Amelia.

What I really liked about this story was that Sofia didn’t automatically assume that she must be “bad” at sex because her sex life with Husband #1 wasn’t all that grand.  All she knows it that it should be “better” and there’s not needless time spent on her feeling inferior in the bedroom.  If anything, her sessions with Monsieur Chamfleur bring out her sensual side!  The sex scenes are tender and erotic.  It would have felt out of character to have Sofia hanging from the chandelier after all, and her awakening is handled beautifully.  The romance element in this story is pretty thin, but the ending is perfect and sets up the series nicely.

Grade: B

Summary:

Sofia Harewood’s problem: finding a partner who can please her in the bedroom better than her disappointing first husband! She senses there should be so much more to lovemaking—and she’s determined to discover what she’s been missing.

Sofia’s mission takes her to A. Chamfleur, purveyor of “Intimate Advice to the Gentlewoman”…but the encounter is not at all what she had imagined. For A. Chamfleur turns out to be Monsieur Chamfleur—and he and his associates are more than willing to introduce Sofia to a new world of sensual delights….

Read an excerpt

The Gentlewoman’s Ravishment
1 June 10

Prudence Enderby has a healthy sex life with her husband, but that doesn’t mean she can’t have fantasies.  Her favorite fantasy involves being kidnapped by a handsome brigand or pirate, so imagine her shock, when on the way home from her Ladies Sewing Circle, she’s kidnapped!  The masked man who kidnaps her takes her back to his well-appointed home where pretty soon the wanton Prudence is having her secret fantasies fulfilled.

As a fan of erotic romance, I pretty much knew where this was going after reading the summary, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good story.  The reader does have to be willing to roll with the fantasy element here, and also the fact that Prudence doesn’t do anything to try to escape.  And really, who could blame the girl?  The erotic elements here are extremely well-done, and while Prudence doesn’t need “awakening” – her wanton ways are hard to resist.  Plenty of sizzle and another great ending.

Grade: B

Summary:

“I’d love to be abducted and ravished by some handsome brigand or pirate…”

When the women of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle share their private fantasies, some are shocked by Mrs. Prudence Enderby’s secret desire. But Prudence cannot imagine life without such exotic daydreams—especially since they arouse her husband, too!

Yet Prudence never imagined she would actually be whisked off the street by a mysterious masked man who has his wicked way with her in a carriage. Taking her back to a boudoir appointed for pleasure, he continues to bring every one of her fantasies to life. But nothing could be more surprising than when Prudence finally learns who is behind this gentlewoman’s ravishment…

Read an excerpt

Both of these stories were quick, hot reads.  Once again Da Costa employs first-person narrative, which further reinforces that sometimes the best erotic romance is all about the heroine’s journey.  These are short stories, with short word counts, but the author does a nice job of including historical elements to give these tales a Victorian feel.  Everything from the clothes to the furnishings.  Certainly it’s hard to imagine nice Victorian ladies talking about naughty business at their sewing circle, but then again, maybe not?  I wonder if it’s too late for me to learn needlepoint?

Overall Grade: B

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s Duckies Do Series Review of The Sons of Chance by Vicki Lewis Thompson
Contemporary romances released by Harlequin Blaze Jun – Aug 2010

After taking time away from her category roots to write single title contemporaries and paranormals, I was happy to see Vicki Lewis Thompson return to Harlequin Blaze with a new trilogy.  While my experience with her backlist is hit or miss, she can always be counted on to write sexy banter and hello?  I’m a girl who can’t say no to a cowboy.  Yes, I am that easy.  Given my current reading backlog, I settled in to read these books back-to-back-to-back.

Wanted!
1 Jun 10

Photographer Dominique Jeffries has come to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to lick her wounds.  This Chicago gal reined in her fun-loving, impulsive tendencies to please a stuffed-shirt boyfriend who ended up cheating on her.  She’s taking pictures of the pretty scenery when she sees a prettier shirtless, sweaty cowboy digging fence posts.  That cowboy is none other than Nick Chance, the middle son of the family whose ranch house she’s staying at.  But she doesn’t know that….

This story started out fun and sexy with a sizzling sexual encounter.  However it all slides south quickly thanks to the heroine who adds a few new definitions to the term “wishy-washy.”  She was all hot to trot to act “impulsive,” having sex with some anonymous cowboy, but when said cowboy turns out to be a Chance boy – well, no can do.  Somehow that made him suddenly unavailable and unattractive to be impulsive with.  Then halfway through the story the author introduces a Big Family Secret.  The problem with that is that we only have half a Blaze book to resolve that issue, and it’s serious enough that I had a hard time believing everyone would be that well-adjusted by the final chapter.  Call me crazy, but I didn’t entirely buy it.

Grade: C

Summary:

Photographer Dominique Jeffries has come to Wyoming to find herself – her creative self, her sexual self. After escaping the engagement from hell, she’s dying to break loose and live a little. And seducing a shirtless, sweaty cowhand looks like just the place to start!

Nick Chance isn’t exactly a cowhand but, hey, he’ll be whatever the lady wants! Only he soon realizes that this is more than just a quick roll in the hay. There’s something about Dominique that calls to him, something about her that completes him.

There’s only one problem. Dominique wants a fling, not another relationship.

Little does she guess how easily she’ll be persuaded to take a Chance – again and again and again!

Read an excerpt

Ambushed!
1 Jul 10

Baby brother Gabe Chance has come home from the rodeo circuit with a injured horse he saved from the slaughterhouse.  It’s while he’s home helping with the horse that he runs into old high school chum, Morgan O’Connelli.  Sparks fly, and these two crazy kids can’t stay away from each other.  The fly in the ointment?  Morgan is the new real estate agent in town, and the Chance family doesn’t think too highly of the profession ever since the family patriarch passed away suddenly.  Real estate agents practically beat a path to their door.  Oh sure, the house is great – but it’s the land that’s prime.  But are Morgan and Gabe really going to settle down and be an item?  Or is this just a temporary fling?

This story was really great…for a while.  Morgan is sassy, spunky and not afraid to speak her mind.  Gabe is charming and flirtatious, and even though he’s the baby of the family, he’s not spoiled or coddled.  The banter is sizzling, the romance is engaging, the conflict works well.  So what happens?  The ending.  Suddenly in the last couple of chapters the author decides to have Morgan waffling about if she ever wants to have children.  How this tacked on conflict is resolved was incredibly insulting and so infuriating that I almost chucked my Sony Reader across the room.  Ugh!

Grade:  C-

Summary:

Morgan O’Connelli hated the restless lifestyle she’d had as a child. All she wants now is to create a real home in small-town Wyoming. So first she hangs up her real-estate agent shingle…then she promptly borrows the horse of the hottest cowboy in town!

Cutting-horse champion Gabe Chance is blown away by the feisty redhead who unexpectedly lands right in his bed…and, soon enough, his heart! Morgan’s perfect for him in every way. Until he realizes that while she’s turned out to be everything he never knew he wanted, he’s got everything someone in her profession has ever wanted…his family’s ranch.

And that’s a legacy he’s just not willing to give up—not even for the sexiest woman he’s ever fallen for….

Read an excerpt

Claimed!
1 Aug 10

Oldest brother Jack Chance has been running the family ranch ever since his father died in an accident.  Jack blames himself for that accident, and the fall-out resulted in him dumping bar owner Josie Keller.  But now his youngest brother Gabe is getting hitched.  He wants Jack to be the best man, and his blushing bride wants Josie to be the maid of honor.  Will Jack and Josie be able to get along for the sake of not ruining the wedding day?

This book is the pay-off book.  The one that I had been waiting for.  Jack is surly and a pain-in-the-ass in the previous two books, so I was looking forward to him groveling and mending his ways.  He has to come to terms with his father’s death and learn how to shoulder the ranch responsibilities without making everyone else crazy.  I liked Josie a lot.  She’s smart, she’s funny, and she gives as good as she gets.  However, given the awful way Jack treated her, and the fact that he truly broke her heart, I thought she should have been better at controlling her hormones.  Hey, I don’t care how hot the guy is – if he treats you that badly, the last thing you’re going to do is rush right back into a fling with him.  Just sayin’.  However, that aside, it was nice to see Jack catch a clue and I think in the end, he’ll do right by Josie.  Lord knows he was a jackass, and she deserves to be treated like a queen.

Grade: B

Summary:

Following a dream brought Josie Keller to Shoshone, Wyoming. Following her heart brought her plenty of great sex with good-time cowboy Jack Chance! She was head over heels for him… until he left her.

Stay with one woman? Not a chance! Then why does Jack miss Josie like crazy? Had their relationship been more than just incredible sex?

Little do Josie and Jack know that a plan’s afoot to get them back in the saddle…together. And once there, it’s not long before they’re burning up the bedsheets again!

But the past is never far away. Before it catches up with them, Jack has to decide if he’s going to stake his claim on Josie, or lose her forever….

Read an excerpt

I found this trilogy to be a bit of an uneven affair, but it did deliver on several levels.  If you’re a reader who is a sucker for hunky cowboys?  Yeah, these guys perform admirably.  Thompson continues to show her flair for sexy, fun, banter and she does a great job of hooking and investing me in the series.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she decides a return trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming is in order.  Heck, Josie has a newly divorced brother ready and waiting.

Overall Grade: C+

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s Duckies Do Series review of The Accidental Series by Michelle Willingham
Historical romances released by Harlequin Historical Feb – Mar 2010

I’ve spent all of 2010 being perpetually behind in my reading.  It’s gotten to the point where I literally have whole series waiting for me to read.  Depressing, to be sure, but the upshot is that I can do one of these cool Duckies Do Series posts!  I hope to do at least one more of these in the near future (When? Uh, go back to top and reread first sentence of this paragraph again), but for now let’s start with the series I’ve been neglecting the longest – Michelle Willingham’s first foray outside of the medieval time period.

The Accidental Countess
1 Feb 10

Stephen Chesterfield, the Earl of Whitmore, wakes up in his bed at his country estate to discover an angry knife wound on his chest, a mysterious tattoo on the back of his neck, and Miss Emily Barrow nursing him back to health.  They were childhood playmates, and sweethearts, until his father put a stop to it and her family fell into scandal.  Stephen remembers a great many things, just not the last several months of his life.  Which means he has no memory of who tried to kill him and no memory at all of marrying Emily.

What we have here is a pretty compelling mystery, and a deft handling of the popular amnesia trope.  What didn’t work quite as well for me was the romance.  Emily has a definite Cinderella quality to her, but after the umpteenth person treated her like crap, I wanted her to man-up and grow a pair already.  In turn, Stephen, in the name of protecting Emily from the bad guys, uses that as an excuse to treat her like crap, thereby giving the people snubbing her ammunition.  Why he thought that would protect her is beyond me.  What?  Bad guys don’t hear society gossip?  In the end it was the mystery of who was trying to kill Stephen, and why, that kept me flipping the pages.  Having read the prequel to this story months before, I had the concept of the the romance.  I just didn’t like it all that much in this full-length treatment.

Grade: C-

Summary:

When Stephen Chesterfield, the Earl of Whitmore, awakes to find a beautiful woman berating him, he knows he is in trouble! He cannot recall the past three months of his life, never mind having a wife! What’s more, someone is trying to silence him before his memory returns….

Emily Chesterfield is trapped in a marriage of convenience with a man who doesn’t remember her. Stephen clearly thinks she is the most unsuitable countess, but she is falling for her enigmatic husband…. Can they find trust and love before it is too late?

Read An Excerpt

The Accidental Princess
1 Mar 10

Lady Hannah Chesterfield’s entire life revolves around her landing a suitable husband, and Lieutenant Michael Thorpe is so far from suitable, he might as well be on another planet.  But they can’t seem to stay away from each other, and when scandal erupts, Hannah finds herself traveling with Michael on a grand adventure.  Could the man who was raised by a fishmonger, and who is a soldier in the British Army, really be a long-lost prince?

The author keeps up the fairytale theme of this series by putting the Cinderella glass slipper on the hero’s foot.  Michael sets out on the trip just wanting answers, but when his life is threatened, his drive for those answers takes on more urgency.  There’s also the small matter of Michael and Hannah being in love with each other – and either way the prince thing turns out, it doesn’t mean a match between them would be celebrated.  As a solider, Michael isn’t “good enough” for Hannah, and as a prince, Hannah isn’t “good enough” for him.  Also, there’s the small matter of Hannah being sick and tired of people controlling everything about her life – right down to what she eats and what she wears.

I liked that Hannah didn’t toss up her skirts the minute she got her head turned by Michael.  She might not want to be controlled by her mother or society (good girls don’t…), but she also doesn’t disregard them outright.  I liked that Michael was smart, brave, and honorable.  Towards the end of the story I did feel these two were basically talking circles around what was really bothering them, and that did get a little tiresome (just come out and tell him/her already!), but the author sews it all up nicely, right down to Lady Hannah finding a voice all her own.

Grade = B

Summary:

Lieutenant Michael Thorpe is a forbidden temptation for Lady Hannah Chesterfield. Etiquette demands Hannah ignore the shivers of desire his wicked gaze provokes, but he’s the only man to recognize her restless spirit, and her unawakened body is clamoring for his touch….

Thrown together by scandal, a defiant Hannah joins Michael on an adventure to uncover the secret of his birth—is this common soldier really a prince? If so, will the ordinary man who has taught Hannah the meaning of pleasure now make her his royal bride?

Read An Excerpt

While I’ve enjoyed many of Willingham’s medieval historicals, and I’d hate to see her abandon that time period altogether, I did enjoy this side trip to the Victorian era.  Taking into account the B- I gave the Harlequin Historical Undone prequel I reviewed earlier this year?  That leaves us with….

Overall Grade: B-

Other titles in series:

Limecello’s Duckies Do Series reviews of The Hardcastle Progeny Series by Jennifer Lewis
Contemporary romances released by Silhouette Desire Feb – Apr 2009

Rawr. My original review got eaten, so please just imagine all sorts of witty brilliance throughout, ok? So – Silhouette Desire is one of my favorite Harlequin Lines. I also pick books based on author, and I know I’d read and enjoyed ones by Jennifer Lewis before. But even more so, I noticed the title to the second book in the Hardcastle Progeny series. I could be wrong, but Desire books set in Argentina are rather rare, and this one caught my attention. After reading it I realized I was in the middle of a series, so I got the other books, and here we are!

Millionaire’s Secret Seduction (Book 1)
Released 10 Feb 09

I haven’t quite managed to finish this book, but it is the first in the series! :X

Grade: N/A

Summary:

A multimillion-dollar family dynasty was hard to walk away from. And that’s what Dominic Hardcastle intended to do. Until he met his father’s employee Bella Andrews. She was intriguing and sexy beyond reason… and out to ruin his estranged, ruthless father. So Dominic offered to keep her secret if she’d keep him company…after hours.

Everything about Dominic set off alarms in Bella’s head. For he had the power to destroy her plans. Maybe some intense overtime with Mr. Tall, Dark and Dangerous was needed. Suddenly her scheme didn’t seem so simple…or her heart so safe.…

Read an excerpt here.

In the Argentine’s Bed (Book 2)
Released 10 Mar 09

This book reminds me a lot of a Harlequin Presents, but it definitely also has the tone of a Desire. The setting, the manner in which Amado treats Susannah is an interesting mix. He’s quite solicitous of her as a guest, and gentle as a lover – but as someone in a relationship… he’s your typical category hero. Of course, the interesting thing is that the heroine Susannah is the actual “bad guy” in the book. Not so much she does anything wrong, but she is the bearer of bad news and causes problems.

Amado Alvarez is a rather unique hero. He has a sense of duty, loves his home, his parents, and had a nice, well adjusted child hood. Of course, in typical romance fashion, it all comes crashing down around him. (Nevertheless, I was really excited Amado had a normal, and happy childhood. This is a good thing!) Luckily, Amado’s a big boy and can handle the skeletons that are revealed. I felt that Susannah was able to hold her own in the foreign setting, and that she could stand up to Amado. The book focused on their relationship, which I always love, but there was also a lot of plot movement as well.

I can definitely see myself re-reading this book.

Grade: B-

Summary:

It was just one “simple” mission—find out whether a winemaker in Argentina was a New York millionaire’s long-lost son. But Susannah Clarke quickly learned Amado Alvarez played by his own rules. He’d give her the DNA sample she wanted—if she spent the night with him! And in a moment of madness, she’d given in, to his demand and to her own desire. Now she had to return to South America to face this compelling, sensuous man again—and to face the consequences of that one unforgotten, unforgettable night in a stranger’s bed….

