Laura C’s review of Trouble Me by Laura Moore|
Contemporary Romance published by Ballantine 27 Mar 12

I probably should have given this book a pass after the first scene between the hero and heroine. Jade and Rob meet up after a number of years at a hotel far from home where they are both snowed in. They have a night of wild sex without exchanging names. Not even first names. And right there, that should have let me know this book isn’t for me, because, according to the back of the book, Jade is supposed to be going home to show how much she’s grown up and how she’s ready to settle down. And all I could think is “uh, yeah, because that’s a really responsible thing to do.”

And, yeah, Jade makes a big deal—when she breaks down and tells her sisters about the incident—to say she used condoms when she slept with Rob. And when she confronts him, she says he was just as guilty as she. But…she took a stranger up to her hotel room. A stranger who’s much bigger, much stronger, much more capable of harm than she is. She never once gives any thought to the fact that it might not be a great idea to do so without at least telling someone in the hotel or, for crying out loud, asking his name.

But I pushed on. And off Jade goes to the town where she grew up only to discover that Rob lives there, too, and is, in fact, the cop who repeatedly arrested her when she was a wild teen. It was during one of those arrests, while Rob was booking Jade, that his wife died. He blames Jade for her death, for keeping him from her, though he knows he shouldn’t. Which he tells himself repeatedly and even tells his mother. (I don’t know why that annoys me, but it did. Her reaction is good, though. She basically tells him to grow a pair, only in a maternal way.)

And then he finds out that Jade, the woman he blames, the woman he had a one-night stand with, is going to be his child’s second-grade teacher. Needless to say, he’s furious, but as soon as he gets her alone . . . in the classroom . . . on parents’ night at the school . . . they start making out. Both of these people need to grow up.

As well as teaching second grade, Jade plans to teach riding to children at the family horse ranch. There’s a lot of detail about pony buying, pony riding, pony training, and pony grooming. I found it interrupts the romance. I feel as if I were reading two books: one with characters always itching to jump into the sack and a second about the care and feeding of ponies. It’s . . . disconcerting.

If I subtract my own (admittedly prudish) sentiments about how careless Jade is with her own safety, this isn’t a bad book. It’s just not very exciting, either.

Grade: C

Summary:

The youngest and wildest of the Radcliffe sisters, Jade is the last to return home to her family’s sprawling Virginia horse farm and its unsettling memories. She never planned on a night of passion with a stranger before starting her new life as a teacher and riding instructor—or the shock of recognizing the man who gave her so much pleasure standing right there in her classroom.

Officer Rob Cooper is stunned. Not only is the woman who rocked his world his daughter’s second grade teacher, but she’s the troubled teen whom he blames for his wife’s death years ago. Worse, now that he sees her in the light of day, he wants her more than ever. Time has softened Jade’s hard, rebellious edge—she’s spirited, honest, and sexy to distraction. But will the feelings ignited in the heat of desire be enough to heal a past that needs forgiving?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Secrets to Seducing a Scot (Highland Knaves, Book 2) by Michelle Marcos
Historical Romance published by St. Martin’s 2 Aug 11

I’ve obviously had this book for a while.     For some reason I just didn’t pick it up until recently. While it’s not a story that wows you to no end, it is an intense, somewhat sweet romance between a very unlikely pair who pull you into their lives during a time of uprising in Scotland.

Serena Marsh is the toast of London with her daily column in the local newspaper. Society hangs on to her every word about who’s been at what ball and all the goings-on that happened. She’s privileged, sheltered, and pampered. Though in the beginning she may seem selfish because of her upbringing, Serena eventually learns a lifetime of lessons in a very short time span while in Scotland, where her father is trying to negotiate terms between rebels and English crown.

Having lost his family at a young age, Malcolm Slayter has been on his own since the age of twelve, an outcast from his clan, a “slaighteur” for the perceived traitorous actions of his family. He and his surviving siblings are branded, literally, his brother and sister now captives of those who have taken everything from them. Malcolm is left for dead. But that doesn’t keep him and his need for vengeance down. A man now, without family, home, or country, Malcolm is, basically, a bounty hunter for hire. It matters not which side anyone else stands on, Malcolm will do what is required for the coin. There’s nothing else in his life worth anything.

But when threats are made against Serena, her father hires Malcolm to protect her. At this point Serena does get on the nerves a tad. She doesn’t take the threats seriously and does what she wants when she wants, despite warnings from both her father and Malcolm. You’d like to shake her to wake her up, but, of course, these things are needed to teach the girl a lesson. After treating Malcolm with a high-and-mighty attitude, never listening to his instructions, then fighting an attraction to him and finally succumbing to it, Serena goes one step too far and ends up in the hands of rebels intending to use her against her father.

Of course, it’s Malcolm to the rescue. Especially since acknowledging his love for her. Serena isn’t the only one to change throughout the book. The hardened, uncaring man he’s become slowly dissipates and a new Malcolm emerges. He’s not the man who would have come along if his life hadn’t been so radically and violently altered, but I think it’s safe to assume this man is close, all due to the love he’s now found. That’s what I like best about this character as he comes alive, along with his love for Serena, in this book. You can see his hard edges slowly recede, see a different person take the place of all the anger and hurt that’s resided inside of him for years. He learns to be romantic and loving while still retaining the steel needed to now survive not only for himself but also for Serena.

While you’ll get some intense love scenes, you won’t get those eye-popping events that keep you reading. What you do get is a gradual alteration of people who have to change their outlook on life as they’ve always known it. Even Serena’s father doesn’t go unscathed in this regard. I kept reading because I wanted to see the changes in Malcolm and how he handles them. I initially picked this book up wanting a dose of a Scottish hero. I got that and a lot more.

Grade: C+

Read Ash’s review here.

Summary:

A Diamond in the Rough

Torn from a pampered life of luxury and thrust into the midst of a Scottish revolution, Serena Marsh is shocked to meet the brutish man who has been assigned to protect her from the rebels trying to kill her—Malcolm Slayter, the most rugged, most dangerous, and most undeniably attractive man she’s ever encountered…

The Knave of Hearts

Malcolm has no loyalties, no country, and no sense of propriety. Hired by her father, Malcolm agrees to protect the lovely lass for a fee. But when Serena challenges Malcolm’s authority—and engages him in a risky flirtation—all bets are off. When the battle heats up, it’s anyone’s guess as to who’s seducing whom…and who’ll surrender first.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of A Wicked Persuasion by Catherine George
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Mar 12

In this series of loose adaptations of classic novels by Mills and Boon, Catherine George has taken on Jane Austen’s Persuasion. So now it’s time to come clean. Yes, I’ve read Persuasion once, when I was eighteen. Second confession—Jane Austen isn’t a favourite of mine. I find her tone dry. I appreciate that she was a revolutionary writer who brought the novel on another leap, but I’d far rather curl up with a good Dickens or Tom Jones or Evelina or even Tristram Shandy, if I’m feeling adventurous. They’re bursting with life and in comparison I find Austen’s comedies of manners less than enthralling. Even the revered Pride and Prejudice.

There, I said it. I don’t have to be ashamed anymore. So I’m reviewing George’s book as a stand-alone.

The heroine, Harriet, is a doormat of the first order. The origins of this loose adaptation are probably clearest in the character of Harriet. I can see the book working well as a period piece, but while George’s efforts to bring her up to date are worthwhile, Harriet is still, by modern standards, a doormat. She made a promise to her mother to keep the house River House, which was descended through her mother, not her father, and when the stock market crashes and her father’s unwise investments with it, the house is under threat. Harriet finds the solution – to let the house to agencies, film companies and suchlike, not her father, who is a useless, selfish person until much later in the book, when I’d lost all patience with him.

Ten years ago, her father has Harriet’s one and only love sacked when she says she wants to move in with him. Actually James isn’t sacked, he is transferred, and returns ten years later as the owner of his own company and wealthy. To get his revenge, although he’s a sensible man who won’t let revenge get in the way of company success, so that makes the plot and motivation a little muddy.

Harriet makes herself ill looking after her selfish sister’s child, arranging for the management of her selfish father’s house and doing her regular job. She’s an accountant, and she enjoys it (so there). Told you. Martyr. James looks after her, so naturally she thinks he’s there to see her in her misery, s0 tells him to go away. Then she goes away for a few days. James joins her, and they have some weird disagreement which I’m still not sure about, but which moves the plot along nicely to its black moment.