Read an excerpt here.

The Heir’s Scandalous Affair (Book 3)
Released 14 Apr 09

This book has enough material to be a novel, yet Ms. Lewis paces it perfectly, and everything that should be resolved is by the end of this category book. I also appreciated that nothing was rushed. Based on the beginning of the book I didn’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did, but everything about this book is just so right. It definitely helped that I read In the Argentine’s Bed first, because I think that gave a great -and important- foundation for Samantha’s character. If you think about it, Samantha and Louis’s relationship really is taboo. She’s his step mother. He’s… well you get the point. Even though they’re not related in any way, the social stigma exists. I was pleased that Ms. Lewis addresses this issue, and manages it in a way that I found not only believable, but convincing. (And yes, for once, the title is not only accurate, but telling.)

Samantha’s character also impressed me. Generally, the put upon window, poor me, is not someone I feel bad for. Oh boo hoo, I’m so beautiful I’ve been married so many times because men want me, and want a fabulous life. However, there’s so much more to her, and I think her character is sufficiently explained, and developed in The Heir’s Scandalous Affair (yes, this book). By the end, I was convinced Samantha and Louis had to be together, and that it not only made perfect sense, it was right.

I also liked Louis’s character. He’s very unique, and quite special. His attitude towards life is refreshingly new, and I felt that he was a great match for Samantha. Not to mention he owns a lot of restaurants, has a crazy mother, a blase outlook on life, and is mad for Samantha.

The different settings really highlight each character’s personality, and life as well. It’s nice that Samantha first goes to find Louis in New Orleans, and then after the initial meeting they go to New York. There was also enough closure to the series, and nice cameo appearances by the other “Hardcastles” as well. I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy Silhouette Desire books.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Young widow Samantha Hardcastle longs to find her late husband’s heir and bring him into the family. Even so, restaurateur Louis DuLac won’t respond to her calls or letters—or knocks at his New Orleans door. All alone, Samantha succumbs to the sensual refuge offered by a gorgeous stranger. Who turns out to be Louis DuLac.

Louis never knew his father’s identity. Now this trophy widow wants him to take a DNA test to prove—or disprove— that he is a Hardcastle. No problem—if Samantha agrees to spend another evening with him….

Read an excerpt here.

Overall Grade: B-

I think that there’s something very unique and rather special about Ms. Lewis’s books. Granted the “lost heirs” seem to take their place in the Hardcastle business or family with great equanimity – more than one might generally expect. Nevertheless, there is a reason for that, and the characters all stay true to themselves. While the basic premise of the stories I suppose aren’t that different, the way in which Ms. Lewis approaches them gives new life to these romance tropes. Although I was sure there would be the happy ending, I didn’t know how the characters would get to it. I definitely recommend these two stories to anyone who enjoys Ms. Lewis’s books or Silhouette Desires.

Liviania’s Duckies Do Series reviews of The Wallflowers Series by Lisa Kleypas
Historical romances released by Avon Oct 2004 – Jul 2006

Four girls approach the Season no longer believing they have any real chance.  It is not their first and they still have no prospects.  Annabelle Peyton has beauty, but no money.  Lillian and Daisy Bowman have scads of money, but they are uncouth Americans.  Evangeline Jenner has money, but she is also common – as well as exceedingly shy.  But these wallflowers make a pact: from oldest to youngest, they’ll help each other find a husband. 

Secrets of a Summer Night (Book 1)
Released 26 Oct 04

Together, they manage an invite to Lord Westcliff’s country estate.  Annabelle knows this is her last chance to catch a husband.  There are no end of offers for her to be a lord’s mistress, but she’d work any job before that.  Especially before becoming Lord Hodgeham’s mistress.  Her mother has been sleeping with him to pay the bills, but he wants to move onto the younger model.  Neither Annabelle nor her mother has any intention of allowing that to happen.  Of course, the husband hunting would be easier if her brother Jeremy’s former peer Simon Hunt didn’t keep getting in the way.

This was my introduction to Lisa Kleypas after hearing all the other ducks rave about her, and it’s a good place to start.  The Wallflowers are hilarious, especially Lillian Bowman.  Annabelle is a great heroine.  She’s practical and strong-willed.  She knows what men want from her and she also knows not to sell herself short.  There are some jobs she could take.  She wants to marry more to help keep her brother and mother afloat as well than to just provide for herself.  It’s nice to see a heroine with dedication to her family who knows not to martyr herself for them.

Simon Hunt is a good match for her, since he pairs sensibility with romanticism as well.  (He is unfortunately blind to the fact Annabelle intends to become no man’s mistress.)  And the men get dialogue as snappy as the women.

“Westcliff,” Simon asked conversationally, “does it ever occur to you that you might occasionally be wrong?  About anything?”

The earl looked perplexed by the question.  “Actually, no.”

It’s a nice, straightforward romance that manages to capture the historical feel quite well.  Simon and Annabelle’s relationship is cute, as are their friendly and familial relationships.   Kleypas does inject the right amount of drama with the loathsome Lord Hodgeham and some last minute fireworks.  Secrets of a Summer Night isn’t revolutionary, but it is solid.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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Four young ladies enter London society with one common goal: they must use their feminine wit and wiles to find a husband. So a daring husband-hunting scheme is born.
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Annabelle Peyton, determined to save her family from disaster, decides to use her beauty and wit to tempt a suitable nobleman into making an offer of marriage. But Annabelle’s most intriguing–and persistent– admirer, wealthy, powerful Simon Hunt, has made it clear that while he will introduce her to irresistible pleasure he will not offer marriage. Annabelle is determined to resist his unthinkable proposition… but it is impossible in the face of such skillful seduction.
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Her friends, looking to help, conspire to entice a more suitable gentleman to offer for Annabelle, for only then will she be safe from Simon–and her own longings. But on one summer night, Annabelle succumbs to Simon’s passionate embrace and tempting kisses… and she discovers that love is the most dangerous game of all.
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Read an excerpt here.

It Happened One Autumn (Book 2)
Released 27 Sept 05

With Annabelle happily married, it’s Lillian’s turn to find a husband.  “Marry Lillian; you’ll get a million,” the saying goes.  But her mother wants nothing less than a titled husband for her.  Lillian would prefer love. And she just received a magic perfume made from the Lady of the Night orchid, and she and the other Wallflowers are eager to test it out.

I do love Lillian.  She boldly states her opinions, though they might go over easier if she were less rude.  Her dialogue is full of zingers that play well off of the other’s conversation.  It wouldn’t be a fun story if she fell for a man without her strength of will.  So who can avoid being steamrolled by Lillian?

None other than equally steamroller-like, but more staid, Marcus Westcliff.  He hasn’t thought much of Lillian’s character since he caught her playing Rounders-in-Knickers, but he has thought of her.  It’s fun to watch the controlled man come undone over his attraction.  He could end up being a total prig, but Kleypas both lets the reader into his mind and allows him to come alive in his scenes with Lillian.  And it is fun seeing that kind of character set back on his heels, as Lillian puts it.

On the other hand, Lillian has another viable suitor – the handsome and charming Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent.  He’s a rake and after her money, but they do enjoy each other’s company.  He definitely has the turn of phrase down to match wits with her.  You can see why Lillian is tempted by his offer of marriage even as she falls in love with Westcliff.

I enjoyed the love triangle, but one of the faults of the romance genre is that it’s pretty easy to tell which man will win even without knowing which one is the hero of the next novel beforehand.  This one definitely wasn’t my favorite entry in the series.  Kleypas does a good job with him, but I just don’t like Westcliff as much as the other heroes.

Grade: B-

Summary:
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It Happened One Autumn is the story of Lillian Bowman, a bold and headstrong American heiress, and Marcus, Lord Westcliff, the most eligible peer in England. But even though Lillian is hunting for a husband, Marcus is the last man she would ever consider marrying.
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Read an excerpt here.

The Devil in Winter (Book 3)
Released 28 Feb 06

I had high expectations for this one since I’ve heard Sybil’s praise of it (and St. Vincent).  Unlike most stories, it opens with the marriage.  Evie can’t stand living with her abusive relatives one moment longer – especially since they’re going to marry her to a loathsome cousin so that they can control her money.  She also wants to be with her father as his final days approach.  The only way for her to escape is to marry.  She knows St. Vincent needs money enough to accept her offer, so the two head off to Gretna Green.  The only catch is that she’ll only sleep with him once.

Evie is a total sweetheart, though Kleypas puts steel under her caring exterior.  Evie needs it in order to escape her family and live in her father’s gambling hall.  She deserves someone who will watch out for her, so it’s very nice to watch St. Vincent mature into the role.

While St. Vincent has done some villainy in the past, he can be redeemed.  And it’s not a cliché, love of a good woman redemption, though Evie’s love does factor in.  St. Vincent flourishes when given responsibility, as he begins to pay attention to the gambling hall he will inherit and adapts his skills to the task of bringing in new and more respectable customers.  When given something to do other than drink and go wenching, he rises to the task.

It’s easy to see why this one ranks so high on Sybil’s list.  Evie and St. Vincent have tangible chemistry as well as being great characters in their own rights.  There’s a stronger plot running alongside the romance than in the other Wallflower books, due to Evie’s variety of family troubles.  It adds some moments of danger throughout the novel.  In addition, I like the character of Cam Rohan, the gypsy Evie grew up with.  I even bought a copy of his story, Mine Til Midnight.  (As of writing this review I haven’t read it, but I do look forward to it.)

I did notice, while reading Devil in Winter, how good Kleypas is with continuity.  She strings little details like Evie’s cold feet throughout the story, mentioning it enough that it sticks in your mind without becoming intrusive.  Those details are part of what makes her characters so attractive.

Grade: A-

Summary:
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A devil’s bargain…
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Easily the shyest Wallflower, Evangeline Jenner stands to become the wealthiest, once her inheritance comes due. Because she must first escape the clutches of her unscrupulous relatives, Evie has approached the rake Viscount St. Vincent with a most outrageous proposition: marriage!
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Sebastian’s reputation is so dangerous that thirty seconds alone with him will ruin any maiden’s good name. Still, this bewitching chit appeared, unchaperoned, on his doorstep to offer her hand. Certainly an aristocrat with a fine eye for beauty could do far worse.
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But Evie’s proposal comes with a condition: no lovemaking after their wedding night. She will never become just another of the dashing libertine’s callously discarded broken hearts — which means Sebastian will simply have to work harder at his seductions…or perhaps surrender his own heart for the very first time in the name of true love.
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Read an excerpt here.

Scandal in Spring (Book 4)
Released 25 July 06

The youngest Wallflower finally gets her chance to marry, though it may come sooner than she wants when her father gives her an ultimatum.  If she doesn’t have a fiancé in two months she must marry his protégé Matthew Swift.  As Daisy recalls, he’s coldly ambitious, not to mention scrawny and pale.  Once more the Wallflowers set out to Westcliff’s estate to gather eligible men together for Daisy to choose from.

At this point I realized that I’m confused by the titles of the series.  Annabelle was summer, so she can have a just born baby in spring.  But Lillian was autumn, so she can’t physically have a healthy baby in spring – there’s only six months between the two.  So I’ll choose to ignore the titles since I was mostly ignoring the timeline anyway.  It’s just one of those things that bothers me if I think about it.

I empathize with Daisy, who is the Wallflower I’m probably most like.  She enjoys reading fiction and is not grounded in reality sometimes.  She’s the least practical of the Wallflowers and wants romance, rather than an arrangement with a business associate of her father.  However, she is pleasantly surprised when she becomes reacquainted with Matthew.

Matthew has grown up and filled out.  (Though he’s secretly still a total dork, since he’s been in love with Daisy for as long as he’s known her.)  Though Daisy realizes she’s not all that adverse to marrying him, he doesn’t want to marry her due to the secrets of his past.  And even if he does clear up the troubles from his past, Lillian doesn’t approve of the match.  She’s hormonal, protective, and holds a grudge.

Reading about Matthew and Daisy falling in love and then working to be able to marry is fun, though Scandal in Spring is not as dramatic as Devil in Winter.  Matthew balances Daisy well, as many of the characters note.  It’s a strong finish to the tales of the Wallflowers, as all four previously unmarriageable ladies end up with love matches.

Grade: B

Summary:
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After spending three London seasons searching for a husband, Daisy Bowman’s father has told her in no uncertain terms that she must find a husband. Now. And if Daisy can’t snare an appropriate suitor, she will marry the man he chooses—the ruthless and aloof Matthew Swift.
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Daisy is horrified. A Bowman never admits defeat, and she decides to do whatever it takes to marry someone . . . anyone . . . other than Matthew. But she doesn’t count on Matthew’s unexpected charm . . . or the blazing sensuality that soon flares beyond both their control. And Daisy discovers that the man she has always hated just might turn out to be the man of her dreams.
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But right at the moment of sweet surrender, a scandalous secret is uncovered . . . one that could destroy both Matthew and a love more passionate and irresistible than Daisy’s wildest fantasies.
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Read an excerpt here.

I’m glad I gave Lisa Kleypas a chance.  The Wallflowers series is composed of four solid historical romances that showcase a nice variety of heroes and heroines.  I love the friendship the heroines form as well as the one that already exists among Simon, Westcliff, and St. Vincent.  This series also made me want to find copies of Kleypas’s contemporaries.

Overall grade: B+

Sandy M’s review of The Bridesmaid Chronicles by Karen Kendall, Kylie Adams, and Julie Kenner
Contemporary Romances released by Signet Jun-Sep 2005

I’ve had this series for a while, thinking I’d get to it soon, but, of course, never doing so. My 16-year-old niece visited me last month, the niece who, unfortunately, doesn’t want anything to do with reading, the niece I’ve been trying to get interested in reading a number of times during those sixteen years. The niece who actually picked up a book while in my home during her visit, actually read it, liked it, and shocked the heck out of me. Then she wanted to read this series. So I told her if she’d hang on, I’ll get the series read and reviewed, and then it’s hers for the taking. The series actually started out well and I thought my niece would also enjoy it. But my enjoyment didn’t last long. I’m hoping hers lasts longer.

First Date (Book 1) by Karen Kendall
Released 7 Jun 05

In this first book we’re actually introduced to the bride, Julia Spinelli, though it’s her sister’s book, and we don’t get Julia’s story until the fourth book in the series. It’s Julia wedding that is the connection among these four heroines. Sydney leaves her work and overbearing father behind to check out Julia’s fiance and why they’re getting married after knowing each other for only a month.

This guy has to be up to something, maybe lusting Julia’s money. Their dad, as classless as he is, has made the bucks opening his cheap inns all over the country, including the one in Texas that Julia is now managing. A prenup is in order, even if her sister doesn’t want it.

Alex is the groom’s best friend and he’s been coerced into keeping Sydney busy so she can’t interfere any more in Roman and Julia’s relationship. But that favor soon turns into something Alex doesn’t mind doing at all. Sydney may see herself as the brainy sister compared to Julia’s beauty, but he sees her in a whole different light. She’s witty, intelligent, and beautiful to him. She even knows how to handle his mother, who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, but Sydney needs to learn when to help and when to let go.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Alex is a true Texan cowboy with a great sense of humor to play off the normally low-key Sydney. She does at times go overboard on the interfering — and her sister lets her but Alex doesn’t — so her heart is in the right place even when it’s the wrong time. This is my first book by Karen Kendall and I liked her writing a lot. I would definitely read more of her books.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Meet the sister of the bride. Sydney Spinelli has her heart set on stopping the wedding between her little sister and her Texas boyfriend of one month! The only problem is, her heart is getting distracted by the groom’s sexy best friend . . .
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Read an excerpt.

First Kiss (Book 2) by Kylie Adams
Released 5 Jul 05

After such a terrific start to this series, this is where it stumbled – big time. Instead of Texas we’re in New York where Kiki, sister of the groom, lives and plays. She’s a former beauty queen, now an actress still trying to make it big. She’s also a very shallow and selfish person, one that I hardly liked at all.

Two friends share the spotlight with her in this book, and this is the first of the silliness that did the story no favors, one friend’s name is Suzi-Suzi. I don’t know, that bugged the hell out of me when reading.  Next are the antics that Kiki gets into, one of which is she takes over Julia’s wedding preparations without even asking, making the most awful suggestions, and the other is the main part of the story and how she meets the hero.