I got lost in this story. There are far too many characters for a short novel to hold. While Ms. George does a great job at giving each person basic characteristics, I couldn’t follow them all. Just got too confused eventually. There are sisters and fathers and friends and a would-be suitor, and, as a result, the romance is pushed into the background. James and Harriet just don’t get enough time together, and because they are old flames, their relationship is merely rekindled, not renewed and refreshed.

Austen had a much longer novel to expand and investigate all the characters. There’s also the problem that she wasn’t writing a romance as such, only a comedy of manners (which isn’t to say that the novel is funny, or no funnier than Shakespeare’s comedies). I don’t really care about Harriet’s relationship with her selfish sister or her selfish father (there are a lot of selfish fathers in Austen’s books, aren’t there?) I want to read about the developing romance between a more mature Harriet and James. And I want her to tell everyone to look after their own lives. She doesn’t, they sort their lives out for themselves, and then say sorry. So there is no redemptive moment for Harriet. I am convinced that she wouldn’t continue to organise everyone’s lives for them, especially with the ultimate outcome.

However, Ms. George is a great technical writer. Her style flows and her voice is easy and confident. She’s weathered the many storms in the Mills and Boon household with ease, and as one of the old-school writers, she’s done a lot to adapt to newer requirements and not stayed in the brutal alpha/weak female rut. I’ve read books of hers with much more confident, competent heroines, and I’m sure she’ll do more in the future.

Grade: C-

Summary:

A flame that never died… One glimpse of James Crawford’s roguish good-looks sparked a fire in young heiress Harriet Wilde that burned red-hot – until her father forced her to break off the relationship. No way was his daughter going to dilute the family line! Ten years later… James, now the head of a multi-million-pound empire, returns to get revenge on the woman who thought she was too good for him. He’ll make her feel every ounce of the humiliation he once did. But he only succeeds in fanning the flames of a fire he’d thought long dead…

No excerpt available.

C2’s review of Karma (Serendipity, Book 3) by Carly Phillips
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 1 May 12

Can two people whose lives have centered on guilt find a way to move forward with their lives and find happiness together? The third book in Carly Phillips’ Serendipity series gives us the answer.

Dare Barrons’ entire life has been colored by a high school incident that left a classmate dead.  When a fight broke out at a party, one of the guys fell hard on a concrete patio.  Panic followed and a lot of kids, Dare included, fled the scene.  Dare’s guilt over running away and remaining silent about what really happened had a huge influence over all his future choices – the foster home he went to after his parents were killed in a car crash and even his choice of careers.  Now Dare is a police officer in his hometown and he still has regular run-ins with the person responsible for their classmate’s death all those years ago.  The only small bright side is that Dare also gets to see the guy’s older sister when she comes to bail him out of jail.  She was the only reason Dare went to the party to start with – he had a crush on her and hoped to see her.

Liza McKnight’s life has mostly centered around her brother.  Her parents always thought he could do nothing wrong and she could do nothing right – they did everything they could to make her brother’s life easy.  Now that her parents spend most of their time away from Serendipity, taking care of Brian has become her responsibility.  He has a job at the family’s architectural firm but isn’t a diligent worker, by any means, and has a drinking problem that has him regularly in and out of jail.  Liza knows he needs more help than she can give him, but he is an adult. He helped her once in college when she really needed it and it has always been beaten into her brain that she is supposed to take care of him.

Liza had noticed Dare when visiting the police station to bail out her brother – hot guy in a uniform??  Yes, indeed.  But his open hostility to her brother and her general discomfort with the locals keeps her from being friendly.  And Dare’s high school crush on Liza?  Still crushing along, even though he thinks she is an enabler to her obviously troubled brother.

Really, Liza and Dare have a lot in common – both feel guilty about their parts in that high school party that went wrong, both had less than stellar childhoods. Just as they begin to explore a relationship, Brian gets into more trouble. There have been instances of missing money and mishandled accounts at Liza’s firm and Brian works in that department. When Brian goes missing and Liza’s brake line is cut, it seems his enemies are trying to get to him through her.

I appreciate the fact that Liza isn’t one of those too-stupid-to-live heroines we encounter sometimes. When she finds out she is in danger, she accepts all the protection offered from the police and from Dare’s family. She doesn’t go rushing off in a misguided attempt to save the day – and bless her for it. LOL

Can Liza accept that someone actually cares about her and won’t push her aside for something or someone more important? Can Dare let go of his guilt from the past and look toward the future without bitterness?

I enjoyed this book much more than the second in the series, although not quite as much as the first (I loves me some bad boy/good girl plots). This is a good, steady small-town romance and Ms. Phillips’ fans should be quite pleased to see all the Barrons brothers settled and happy.

Grade: C+

Summary:
Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager. But despite his lifelong attraction, the closest he’s ever come to interacting with her is watching Liza regularly bail out her brother at the station.
 
Dare’s dark past with Liza’s brother, Brian, has always kept him from pursuing her. But suddenly Liza finds herself in need of protection and Dare appoints himself as the man for the job.  And while the sizzling attraction between Dare and Liza draws them together, the past that Dare and Brian share threatens to keep the two apart forever.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Sandy M’s review of Where There’s Smoke by Karen Kelley
Paranormal Erotic Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 1 May 12

This is actually my first Karen Kelley book. I like the premise of the story, so thought it would be a good book to review. While I like the handsome and immortal cowboy hero – who wouldn’t want a cowboy for forever? – and the sex is hot and steamin’, there’s a couple of pet peeves that kept me on edge in between the sexy voice and grins that cowboy tosses around and the play of heaven against hell, stealing souls, and trying to do the right thing.

Destiny is a demon in training. She kinda messes up on occasion, so she’s been kicked out of hell to steal that one last soul to move her up to full demon status. Once there, it’s smooth sailing, she’ll finally have everything she’s been promised by the demon who turned her all those years ago. So she’s hunting for that next lucky – or unlucky, depending on how you look at it – soul, and she stumbles upon an uber sexy cowboy in a bar. Her first thought is not stealing his soul, it’s of sex – can’t blame her on that one! – which she hasn’t had in quite a little while.

The product of an angel and a human woman, Chance is a nephilim, a demigod, if you will. He’s immortal and, thus, has certain powers to go along with that status. His current mission is to save Destiny’s soul, convince her she can start again and have a better life than the one before, including her time in hell. Only thing is, she affects him as no other woman has. But he refuses to compromise his work ethic of saving a soul and then engaging in sex, if that’s what is desired. Sex first is the way his brothers in arms work, but not Chance.

What he doesn’t have a problem with is getting Destiny off any other way he can, and he does that quite deftly and often. This leads to the first of my pet peeves. For the first six chapters it’s Chance and Destiny coming together for their respective goals, only to have Chance work Destiny over to the point of boneless satiation so she forgets what she’s about. He then takes off because he won’t let things go any further. She gets pissed, promises to be in control next time, and then it starts all over again. Yes, there’s interaction between Destiny and the humans she befriends, as well as Chance and his brothers. Thus another pet peeve: we learn about these two characters’ lives and whatnot from this type of interaction and not from their interaction with each other. In the beginning all we get from them being together is plenty of foreplay.

Now, I like sex and all its variations in my romance books as much as the next reader – and, yes, I realize this is an erotic romance – but I also like a little story to go along with it. We get some basics in these six chapters, but that’s about it. Destiny isn’t allowed to fraternize with humans, but she’s suddenly overrun by neighbors in the apartment she “borrows.” Chance is still trying to keep his attraction to her at bay and discusses it over with his brothers, trying to do things the right way. Nothing new crops up until Destiny begins to care for her neighbors and Chance finally throws caution to the wind and the sex scenes ramp up a notch or two. But this is all too long in coming, too much redundancy for me in those initial chapters.

Once Chance and Destiny do the deed, though, the story begins to move along a little better. I enjoyed Chance’s use of magic, giving her romantic places to make love to her while they dance around one another trying to do their jobs. I also like Destiny’s shift in her attitude toward humans. She begins to really like this menagerie of quirky neighbors who invade her space every chance they get. Of course, the good times can only last so long before Destiny is reminded why she’s back in the land of the living. Her demon steps in with a heavy hand to show her the error of her ways in getting friendly with mortals. He also plants doubt about Chance, and Destiny then grabs hold again of her original mission to steal a soul so she’ll finally have everything she deserves. I waffled on whether I like the idea of Destiny throwing everything that she’s gained in the past few weeks to the wind, especially when she tells herself she’s not seen one thing promised to her in all the years she’s served in hell. But she talks herself into staying with what she knows. It’s when she sees the end result of her actions that she truly begins to see what she wants and needs in a different light.