While shopping with her friends, they stumble upon a popular married Hollywood couple who are expecting their first child. A chain of events ends with a member of the paparazzi snapping a suggestive pic of Kiki and the husband. This, of course, is front page news, accusing Kiki of being a homewrecker, and the media then hounds her every step. She ends up at The Affair, a club of sorts where you can literally go to to have an affair.  Okaaaay.  The place is run by Fab, who is often in the tabloids himself, always with a different beauty on his arm every time.

Kiki wiles her way into one of his suites to let the fervor over her notoriety blow over and they end up spending time with each other. There is an instant attraction between them and Fab would like to explore that. He puts up with such ridiculousness from this woman. Even the sexual banter didn’t work due to her attitude. The actual love scenes themselves were good, mainly because Fab is involved. I did like his character, what I got to see of it. He’s not in this book very much, making it more chick lit-y than romance. And I really don’t care for chick lit all that much. Hence, my dislike of the book, I guess.

Of course, things eventually work themselves out, Kiki and Fab fall in love and decide to get married. Not without Kiki fobbing off all of her friends on Fab, giving them jobs in his organizations without even asking him. Even at the end the woman is full of herself. The only reason the grade for this book isn’t lower is Fab, the few times he had interaction with anyone. Other than that, I could have done without reading the darned thing.

Grade: D+

Summary:
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She’s always the bridesmaid, never the bride. But unlike that Jersey girl her brother is marrying, at least former Miss Texas and out-of-work actress Kiki Sonntag can save her brother’s wedding from bad taste. Too bad Kiki can’t save herself from a nasty tabloid scandal. Until it blows over, she’s hiding out in Manhattan’s hippest new hotel and enjoying some perks from its playboy owner….
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No excerpt available.

First Dance (Book 3) by Karen Kendall
Released 2 Aug 05

I was happy to see that Karen Kendall wrote this third book in the series. After the disaster of the second book, I needed a good one to keep me going. I did get it here. We’re back in Texas, thank goodness, where wedding preparations are still going on when the bride’s best friend, Vivien, a Manhattan divorce attorney, makes it to Fredericksburg to help out. I really liked Vivien. She’s, of course, very independent and intelligent and has a soft spot for Greyhounds, saving abused ones every chance she gets.

She has reservations about being in Texas again since that’s where JB Anglin, the groom’s best friend and attorney, lives and practices. The last time she saw JB, she’d just booted him out of their hotel room where they’d had the most incredible sex. Obviously Vivien has commitment issues. And JB now has issues with Vivien. They try to put those issues aside, though, for the sake of the happy wedding couple, but things don’t go as planned. They’re constantly thrown together by the bride asking them to do errands for her, but it’s JB who’s out for revenge, waiting for his turn to kick Vivien of his bed.

When the time comes, however, he’s not able to do it. And Vivien does her best to stay the night, but arguments commence, feelings are hurt, and things go downhill fast. Imagine the make-up sex, though. I really liked this couple. Though they had issues, they still had some fun together, tried to keep the humor upfront, and do a fairly good job until they realized their true feelings one another. That was another hurdle to get over, but they did it admirably. We still get a lot of interaction with the bride and groom and Sydney and Alex from the first book. Thank goodness Kiki is still in New York.

I liked being back with a Texas cowboy who wants to share his way of life with the heroine, who sincerely tries to work through her problems to be with him, especially when he agrees to help out with the Greyhound work that is so close to her heart. Even when these two were at odds, they thought about the other and what they could do for them. Definitely a couple worth reading.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Manhattan’s top female divorce attorney a bridesmaid? Stranger things have happened. The bride’s best friend, Vivien Shelton has seen the ugly side of love—and alights in Texas with the perfect wedding present: an iron-clad pre-nup. But the groom’s good-ole-boy lawyer is itching for a fight—especially one with Vivien, a woman he has tangled with in the past . .
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Read an excerpt.

First Love (Book 4) by Julie Kenner
Released 6 Sep 05

Finally we come to the wedding couple who have been prominent figures throughout each book up to this point. Well, maybe not in the disaster of Book 2, but close enough. Julia and Roman fell in love very quickly, which is what brought her sister to Texas to begin with. He’s nearly broke, sinking all of his money into the family winery while hoping everything works out. That’s exactly why Sydney thought he was after Julia for her money.

But after falling in love so quickly herself and getting to know Roman more, Sydney now realizes he’s a good man and her sister is lucky to have him. It’s Julia herself who is now having doubts. She thought they knew enough about one another to get married, even though she’s never told Roman more about her parents. He does a little about them, considering their fathers have a shaky past. Though she loves her mom and dad, they are quite classless and tacky, and the scenes that get this point across are actually pretty hilarious and priceless.

On top of this, Roman doesn’t seem to listen to Julia when she tells him what she wants and likes when it comes to the important things between them. The next she knows the entire wedding is on a downhill slide and it’s five days until the big day.  They both have secrets they’ve never shared, feeling those secrets would be the deal breaker in their relationship. but when they finally come clean, only more doubt settles in. Choosing to postpone the wedding, Julia feels it’s better to wait, to really get to know each other, but will their love survive a longer engagement?

While I did enjoy this book, I was a little surprised at the direction it took after Julia being so stalwart in the first three books on how much she loves Roman and knows him plenty enough to get married.  I kind of felt I’d wasted my time in all the previous reading. But I ended up being okay with it all because of the way Roman took care of things and gave me a fairly good ending. The other characters are still present a good part of the book, excluding Kiki – thank goodness! – so I’m pretty happy overall with this last book in the series.

Grade: B

Summary:
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Just as bride-to-be Julia Spinelli is about to throw the swankiest wedding Fredericksburg, Texas, has ever seen, in roll her Jersey parents in all their tacky glory—and out roll her hopes for happily ever after. If she can’t convince her father that her fiancé is head over heels for her and not her trust fund, the wedding is off….
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No excerpt available.

Overall Grade: B

Overall I liked this series, with the exception of you-know-what. All four books have now been passed on to my niece, so it will be interesting to get her take on them. I have a feeling, however, that Kiki is going to be her favorite character. Goes to show what a difference a few decades in age is.

Sandy M’s Duckies Do Series reviews of the Langley Family Trilogy by Lucy Monroe
Historical Romances released by Berkley Sep 2005 – Oct 2006

I’ve had this trilogy in the TBR pile for quite some time, and since I was lucky enough to find all three of them there at the same time, I had to read them now while they were in hand. (Books have a way of getting up and walking out around my house, so I read them when I can see them.) I’ve enjoyed Ms. Monroe’s contemporaries that I’ve read over the last couple of years, so I wanted to check out her historicals. I am certainly glad I did.

Touch Me (Book 1)
6 Sep 05

This is a great start to this trilogy. We get a taste of the betrayal that happened which affected so many lives, a look at how those lives have flourished, or not, over the years since that time, and we get to experience the love as a result of those long-ago actions, plus a very nice set-up for the next book in the series.

Thea’s mother ran from her husband when the man stole her first born from her arms when the boy was only minutes old. What none of them knew was another babe was about to be born, so keeping her daughter a secret, Anna tried to stay in London to secretly see her son, but when her beast of a husband found out, Anna chose the West Indies as a home for her and her daughter, hoping one day to return to see her son when he was man. That day never came, Anna dying of fever before she could make the trip.

Growing up in the West Indies, away from the social confines of London and the ton, Thea is her own woman, intelligent and independent, vowing never to marry and give herself over to a man only to be treated as her mother was. She’s a partner in a prosperous business with the couple who took her and her mother in years before and Thea has discovered discrepancies in the business books. She decides to go to London to confront the man she believes responsible. When Pierson Drake appears looking for the services of a blacksmith to repair his ship’s boiler, she has found a way to the city much sooner than waiting for one of her own ships.

Drake is on a timeline racing to bring his shipment into port so that his investors will not lose money when they put their faith in him; his damaged boiler is costing time as it is, so he doesn’t need a woman trailing along, even one as intriguing as Thea Selwyn. But the woman surprises him at every turn, and he’s determined to find out who is causing the sudden accidents that come too close to fatally injuring the woman. By the time they reach London, their feelings have grown for one another, but Thea is still of the mind she doesn’t need marriage, despite Drake’s insistence they will be together.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the fact the lead characters are together so much of the time, either getting to know one another, irritating the hell out of one another, or lusting their hearts out and taking care of that lust. Mystery and danger are well represented in the story and there’s a nice twist at the end that you don’t see too early.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Outspoken, opinionated Thea Selwyn is no ordinary lady. Raised in the exotic West Indies, she has none of the starchy propriety Pierson Drake is accustomed to—rather, there is a lush sensuality about this impulsive beauty that tempts him unmercifully. Her delectable curves and wide, innocent eyes are enticing enough, but her breathless response to his touch is a lure he can’t resist.
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On a voyage that takes them from tropical paradise to the glittering ballrooms of London, Thea and Drake are pulled into a firestorm of illicit passion. Thea knows that once they reach England, the secrets she’s been keeping will kill whatever Drake feels for her. But Drake’s own history has taught him the value of acceptance and the desolation of loss. Thea is the one women Drake has ever trusted with his heart, and he has no intention of losing her— not to the ghosts of the past or the threats of the present. But can he convince Thea to forget the hard lesson she’s learned and take a chance on love?
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Read an excerpt.

Tempt Me (Book 2)
4 Apr 06

I’m normally not a fan of misunderstandings between main characters when reading. Misunderstanding happens a number of time between Lucas and Irisa, but it’s mostly because of her innocence and naïveté, so it didn’t really bother me all that much because they would talk it out, argue it out, and go on. I actually had to laugh at these times because Lucas would become so frustrated not understanding the female gender, though he was at fault a few times himself and did not help the situation at hand.

Now the misunderstanding between Lucas and Irisa’s father is another matter altogether. It’s perpetrated by this poor excuse of a father to guarantee that Lucas would not back out of asking for Irisa’s hand; though at this point nothing mattered to Lucas, he wanted Irisa, and I was happy he felt that way. Of course, the misunderstanding comes to light too late, causing Irisa to once again take the blame on herself and try to give everyone an out to save their reputations at the expense of her own.

She’d been raised in a very unloving home, parents wanting her only for what she could bring upon her marriage. Irisa made sure she was biddable on everything except the choice of a husband. So turnabout is fair play, she blackmails her parents into refusing inappropriate suitors. That is until Lucas makes his request for her. All of her “properness” goes out the window once she’s engaged to the man, however, getting herself into trouble right and left with Lucas to the rescue every time. And still he chooses to stay with her instead of walking away.

Irisa expected him to walk away because she’s courting scandal just as Lucas’ mother and brother did and that’s the one thing he doesn’t want in a wife. He’s been a courtly gentleman for years in order to bring the family name back from ruin, but by the time Irisa manages all her trouble, his feelings are full blown for the girl and he refuses to lose her.

Even with the misunderstandings, I enjoyed these characters together. If they hadn’t talked things out, the story could have become quite worrisome, but it actually worked for me. And we’re set up very well for the last book in the trilogy, Jared’s story, which I really looked forward to while reading this one.

Grade: A

Summary:
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Humiliated by his family’s indiscretions, Lucas, Lord Ashton-nicknamed “The Saint” – wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with the prim and proper bride of his choice. And if the innocent young lady in question gives him some decidedly devilish urges, he is determined to control himself-much to her dismay.
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Lady Irisa Langley is at her wit’s end. Much as she loves her exasperatingly perfect fiancé, she’s starting to think it would be wrong of her to marry him. For Irisa has a secret that would shock even the world-weary denizens of the Ton, and someone-who doesn’t want her anywhere near Lucas-knows it.
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Lucas never knew that he could desire more in a bride than impeccable manners and an unblemished pedigree. But even as scandal looms, a loyal little spitfire with heated kisses and silken skin is making him forget every rule of etiquette he’s ever known…
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Read an excerpt.

Take Me (Book 3)
3 Oct 06

Of the three books, this is my favorite. I was actually curious about Jared, Thea’s twin and Irisa’s half brother. He is called “Lord Beast” by the ton due to the scars he bears from saving Irisa from a wolf attack when they were teenagers. He has his own estates and stays away from London society and cares not one whit about what they think of him. After he learns what his father did to his and Thea’s mother, he wants nothing more to do with his sire. So we pick up in Take Me after his father and stepmother have left London for an extended time to hopefully downplay the gossip that is sure to abound when the family scandal is let out.

Calantha is a widowed duchess, experiencing freedom for the past four yours after the death of her abusive husband. She’s closed herself off to all feeling, knowing she’ll never marry again. But when Jared seeks her out, shows interest in her, her heart begins to thaw, and especially more so when she finds out that he’s the one who took in her friend and former servant Mary when the girl disappeared from her home years before. But then she realizes that Jared sought her out only because Mary had asked him to bring her daughter, Hannah, to Calantha, to The Angel, as the ton calls her. Their attraction to one another keeps growing despite the circumstances and she finds herself wanting what she’s never had before, and they eventually marry so that they both can take care of Hannah.

But when Hannah is nearly kidnapped, all evidence points to Calantha and Jared and his family, all of whom she has come to love, look on her with suspicion, except for Irisa, who never doubts her innocence. This breaks Calantha’s heart because she trusts Jared completely and he can’t seem to have the same faith in her. As the entire family hunts down the villain, Calantha once again has to harden her heart with that regal duchess air she does well because she knows it will break her if she allows Jared to burrow any further into her life.

This book was so much more moving than the other two. I actually became misty-eyed several times at scenes dealing with Hannah and Calantha and Jared and then Jared’s realization of how he hurt Calantha with his doubts. And the scenes when Calantha see and touch Jared’s scars for the first time are wonderfully emotional.

Grade: A+

Summary:
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Jared, Viscount Ravenswood, has no choice but to honor the deathbed wish of his ailing servant. All she asks is that Jared introduce her soon-to-be orphaned daughter to the notorious and reclusive Calantha, Duchess of Clairborne. No ordinary request, for this is no ordinary child. She is, in fact, the key to the Duchess’s most private secrets, and to Jared’s own past-one that has branded him Lord Beast among the ton.
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But when the Viscount meets the Duchess, he finds not the pitiless dowager he expected, but a lovely and wary angel-survivor of a brutal marriage left now with only her roses and the breathtaking mystery that is her life. For Jared, to solve it is to fall in love, to make her believe in the impossible, and to follow the promise that comes with the most intimate whisper of all… Take me…
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Read an excerpt.

This is a terrific family trilogy and I highly recommend it!

Overall Grade: A

Sandy M’s Duckies Do Series reviews of the Oldest City Vampire Series by Nancy Haddock
Contemporary Paranormal Romance released by Berkley Apr 2008-May 2009

I’ve obviously had La Vida Vampire in the TBR pile, since it’s a year old now. Like a lot of the books I have, I meant to read it right after I received it. Time got away from me and then I recently received a copy of Last Vampire Standing and knew I had to get myself in gear. I’m sure glad I did because I had the best time with these two books. Besides just great writing and terrific characters, it’s the humor that caught me off guard and made these books so much fun. Ms. Haddock has a huge hit on her hands with this series.

La Vida Vampire (Book 1)
Released 1 Apr 08

In this first book we meet Cesca, our heroine, of course. She’s a psychic vampire princess who has just recently been discovered chained in a coffin buried under a Victorian house for the past couple of centuries. Maggie, who is now her sponsor, is in the process of renovating the mansion and she’s the one who finds Cesca and liberates her from her hellhole of a home. Being behind in life from fashion to pop culture, Cesca devours anything and everything she can by taking online classes, watching every DVD she can get her hands on, and working as a tour guide for Old Coast Ghost Tours in St. Augustine, Florida.

After her first few months of freedom pass relatively peacefully, suddenly her life becomes entangled with that of several of the folks who take her tour, culminating in the death of a French bride on her honeymoon.  Cesca is at first a suspect herself, questioned by the police and a preternatural special crimes investigator and former vampire slayer, Deke Saber. Cesca and Saber don’t hit it off in the beginning, but when threats and actual attempts are made on her life, Saber is the one to guard her and keep her safe while they investigate the other people from the tour who are under suspicion.

Aside from the growing relationship between these two, it’s the secondary characters that help make this book what it is. From gun-toting senior citizens to a vampire hater to a vampire lord and his minions, the laughter and the mystery take turns keeping a reader entertained.  Cesca is just trying to live a normal afterlife, playing bridge, surfing, things a young person would do. But it’s everyone else who makes her out to be something she’s not, except Saber. He’s the one who encourages her to learn more about the powers she should have, to be the vampire she is and not hide that fact like she’s been doing. I thoroughly enjoy these two together. They make a great team.