The strong point of this book for me is Chance. I mean, how can you not love a sexy cowboy angel?    I’ve yet to read one, so this is fun for me. That he has to go through his own hell and face an old adversary – all because of and for Destiny – makes him that much more appealing. Destiny herself had to grow on me, so she’s the weak link in my mind. At times she comes off a little too whiny, but she does redeem herself in the end. I think a little less with the secondary characters and more between Chance and Destiny would have played much better, especially once they begin to know each other, other than in a sexual way.

Though what doesn’t work for me may work for you. I’d be interested in hearing what you think!

Grade: C

Summary:

When sexy wannabe-demon, Destiny Carter, is kicked out of Hell, she lands in Ft. Worth, Texas with one week to corrupt a soul. Or else. She slips into a slinky red dress, and heads straight for the delicious, corruptible looking cowboy at the bar.

But Chance Bellew has his own agenda-saving souls. He’s not your typical angel. He’s a nephilim, to be exact. Centuries ago, angels came down from Heaven and mated with mortal women. When the women bore children, a new race was created. Immortals with powers—demigods, nephilim.

But the children don’t live by the same rules as mortals, or that of the typical, robe-wearing, bright light-surrounding-them angels. Hell, most of the time the nephilim are breaking the rules, and making up new ones as they go. As long as they don’t cross over to the dark side, everyone pretty much stays out of their way.

But sometimes a demon-in-training, who looks like Destiny, comes along and all Hell breaks loose.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Liviania’s review of A Perfect Blood (The Hollows, Book 10) by Kim Harrison
Urban Fantasy published by Harper Voyager 21 Feb 12

Pale Demon injected life into the Hollows series.  It was tense, sexy, and all about the characters.  A Perfect Blood has a lot to live up to.  And it does have a promising plot – witches turning up dead, partially turned into demons, which Rachel is cut off from a great deal of her power.

Unfortunately, A Perfect Blood feels like filler.  Pale Demon pushed Rachel and Trent’s friendly and adversarial relationship forward by forcing them to spend a cross-country road trip together.  By A Perfect Blood, Rachel is (unwisely) ignoring Trent’s calls and stagnating their relationship.  They’ve had sexual chemistry since Dead Witch Walking and Kim Harrison seems to be flirting with letting them consummate their attraction.  But they spend most of this entry clumsily avoiding each other.

Instead of Rachel and Trent fireworks, we get the resolution of mostly forgotten plot threads.  Did Rachel ever get her pack tattoo?  You’ll find out in excruciatingly slow passages with Rachel’s new bodyguard Wayde.  Is her relationship with Malcolm really over?  Is that actually his name?  I can’t remember.  He’s so milquetoast I’d forgotten he existed until Rachel suddenly needed his help.  If that’s not his name, it doesn’t really matter, because the narrative quickly establishes that their brief relationship is over.  Also solved: re-felting Kisten’s pool table.  At times, it felt like Harrison had a list of questions people asked her and was ticking off the answers one by one because it would pad out the slight story.

A Perfect Blood wasn’t all filler.  Jenks and Ivy are both growing and changing.  Jenks might still miss his wife, but he’s moving on.  Likewise, Ivy moved on from her never-happened fling with Rachel.  Her relationship felt out of the blue, since I don’t remember her flirting with the character in question, but it’s nice to see characters in the Hollows acting happy.  It may also be the first mainstream threesome I remember reading.

The action scenes are also well done.  A Perfect Blood introduces HAPA, or the Humans Against Paranormals Association.  This feels clunky to me initially, since they’ve apparently been around for ages but never been mentioned before.  HAPA proves to be a good antagonist, however, so I’ll let it slide.  Although they’d only be decent antagonists during this book, which Rachel is at less than half power.

I think there’s life left in The Hollows.  There are still intriguing plot threads to play out.  There’s some new guys in town.  They didn’t play very interestingly in A Perfect Blood – they were a bit of a deus ex machina – but there are possibilities there.  (Maybe that’s what A Perfect Blood needed: more Al.  He’s barely in this book, but Harrison makes the most of his appearance.  He’s got a wonderfully chilling scene at the end.)  But with A Perfect Blood, I could see the wheels spinning.  Recommended for fans of the series; newbies will want to start elsewhere.

Grade: C

Summary:

New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison returns to the Hollows with the electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed Pale Demon!

Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in to help investigate by the I.S. and the FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth: a human hate group is trying to create its own demons to destroy all Inderlanders, and to do so, it needs her blood.

She’s faced vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more, but humanity itself might be her toughest challenge yet.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in the series:

LynneC’s review of The Fireman Who Loved Me (The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel, Book 1) by Jennifer Bernard
Contemporary Romance published by Avon 24 April 12

A small town romance featuring a reporter for a local TV station and a fireman from a station labelled the one with the hot bachelors. It should make for a cute romance, and on the whole it does. However, some distractions and deviations from the romance make it less than the hot romance promised in the blurb. In fact, it’s almost a case of false description, because the hot sex is a long time coming, and when it arrives, it’s on the vanilla side.

On the other hand, it’s quite a cute read, and worth picking up. I’m not sure who decided to sell it as a hot romance, but I don’t think they were doing the book justice, because while it doesn’t deliver on the erotic front, there are other enjoyable parts of the book.

Melissa is a producer for a local news program being upstaged by an airhead presenter. The presenter is a standard bimbo type who shows up in many, many romances and is increasingly uninteresting. She’s shallow, egotistical, and only there to present a foil and a conflict for the main female character. More effort put into that part of the story might have increased the interest there, and I might not have been tempted to skip those parts, since the outcome is as predictable as sunrise.

Melissa has a grandmother who is determined to see her married off. To that end, she puts her savings into a bachelor auction and buys Ryan, a hunky fireman, for an astronomical sum. But Ryan is hot, so Granny wants him for her granddaughter. Of course, all she has to do is put them together. When Ryan chickens out, after thinking his date is with Granny, and he’d never hear the last of it, his boss, fire captain Brody, steps in. And he ends up with Melissa.

To be honest, I’d have shoved Granny in the lake years before, not put up with her indulgently. Granny is cute as the old person who pushes into line at the supermarket, yelling, “Let me in, I’m eighty.” It’s one thing to allow someone into line, it’s another when they push their way in. Granny, aka Nelly, is like that. She’s clueless, she makes her presence known, and she’s as subtle as a sledgehammer. She isn’t cute or feisty, she’s the most annoying character in the book. She’s a caricature.

In fact, that’s my problem with most of the secondary characters in the book. They are less characters, more types, and you could pick out the ones meant for sequels, because more thought is put into them, although it’s of the “give this person three basic characteristics and take it from there” type.

What’s worse is that the secondary characters eat into the time Brody and Melissa have together. The book isn’t focused enough on the romance, and it doesn’t develop so much as lurch from incident to incident. We get Nelly’s point of view when we want Melissa, we get shenanigans at the TV station when we want to know what Brody thinks of his last encounter with Melissa.

The whole setup is so cute, my teeth are starting to ache. A fire station full of hot men, apart from one with a big belly, and two women we never really get to meet. They cook, they have an enlightened attitude to the opposite sex, they are great firefighters. A small town with no serious problems.

I kept reading, and unfortunately, it doesn’t improve a great deal. In fact, more characters and a distracting plot development detract even more from the romance. The trouble is, I don’t care about the other parts. The characters are sketchily done and the plot doesn’t have much to do with the romance. I couldn’t get interested, and had I not been reading this book for review, I’d have put it down at that point. Gently, and with regret, but down.

While this book doesn’t do it for me, I’ll keep an eye on Ms. Bernard to see what else she comes up with.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Fearless, smoking hot, and single: meet the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel. These firemen might be heroes, but it’s their bad luck in love that makes them legendary.

News producer Melissa McGuire and Fire Captain Harry Brody couldn’t be more different, though they do have one thing in common: they’re both convinced they’re perfectly wrong for each other. But when Melissa’s matchmaking grandmother wins her a date with Brody at a bachelor auction…

Sparks fly. Passion flares. Heat rises. (You get the picture.)