This is a terrific start to a light and fun series. Though the mystery is solved, we’ve given glimpses of a wizard and magical panther who know something Cesca and the reader don’t, and the author hooks you quite effectively so you just have to know what’s going to happen in the future. And, as I’ve said before, humor is a difficult element of writing to get right, to make it perfect, but Ms. Haddock does it beautifully. I am so glad I had the next book in the series in hand and ready to read once I finished this one.

Grade: A+

Summary:
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Being dead isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Take it from Francesca Marinelli, trapped underground for over 200 years and rediscovered during the renovation of a Victorian mansion in historic St. Augustine. A tourist attraction herself, she’s well suited for a job as an Old Ghost Town Tour guide. Francesca’s due for a new lease on afterlife-and with enough sunblock, she can finally live it.
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Unfortunately, everything she learned about men is a little dated. And when people in her tour group turn up dead, naturally the police suspect her. After all, she is a vampire. Which is why a crazed vampire-hunting vigilante squad is out to get her as well. Between the dead bodies, the stalkers, and a seriously non-existent love life, she’s starting to wish she was dead. Or at least buried, where she was safe.
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Read an excerpt.

Last Vampire Standing (Book 2)
Released 5 May 09

But when I actually got to this second book, I was slightly afraid, with the reading of the first chapter, that perhaps things would get a little too over the top with some silliness. I’m so happy to say I was totally wrong about that. We pick up with Cesca and Saber a year after the first book when Jo-Jo the jester appears out of nowhere. A vampire and former comedian, he has searched for Princess Cesca to ask for help in regaining his humor and timing to continue his career. From that, of course, all kinds of mystery and fun ensue.

Saber and Cesca are happy and content in their relationship. He’s still nudging her to learn and use more of her powers, and with Jo-Jo’s help she’s learning to fly, but it isn’t going very well. Cesca has spent so much time trying not to be a vampire that it’s difficult for her to now try to be one. Thus, her powers so far only come to her when she doesn’t think about it, and she needs them now more than ever because she’s coming face to face with vampire leaders who want her dead.

In the midst of all of this, she and Saber learn that a darkness is taking over these vampires, causing them to act abnormally. Another investigation begins and they end up going head to head with vamps while also trying to figure how an ancient friend of Cesca’s, who she hasn’t seen in eons, is involved in the whole crazy mess.

There’s a whole new set of characters who take Cesca’s walking ghost tour who figure into the evolving mystery. We also get a few answers (but only a few!) to the overall future mystery involving the elusive wizard and do see more of the shapeshifting panther, Pandora. We also learn some unforeseen information about Saber, which had me a tad scared for a minute. I’m glad my sneaking suspicion that he was going to be killed off was just a suspicion. I love Saber and he’d better be sticking around for the life of this series!

Grade: A+

Summary:
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With a new cottage, a fun job, and her hot hunk, Deke Saber, Cesca Marinelli’s afterlife in sunny Florida is brighter than ever. That is, until a vampire from the Atlanta nest crashes her housewarming party.
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Jo-Jo the Jester begs sanctuary with Cesca so he can pursue a stand-up comic career. Problem is, he brings more than bad jokes to town.
Can Cesca defeat both the psychotic vampire stalking her world, and the energy-eating plague targeting the vampire world? She must, or her life won’t be the only one at risk.
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Read an excerpt.

Included throughout these two books is the rich and varying history of St. Augustine. Writers usually write what they know and Ms. Haddock is doing a terrific job with information about this city she calls home. Again, the humor adds a whole new layer to the story; I laughed out loud a number of times.

I’m certainly hooked and look forward to the next installment!

Overall Grade: A+

Sandy M’s Duckies Do Series review of The House of Cards Trilogy by Barbara Metzger
Historical Romances released by Signet Sep 2005 – Jun 2006

I have not read Barbara Metzger before, and when I came across her trilogy, it was the perfect opportunity for me to try her books. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised, once I was done with it. It’s her humor that stood out the most for me.  A little wacky, but always a lot of fun, no matter which characters are involved. While this series isn’t 100 percent what I expected, it gave me a good enough look at Ms. Metzger’s work that I will pick up more of her books in the future.

Ace of Hearts (Book 1)
6 Sep 05

The Earl of Carde, Alexander Edicott Carde, “Ace” to his friends due to those initials he has,  knows he has to marry to beget heirs, but he refuses to marry without love.  Before he can even think any further than that and even begin a search for the proper wife, three options come at him out of the blue, three women he wants nothing to do with.  So he hightails it out of London to escape their clutches and to finally keep a deathbed promise to his father to find Lottie, Carde’s half-sister who was believed lost in a carriage accident in which her mother perished more than a decade earlier.

This leads him back to Nell, the young girl he remembers fondly before tragedy struck.  She’s turned into a beautiful woman, and while her station keeps him from pursuing her himself, he tries to now do right by her after his years of neglect, but the more he’s around her and the more he pushes her away, the more his heart won’t let her go.

I enjoyed the characters in this book, even those foppish men who think they’re good enough for Nell.  It’s the humor that makes even them likable.  I mean, when you laugh at the antics of a goose as it interacts with the hero and heroine, and none of it good for either one of them, the author has a way with humor.  Ms. Metzger does it beautifully.  This is a nice start to the trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading about Jack once he’s home from his stint in the military.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Never did Alexander “Ace” Endicott, the Earl of Cards, imagine himself to be thrice-betrothed against his will by the doings of three desperate debutantes. So he escapes London to his property in the country, where he follows through with his deceased father’s last wish-to find his long-lost step-sister. His search takes a detour and leads him to Nell, who piques his interest. Now, Ace may have to reconsider his rejection of marriage and see if two mismatched lovers can make a royal pair.

No excerpt available.

Jack of Clubs (Book 2)
7 Mar 06

Jack Endicott has just returned home from the war and he’s at loose ends.  He still feels he needs to prove himself to his older brother, the Earl of Carde, though Ace tells him it’s not necessary.  Ace is proud of his brother and his exemplary military service and he’d give Jack the shirt off his back if need be.  Both brothers still harbor some guilt over not yet finding their half sister as they’d promised their farther, so Jack decides to kill two birds, as the old saying goes.

He opens The Red and The Black, a high-end gaming hall, a business and an income of his own.  His proceeds will fund the search for Lottie, which is the other half of his business at the club where young women are visiting in droves when the word is out about the search.  What Jack gets along with all his success is an unexpected visit from Allie Silver, a teacher delivering to him his new ward, Harriett, the daughter of a fallen fellow soldier.

Allie is hopeful Captain Endicott will give Harriett a home and that he will also have need of a governess for her, because Allie has nowhere else to go.  A woman on her own rarely has luck with employment and any alternatives scare her silly.  Allie and Harriett do worm their way into Jack’s life and before he knows it, it’s like he’s never been without them.  Even Allie and her prim ways and attitude are growing on him, and he’s handling Harriett like he’s always meant to be a father.  Or so he thinks.

It’s Harriett and her antics that give this book its base for humor.  She’s a sly manipulator, especially when she realizes that she can have a true home at last with Papa Jack and Miss Allie.  Even with all that, though, this book fell a little short with the humor as compared with the first one.  It has its moments, however; they’re just fewer.  I enjoyed all the characters, especially the rag-tag team Jack hires to man his club.  We actually get several romances ongoing within the larger picture of Jack and Allie’s romance with all his employees falling in love around him.  A light and enjoyed read.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Years ago, Captain Jack Endicott’s half-sister vanished after a carriage accident. He now sets out to honor his father’s dying wish and find her. Jack plans to open a lavish gaming parlor and hire only beautiful ladies to deal cards, possibly finding his sister. All he needs is a little luck. Instead he finds prim schoolteacher Allie Silver, who needs a guardian for one of her most precocious pupils. With such an unlikely duo, all bets are off in a wild game of romance.

No excerpt available.

Queen of Diamonds (Book 3)
6 Jun 06

Queenie Dennis comes to London after her mother’s death to let the Endicott family know what happened to their half sister Charlotte years ago when she was abducted after a carriage accident in which her mother died. But when an accomplice to the crime tells her in no uncertain terms she would be tossed into prison for her part in the crime, she heads to France where she studies fashion design. Years later she’s back in England, determined to make a success of her fashions as Madame Denise Lescartes and to once again give what little information she has to a family who has suffered too long.

It’s on a fateful night that Lord Harry Harkness is searching for his no-good brother-in-law who has absconded with his family’s diamonds that he meets Madame Lescartes and they help each other out across London, Denise/Queenie to broadcast her fashions to the ladies of Town and Harry to get his hands on the family thief. The more they’re together, of course, the more they become attracted to each other, even though they both know London socieity would frown on any relationship because of Queenie’s rank.

I was rather disappointed in this book compared to the others. I was expecting the same humor I got in the previous two, but this book is a little darker. I found myself skipping sections after a while just to find some of that humor. While I didn’t find it in abundance, I did find some cute scenes, one where Harry ends up keeping order in Queenie’s shop when it becomes overrun by women wanting her dresses. It was rather fun to see him charm courtesans and the high-born in the same breath. But other that this scene, there are only a few more that qualify as cute or humorous. I’m sorry to say I was bored more than I laughed with this story.

Also, after three books, I wanted more time with this family hen they finally come together and are getting to know one another. Instead, it was only the last several pages of the book when the truth eventually comes out and Ace and Jack have their sister back. Not what I was hoping for at all.  It was just an overall let-down after the fun I had with the first two books.

And a note to Ms. Metzger: please have your webmaster add excerpts for your books to your website. Books that are only a few years old should have something to tell readers about them. There’s not one excerpt on your site, Ms. Metzger, even for your newest book just released.  Very, very frustrating!

Grade: C

All of London knows the story of the vanished Lady Charlotte Endicott and the handsome reward that will accompany her safe return. Scores of blond-haired, blue-eyed impostors have tried their luck at Jack Endicott’s casino claiming to be the girl, only to be turned away-but Queenie Dennis just might be the one. Fate takes a turn when she returns to London posing as a dressmaker fresh from France. Queenie quickly becomes the talk of the town, catching the eye of the handsome Lord Harkness. As her love for him grows, Queenie’s lies begin to catch up with her. Will Harkness call her bluff, or does love hold the winning hand?

No excerpt available.

Overall Grade: B

Lawson’s Duckies Do Series reviews of Traitor’s Kiss and Lover’s Kiss (Pennistan Family Series) by Mary Blayney
Historical romance released by Bantam 28 Oct 08

If I remember correctly, Traitor’s Kiss was supposed to come out earlier this year (April maybe?), but it was instead delayed until November and paired with next novel in the series about the Pennistan family, Lover’s Kiss. An interesting concept to say the least, though I’m not entirely sure why it was done. It does have a very pretty cover though. The two books in one follow two siblings in the Pennistan family, headed by the Duke of Meryon.

Traitor’s Kiss

The first story follows Lord Gabriel Pennistan, the third Pennistan sibling, and Charlotte Parnell, a woman of dubious origin. Gabriel is in a French prison in Le Harve after being captured as a spy in Portugal. Charlotte has been hired to spring him from jail and take him back to England by his family. Though Gabriel is very untrusting from the beginning, he does make it back to England, where Charlotte disappears. Gabriel is determined to find his rescuer, for more than just gratitude for his freedom.

Gabriel is a scientist, brought into spying in Portugal on an attempt to do something more with his life and make a difference in the world. When he’s caught, his circumstances, family and the vendetta of a French official against his father makes his life difficult in the prison. Gabriel is a good hero, if overly observant and with a quick fire temper. His skills of observation become grating through the story, as he does notice everything and thus figures everything out in the end and gets the girl.

Charlotte is carrying a lot of baggage from her marriage and the death of her husband. Though seen in Le Harve as a prostitute, she has another personal mission and is a master of disguise. She manages to fool everyone and accomplish her goals, and while she falls in love with Gabriel and demonstrates admirable qualities in relation to her personal quest, she still pushes everyone away in the defense that she’s broken and has iron for a heart and is not worth loving due to her treatment and some choices she made while married.

The story is interesting, with the prison break and escaping to England, and the ensuing search for a real life, but with Gabriel’s knowing everything due to observation and Charlotte always whining about the fact that she doesn’t deserve love due to her dead husband and how she acted, it took away what could have been a sweet love story based on redemption and what it means to make a difference in the world.

Grade: C

Lover’s Kiss

This story opens with Michael Garrett going through the woods in the Peak District and seeing a nearly naked woman. He rescues her from near death, as it’s very cold, and though she doesn’t tell him the whole truth about herself at first, does manage to get her home safely, as she’s Lady Olivia Pennistan. Michael is then hired to protect Olivia and the Pennistan family castle, since Olivia had been kidnapped.

Though she’s stubborn, Michael enjoys Olivia’s other traits and innocence as he’s spent the last seven years as spy in France. He’s seen the worst of humanity and committed various bad deeds and feels he needs to start his life new, and saving Olivia in his mind is the start of his path to redemption. Michael is a good hero. He knows his faults, strengths and works with them well. He’s not overbearing, but he’s not afraid to do what’s necessary either. A good, strong, quiet sort of Alpha hero.

Olivia came across as childish, spoiled and overly stubborn. From the start there wasn’t much to recommend her, even though she had been kidnapped and near death in the woods. She never trusted Michael, and even suspects him of being one of her kidnappers up until the point when he takes her to the vicar’s house in town. She’s also overly obsessed with food. While that’s fine, an aristocratic lady of the time would not have cooked the family meals and spent her whole day in the kitchen. Her childish tendencies made her want to hide from the rest of the world in the kitchen and not deal with real life.

I don’t normally quote things, but one line summed up my irritation with Olivia best, as she’s just broken up a boxing match (and got knocked unconscious in the process) between her brother David and Michael about the fact that David found her sleeping on Michael’s bed:

“What were you thinking Olivia?”
…
“See if you had come to me, none of this would have happened”.

Then she cries. It just makes no sense that Michael, being logical and practical would fall in love with someone so selfish, childish and impulsive. The kidnapping storyline moved the plot along, but in the end it was pretty useless, though I could see some desperate person perhaps planning that sort of thing. Michael was the best part of the story, the focus on the kitchen the worst (who knew I’d say that about food!) and Olivia just a child who gets patted on the head for her eccentricities.

Grade: D

It’d be interesting to see where this story goes, as there are three Pennistan brothers left, and the epilogue sets up the story for the Duke and possibly Jess, who wasn’t seen in either story.

Overall Grade: C-

 The Summaries:

This beguiling pair of novels from author Mary Blayney delivers a double dose of romance and intrigue as two people from one extraordinary family find themselves on the right—and wrong—sides of love, and the law.…

Traitor’s Kiss
When an enigmatic beauty rescues accused traitor Lord Gabriel Pennistan from a French prison cell, it’s just the beginning of an adventure in mystery and seduction. For Gabriel has no idea who Charlotte Parnell is, or why she has saved him… and Charlotte has underestimated the sensual stranger who awakens in her a passion that culminates in a night of exquisite lovemaking. But when she abruptly vanishes, Gabriel will not rest until he finds her—no matter what the cost.…

Lover’s Kiss
In her worst nightmares, Lady Olivia Pennistan never imagined she would be kidnapped. And retired soldier Michael Garrett never expected to be her rescuer. But he could hardly ignore the naked young beauty scrambling through the forest. Neither anticipates sharing a kiss—or wanting another. The final surprise comes when Garrett is hired to protect Olivia and her family from the insidious threats that persist. As their simmering attraction ignites, rumors of Olivia’s indiscretion surface—rumors she longs to make come true.…

Read an excerpt

Sandy M’s Duckies Do Series reviews of the Immortal Witches Series by Maggie Shayne
Historical/Contemporary Paranormal Romances released Dec 98 – Jan 02

Witch stories run either hot or cold for me.  I have to admit, most don’t do much for me, while a few I totally love.  This series is one I absolutely love.  I enjoyed everything about it, from the characters to the storyline to the villain.  I really like how Ms. Shayne overlaps the characters from book to book, intertwines the storylines while still making each story individual to the current hero and heroine, all the while still giving us the romance we look for.

Eternal Love (Books 1 & 2) (Reissue of Eternity and Infinity)
Released by Berkley Trade 6 Nov 07

Eternity (Book 1)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Dec 98

Raven is a young girl living with her mother in the times when anything unexplained scared people spitless and they accused innocent men and women of witchcraft.  She grows up knowing nothing of her heritage or her power and magic.  It is only as both she and her mother are about to be hanged that she learns everything.  And it is also when she finds the one man meant for her, the only one in the crowd who rails against the wrong done to her and her mother.  But not even he can do anything to save them and Raven’s life ends as he helplessly watches.