Add a curse, a conniving nightly news anchor, a stunningly handsome daredevil fireman, a brave little boy, a couple of exes, and one giant fire to the mix, and Melissa and Brody’s love may not be the only thing that burns.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

C2’s review of Crazy On You (Lovett, Texas, Book 2) by Rachel Gibson
Contemporary Romance ebook novella published by Avon Impulse 1 May 12

Can a woman determined to be responsible unbend enough to have a fling with the new, cute next-door neighbor?  And what happens if the fling turns out to be more?

Lily Darlington led an interesting life when she was younger but finally, at 38, she has put “Crazy Lily” behind her.  Now Lily is a homeowner, successful business owner, and single mom.  The last thing she needs is to get involved with the exceptionally hot, younger man who just moved in next door.

Tucker Matthews is relatively new to Lovett, Texas.  After serving ten years in the Army, Tucker left and began a law enforcement career and just started working for the county Sheriff’s Department.  After Tucker pulls Lily over for erratic driving (darn those cell phones!), he realizes she is his neighbor and is intrigued. And when her son Pippen’s bouncing basketball keeps him from sleeping (again), Tucker goes next door to negotiate with him – and gets another chance to talk to Lily – who doesn’t recognize him out of uniform.  Heh.

Lily is resistant to starting a relationship with anyone.  She has just gotten her life on track and doesn’t want to give the town reason to start reminiscing about Crazy Lily.  But Tucker is determined…and hot. Soon Lily agrees to a fling if Tucker doesn’t tell anyone.  He doesn’t understand what the big deal is but agrees. Soon, though, the sneaking around begins to bother him – is she ashamed of him?  What does it matter what other people think?  Finally, he tells Lily she has to decide whether she cares enough to go public or is she ready for the relationship, such as it is, to be over.  What’s a formerly crazy chick supposed to do?  Is it more mature to let the opinions of others rule your life?  Or should you be allowed to reach out and grab something potentially wonderful?

Crazy On You is an enjoyable read, but it feels very much like what it is – a bridge between Daisy’s Back in Town (Lily’s sister’s story) and Ms. Gibson’s next full-length release, Rescue Me (we very briefly meet the heroine).  It is a bit formulaic and feels like something I’ve read before, but, if you enjoy Ms. Gibson’s writing, you should enjoy the book – and it’s a bargain at $1.99. So if you’ve never tried this author…go for it!  I doubt it is necessary to read Crazy On You to read Rescue Me, but I can’t say for sure because I haven’t read it yet.

Grade: C+

Summary:Lily Darlington’s been called crazy in her day—and, yeah, driving her car into her ex-husband’s living room probably wasn’t the smartest move ever made—but the louse deserved it. Now Lily is happily single, and she’s turned it all around. She knows she’s a good mom, a homeowner, and a businesswoman, all wrapped up in one good-looking package.

A package that police officer Tucker Matthews is dying to unwrap. This ex-military man sure doesn’t need another woman in his life. His last girlfriend left him with nothing but memories and a cat named Pinky! But living next door to Lily has been driving him nuts. He dreams about her long blonde hair and even longer legs. And maybe it’s time to go a little crazy . . . and fall in love.

Read an excerpt.

Connected books:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Diamond Dreams (The Drakes of California, Book 1) by Zuri Day
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Kimani Romance 20 Mar 12

Going to conferences tends to be dangerous business for me.  I go, I mingle, I meet a lot of really fabulous people, and then I want to read every single one of their books.  When your TBR can be seen from space, this is not necessarily a good thing.  But that’s how I came to pick up this first category romance by Zuri Day.  I met her at a conference, had a nice time chatting with her, and was hooked by the premise of this first book in a trilogy – which is set in Southern California wine country.  Wine and romance?  Could there be a better combination?

Diamond Drake is the only daughter in what can only be described as a “wine dynasty.”  Her family has owned the land just north of San Diego for years and has built quite a reputation.  Diamond and her two brothers now play integral parts in the family business, with the latest project being a boutique hotel.  The idea is to make Drake Winery a vacation destination with good food, good wine, and excellent accommodations.  To make that happen they hire Jackson Wright’s construction company.

Jackson “Boss” Wright started out life in Inglewood, California with an absent (and unknown) father, a drug-addicted mother, and a pack of inappropriate friends. When his mother gets shipped off to prison, his prosperous aunt and uncle adopt him.  He now runs the family construction company and is doing very well, only to have someone gunning for him – literally.  Still haunted by his past, he’s been receiving threatening letters and someone breaks into the office. Add into the mix his attraction to Diamond, and the guy has a full plate.  Is the notorious playboy ready to settle down now – especially with a woman like Diamond, who most definitely has wedding bells and babies on her mind?

This story felt very much like a throwback to me, in a lot of ways.  You have the pampered princess daughter, the charming, flirtatious Alpha hero who is not ready to settle down, the heroine’s overprotective father and brothers, fancy cars, fancy clothes, and enough glamor to send Joan Collins into a swoon.  Chalk it up to an obsession with Dallas and Falcon Crest as a kid, but these were actually my favorite aspects of the story.  The whole family dynasty angle.

What didn’t work as well for me is pretty much everything else.  The suspense plot flits about, never really coming into focus, seemingly serving as a convenient device to spur the plot forward when needed.  Also, the hero’s reasoning behind not going to the cops over this issue just irritates (nothing to do with his past, everything to do with it could be bad for business). The sex scenes are just bad.  Besides the tendency to delve into purple prose territory, I’m not sure I want to live in a world where I read things like “vajayjay” and “joystick” in a romance novel.  I also find myself wearing beyond thin over the overprotective daddy and brothers trope when it concerns who their precious snowflake daughter/sister is dating.  Never mind that she’s a grown-up and doesn’t really exhibit any irresponsible behavior at all in this book.

However, I love the setting – probably because I know the area that the author writes about.  It makes for a great back-drop, and a family that makes wine?  Sign me up.  Plus Diamond’s brothers?  Sure, they’re over-protective, but did I mention they’re hot?  Like, smoking, yummy hot.  So yeah, I’m signed on for book two.

Grade: C-

Summary:

As the only daughter of Southern California’s most famous wine dynasty, Diamond Drake devotes all her waking hours to the family business. Burned by love, she’s not sure she ever wants to fall in love again. But construction millionaire Jackson Wright is sweeping her up in a whirlwind romance. Is he the real thing? Or will the sinfully sexy bachelor prove to be all flash and no substance?

From the moment he sees her, Jackson is dazzled by the stunning, sultry Diamond. He knows it’s dangerous to mix business with pleasure. If only Diamond will say yes to a future glittering with their passion and love.…

Read an excerpt.

Ash’s review of That Old Black Magic (Living in Eden, Book 3) by Michelle Rowen
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley Sensation 06 Dec 11

The final book in the Living in Eden series, That Old Black Magic, wraps everything up in a nice neat bow.

I have enjoyed this series, and I like both Eden and Darrak. They are still trying to figure out a way to break both the spell and the curse that are threatening  their lives. Their romance is sweet and I love watching Darrek grow into a hero. I wish Eden is a better heroine for him, though. I think she doubts things for longer than she should have.

As for the other characters, the only one I really care about is Lucifer. I would love for him to get his own book. I feel like his story has been left unfinished. The rest of the cast turns back into background characters to me. The Malleus are typical bad guys pretending to be good. I think that whole storyline could have been left out completely. If we were just focused on Eden and Darrek, I think it would have been much better. Also, the whole black magic/white magic thing feels old. Eden and Darrek’s relationship is unique and I wish their world could have matched that.

At the end of That Old Black Magic, everyone gets their happily ever after. I can’t say there are really any surprises here. Everything happens pretty much as I expected it to. It works in some areas and bothers me in others. Enough seems to be left open that Michelle Rowen could go back and write more stories, and I really hope she does. I would love to see more of Lucifer and the angels.

Grade: C

Summary:

Reluctant witch Eden Riley knows that codependent relationships aren’t good, especially when you’re possessed by a sexy but troublemaking demon. Darrak’s physical form makes good girl Eden want to go bad, but the constant itch to use the soul-destroying black magic she’s recently acquired might force Eden to explore her dark side in an entirely different way.

And when her magic starts manifesting itself without conscious effort, both Eden’s life and the possibility of a future with Darrak are threatened-since only one of them might be able to survive this…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

C2’s review of Confessions from an Arranged Marriage (Burgundy Club, Book 4) by Miranda Neville
Historical Romance published by Avon 27 Mar 12

What began as a drunken prank on a friend ended up being a scandalous encounter.  So what happens when a young lady with political aspirations gets caught in a compromising position with a gentleman with no aspirations at all?  Miranda Neville shows us in her latest release, Confessions from an Arranged Marriage.

The Marquis of Blakeney (Blake to his intimates) is back in London after spending the last few years at his family’s country seat.  His father, the Duke of Hampton, thought it was because Blake was interested in his future duties as duke, finally.  Actually, it was because a “friend” signed a large IOU in his name.  Blake had to take care of the debt or his Secret would be revealed.  At a ball, Blake thought he was teasing a flirtatious duchess awaiting a tryst.  In reality, Blake compromised the very serious Miss Minerva Montrose – while she was recuperating from a migraine, no less.  And he was caught by a crowd of important members of the ton…including his mother.  Of course, they must marry – and it is decided it must look like a love match to save face.

An aside – I read two books back-to-back with heroines named Minerva and both of them had older sisters named Diana. So odd. Onward…

Minerva has always been interested in politics.  She is a Reformer and wants to marry a gentleman with political leanings so she can guide his career and influence the future of the nation.  Waking up from a nap with Blake’s head under her skirts certainly took care of those ambitions.  Although the Dukes of Hampton have always played a large role in political matters, no one really expects Blake to do so. Minerva and most of her friends (and also the duke and duchess) think Blake is stupid and much more interested in horses and hunting than anything to do with government.  Minerva remains somewhat hopeful that she will have some political part to play after she becomes part of the Vanderlin family but soon realizes how unlikely that will happen.

During their wedding trip to France, Blake receives word that his father is extremely ill and he and Minerva rush back to England. The duke’s illness worsens and he passes away – leaving Blake the head of the family – and all the power that includes, whether he likes it or not.

When a man who has made a point of being irresponsible is suddenly saddled with more responsibilities than he ever wanted, what happens? Blake will need help and people he can trust around him, but he has a secret that could bring his world down around his ears. Can he learn to trust the wife his drunken prank landed him? Or will his family’s reputation be lost?

Both lead characters mature a great deal over the course of the book – Blake, because he has to, after he inherits the dukedom. He had already started down the road to maturity after landing in debt, but who knows what might have happened if his father had lived? Minerva starts out very young…and very focused on her interests and not much else. Earnest youngsters make my head hurt sometimes, by the way. Anyhoo, she does finally start to grow up after she sees that the world she so wanted to be part of isn’t quite as she imagined. For me, both lead characters (and many supporting characters) start off mostly unlikeable. Blake grows on me but Minerva doesn’t.

This is the first book I’ve read by Ms. Neville and, while I liked it, I think reading the previous books in the series would have increased my enjoyment. There are relationships and situations carried over from earlier books that left me out of the loop a bit. Will I go back and read the earlier books? Probably not.

Also, I’ll admit I have no love for (and very little interest in) politics of any sort – kind of like poor Blake, actually. He resolves himself to his situation and makes the best of it…I’m not sure I manage that as well as he does. And a secret similar to Blake’s is handled much better in Courtney Milan’s Unveiled – a most excellent read, says me.

If you have read and enjoyed Ms. Neville’s previous books, I am confident you will enjoy this one too. If you are new to this author and are interested in trying her books, I recommend starting at the beginning of the series.

Grade: C+

Summary:

They couldn’t be more different, but there’s one thing they agree on.

In London after a two-year exile, Lord Blakeney plans to cut a swathe through the bedchambers of the demimonde. Marriage is not on his agenda, especially to an annoying chit like Minerva Montrose, with her superior attitude and a tendency to get into trouble. And certainly the last man Minerva wants is Blake, a careless wastrel without a thought in his handsome head.

The heat and noise of her debutante ball give Minerva a migraine. Surely a moment’s rest could do no harm … until Blake mistakes her for another lady, leaving Minerva’s guests to catch them in a very compromising position. To her horror, the scandal will force them to do the unthinkable: marry. Their mutual loathing blazes into unexpected passion but Blake remains distant, desperate to hide a shameful secret. Minerva’s never been a woman to take things lying down, and she’ll let nothing stop her from winning his trust … and his heart.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

LynneC’s review of The Real Rio D’Aquila (The Orsini Brothers, Book 6) by Sandra Marton
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 15 Nov 11

This is the last book about the children of a Mafia don, who turn their backs on him and his ways and find their own way in life and to love. This series has been guilty pleasure after guilty pleasure, although I haven’t read them all.

This one is the last sister’s story. Isabella, or Izzy as her siblings call her, is a gardener, trying to make it to the big commissions. Her brother-in-law puts a big job her way, doing the landscaping for a house in the Hamptons, owned by a self-made billionaire (this is the Modern/Presents line, don’t forget!). She arrives late and disheveled, having crashed her car.

Rio D’Aquila started life as Matteo Rossi. He’d been brought up in an orphanage and worked his way to the top. He is annoyed when Izzy turns up and gives her his alter ego, Matteo. He’s been digging. Rio likes digging.

Most of the book is them having a wild weekend and then a wild week in his house in Mustique. The telling of the story is enjoyable, and if you let yourself get carried away by the read, then you’re in for a good time.

It’s only when you start to question that the story begins to crumble.

For instance, Isabella is born into wealth and she has fabulously wealthy siblings. So how come she doesn’t know about Mustique? It’s extremely exclusive, if a bit démodé these days, and buying a beach hut there is beyond the capabilities of a mere millionaire. You have to be seriously rich to live there. But she swallows the story of a caretaker having a house there. I could believe that said caretaker could pilot a small plane, if his quirky boss demanded it, but when we get to the Mustique bit, I had to suppress an eyeroll. She’s a professional gardener/landscaper, but she doesn’t talk like one. When she sees the garden, she says she’ll put “some” plants here and “some” plants there. She sounds like a small-scale amateur, not the kind who remodels estates.

At times, Isabella goes past sweet and naïve into stupid. To do her justice, she does realize she is getting in way past what she should. Going into an empty house with a total stranger on her own, however ripped that stranger happens to be, is little short of criminal.

And another question. Admittedly, I don’t know the Hamptons well (for that, read not at all) but in such an exclusive area, how likely are you to meet a run-down would-be rapist? (not Rio, but a walk-on character). Isabella shouldn’t be allowed out on her own, and my growing lack of sympathy for her makes some of her story a bit hard to take.

Rio is gorgeous, and he realizes early on that he has to come clean about who he is, but Isabella doesn’t let him. She wants to make love. I enjoyed his self-guilt and his crawling at the end, but I think Isabella should have done a bit of groveling herself. However, this isn’t the Modern/Presents way. He builds his fortune easily, gets accepted into all the right places, has sex with and then discards women, you know the score. I like a little more detail about my billionaires, maybe a bit more than the vague references to him buying and selling. For me, it adds to an authentic background and lets me buy into the story.

I also find it hard to believe that they could fall so deeply in love in a few days. In some romance novels I’ve gone along with the fantasy, but in reality it takes more than a few days. At one point Isabella realizes she doesn’t know Matteo at all, and I’d have been happier if they’d have not rushed into marrying.

And for reference, you can now get pregnancy kits that will tell you for sure two days after conception. And you don’t need a doctor to confirm it. If you’ve done a reliable over-the-counter test, repeated it, and it says you’re pregnant, then you are.

I’d skip the epilogue, all but the last paragraph, which is amusing. Wrapping the series up with a corny explanation of what the father was doing all this time isn’t really satisfactory. Not for me, anyway, so I prefer to believe that bit didn’t happen.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Italian by birth, this street urchin lived a life of extreme poverty until he escaped to Brazil—where he cast off his roots, took a new name and pulled himself up from the streets.

Now Rio D’Aquila is beyond wealthy, with a reputation for being uncompromising in business…and incomparable in bed! But on meeting vulnerable Isabella Orsini, he feels something deep within him stir, and he finds himself pretending to be that long-forgotten man.

Passion flares and their affair spirals, but Isabella still doesn’t know that her lover has lied to her. Who is the real Rio D’Aquila?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Ash’s review of Alpha Instinct (Moon Shifter Series, Book 1) by Kate Reus
Paranormal Romance published by Signet Eclipse 07 Feb 12

I have been in a reading slump for awhile now, but after I picked this book up, I couldn’t put it down. It is by no means perfect, but I got sucked into the story anyway.