Coming back to life later is when Raven begins to learn who and what she truly is.  During the ensuing confusion, it is Duncan who dies trying to save Raven once again, and though she knows he will return to her because of his selfless act of love, it is three hundred years of loneliness she must endure before finding love again.

Of course, it’s never quite that easy either.  Duncan doesn’t remember Raven when they meet again, but he is drawn to her.  Love never dies, as they say, and in this book that is done so very well.  Evil doesn’t seem to die either.  Shayne has created several terrific villains for this series of books.  While Raven, and now Duncan, is a Light High Witch, there are also Dark High Witches, just as immortal but they must consistently kill a Light High Witch and keep their eternal-beating hearts so that they may live a stronger life.  This is done throughout the series, always in a different way, and it’s in the next book that we see it more up close and personal.

These first two books begin in the past for the characters, going through their first death, and then coming at last to present day, still fighting to stay alive and find their true love once again.  Portions of each book are also told in first person, which I enjoy — I’m a throw-back from the days of Victoria Holt, who was a master at first person — but I know there’s plenty of you out there who don’t care for it.  Don’t let that stop you from reading this series, though.  These are not the mundane witch stories we normally see.  There’s so much more going on and done in such a different way that you really don’t want to miss a word.

Grade: A+

Summary:Three hundred years ago, Raven St. James was accused of witchcraft… Only one man tried to free her from the hangman’s noose–Duncan, the town minister, who died trying to save her.Three hundred years later, the accused witch still lives and longs for her love… At last, after centuries of loneliness, Raven has found her precious Duncan. But as he awakens to the passion of his past life, so too does the evil that tore them apart. Now Raven and Duncan must prove their love for all eternity…

Infinity (Book 2)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Oct 99

We met Arianna in Eternity and learned the story of how she was able to save her sister Raven from death, knowing she would be reunited with her in the future. Once again, though, we are first taken into the past to see where Arianna hails from.  We meet her there after Raven has died and we learn how her family has basically fallen apart because of that death.  Arianna seems determined to rebel at every little thing in reaction, even defying her laird as much as she can.  It’s only Nicodimus who can rein her in, just barely.

Arianna knows nothing of her own immortality, though she’s been associating with the local “witches,” and that only fuels the gossip in a superstitious village.  It’s when she pushes everyone and everything too far that the laird demand she marry, hopefully to a man who can control her.  The only man she’ll have, however, is Nic.

As drawn as he is to the little hellion, Nic hesitates when it comes to her ultimatum of marriage.  He’d been married once and it tore his heart and soul to pieces when his family perished.  He’s sworn not to give of himself like that ever again, but he also can’t stop the jealousy when the laird’s sons show their own interest in Arianna.  So he marries her, but his plan is to live his life as usual, going back to his nomadic ways so that the evil that follows him will not harm those he loves.

Arianna wants none of that, but in the end nothing she can say will stop her husband from leaving her behind.  But as all plans are wont to do, evil rears its ugly head and it’s Nic who pays the ultimate price, his heart stolen by a dark witch.  It’s five hundred years later when Arianna discovers that there is a way to bring back those whose hearts are to beat alone forever.  Her only fear is that Nic won’t be able to forgive her for the one act she regrets with everything in her.

This time the first person is told from Nic’s point of view, which I found very compelling.  I also really liked that Duncan and Raven from Eternity are very present in this book, all without giving up anything of Nic and Arianna’s romance. So many nuances throughout each previous books are interwoven into each succeeding one to make it so much more complex.  This book is a terrific followup and we’re set up quite nicely for the next in the series.

Grade: A+

Summary:For five centuries, Immortal High Witch Nicodimus has been suspended in an eternity of darkness. His heart was stolen away in the ultimate betrayal by his love Arianna… Now Arianna discovers a way to bring him back. But the power that returns Nicodimus to her arms also summons an ancient enemy. To fight this dark danger, they must confront the past–and reclaim infinity…

Immortal Desire (Books 3 and 4) (Reissue of Destiny and Immortality)
Released by Berkley Trade 4 Dec 07

Destiny (Book 3)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Feb 01

Nidaba is the truly mysterious character we meet throughout the series.  We’re not even sure for the longest time if she’s an immortal witch, but we do know she has some connection to Nicodimus from Infinity.  In this book we learn of the characters’ history throughout the story instead of at the beginning as we did in the previous books.

Nidaba was a childhood friend of Prince Eannatum of Sumer.  She was a priestess who would be called upon for the Sacred Marriage Rite when the prince married, but before that could happen they fell in love and Natum wanted only Nidaba, even though his father had arranged a marriage to the daughter of a neighboring ruler so that their countries, once united, would reign over the entire land.  Knowing love and passion at his hands, Nidaba knows she can never truly have him.

Leaving with the knowledge she carries his son, something that will at least remind her of the man she loves, she tries to do what is best for all concerned.  When Natum’s attempts to find her end in disaster, he goes on alone, married to a woman he can never love, one who is only power hungry and believes she loves him but doesn’t really know the true meaning of the word.

Centuries later Nathan King is shocked to discover Nidaba in a hospital, under watch to prevent her from hurting herself.  Stealing her away is the only answer so that people will not know who and what she is.  Slowly but surely Nidaba returns to her former self but is still not the woman Nathan knew so long ago.  It was the loss of her son that precipitated her capture by the dark witch who tortured her and experimented on her, putting her through death and rebirth over and over again so that the woman Nathan knew seems truly lost forever.

There is still enough of her buried deep within, so he tries everything to get back what they once shared.  It’s been years since he’s had to fight evil, choosing instead to live among humans, living like he is just a man, but it is Nidaba who brings home to him he is an ancient prince, an immortal High Witch and he should live and fight as one.

In this book is where Ms. Shayne really brings things full circle, giving us all the pieces that fit together like a perfect interlocking puzzle.  Duncan, Raven, Nic, and Arianna all make appearances and are very much part of the story and the resolution.   No first person in this one.  As much as I liked the history of the characters being given at the beginning of the story in the first two books, it works in this one that it’s given throughout because of the way they find each other once again.  And at the end we’re set up perfectly for the last part in the series.

Grade: A+

Summary:She is Nidoba – a immortal High Witch so ancient, so legendary, that for thousands of years she has been the ultimate prize, relentlessly pursued by Dark Witches, she has eluded all who would kill her…until a mother’s grief makes her reckless and she is captured by a madman. After endless physical and mental torment, she escapes, but her captivity has damaged her spirit as well as her body. And though the wounds to her body have healed, the scars on her mind and soul remain.

After more than four thousand years, her destiny has finally found her…

Nathan King now has the peace he craved in the life he created for himself – until the day he sees her again. Can it really be Nidabe – the love he thought lost to him so many centuries ago? But the woman he finds is not the fierce, proud girl of his cherished memories – now her eyes are haunted by a pain so deep, and a hatred so bitter it divides them still. but if he is to understand the source of her anguish and reclaim the passion that was once theirs, he must face the truth that the evil that tore them apart once again stands between them and their chance at forever.

Immortality (Book 4) (from the Out of This World anthology)
Initial release by Jove 8 Aug 01

This novella picks up immediately where Destiny leaves off, only now from the point of view of Puabi, the wife of King Enntanum four thousand years earlier.  She is tired of trying to gain Natum’s love, even in the modern world where he calls himself Nathan King, and when Nidaba is once again in Nathan’s life, Puabi has to again fight them both just as she did before.  And as they did before, they have beaten her, left her to die in the fire that is devouring Nathan’s home, and Puabi has at long last lost her will to live.  Throwing herself over the cliffs into the ocean, she welcomes death, somehow knowing that her immortality will not save her this time.

It’s not immortality but Matthew Fairchild who saves Puabi this time around.  He’s ensconced himself on his private island to grieve for his wife and child who he’s recently lost when he discovers Puabi in the waters just offshore.  He’s stunned when he realizes her resemblance to his dead wife and and he feels a pull to this woman that he’s never experienced before.   It’s during their efforts to outrun an approaching storm that the truth is revealed and Matthew finds out what really happened to his wife and son.

I wasn’t sure I’d like this short story all that much because it’s about one of the villains of the last two books, but Ms. Shayne pulls it off and you want Puabi to finally find happiness if at all possible.  With a couple of twists here and there, she does pull it off and gives a different happily ever after than we’ve gotten with the previous three books.  A good story, not quite as good as the others, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Grade: A-

Summary:

Her name is Puabi—and she’s an Immortal High Witch whose past is littered with dark secrets. Convinced she has eluded death for the last time, she is shocked to find herself being rescued by a mysterious stranger who fills her with a desire she thought was lost forever…

His name is Matthew Fairchild—and he is a millionaire tormented by guilt over the tragic death of his wife. The last thing he expected to encounter was a beautiful woman who possessed an uncanny resemblance to the woman he loved and lost. But Puabi is like no one he’s ever met before. Is it possible this enigmatic beauty can heal the bitter wounds that have nearly cost him his heart?

This is a terrific series of books with complex characters and plot, storytelling that is compelling, and love and romance portrayed with longing, integrity, and that is never ending. These books will be sitting on my shelf for quite a long time.

  Overall Grade:  A+

Limecello’s Duckies Do Series reviews of The Awesome Foursome Series by Susan Lyons
Erotic romance published by Aphrodisia Feb 06 – Apr 08

Ever finish a book, where after you bask in the afterglow of the ending, you want to jump up and make everyone you know read it? If you haven’t, or are looking for more, have I got four (yes four) suggestions for you! The books Susan Lyons writes are sexy, smart, and have real humanity. I read each of the Awesome Foursome books in 1-2 sittings, staying up til 4 AM to finish them. (And I did the exact same thing the second, and third+ time around.)

The Awesome Foursome is a group of women who meet through yoga. They bitch about class in the locker room, and decide they’d all rather be eating and hanging out than exercising. Suzanne Brennan is a veterinary student, Jenny Yuen is a journalist, Ann Montgomery is a harried lawyer, and Rina Goldberg is a professional musician. All the men Suz, Jen, Ann, and Rina end up with are equally as diverse and fun. I’m so glad we’re doing the “Duckies Do Series” reviews, because this is the perfect format for the Awesome Foursome.

Champagne Rules (Book 1)
Released 1 Feb 06

Suzanne Brennen, the girl next door, and Jaxon Navarre, over worked litigator, have a host of issues to deal with. Suzanne lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Jaxon lives in San Francisco, California. More importantly, they haven’t had any sort of interaction during the past four years, and before that, only one afternoon while they were (separately) vacationing in Crete.

Suzanne and Jax reconnect over the Internet – and end up having lots of steamy cybersex. They agree to meet, resulting in Jaxon going to Vancouver for a visit. The chemistry is instantaneous, but both play it safe. After all, what do they really know about each other? Suzanne and Jax come up with rules – their arrangement is purely physical. No emotional ties, no demands, none of the heavy stuff. They’re just like champagne – if you drink it every day, it gets flat. Thus, the Champagne Rules are born.

The distance forces Suzanne and Jaxon to be creative with their love life, although they don’t have any compatibility issues in the bedroom – or out of it. More visits and conversations lead to another important factor – life goals. The relationship forces introspection on both Suzanne and Jaxon, and in the end, a revision of their rules.

What really impressed me specifically was the fact that Jaxon is Black, and an eminently believable character. Normally, stereotypes come out of the woodwork – where it seems the author wanted to address racism, but didn’t really know how to go about dealing with it, making the issue fall flat. Not so here. Racism is serious, and Ms. Lyons treats it very respectfully, but it never bogs down the book. She weaves different concerns and controversies together artfully, where each one works to support the plot, not distract from it.

Grade: A+

RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

When Suzanne Brennan met Jaxon Navarre, she ad yet to experience the ultimate in pleasure.. but his tender initiation made her wildest dreams come true. Their brief, passionate affair had nothing at all to do with … forever. Four years later, the same rules apply. Keep it light. Keep it simple. And keep it sexy. Very, very sexy. In Jax’s bed, Suzanne finds that desire goes deeper than she ever imagined and erotic pleasure has a whole new meaning. But when it comes right down to it, she’s ready to break every rule in the book for him…

Read an excerpt here.

Hot in Here (Book 2)
Released 1 Aug 06

Jenny Yuen is a very interesting character for a myriad of reasons. First of all, she’s about 5’, 100 lbs, with long gorgeous black hair – but her personality is about twice her size, and as outrageous as her parents would like her to be demure. Jenny lives at home, because of her family, and has to deal with their demands that she marry a nice Chinese boy, and follow their rules. Jenny finds their involvement chafing, but stays out of love and respect for family. (I got the impression that Jenny is Cantonese, but I could be wrong.)

Scott is a firefighter, and in a way he has the same issues as Jenny. He loves what he does and it’s his dream job. Unfortunately his family doesn’t approve of his career choice. They’re German immigrants and farmers, and they want Scott to carry on the family business. I loved that Scott was serious about Jenny first, and that he was the one that took the first steps into making sure they had a real relationship.

The way Scott and Jenny experience pressure from their loved ones is something that brings them together, although they deal with it in very different ways. Because Jenny knows Scott is not someone her family would approve of, she thinks a relationship would be doomed from the start. However, Jenny can’t deny the off the charts chemistry, and is unwilling to give up their sexy trysts. Taking her cues from Suzanne and Jaxon, Jenny creates a set of rules for herself and Scott. Fantasy rules. Each time they get together, they’ll take turns acting out a fantasy one of them has. Thus, they’re both satisfied, but won’t expect anything beyond mutual, physical satisfaction.

It was nice to see how both characters grew throughout the book, and the crazy sexcapades they get into were also quite enjoyable. Not to mention how they met. And everything in between, with the subtle “public service announcements” and banter between the characters. You have to read this book.
Grade: A

RESCUE ME

Journalist Jenny Yuen lands a very steamy assignment: cover a firefighter calendar competition. Her personal favorite? Mr. February. Also known as Scott Jackman. Also known as hot…

Read all about it: the sexy rookie is the man of Jenny’s dreams – her wildest dreams. She’s up for a wickedly sensual game if they play by their very own set of rules: No taboos. No holding back. No commitment. But the desire they feel is impossible to control… and even harder to resist…

Read an excerpt here.

Touch Me (Book 3)
Released 1 Sep 07

Ann Montgomery and Adonis Stefanikis are as different as black and white. Ann is a career driver lawyer, and feels as plain and straight laced as her name. Adonis, by all accounts easily lives up to his namesake, the male beloved by both Aphrodite and Persephone. Adonis also isn’t concerned with what a “modern man” might cherish. He’s a healer, and a gifted masseur, and is happy to travel the world, following the warm weather. Adonis isn’t concerned with material wealth, and has few possessions, refusing to put down roots.
All of this seems tame, but the story is spiced up with all that tantric sex Adonis practices with Ann. Aside from all the fun there, this angle is legitimate, and works in the story. Adonis’s application of tantric sex fits into his personality perfectly – not only him being laid back and taking things slow, but how and where he learned it. And it’s a major factor in helping Ann slow down. There’s also a minor love triangle of sorts, and I love a little competition in romance.

As usual, the couple has a set of rules – they take turns being in charge. Ann is very goal oriented, and for Adonis, it’s the journey that matters. Applying that rule to their encounters results in a good thing, either way.

Grade: A

SKIN TO SKIN

Rub me down. Love me up. Ann Montgomery can’t get enough of Adonis, her new massage therapist. He’s hot, he’s hard, and his big, warm hands are melting away every one of her inhibitions. Naked on his table, needing all he can give, Ann surrenders to his sensual touch in intimate sessions that have her begging for more…

Slowly, skillfully, Adonis unleashes a wild side of her – and a fierce desire that will never be satisfied in just one night…

Read an excerpt here.

She’s on Top (Book 4)
Released 1 Apr 08

I literally danced around my house when I saw that this book had arrived, and with good cause. Rina Goldberg a gifted musician, a beautiful person inside and out, but has a number of body image issues. Giancarlo Mancini is a music video director, but he met Rina at a music camp in Banff when they were both only seventeen. They reconnect after Rina’s boyfriend (not Giancarlo) proposes to her, which ends up being a very good thing.

I loved following the developments of Rina and Giancarlo’s relationship. The way they learn about each other, and how facets of their personalities are revealed. It was nice to see them dealing with issues, with Rina and Giancarlo truly discussing their reservations. Most novels simply skip past that, or end before such an occurrence.