I definitely enjoyed Alpha Instinct; however, after reading it and thinking about it, there are a few things that keep this story from being a higher grade. Ana and Connor have a past. He left her life without even a goodbye. She hasn’t gotten over that in the past fifty years. Connor had a good reason to leave, but, of course, he won’t tell her why. He doesn’t actually tell her much of anything, and even when she calls him out on it, it goes nowhere. One of my least favorite things is a heroine who says she has a backbone, but as soon as she sees his rock-hard abs, she gives into anything. Sadly, Ana is like that. I never get a sense of her as a person. I also feel like none of their conflicts with each other are really solved. Connor is such a strong character that next to him, Ana kind of gets lost.

She isn’t the only one either. Aside from Connor’s brother, Liam, I don’t really know who any of the other characters are. There is a lot that is going on, and it seems like building the other characters gets left out. There are numerous bad guys, and even when one dies another anonymous bad guy shows up. I guess it is building the story for future books, but it’s too much. None of the three, yes three, bad guy story lines  gets enough page time to really turn them into believable villains.

Lastly, I never do get a clear picture of the world. There are shifters, wolf, cat, and bear. Then there are suddenly vampires, and later on fairies are mentioned. We keep getting told about the world they live in but are never shown any of it. Anything behind the ranch they live on is fuzzy to me.

So, while not the best paranormal romance I’ve read, I like it immensely and I can’t wait for Liam’s book in September. Connor and Liam are strong enough and great enough the carry the book. I only hope that everything else is just as strong in the next one.

Grade: C+

Summary:

Fear has a scent. So does desire…

Ana Cordona has been a strong leader for the lupine shifters who survived after all the males and most of the females in her pack were mysteriously poisoned. As tough as she is, with no Alpha male, the pack is vulnerable to the devious shifter Taggart, who wants to claim both their ranch and Ana as his own. When Connor Armstrong comes back into her life, promising protection, it’s almost enough to make Ana forget how he walked out on her before–and reluctantly accept his offer to mate.

The minute Connor sees Ana again, it reawakens a raw hunger. He must have her for his bondmate–his wolf cries out for it. But his human side knows he must proceed with caution because of their complicated past. If he is to truly have her body and soul, he must go beyond his burning desire and win back her heart. Whatever it takes, he is determined not to leave her side again.

But Taggart and his rival pack are not their only enemies. A human element in town is targeting shifters. Their plan not only threatens Ana and Connor’s future, but the lives of the entire pack…

Read an excerpt.

Laura C’s review of Edge of Midnight (Chasing Evil Trilogy, Book 3) by Leslie Tentler
Romantic Suspense published by Mira 24 Jan 12

Eric MacFarlane has no business chasing the serial killer known as The Collector, not after the man killed Eric’s wife. But Eric can’t let the case go, and when a woman is found, barely alive, having escaped The Collector, Eric knows the killer won’t let her go, so he sticks as close to her as he can.

The serial killer aspect of this story is interesting. We meet him, we know who he is, basically. That is, we know he’s not a buddy of the people in the story, so you’re not afraid he’s going to catch Mia at the office or something. You don’t worry that he’s going to turn out to be one of the people she trusts. I think that is part of what made me feel…less tense…about this story than I might have been.

The romance in this book is definitely secondary to the suspense. Mia is a victim, Eric an FBI agent. That alone has him fighting his attraction to her, even without the added conflict of his wife having been murdered by The Collector. Still, this *is* a romance, so there’s no doubt that he’ll give in…and he does. Both he and Mia are strong characters, both determined to catch the killer, and a reader can easily imagine them making a life together at the end of the book. All the conflicts are external—the killer, their jobs, etc.

Mia has amnesia and can’t remember anything about her time with The Collector, so she agrees to participate in an experimental and very dangerous procedure involving multiple rounds of drugs and hypnosis to get her memories back. I’m not sure what the point of this whole storyline is except to show us how Mia is both strong and fragile and to give Eric a reason to feel responsible for her (he convinces her to work with the psychiatrist).

I wish I could point to one thing or the other that made me feel a bit “off” about this book, but I can’t. It’s a fine book, plenty of action, a good villain to hate, a good couple to root for. I just don’t feel as if it gells. I am sure others will feel differently.

Grade: B-

Summary:

The writer becomes the story when crime reporter Mia Hale is discovered on a Jacksonville beach—bloodied and disoriented, but alive. She remembers nothing, but her wounds bear the signature of a sadistic serial killer. After years lying dormant, The Collector has resumed his grim hobby: abducting women and taking gruesome souvenirs before dumping their bodies. But none of his victims has ever escaped—and he wants Mia back, more than he ever wanted any of the others.FBI agent Eric MacFarlane has pursued The Collector for a long time. The case runs deep in his veins, bordering on obsession…and Mia holds the key. She’ll risk everything to recover her memory and bring the madman to justice, and Eric swears to protect this fierce, fragile survivor. But The Collector will not be denied. In his mind, he knows just how their story ends.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Her Cowboy Defender by Kerry Connor
Romantic Suspense published by Harlequin Intrigue 07 Feb 12

Category romance is the one area of the sub genre where I still actively impulse read.  Now that said, I picked up this latest by Kerry Connor because I enjoyed one of her previous releases, and that “Thriller” tag-line that Intrigue likes to use sometimes tends to hook me.  I go into those particular reads expecting a non-stop, action-packed suspense thread, with a wee bit of romance tossed in for flavor.  Plus, “cowboy” is in the title.  I’m a girl who has a hard time saying no to a cowboy.  Unfortunately, with all that going for it, this story didn’t work all that well for me.

Cade McClain (best hero name EVER!) is driving down a deserted road near his ranch when he sees a broken-down car on the side of the road.  He stops to help the lone woman, only to have her pull a gun on him and demand his truck.  Well, that is until she realizes it’s a standard transmission and she can’t drive stick.  So she kidnaps him to be her driver.  When bad guys show up and start shooting at them?  Cade realizes that today isn’t going to be typical.

Piper Lowry’s twin sister Pam is an FBI agent and is lying in a coma after a car accident.  She rushes to her sister’s bedside in Dallas, only to get a phone call from a Very Bad Man.  He has kidnapped their younger sister and is holding her for ransom.  The price?  Pam was supposed to squirrel away some information from the FBI.  Being twins, Very Bad Man doesn’t realize that Pam is in a coma and thinks Piper is Pam.  So now Piper has to figure out what the intel is that Very Bad Man wants, needs to save her baby sister – oh, and she can’t go to the authorities because she thinks someone in Pam’s FBI field office is bent.  To add insult to injury, her rental car is now a smokin’ hulk on the side of the road and she’s late for her rendezvous with Very Bad Man.

OK, here’s the problem: I don’t buy it.  Any of it.  Piper pulls a gun on Cade, threatens him, he gets shot at by hired goons, and she gives him the ol’ Can’t Go To The Law Because I Don’t Know Who To Trust line and he…..drops his entire life to help her.  Listen, I get that some guys have a Hero Complex and have a fetish for helping damsels in distress – but this one strained for me considerably.  It just did.  It also doesn’t really help matters that all this takes place over the course of 48 hours.  It’s hard for me to believe in a lasting romance when in all likelihood the attraction was helped along by the danger elements.

The author does succeed in giving the reader an action-packed plot, though.  This book starts with a bang and doesn’t let up all the way to the final chapter.  It’s go, go, go.  Never a dull moment.  No downtime.  However, even with all the action, it’s hard for me to stay fully engaged because I never really fully bought in to the setup.  Also, things are helped along considerably by inept hired goons.  Seriously, bad guys who don’t lock doors?  They just don’t make villains like they used to.

While I never was fully engaged and had my issues, the writing is clear and crisp.  I also stuck with it all the way to the end.  And just because I don’t buy in doesn’t mean that other readers won’t.

Grade: C-

Summary:

From the moment he finds himself staring down the barrel of her gun, Rancher Cade McClain knows Piper Lowry isn’t just another stranded tourist. Armed and desperate, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to carry out her mission. A mission she claims only he can help her with. Knowing it would be impossible to walk away from this tempting, determined woman, Cade offers her a place to hide from the gunmen on her trail. Despite his broad shoulders and intimidating gaze, it isn’t long before the straight-shooting cowboy realizes he can’t guarantee Piper’s safety. Even if his heart is beginning to tell him he has no choice but to try.…

Read an excerpt.

C2’s review of A Town Called Valentine (Valentine Valley, Book 1) by Emma Cane
Contemporary Romance published by Avon 31 Jan 12

A new name to contemporary romance (but familiar to historical fans, under another name) begins a series set in a small western town called Valentine.  I do enjoy small-town settings, don’t you, faithful reader? Even though they are never anything like the small town I grew up in…no fictional small town will ever match that weirdness. Heh.  Onward!

Our heroine, Emily Murphy, is reeling from an unpleasant divorce.  She is trying to move forward with her life and will be attending Berkeley starting in the fall.  In the meantime, she has driven from San Francisco to Valentine Valley to sell a building she inherited from the grandmother she barely knew.  Emily arrives in town late on a rainy night, with not much money and a sickly car.  She manages to make it to the parking lot of a tavern and goes in for some dinner.  While Emily is there, she notices an attractive cowboy across the room.  They flirt for a bit and go into the backroom to play pool – where things get a bit hot and heavy.  Before things go too far, Emily calls a halt…she realizes she has had too much to drink and is groping a virtual stranger.

Nate Thalberg, local rancher and businessman, was enjoying the groping and would have been glad to continue.  However, he respects Emily’s wishes and lets her go…out to her car that won’t start.  When she comes back into the tavern to call a tow truck, Nate and Tony (the tavern owner) explain that no one will be available until the next day and there aren’t taxis either.  Nate offers to take her to a nearby motel, but Emily doesn’t have much money and asks to be taken to her building.  Instead, after showing her the inhabitable state the building is in, Nate takes her to the Widows’ Boardinghouse to stay until she can fix things up.

During her time in Valentine Valley, Emily works hard to improve her building (trashed by the previous tenants), becomes acquainted with the area, develops close friendships, becomes more confident in herself and her abilities, and is surprised to learn some new facts about her background.  She also gets closer to Nate – but not too close…Emily still plans to sell the building and go back to school.  A fling is all she has time for.  Right??

Nate is happy to fling.  He is a busy guy with lots of business interests and also helps run his family’s ranch – and is in charge of the upcoming rodeo.  After several relationships that ended badly after he took too active a role – being too helpful, allowing the other person to become too dependent – Nate likes to keep things casual.  And if it is more difficult than usual to be casual with Emily, well, she won’t be around long and then things will go back to normal.  Won’t they??

I enjoyed the town of Valentine and its residents…it feels very real and not just an afterthought setting.  Lots of interesting characters with potential for future stories – without super-obvious sequel baiting.  The widows are fun, especially.  The dialog is a bit odd in places…like, unusually formal.  It’s hard to explain or even to find an example. Somehow, in a contemporary romance, it’s a bit jarring sometimes because it seems awkward and keeps some scenes from flowing properly for me because I’m all “Who talks like that??” and re-writing dialog in my head (and I’m no writer).

”I’m selling the building and returning home to San Francisco.”

Emily is a bit confusing to me.  She says early on that she didn’t really enjoy college and didn’t mind quitting when she got married but is so determined to return to San Francisco and start classes at Berkeley…even though she admits she has no idea what she wants to study and isn’t sure what she wants to do.  Also, the fact that she refused financial support from her husband after their divorce seems unlikely – even if she didn’t want alimony or whatever – there should have been a split of assets and whatnot, I’m thinking, since California is a community property state (I am not a California resident nor am I a lawyer and I know this, so…). Why did she have no money??  Still, it is always nice to see a heroine who doesn’t sit back and expect people to do everything for her and Emily certainly is very active in moving forward with her life.  If she goes overboard in the opposite direction or is a bit narrow in her thinking and ignores some possibilities, well, she is coming out of a difficult time.

Ah Nate – it’s always nice to see a cowboy hero, right?  And I didn’t have a hard time believing he keeps things casual because of his past relationships.  His relationship with his family is fun (even when they’re fighting) and believable.  And Nate tries really hard to not help Emily too much, even if his natural inclination is to help and help and help. Still, the relationship feels a bit awkward.

Overall, I enjoyed A Town Called Valentine and look forward to the next installment.  Certainly, the positives outweigh the negatives.  If you enjoy small-town settings or are looking for a modern western setting, this book might be just the thing.

Grade: C

Summary:

Emily Murphy never thought she’d return to her mom’s rustic hometown in the Colorado Mountains. But after her marriage in San Francisco falls apart, leaving her penniless and heartsick, she returns to her old family home to find a new direction for her life. On her first night back, though, a steamy encounter with handsome rancher Nate Thalberg is not the fresh start she had in mind…

Nate has good reason not to trust the determined beauty who just waltzed into town–he’s no stranger to betrayal. Besides, she’s only there to sell her family’s old property and move back out. But as Nate and Emily begin working side-by-side to restore her time-worn building and old family secrets change Emily’s perception of herself, both are about to learn how difficult it is to hide from love in a place known far and wide for romance, family ties, and happily-ever-afters: a town called Valentine.

Read an excerpt (scroll down a bit).

C2’s review of Destiny (Serendipity, Book 2) by Carly Phillips
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 3 Jan 12

In Carly Phillips’ Destiny, we return to the small town of Serendipity. We see how things are going for the residents we met in the first book of the series, and the second Barrons brother, Nash, gets his happily ever after. Eventually.

Nash is still dealing with the fallout caused by the return of his estranged brother, Ethan (hey, read about Ethan’s book here). Everyone else seems to have welcomed Ethan back with open arms, but Nash just can’t. And that is causing friction with the rest of the family.

At Ethan’s wedding, Nash has a brief encounter with Kelly Moss. Nash’s dad and Kelly’s mom had an affair years ago – an affair that resulted in their half-sister Tess. Kelly brought Tess to live with Ethan after her mom abandoned them and she could no longer handle the troubled teen. Nash’s parents were killed in a car accident when Tess was a baby. Kelly has recently moved to Serenity. She wants to be closer to Tess – who is doing quite well in her new situation (after some bumps) – and needs a change of scenery after some drama in her personal life.

As Nash and Kelly begin to have a relationship, outside forces cause difficulties – some small, some not so small. Nash is a bit of a control freak, probably because of his childhood – everyone he has cared about has left him, except his younger brother, Dare. But, suddenly, there are all sorts of changes in Nash’s life – his older brother is back after being gone for years, he has a sister he never suspected existed, and his ex-wife just started dating. Not to mention getting involved with a woman who isn’t so forthcoming with details about her past.

When Kelly uncovers some information about Nash’s past, Nash is thrown into a tailspin. Suddenly, he is questioning all sorts of things he had taken as truths all his life. And Kelly is there for him the whole time. But Kelly’s secrets are about to rear their heads.

Will Nash be there for Kelly when she needs him? Or will he be stuck in his own problems and feel betrayed? And will Kelly finally prove to herself she isn’t like her mother and move forward as a strong, independent woman or let her doubts and past mistakes overwhelm her?

I have to say I didn’t enjoy Destiny as much as the first book in the series. Maybe because Serendipity is a twist on the bad boy/good girl trope and I do so enjoy those stories. Nash never quite gels as a character for me – supposedly he’s this rigid, sees-everything-in-black-and-white guy, at least according to the other characters in the book. But he never actually seems that way…he just comes across as stubborn, mostly. Maybe that is on purpose, since he’s supposed to be learning to loosen up…I dunno. And Kelly is an okay heroine, but she’s supposed to have all these hidden insecurities and issues from her past – let me just say they are very well hidden until they became a plot point. It just gives things an awkward feel.

So, does this book stand alone? No, I say you should read the first book before this one. It’s better and you’ll know what’s going on. Even though there is a disconnect between how the characters are described and the way they are portrayed, Destiny isn’t a bad book, and I am optimistic about Dare’s book (coming soon).

Grade: C-

Summary:
Nash Barron may be cynical about love, yet even he likes a good wedding. But the only good thing about his brother’s wedding is Kelly Moss. Nash can’t help but admire her confidence and beauty, but he’s forced to keep his distance because getting involved with Kelly could destroy his relationship with his newly discovered half sister, Tess…
Kelly came to Serendipity to give Tess–her half sibling as well, thanks to an illicit affair–a second chance at life. She learned long ago not to rely on anyone but herself. Besides, she doesn’t want to upset Tess’s life by pushing for a fling with Nash. Except the more she gets to know him, the more vulnerable she becomes to the kindness beneath his gruff exterior, and the less she’s able to stay away. But she has other reasons for keeping her distance. Like the secret from her past she knows Nash will never forgive…

Read an excerpt (pop-up, Flash-based…FYI).

Other books in the series:

Ash’s review of Riptide (Cutter Cay Series, Book 2) by Cherry Adair
Romantic Suspense published by St. Martins 30 Aug 11

I was hoping this book would be better than the first one, but sadly that isn’t the case. I love the idea of treasure hunters and it could be such an interesting storyline. Cherry Adair just has to involve spies and special ops and there isn’t enough about the treasure.