As usual, there were the Foursome lunches, dinners, and emergency meetings. It was nice to get the updates and cameo appearances by the previous three heroines. I re-read this book most recently, and was squeeing to myself near the end.

Grade: A+

Music is Rina Goldberg’s passion and she can never forget the sensual rhapsody she experienced in the arms of Giancarlo, her first lover. Ten years later, Giancarlo is sexier and more romantic than ever. His masterful fingers still know how to create the most intimate melody and pleasure and he understands every nuance of a woman’s sensuality. And Rina is the only woman he wants. Their passionate encore takes her to a glorious, unforgettable climax… and there’s more where that came from. Much more…

Read an excerpt here.

I loved every one of these books. There’s something that every reader can relate to in each story, and see parts of themselves in Suzanne, Jenny, Ann, and Rina. I think it’s fantastic how Ms. Lyons manages to effortlessly weave important, serious topics together with such sexy dialogue and heat. She doesn’t beat you over the head with her themes, but they do get you thinking. The friendship, the setting, concerns and emotions just leaped off the page and gripped me. I felt that I really got to know the characters and their personalities. The writing is impressive I’m refraining myself from all the gushiness that wants to well up, because this are just a fabulous books. Terrific.

My only complaint about the series is I wish it were longer. I finished each book thinking “I want more” after turning the last page (especially after She’s on Top, when all the characters meet). There’s so much to each story a simple review doesn’t do it justice, there’s a depth and complexity to Ms. Lyon’s writing that few authors achieve with such effortless and engaging prose.

Overall Grade: A+

With her deliciously tempting Awesome Foursome Series, Susan Lyons introduced four friends who broke every single one… and found out just how much fun it is to be bad. And the fun never ends…

Shannon C‘s Duckies Do Series reviews of Dragon Knights (Books 1-4) by Bianca D’Arc
Erotic fantasy romance eBooks released by Samhain Feb 2006 – Feb 2007

A friend of mine actually recommended this series to me quite some time ago. She says it was at least a year ago, but I think she’s lying. In any event, I loved Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and figured that the adult version, where everyone’s grown-up and there’s lots of consensual sex would be fun. And these books really are amazingly fun. 

Maiden Flight (Book 1)
Released 14 Feb 06

I didn’t really expect to be so charmed by this start of the series. One of the heroes and the heroine pretty much fall into instant lust, and the rest of the story is basically about integrating Belora, the heroine, into life as the mate of a bonded Dragon Knight. In this opening installment of the series, Ms. D’Arc gives us just enough of the world of her books to explain what’s going on. It never felt infodumpy, and it all made sense. And while this book does spend a lot of time setting up the sequel, I thought it did so in a way that added to, rather than detracted from, the main story at hand. Plus, I was really impressed that Ms. D’Arc could sell me on the kind of triad where the two guys in question aren’t actually interested in each other. All I ask is a little bit of an explanation, even if it is “just call it dragon magic, honey.”

I didn’t entirely buy the romance in this book, because while it was hot, it seemed to have come about through author fiat rather than any true feelings from the characters involved. Normally, this would bother me a lot, but I liked the other aspects to the story, and if the characters weren’t as realized as I’d like, it still didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Grade: B

Summary:

First in the Dragon Knights series.

War is coming for the knights, dragons, and a damsel who is not quite in distress, but finds her heart’s desire in the strong men of the Border Lair.

A chance meeting with a young male dragon seals the fate of one adventurous female poacher. The dragon’s partner, a ruggedly handsome knight named Gareth, takes one look at the shapely woman and decides to do a little poaching of his own.

Sir Gareth not only seduces her, but falls deeply in love with the girl who is not only unafraid of dragons but also possesses the rare gift to hear their silent speech. He wants her for his mate, but mating with a knight is no simple thing. To accept a knight, a woman must also accept the dragon, the dragon’s mate … and her knight too.

She is at first shocked, then enticed by the lusty life in the Lair. War is in the making and only the knights and dragons have a chance at ending it before it destroys their land and their lives. But there’s nothing a knight enjoys more than a noble quest and winning the heart and trust of a maiden is the noblest quest of all.

Warning, this title contains explicit sex and ménage a trois.

Read an excerpt.

Border Lair (Book 2)
Released 23 May 06

This story picks up directly after where Maiden Flight left off. It features Adora, the mother of the heroine in the first book. Adora is kind of a cheesy name, but if that’s really all I have to complain about, we’re doing pretty good.

In this installment, Adora finds love with Jared, the knight bonded to Kelzy, a dragon she has always thought of as a mother figure. Jared wants Adora. Adora wants Jared. But Jared has been carrying lots of guilt over the loss of his first wife and his young son. It will take the presence of a handsome ambassador from a neighboring kingdom with whom the dragons are at war to convince them both to act on their feelings.

I really loved this book. All three of our human protagonists go through a lot in their own rights. I loved the little dance Adora and Jared did around each other, both wanting and afraid to ask. It made the sexual tension positively sizzle. And the third member of their triad is an awesome hero in his own right, not as scarred emotionally as the other two, but a generally good-hearted person.

In fact, I have to say that Ms. D’Arc writes some amazing beta heroes. In all of the books, someone says that they would rather die than hurt their heroine, and in the case of all these men, I absolutely believe it.

The plot is just as interesting, and the book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as it is discovered that the twin daughters Adora had taken away from her are still alive.

Grade: A-

Summary:

War has come to the Border Lair, but as enemies become allies — and lovers — hope springs anew for the dragons and their knights.

A young widow, Adora raised her daughter by herself, but her girl is married now. Can Adora find a love of her own in the crowded Border Lair? Dare she even try?

Lord Darian Vordekrais is about to turn traitor, giving up his title, his lands, and his home in order to warn the dragons and knights of his treacherous king’s evil plan. Will his life be forfeit or is there some way he can make a new life in a foreign land?

Sir Jared lost his wife and child to treachery, but he knows Lord Darian and trusts him. Both men admire the lovely Adora, but Jared’s broken heart is frozen in solid ice. Or is it?

As war comes to the border, the knights and dragons of the Border Lair rise to the occasion. New allies rally to their side. Love blossoms and grows even as evil invades the land. The knights and dragons must stand fast against the onslaught, the beautiful woman of royal blood bringing them hope, healing and love.

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, ménage a trois.

Read an excerpt.

The Ice Dragon (Book 3)
Released 29 Aug 06

One of the things I love most about these books is that they each lead seamlessly into the next, and are so compulsively readable that I kept going from one book to the next. This is something I almost never do.

Alania, one of Adora’s missing twins, has been a slave of the evil king Salomar in the north. Salomar at one point stole a dragon egg and made Lana tend it, hoping to watch the always fun sport of baby dragon dining on human flesh. Unfortunately for Salomar, Lana finds that she can talk to the dragonet, who calls himself Tor, and the two develop an immediate rapport. Eventually, they escape, and, a couple of years later, end up rescuing a black dragon as it falls from the sky. The black dragon is badly wounded, but Lana uses her innate dragon healing abilities. Of course, the rare black dragon is Roland, whom we learn in the first books in the series is the king of Draconia, and he wants Lana.

It was the dragons that made this book for me. I loved Tor, who is so obviously a precocious child. I imagine if he’d been human he would have irritated me because he is just too cute for words, but he wasn’t and he didn’t. And yet again, we have an absolutely awesome hero in the form of Roland, who is fiercely devoted to Lana and wants the best for her. I totally bought their romance, and loved watching Lana come into her own. Other revelations are made at the end of this book that move the overall story arc further, and the epilogue ends on the right note to segue into the fourth book.

Grade: B+

Summary:

A wild Northern Ice Dragon and the girl who raised him save the life of a fierce, shapeshifting royal black dragon, only to have him save them in return…with his love.

Third book in the Dragon Knights series.

When a royal black dragon falls under enemy fire, only the wild Northern Ice Dragon and his unlikely female rider can save him. Half wild, like the baby Ice Dragon she calls friend, Lana is a rare and powerful dragon healer. She saves the life of the royal black, only to learn this most sacred of dragons is half-man, able to shift from one form to the other at will.

Roland is king of all dragons and humans in his land but he’s far from home, mortally wounded, and his only refuge is the incredible woman who has saved his life and her young wild dragon friend. Lana is the purest form of magic to him, heaven to his senses in both dragon and human form. He knows almost from the first moment that he wants her for his very own.

But a warlord plots in the north, seeking to kill the dragons, who protect the northern border, and overrun Roland’s peaceful kingdom. Lana and her incredibly skilled Ice Dragon friend are the only ray of hope for the knights and fighting dragons of the Northern Lair. Just as Lana is the only love Roland will ever know. He can reunite her with her lost family, but can he win her heart and make her his queen?

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex explained in graphic terms.

Read an excerpt.

Prince of Spies (Book 4)
Released 6 Feb 07

There was a lot going on in this fourth book. We meet up again with Nico, known in his kingdom as the Prince of Spies, as he lets himself be captured by the evil king of Skithdron. He is intrigued by the poor starving waif of a healer that the king has tied to his bed. It turns out she is Arikia, Adora’s other lost daughter. They make their escape and begin a long journey home.

I loved these two characters. Riki is a pretty damaged woman, and I loved Nico’s devotion to her. Nico is just an awesome hero, and I really could buy that he was a spy. Unfortunately, at one point the plot takes center stage and veers into “Oh, for Pete’s sake” territory as Nico and Riki find themselves embroiled in a mysterious prophecy. But while I was reading, I very much enjoyed the book, so I’ll forgive the author for taking the plot in a direction I didn’t personally like.

Grade: B

Summary:

Prince Nico is a cunning master of stealth, but can he master a maiden’s fragile heart?

Fourth book in the Dragon Knights series, but can be read on its own.

Prince Nico is known as the Prince of Spies for a reason. Not only is he the Spymaster of Draconia, but he’s a cunning shapeshifter able to take the form of a dragon at will. The gift of his royal heritage comes in handy as Spymaster for the king, but it’s a great secret known only to a few.

Riki lives in misery, chained up to serve a mad king’s perverted magic. Forced to use her draining healing skills to keep King Lucan of Skithdron alive, Riki is a shadow of the woman she should be.

Nico knows Riki is the woman he’s been searching for and wastes no time breaking them both out of the enemy palace. Thus starts an adventure that will take them across two countries, through peril and danger, and the discovery of an undeniable love and mutual respect. Will Nico have the courage to let her fly free, trusting she’ll return to him, or will his love smother the fledgling beauty who is breathing free air for the first time in her tragic life?

Warning, this title contains explicit sex explained in graphic terms and scenes of ménage a trois.

Read an excerpt.

There are two other books in this series, but since the first four revolve around related heroines, I’ll be reviewing the next two individually.

Overall Grade: B

Limecello’s reviews of The Secret Circle Trilogy by L.J. Smith
Contemporary Young Adult romance released by Harper Teen Sep – Nov 92, re-released Jul and Dec 08

I own the original trilogy, and decided to review them for a number of reasons. First, I recently re-read them. Next (and more importantly?) Sybil has been pushing the Young Adult angle. Lastly, these books are being republished – the first volume is already out, and the second is coming out in December. Perfect timing, no? Getting to the point – I loved this series. I believe I originally read them shortly after they were published, and I was hooked. Written before the whole paranormal wave, these books toe the line between a contemporary and paranormal YA book. I’m almost surprised I like these books so much, because I generally can’t stand series that don’t have definite ending with each novel. These books, however, are just that good.

The Initiation (The Secret Circle Volume I)
Originally released 15 Sep 92, re-released 22 Jul 08 (with Part I, Vol. II)
[Ed.: Float your cursor over the book cover image to see the original 1992 cover.]

Cassie Blake is an unlikely heroine. She’s quiet, shy, and dreamy. She’s also in well over her head. Her mother picked them up and moved from California, to New Salem, Massachusetts. As if that’s not enough, Cassie has to start at a new school halfway through high school, where things are different, and seem a little wrong. She finds out the kids who live on Crowhaven road (where she also lives) – are witches. (Cassie actually accepts this very easily, having been on the receiving end of certain coven member’s powers.)

After the initial hazing Cassie experiences, the coven leader Diana steps in and becomes Cassie’s surrogate big sister, and best friend. Little does Cassie know, her summer crush is Adam, Diana’s boyfriend. (He’s absent for the majority of the first book.) The first books ends with Cassie just finding her footing, and finally being accepted albeit tentatively into the group.

Grade: B+

The Circle’s Power Has Lured Her Home…

Alone, Cassie must confront a shattering challenge: an ordeal that could cost her live or gain her more than she’s ever imagined…

Seduced by the Secret Circle, she’s initiated into the mysterious “in crowd,” a coven of young witches whose power has controlled New Salem for three hundred years.

Hopelessly in love with the coven leader’s boyfriend, Cassie risks falling prey to dark powers in order to have him. But if she does, her endless love could destroy the coven, New Salem, and her!

… And she will emerge the leader or perish!

The Captive (The Secret Circle, Volume II), Parts I and II
Originally released 15 Oct 92, Part I re-released 22 Jul 08 (with Vol. I) and Part II re-released 23 Dec 08 (with Vol. III)
[Ed.: Float your cursor over the book cover image to see the original 1992 cover.]

It’s now fall, and Cassie is truly embroiled in the politics of the coven, and school. Faye, Diana and Cassie’s nemesis spied Cassie and Adam saying goodbye, and is blackmailing Cassie. Even though Cassie is becoming more comfortable in her skin and with the group (have I mentioned that all the coven members are ridiculously attractive?), she still can’t quite believe her friendship with the popular kids.

However, Cassie has more important things to worry about – she has to find dates to the school dances, hide her attraction to Adam from everyone else, as well as the fact that Faye is blackmailing her, and discover the source of the black magic that is killing people in town. (First the girl who was supposed to be initiated rather than Cassie, the school principal, and a basketball star.) Everyone is getting nervous, and the “normal” humans are beginning to blame the coven members. Add to that all the coven business and ceremonies/celebrations, making Cassie one busy girl.

The final pages of The Captive culminate in both an end, and a beginning. The leadership vote is taken, and power shifts from good to evil, with Diana losing the coven leader status to Faye. Cassie is convinced she’s evil, and it seems her secret love of Adam is about to be revealed. It’s quite dramatic, and ensures you’ll read the last book.

Grade: A-

Can The Secret Circle Survive…

Lured into the most popular in-crowd imaginable, Cassie is intoxicated by her newfound strength, a power as addictive as it is perilous.

Caught between Faye and Diana’s consuming desires to use the coven’s mysterious force, Cassie turns to Diana’s boyfriend, Adam – and falls prisoner to her own dangerous love.

Bewitched by the promise of love through magic, Cassie captures Adam’s heart and upsets the delicate balance of power, unleashing a storm of fury no one anticipates.

… Or will the dark struggle of good, evil, and a tormented love consume them all?

The Power (The Secret Circle Volume III)
Originally released 15 Nov 92, re-released 23 Dec 08 (with Part II, Vol. II)
[Ed.: Float your cursor over the book cover image to see the original 1992 cover.]

I can’t decide if The Power or The Captive is my favorite in the series. In The Power, Cassie has become strong enough to stand on her own, and up to Faye. She also has a boyfriend – Nick – who might be my favorite character in the trilogy. (He may also be the least visible character in the series, sadly.) The coven finally has a tangible target – Black John has come back to life, and is determined to take over.

Cassie also has control of her supernatural powers. She can handle the elements, cast spells, and is able to communicate with Adam, and other powerful witches mentally. It’s nice to see most of the coven come together, and fascinating to see how Ms. Smith revives a witch hunt of sorts at the high school.

The ending is extremely well written and satisfying. I only wish there was some sort of epilogue describing what happened with the characters – who paired off, and how they’re doing. Parts of it were a bit cheesy, but there really are no lulls in the plot, which is impressive.

Grade: A-

In So Deadly A Battle…

United at last with Diana, mistress of her coven, Cassie must sacrifice her love for Adam to save the Secret Circle and the town of New Salem from the evil powers of the witch Faye.

Threatened by the possibility of her destruction in a final battle between good and evil, Cassie must hope that her supernatural gifts are strong enough to obliterate the powers of evil.

If victorious Cassie will win more than she ever dreamed. But if she and Diana fail, the Power will go to those who seek only to destroy…

… Can anyone triumph?

I think this series would really appeal to young adult readers – likely girls, but boys might enjoy it as well. There’s the heroine who is unsure, but comes into her own. It is Cassie’s journey from outsider to leader of the group, as it were. The Secret Circle is a typical coming of age story with a twist. The unpopular shy girl becomes the envy of her school. All the guys want her, and all the girls like her – and most importantly, falls in love. Throw in an evil father, power struggles, spells and crystals, and you’ve got yourself a winner. I’m glad these books are being republished, and I hope a lot of people enjoy them.

Overall Grade: A-

The books are being republished in two volumes – with The Captive split up between the two.

Aren’t the new covers quite clever?

Gwen’s reviews of The MacCarrick Brothers Trilogy by Kresley Cole
Historical romances released by Pocket April 2005 – May 2007

Rowrrr! Can you say “alpha males”? I knew you could! This is a very fun, very sexy historical series from one of my fav authors. It features three brothers who think they’re cursed to be alone and lonely, otherwise they’ll risk their mates’ death. Of course, this is all based on a Book of Fates that prognosticates the demise of their loves, as well as some anecdotal evidence. Problem is, the last stanza of the poem/fate is obscured by blood and may very well obviate the curse. So what do they decide? Well, of course, rather than risking someone they love, they choose to be alone. That is, until the mighty MacCarrick johnsons start speaking louder than the curse, then all bets are off and you better lock up your virgin daughters ’cause these brawny Scots are on the prowl!

If You Dare (Book 1)
Released by Pocket 26 Apr 05

I really love Kresley Cole’s heroines. She writes strong, funny women who are so appealing that it’s tough to dislike them. Annalia is no exception – I loved her. I loved Courtland a bit less, but he’s still on a short list of “I’d do him” heroes, somewhere down from Robb’s Roarke. However, I still wanted to bludgeon him with a blunt object. Regularly. Throughout the book. I just kept saying, “Talk to her, dammit!” Court couldn’t have been more uncommunicative if he didn’t have a mouth – in fact might have been more so.

Dare has a very interesting setting and good villains. Olivia (main villain’s daughter) was fascinating, and her romance with Aleix (heroine’s brother) was something I wish Cole would have explored a wee bit more, but she stayed focused on our H/H, so I can’t fault her. There was good action throughout that was gripping and believable.

However, I did get a weird little feeling about 2/3 of the way in that the romance was beginning to feel a little forced (can you say Stockholm Syndrome?). The heroine seemed to just suddenly turn the corner and realize that this reticent, almost silent Scot was the love of her life. Didn’t quite believe that.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the romance and the story. Another good entry by a stellar author.

Grade: B

Summary:

Can a Highlander steal his enemy’s bride and make her love him?

High in the Pyrenees, a band of mercenaries led by Courtland MacCarrick wages war for General Reynaldo Pascal. When Court turns on the brutal general, Pascal orders him killed. Court narrowly escapes and exacts revenge by kidnapping Pascal’s exquisite Castilian fiancée.

Noble heiress Annalía Tristán Llorente despises her towering, barbaric captor almost as much as she does Pascal. Her inexplicable attraction to the Highlander only fuels her fury. Yet nothing will stop her from returning to Pascal—for if she doesn’t wed him, she signs her brother’s death warrant, as well as her own.

From the moment Court discovers that Anna’s prim façade masks a fiery, brave lass, his heart’s ensnared and he dares to defy the curse that has shadowed his life—to walk with death or walk alone. But Pascal vows that he’ll hunt the two, never stopping until he’s destroyed them both. If they survive, can this hardened soldier of fortune convince the only woman he’s ever loved that she’s meant to be his?

Read an excerpt.

If You Desire (Book 2)
Released by Pocket 24 Apr 07

As with Dare, I loved this heroine, Jane. I mean, REALLY (RAAAAALLY) liked her. Once again, I wanted to bludgeon the hero, Hugh, more than once, though I loved him.

Cole once again remained focused on our main couple but deftly interleaved other characters who kept the conflict and tension high. The villain was oogie (is that a word) and I RAAAALLY wanted him to buy it in the end – which he does – in style. The action is, once again, believable and really drives the plot along quickly.

In the last few chapters when our self-contained hero, Hugh, used more self-discipline than a whole herd of nuns and monks, I raaaally wanted to bash him about the head and shoulders. Then he does something supremely stupid – not as in TSTL, just your normal run-of-the-mill man-stupid. But because of it, I wouldn’t have taken him back like our very forgiving heroine does. Plus he was relatively humorless and grim thru most of the book – Court (hero in the first book) was at least humourous. Wish Hugh had been more lighthearted once or twice. Plus, I got raaaally sick of the hero’s constant “the Curse! the Curse!” attitude. Enough already.

I enjoyed this read. You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy it, though some of the backstory would help.

Grade: B-

Summary:

He tried to run . . . In his youth, Hugh MacCarrick foolishly fell in love with a beautiful English lass who delighted in teasing him with her flirtatious ways. Yet he knew he could never marry her because he was a second son with no prospects, shadowed by an accursed family legacy. To avoid temptation, Hugh left home and trained as an assassin.

She tried to forget him . . . Jane Weyland was devastated when the Highlander she believed would marry her abandoned her instead. Years later, when Hugh MacCarrick is summoned to protect her from her father’s enemies, her heartache has turned to fury—but her desire for him has not waned.

Will passion overwhelm them? In hiding, Jane torments Hugh with seductive play. He struggles to resist her because of deadly secrets that could endanger her further. But Hugh is no longer a gentle young man—and toying with the fever-pitched desires of a hardened warrior will either get Jane burned . . . or enflame a love that never died.

Read an excerpt.

If You Deceive (Book 3)
Released by Pocket 22 May 07

Oh my goodness gracious me! What a year makes in an author’s craft! Cole outdid herself with Deceive! This was one of the best reads I’ve had so far this year! No lie! If you’re an historical romance fan, you canNOT miss this book!

This book was just a wonderful romance – hands down. While it’s part of a trilogy, it’s very focused on our two main characters – heroine Madeleine and hero Ethan. It reads fine on its own with no need to be read in order with the other two.

Ethan’s Machiavellian revenge on Madeleine’s family has left her destitute. She has no idea it’s Ethan behind the misfortune – she thought it simple bad luck and bad decisions. She’s left orphaned and penniless, scrabbling out a living in one of the worst slums in Paris all as a result of his revenge on Maddie’s parents.

Maddie is a wonderful heroine – she has quiet dignity and is self-effacing, she is beautiful but not vain, she is destitute but has a strong sense of self-respect, she’s obviously well-bred but knows how to play the angles. All of these qualities perplex Ethan.  He can’t figure out how a woman, who has experience all kinds of bad luck, can possibly come out so well-balanced. In contrast, he’s spent a decade or more wallowing in the negative emotions that Maddie lets roll off her back as something she cannot do much about.

Through some interesting circumstances, Ethan meets Madeleine and eventually takes her to Scotland with him.  The story of how these two people come to know and love each other is lushly sensual and filled with emotion. You can see the runaway train of her impending knowledge of his role in her bad luck and your heart breaks when it happens. The oh-so-intense Ethan deserves all the heartache he gets, plus some, for being such an asshole a couple of times on many occasions. (I love that Cole lets her heroes be “human”.)  However, it’s such a sweet love story that when they do finally come together (’cause, duh, they do – HEA here), you’re grinning the whole time.

I highly recommend this read to fans of Kresley Cole’s work – contemp paranormals or historicals. You’ll love it. I also recommend this to fans of historical romance.  Though even if you’re not such a big fan of historicals, I think you’ll still like it – Cole doesn’t beat the historical elements into the ground.

I just loved this book.

Grade: A+

Summary:

Burning vengeance . . . Ethan MacCarrick was a heartbreakingly handsome rake until a powerful nobleman ordered him brutally beaten and his face scarred for a crime he didn’t commit. Ethan’s reprisal—bankrupting the nobleman and forcing his exile—does little to appease his wrath. Ten years later, a haughty, mysterious beauty enchants Ethan—the daughter of his enemy. At last, Ethan will have the revenge he’s craved; he’ll promise her marriage, seduce her, then cast her aside.

Bitter hardships . . . When Madeleine Van Rowen’s family was suddenly plunged into destitution and dishonor, she steeled herself against further heartache. She never weakened, never trusted, until a towering, scarred Highlander relentlessly pursues her, breaking down her defenses.

At what price forgiveness? The passion between them burns hotter than Ethan’s fury, and soon he finds he can’t let her go. But when Madeleine uncovers the truth about him, can Ethan convince her to accept all he now offers—when he once destroyed everything she had?

Read an excerpt.

This was a very fun trilogy. The reads all went very fast, with the last read getting sucked down in one night. I very highly recommend Deceive, and recommend Dare and Desire.

Overall grade: A-

Sandy M’s review of The Chandler Brothers Trilogy by Carly Phillips
Contemporary Romances published by Forever

Welcome back to Duckies Do Series! Brothers are once again the topic of our series review. This time it’s Carly Phillips’ Chandler brothers and they are a delightful threesome ready to head straight to the altar. Well, with a little help from mom. Read on to see how they fall one by one toward that happily ever after and they never find out what hits them until it’s too late.

The Bachelor (Book 1)
Released by Forever 1 Jul 02

Youngest brother Roman loses — or wins, it depends on how you look at it — the coin toss that the guys decide is the best way to keep a level playing field on who will be the one to give their mother grandchildren. The Chandler boys have avoided commitment in their small town of Yorkshire Falls, enjoying the ladies around town as the opportunity presents itself, which is usually a good portion of the time because said ladies line up to garner some lovin’ by any of the brothers.

Roman has been working as a foreign correspondent for a while now, enjoying the freedom to do as he pleases, no one to answer to. He rushes home when he gets a call from older brother Chase informing him their mother is in the hosptial. Since he’s the lucky — or unlucky — one, Roman thinks he’s figured out how to keep his freedom and give his mother her most desired wish. Or so he thinks.

He begins his search for a woman who will bear his child but who won’t care if her husband is at home with her or traipsing through another country or two for months on end. This plan lasts only until he gets a glimpse of Charlotte Bronson, his former one-date girlfriend. He still feels a connection to her and wants to pursue her, but he realizes Charlotte doesn’t deserve what he has planned. In fact, neither of them deserve such a life and little by little Roman’s feelings bring about more realizations when he begins to get to know Charlotte all over again.

Ten years is a long time to pine for a man she walked away from, but seeing Roman again makes Charlotte realize that’s exactly what she’s done. She knows she walked away for a good reason, but her heart doesn’t seem to care what that reason is. She liked him as a teenager but she loves him as a man now, as a woman loves a man, and giving him her heart again is something she may not survive. So instead, she’s decided to get the man out of her system by giving her all to him in the short time he’s town and when he leaves this time — just as she knows he will — she’ll be able to hold her head high and watch that tight ass fade into the horizon. Or so she thinks.

Okay, maybe it’s a little silly for a mother to manipulate her sons so, but it sure makes for fun reading. While this story starts out light hearted and airy, deeper issues eventually come to the forefront to play havoc with Roman and Charlotte and we just have to bump along with them to see if and how they face their demons. I enjoyed these two characters. Roman may be a bachelor through and through in the beginning and he may scheme some with his brothers, but he’s still a gentleman just like his mama raised him and it shows throughout the book.

Charlotte is independent and knows what she wants, is successful at everything she does, but she’s afraid of repeating her mother’s mistakes and nearly loses the best thing in her life – again. I also like how Ms. Phillips keeps all the characters interacting with one another instead of bringing others, like family members, into the storyline just every so often like a lot of authors do. It’s fun to watch these brothers interact with each other. Their character really shines through during those scenes with humor and sensitivity, and love.

Grade: A

Summary:

Will this bad boy make it to the altar?

Foreign correspondent Roman Chandler has always prized his freedom above all else. Now losing a coin toss has sealed this youngest brother’s fate. Finding someone to escort down the aisle is the easy part-every wannabe bride in sleepy Yorkshire Falls is itching to get hitched to this gorgeous, globe-trotting Chandler man. But Roman still lusts after the woman who got away. Stunning heartbreaker Charlotte Bronson has come home to put down roots and get her erotic lingerie business off the ground. She wants a man that won’t go chasing off to the far corners of the earth for a breaking news story. He wants her to say “I do.”

Read an excerpt here.

The Playboy (Book 2)
Released by Forever 1 Jan 03

This book picks up a few months after the end of The Bachelor and I love the way it starts out! Kendall is on her way to Yorkshire Falls after her Aunt Crystal’s death to take care of the house and property left to her. When her car breaks down just outside of town, her rescuer is none other than the middle Chandler brother, Rick. And he gets a surprise when he finds a beautiful woman in a wedding dress sitting in her broken down car on the side of the road. Rick has been dodging the women in town who have been encouraged by his mother to get to know her middle son and get him to walk down the aisle and here his is face to face with a bride running from the altar. I love the irony.

As Rick and Kendall get to know one another and secretly lust for each other, they come up with an agreement that is beneficial to both of them. They’ll pretend to be lovers while Kendall is in town. This way the women will leave Rick alone and Rick will tender his services to help her get her house ready to sell so she can be on her way to the next stop in her life. Kendall is a wanderer. She’s never had a stable home life like Rick. Her parents are usually out of the country and her Aunt Crystal had to send her away when her arthritis became too severe to take care of a young girl. So with no one around to love her and watch over her, Kendall has survived on her own, needing no one. This works well for both of them until the feelings start to bubble to the surface.

Another ripple in Kendall’s plan to hightail it out of town is her younger sister, Hannah. The girl ends up living with Kendall after she leaves the boarding school her parents carted her off to. She comes into the picture as a very unhappy teen and she lets everyone know it in no uncertain terms. It’s Rick who is able to get through to Hannah, all the while hoping Kendall will see how a stable life in a small town is the right thing for the sisters. Rick is the one in this book to admit his feelings first, but he never crowds Kendall or overwhelms her. He waits it out hoping her good sense and eventually her love for him will win out. There’s a couple of little twists thrown in, a jealous former girlfriend of Rick’s for one, who lets her anger take over and nearly causes Kendall to bolt for good.

I liked the touch of Rick the cop being good with kids, thus his connection with Hannah. Mom is still in there with her fake heart condition, although both Roman and Rick have ferreted the truth out and know she’s pretending. The fact that Mom is being caught in her own web is also fun. She’s seeing the town doctor, but of course can’t really get out and have a good time because she’s supposed to be taking it easy. The boys enjoy that quite a bit and do what they can to curtail her good times for a bit. The charming Southern man is also rampant in Rick and you have to love him too just because he’s a gentleman and treats the ladies just like his mama taught him.

Grade: A

Summary:

There isn’t a woman in town who’s immune to the legendary Chandler charm. Yet so far single cop Rick Chandler has managed to fend off the marriage-minded advances of Yorkshire Falls’ entire female population. A past mistake has taught him never to put his heart on the line … until he answers the SOS of a real-life runaway bride. In spite of her pearly gown and tiara, Kendall Sutton vows to never wed- which makes her the ideal pretend lover who can ward off Rick’s legion of admirers. When their passionate charade flames into the real thing, Rick is suddenly thinking about two words that spell forever after. But will Kendall ever say “I do?” Can a woman who’s had it with weddings tie the knot with the town’s most popular playboy?

Read an excerpt here.

The Heartbreaker (Book 3)
Released by Vision 1 Jun 04

Chase Chandler is the big brother, the head of the family. He’s taken his responsibilities since his father died very seriously and has been the perfect role model for his younger brothers. Now that the two of them are married, it’s time for Chase to cut loose and go after what he wants. He goes to Washington, D.C. as the reporter he’s always wanted to be. Little does he know he’s about to run into the story of a lifetime, a reporter’s dream. Turns out his professional dream and his personal dream end up being the same woman and his dilemma has only just begun.

Sloane learns that her life has been a total lie. She overhears her senator father’s top men discussing her and a scandal that will topple her father’s bid for the vice presidency. Thrown for a loop, she lets loose, hits the nearest bar and ends up in bed with a stranger. But what a stranger he is. She connects with him like never before, but she knows this one night is all they’ll have. Leaving Washington, D.C. behind, she heads for the little town of Yorkshire Falls to discover her past and hopefully her future. Never in a million years, however, does she think her one-night stand could ever be her future.

I loved the dichotomy in the life of these two characters. Chase has finally earned his freedom from responsibility after raising his brothers and keeping the family newspaper going. He wants that one big break to make his career. He finds it in Sloane, and at first he thinks he can let her go while making her the focus he needs. Sloane is looking for a husband, hearth and home, someone to take care of her and love her, plus she has a scandal following her that any reporter following her father’s political aspirations would kill for. It all makes for some great reading.

As with the other two books, this is a mystery afoot, some added danger that draw these two at first closer to one another, but eventual consequences cause them to back off from one another, something both of them soon realize is not the thing to do. Both Roman and Rick are included in the storyline, along with their wives and mom and her current beau, still making it a family affair when needed. Sloane’s scandal ends up being a very nice ending for her too. This is a great way to end the entire trilogy.

Grade: A

Summary:

As the eldest of three rebel-rousing brothers, Chase Chandler has waited a long time to leave his small-town roots behind. All bets are off when the single journalist meets a redhead who arouses a lot more than lust. Yet Sloane Carlisle isn’t just any woman. She’s a senator’s daughter who is about to thrust him into the eye of a breaking political scandal—and a shot at a story that’s already making headlines. All Chase has to do for an exclusive is keep her out of harm’s way.

A woman who refuses to play the Washington game, Sloane has just been hit with a bombshell that calls her entire identity into question. Feeling vulnerable, she does something completely out of character: She spends an incredible, passionate night with a handsome stranger. The last thing she expects is to ever see him again. But when she goes to the Chandlers’ hometown of Yorkshire Falls to uncover the truth about her family, there he is! Not only that, her sometime amour Chase Chandler is sticking closer than a Capitol Hill groupie and igniting more sparks than the Fourth of July.

Suddenly a guy who has always steered clear of marriage is falling for a serious-minded woman with a family secret that could land them both in danger. If they survive the fallout, what will it take to get Sloane to say the two words that could turn the town’s most eligible bachelor into the world’s sexiest spouse?

Read an excerpt here.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. Each brother in his own way fights the dreaded committed relationship, but as they really get to know each woman as she comes along for them, you can see the door open and a whole new life is waiting for them on the other side as their realizations change, as they face that if they let this woman go, life will never be the same, life won’t be worth a darned without her in it. There’s also the extra bonus of their mother falling in love throughout her escapade she’s created and having to face each of her sons as they find out what she’s done. I also really like the love and support they give each other, the love they heap on their mother, especially after her scheme is revealed and they have every right to be angry.

If you have these books in your TBR pile, pull them out. You won’t be sorry one bit.

Overall grade: A

Sandy M’s review of The Buchanan Family Series by Susan Mallery
Contemporary Romances published by HQN Books

Hello, everyone! And welcome to our first Duckies Do Series review!

I’ve had this series in that big old TBR mountain, as ya’ll called it, for a while now. I recently ran across an excerpt from the last book, Tempting, and really liked it, so I had that on my mind when thinking about which series to start with and I think I made a pretty darned good choice.

This series is so much fun! I had hoped after finishing the first book that the rest of the series would keep the same pace, the same wit, the same fun, and the same romance. I was not disappointed one bit! I laughed quite a bit with each book. I didn’t cry until the third book, but once the tears started flowing they didn’t want to stop. I’m a sucker for books about brothers, so that’s the one of the primary reasons I wanted to read these books, and I figured I’d like them anyway just because of the author. I had no idea I would enjoy them this darned much. So read on and find out about this wonderful family.

Delicious (The Buchanans, Book 1)
Released 1 Feb 06

I like the storyline of second chance at love in this first book of the series. And even though that’s not what Cal and Penny were looking for when he asks her to help him turn around one of their family restaurants, that’s exactly what they get, and I had such a great time going along for the ride with them.

At first Penny is out for revenge. It’s been three years since their divorce and they haven’t seen each other in the intervening time. So to get in a little punch of her own, Penny is determined to get the max out Cal in his offer for her services as head chef at The Waterfront, one of the four Buchanan restaurants. She gets what she wants and needs to open her own place down the road.

Once she’s on board, after all the negotiating and all the initial problems of getting the restaurant up and running — and there are some problems! — and they open the doors for business, Penny and her menu are a huge hit. The place is packed every night. During all of this, Cal and Penny start to become friends. They still have their ups and downs, especially when he finds out she’s pregnant, but for the most part things go along quite smoothly, even despite the growing heat between them.

It’s at this point that we begin to find out the same time Penny does why Cal let her and their marriage go the first time around. The answers she gets are quite enlightening, but it still hurts, even after all this time, that he didn’t go after her when she left, especially when she left only to see if he would go after her, to see how much he loved her. Now, knowing all of his secrets sets them on a different course and they’re beginning to experience renewed feelings for one another. Cal begins to understand his behavior better once he is able to truly face his past, and what an emotional moment that is. His secret hits both him and Penny square on and finally their past becomes clearer and their new feelings for each other blossom and it all gets easier to forgive and love.

This is a great start to the series. We meet the entire Buchanan family and we see how they support and love one another, even despite the machinations of the matriarch, their grandmother, Gloria. Heavens, what a character she is, mean and spiteful. I liked the fact that Penny kept her friendship with Cal’s brothers going after their divorce and even though Reid and Walker want to support Cal, they also call him on the carpet and let him have it when he hurts Penny. You have to love an honorable man when he fesses up and puts his faith in the woman he loves. We’re also set up just beautifully for each book in the series with everything we read here.

Grade: A

Summary:

Welcome to the world of the Buchanans. This is a four book single title series set in Seattle. I’ve done wine and cake, so now I’m moving into the world of Restaurants.

Appetizers – Cal Buchanan needs a top-flight chef to take over his failing Seattle restaurant, The Waterfront. He can afford to hire the best in town — the only problem is that the best happens to be his ex-wife, Penny Jackson.

Entree – Penny really needs this opportunity, but she doesn’t need the distraction of working with her ex. She’s sworn off romance — she’s even having a baby on her own. But before she knows it, the heat is on … and the attraction between her and Cal moves from a low simmer to full boil!

Dessert – The rest should be easy as pie, but a secret from Cal’s past could spoil everything. Maybe it’s true that too many cooks spoil the broth — or maybe two is enough to make it irresistible.

Read an excerpt of Delicious here.

Irresistible (The Buchanans, Book 2)
released 1 Jul 06

Walker is the Buchanan we know the least about. He has just come home, retired from the Marines, in Delicious when we first meet him. Even once he meets Elissa in his own book, it still takes a while to get through his I-want-to-be-left-alone facade. He’s rented an apartment in a part of town where he doesn’t know anyone. He doesn’t want to get involved in anything at all until he decides what he really wants to do and until he delivers a letter he wrote for a Marine buddy who died in his arms. There’s a lot of guilt built up in Walker and it takes not only the right woman to begin breaking away all that stoically built-up emotion but also the sweetest and most engaging little girl Walker has ever met.

Elissa hasn’t had the best in her life since she ran away from home at the age of seventeen. She went from job to job and got involved with the wrong men, one of which fathered her daughter Zoe. Being pregnant is what brought her back home, but she found out her parents wanted nothing to do with her and she’s been on her own scrapping by but happy with Zoe ever since. She’s independent and will be beholding to no one, not even the handsome man upstairs who keeps coming to her rescue. She’s determined to make a good life for Zoe and that means no men and no sex until her daughter turns eighteen.

It’s going to be thirteen long years for Elissa, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice. But the budding attraction between Elissa and Walker won’t let either of them be. He keeps rescuing her and she keeps cooking for him as payment for his good deeds. They want each other, but they keep those wants at bay for so long, even when being pushed along by Mrs. Ford, the spry, elderly lady who lives next door to Elissa, that explosions galore erupt when their lovemaking comes to fruition.

And when that happens, they each think it’s only going to be the one time. But as they deal with the hardest thing life has to throw at them so far, they begin to look past all the little stuff and finally see each other and what they have to offer their relationship. Zoe is a wonderful catalyst for Walker to realize he has something to offer not only Elissa but Zoe as well — he has the capacity to love. There’s a beautiful scene between the two of them talking about what makes a daddy. Again, the Buchanans are in this book full force, banding together when needed. That’s really brought home to the reader in a scene when Walker’s brother Reid tells Elissa, while she’s in the hospital, they’re all there for her because she’s Walker’s girl. That’s all the family needs to know to give their support to her.

Grade: A

Summary:

When ex-marine Walker Buchanan stops to help Elissa Towers change a tire, he tells himself it’s just the neighborly thing to do. And when Elissa finds herself baking him a thank-you pie, she’s just returning the favor…right?

Both of them have sworn off dating–Elissa’s determined to protect her little girl, and that means ditching her taste for dangerous men…especially former marines with dark secrets. Walker knows he’s not cut out for hearth and home…his own crazy family made sure of that. But the sparks won’t stop flying.

Now the two of them are struggling to keep their relationship “just friends,” but with every kiss, their rules fly out the window.

Read an excerpt of Irresistible here.

Sizzling (The Buchanans, Book 3)
Released 1 Jan 07

Ah, I love a good story about the arrogant hero getting his comeuppance. But even though Reid is a little full of himself and you snicker at his embarrassment when his sexual prowess is questioned in the local newspaper and then nationally, you end up loving his character even more when he lays low to let the news blow over and in the process finds out what has been done in his name by his so-called people, the ones working for him who are supposed to be on his side and make him look good. Because under all that swagger and arrogance, Reid is a good man.

He took a hit when he blew out his shoulder and had to retire from his baseball career. He just seemed to exist after that. He didn’t really live, even though his lifestyle made it seem like he did. He didn’t even know he was missing something in his life. He keeps telling his brothers and sisters that he’s happy bed hopping, having a girl on each arm all the time. Why settle for one woman when he can have a smorgasbord? Reid is likeable in the playboy kind of way and he loves his family, would do anything for them. Just don’t tell him not to love his ladies. But he turns into an even better man when he begins to right the wrongs his agent and other folks did while representing Reid during his career.

Lori is a home health nurse and has been hired by Reid to take care of his grandmother who’s just out of the hospital and is still incapacitated with a broken hip. She’d been warned what a piece of work Gloria Buchanan is, but Lori has enough experience with older patients, especially those whose family never bothers to visit to see how they’re doing. Lori doesn’t let Gloria get away with anything, calls her on every insult, every mean thing she does.

Little by little Lori becomes a miracle worker when the family realizes that Gloria truly has changed her ways. In between all this, Lori has to fight her attraction to Reid. She knows he’d never look at a woman like her, not being long-legged and blonde, but that doesn’t stop her heart from wanting him. When she finally realizes that he is interested, she’s in heaven when she’s in his arms and he’s giving her the loving of a lifetime. Seems she’s a miracle worker for both arrogant ex-baseball players and cantankerous old grandmothers.

I enjoyed both the transformation of Lori into a beautiful and loved woman and of Gloria realizing finally that she needs to change so her grandchildren will love her in return. Of course, Reid’s transformation goes without saying. This is the book that wrung the emotion out of me. All I’m going to say is there’s a death and with so many Buchanans around, the crying had to start sometime. The aftereffects are also gut-wrenching, being so invested in the characters by that time. Just know I needed a cold eye compress by the time I got through that part of the book.

Grade: A

Summary:

A spiteful article about the former pitcher and current playboy questions his talent. And the newspaper’s just the first bad news. Reid’s grandmother Gloria’s broken hip means she needs constant care—and she’s going through nurses as if they were Kleenex.

Reid hired nurses 1 and 2 for their bedside manner with him. So for number 3, he chooses Lori Johnson, the first candidate who seems immune to his brand of charm.

Lori considers herself inoculated against amoebas like Reid Buchanan. So why are her well-fortified defenses starting to crumble under the force of Reid’s sexy smile—and the kindness he shows her at every turn? There’s only one explanation for the feelings flaring between them—chemistry.

Read an excerpt of Sizzling here.

Tempting (The Buchanans, Book 4)
Released 1 Jul 07

This book is the one that piqued my curiosity in finally starting this series. I ran across an excerpt somewhere and really liked it. It intrigued me. I wanted to know more about this family and what had brought this heroine to that particular point in her life, confronting the father she never knew about, a father in the higher echelons of our government. Little did I know how much the entire series would affect me.

We meet Dani, of course, in the first book of the series and her story continues through the next books, giving us a look at her life which is first charmed and then gradually falls down around her through no fault of her own. First her husband wants a divorce, she’s not grown along with him as he’s recovered from a tragic accident that left him a paraplegic.

Dani is the one who stood by him in the aftermath of the accident, kept loving him and married him because of that love, and then worked her tail off at Burger Haven to keep him covered by insurance while he wheeled through life, leaving Dani behind, according to his skewed logic. Another kicker comes when she finds out her soon-to-be ex was also unfaithful during their marriage.

Gloria, her grandmother, has refused to promote Dani within the Buchanan corporation and burgers just don’t do it for her any longer. But the biggest kick to the gut of all is when Gloria finally tells her that she’s not even a Buchanan; her mother had an affair and Dani is the result. Things suddenly become clear to her about the years of feeling like she’s never belonged, even with the love of her brothers. Kicking Gloria and the company to the curb, Dani sets out to find her real father and her life takes on changes she could never have imagined. Dani is strong no matter what life throws at her, she bounces back and she gets on with what’s best for her.

Dragon-boy, or Alex Canfield, the adoptive son of Senator Mark Canfield, guards the door to his father’s office, breathing fire at anyone who comes this way with intent to harm his father. Dani is one who poses a huge threat to the senator’s bid for the presidency and Alex is not about to let that happen. As much as he hates to admit it, however, once Dani passes muster, she’s beautiful, intelligent, and unique and he suddenly finds himself wanting to get lost in her. When they finally do come together, other problems present themselves, the worst of which is the press, and it looks as though a life together isn’t in their future.

I really enjoyed Dani’s character. She never quits. She never backs down. She’s a Buchanan through and through even though she doesn’t share the same paternal blood with her brothers, but now she feels she doesn’t know who she is anymore. I liked the fact that Dani still admires Gloria even after all the hurt she’s caused Dani over the years. She also holds her own with Alex in his dog-eat-dog world, as well as with her brothers who try to protect her at every turn, which sometimes makes her furious. She wants to live her own life no matter the consequences. Alex also has a lot to overcome in his life to realize he can choose Dani and not feel guilty.

All in all, this was a very good ending to the series. It brings everything and everyone together, gives us love all around, and shows us what can happen when a family pulls together in good times and bad.

Grade: A

Summary:

Nothing’s hotter than a disaster in the making…

After three romantic flame-outs in a year and a restaurant career going nowhere, Dani Buchanan needs a fresh start. She goes looking for her biological father, but never expects to find a senator running for president. As his long-lost “love child,” Dani could seriously derail the election – something his handsome campaign manager Alex Canfield isn’t going to let happen. Dani isn’t about to let Alex run her life, no matter how tempting she finds him-and Alex isn’t going to allow Dani to melt his cynicism, no matter how close he has to get. The last thing either of them wants is love, especially with scandals brewing and family trouble on the way. But Dani and Alex are forced to trust each other, and when trust turns to passion, the potential for disaster is only a tabloid scandal away.

Read an excerpt of Tempting here.

Well, as you can see from the grades for each book, I thoroughly enjoyed this series. I love how Ms. Mallery kept all members of the family interacting with the current hero and heroine and still gave us plenty of time with that couple and their romance. I always get irritated when I’m shortchanged in a series by not having preceding characters show up in succeeding books. This series kept me well satisfied in that area. All of the characters are fun-loving, serious when needed, make family first, and love with all their hearts. The humor is also a huge factor that made this series worth reading. Of course, it’s the brothers that did it for me. They fought and argued as brothers are wont to do, but they stand shoulder to shoulder when anything threatens one of their own. I believe I chose very well for the first presentation in our Duckies Do Series, if I do say so myself!

Overall grade: A

Are you one of those readers who has a huge, gigantic, monstrous TRB pile? You never know which book to start next because the number of books is overwhelming? Or you start looking for a particular book and when only halfway through the pile you come across that book you were looking for last month and promptly forget about the one you were just searching for? Your TBR isn’t that out of control? Well, mine is.

Yes, that truly is my TBR pile you see down there. Only a part of my TRB pile. You should see my garage. And my house. I’ll even bet a couple of the other Duckies around the Pond are in the same boat. So I started thinkin’.

What would be a good way to add some of my older books to be read in with all the new ones I review here at the Pond? I’m a series lover. I so enjoy the same characters from book to book. And it just so happens I have a number of series that need to be read; they’ve waited for their turn quite long enough.

My new idea is a review of a series of books, books that are connected in some way. Thus, we have come up with a new feature, Duckies Do Series! This will be an intermittent feature, mostly because it takes a little bit of time to read four or more books in any given series, even a trilogy for that matter.

So in the future whenever you see our new heading Duckies Do Series, accompanied with the icon above, you know you’ll be in for a treat!

Keep an eye out. This Duckie will have a treat for you sooner than you think!