I have a few issues with Riptide. First of all, and I can’t remember if anything was mentioned in the first book (but why would it be there and not in this one?), but this brother, Nick, is also a sort of spy?! The book opens with him undercover and completely disguised as another man, who apparently has a reputation as a bad guy. Other than what the “mission” is in the book, we are never told how he came to have this other identity, how often he uses it, or if he even has any type of military training. We know he is kind of friends with a T-Flac agent, so maybe Nick is mentioned in one of those books? I have only read the first, so someone will have to tell me. Other than all that, I like Nick. He is nicknamed Spock by his brothers because he is practically emotionless, until Bria gets under his skin. It is the type of romance plot line I usually adore.

However, I think he deserves a better heroine. Bria lets him get away with being a jerk, and I just wanted to shake her. She is also a bit boring, the things that should make her stand out as a heroine just don’t. She is a princess who was hidden away after her parents were murdered in front of her, but it felt played out. Her personality, her background, and even her country feel like they belong more in a Disney movie than in a romance book. Nick’s personality just rolls right over her and she goes along for the ride.

The suspense part of the book is nothing new either. I want to know more about salvaging and I want something other that the typical bad guys. The Cutter men could be anyone, anywhere. The fact that they are treasure hunters is wasted. Also, I get that Cherry Adair wants to add in her T-Flac men, but this is twice now when they show up pretty much after the fact. Doesn’t make them look too good, in my opinion. Not all series need to be connected, and I wish they would stay away. I do plan to read the next book, because while I am not in love with this series, I still enjoy it, even if I have to suspend my belief more then a little. And while these books are called a trilogy, I really hope Nick’s best friend Jonah gets a book. His story is one I want to read.

Grade: C+

Summary:

SHE’S SWEPT INTO TREACHEROUS WATERS

Princess Bria Visconti demands the return of the money her brother rashly invested in Cutter Salvage. Treasure hunter Nick Cutter is too reckless, too arrogant—and far too handsome—for his own good. But he can’t charm his way out of this one. Bria plans to make Nick pay up even if she has to board his boat, don a wet suit, and dive for the treasure herself…

HE FIGHTS THE RELENTLESS PULL…

Nick sees Bria as a beautiful but spoiled princess who’s never done a day’s work in her pampered life. But once they set sail for the dive site, and the legendary fortune in gold the wreck carries, Nick begins to see Bria in a new light. This princess may be out of her depth, but she’s ready to take on the hidden danger and excitement a treasure hunt stirs to the surface. Together they must fight unexpected enemies—and reveal their darkest secrets—before they’re pulled into a rip current of danger.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Darker After Midnight (Midnight Breed, Book 10) by Lara Adrian
Paranormal Romance published by Delacourte Press 24 Jan 11

I wanted this book because it’s Sterling Chase’s book, but while the first part keeps the reader on the edge of her seat, the second half descends into a big wtfkery, as Adrian sets the scene for what will probably be a new series. There will be spoilers in this review, however I’ll mark them for you, but the first part won’t have spoilers as such. However, we know certain things, and I don’t really consider them spoilers, such as this is a romance, so it has a HEA.

Sterling Chase is the hyper-controlled Breed male who joined the Order after giving up the Agency. Some of the best parts of this book are when Chase returns to his old Darkhaven and muses about his previous life, what he wanted and how he’d been mistaken. We actually get insights into his character and what makes him tick. But other parts of Chase’s character aren’t carried through properly. We know at the end of the last book that he has succumbed to bloodlust and so he’s doomed. He has to go cold turkey, or maybe he doesn’t, maybe he can just fight it. Bloodlust is described as an addiction, but Chase doesn’t behave like an addict. For one thing, he falls in love and puts that person above his addiction. Addicts don’t do that. It weakened that part of Chase’s character. And (spoiler) the resolution. What resolution? We just see lurve beating all, we don’t see him kicking his habit. It’s an important part of Chase’s character, until it stops being a part of his character. Until it’s not needed anymore to move the story forward. I want more about Chase and less about the badass villain.

Dragos has been the villain through the whole series. He has never been more than two-dimensional, and here he doesn’t disappoint in that respect. He’s a megalomaniac. While other megalomaniacs had quirks (Blofelt had a cat, Goldfinger had a third nipple), Dragos doesn’t even have that. He just wants to rule the world and is prepared to create chaos while he does so. Like a spoiled child wanting a toy, he doesn’t really know why he wants it or what he’ll do with it once he gets it.

As usual, we get destruction and mayhem, but some of the story threads lead nowhere and others come out of the blue. (spoiler alert). Atlantis? Really? And when Dragos dies, it’s over so fast and so easily, that you wonder why they bothered waiting so long. Dragos’s master plan is so ridiculously simple, I don’t know why he didn’t do it earlier, before the Order had a chance to fight him.

The heroine of this book is Tavia, who is more than she thinks she is at the start. And here’s another break with the rest of the rules of the series. I feel kind of cheated when I discovered what Tavia is, because, although the explanation is plausible, it negates some of the other earlier books. Tavia starts the book as an interesting character in an interesting job, but that dissipates as, before our eyes, she turns into a Mary Sue. Everybody loves her, except the villain, who wants her, and she makes everything all right. She cures addiction, she fights, she Saves The Day, and we are meant to believe that where a group of experienced warriors fail, a scheme that the aforesaid Blofelt could have spotted with one eye closed would succeed? At the end, she does something so stupid that I lost respect or interest for her.

Originality, this book has none. I don’t mind that so much as some readers. For instance, this series is about a bunch of otherworldly, vampiric badass warriors who all live together in a great big house and find their mates. Yep, definitely been there before, again and again for that matter, but the women are more proactive and interesting, and the writing is less simplistic than others in similar vein. What’s more, the characters, especially in the first three books, are far more involving, less ciphers, with motivations that make sense and story arcs that go somewhere. For me, the series started to fall apart when she turned Andreas Reichen into a totally different character for Ashes of Midnight, but I kept reading, hoping the series would turn. At some points, it did, but this last book is one of the weakest in the series, which is a real shame, as I loved Chase in the earlier books and I wanted to read about him, not some weird outer-space-meets-mythology mashup.

This story starts really well and I couldn’t stop reading, but at a certain point, it changed, and I just wanted to get to the end. Then I wish I hadn’t. Here followeth spoilers, but I’ll try not to make it too bad.

At one point toward the end, I groaned aloud. My daughter, who was in the same room, asked me what was wrong, and I said one word. “Atlantis.” She hasn’t read this series, didn’t know what I was reading, but she groaned, too. Oh dear. It’s like having a joker in the pack or playing a black two and then saying, “Oh, by the way, black twos are wild.” It came out of nowhere and it didn’t work. For that matter, the whole interpretation of dreams subplot didn’t work for me. I was tempted to skip, but I read, hoping it would come together at the end, but it didn’t.

The end of the book is one big Harlequin Presents ending. Couples cuddling and babies. Omg the babies! Sweet as sugar.

And the speech to the world? Absolutely unbelievable. I mean I didn’t believe it. It’s like a Godzilla film, with people rushing around screaming and school buses falling off high bridges, and the everything is all right, and “We’ll build a new world together.” Nu-uh. Not for this romance reader.

The book is a bit like a torn sock. All nicely knitted and working toward something interesting, and then lots of threads and tangles and an ending that doesn’t make sense.

Adrian has obviously set up a new series here, one that reads far more like urban fantasy, but I’m a romance reader. I want characters, their dilemmas and how they overcome them, drawing on resources inside themselves. I don’t want plot-heavy stories with characters who do as they are told. So this is where we part company, but the first three books of this series remain firmly on my keeper shelf.

Grade: C

Summary:

The climactic novel in Lara Adrian’s New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series–and her hardcover debut–Darker After Midnight invites readers to enter a thrillingly sensual world where danger meets desire.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Five Ways ‘Til Sunday (Delta Heat, Book 1) by Delilah Devlin
Contemporary Erotic Romance short story ebook published by Samhain 22 Nov 11

I haven’t had such a dilemma like this with a book in quite a while. I like the characters. I like the story. Then I didn’t care for the story. Then I’d like it again, but I’d hit another snag several pages later. Mostly, I just don’t see this hero allowing such things to happen, even if his BFFs are involved.

Jackson and Marti have a very active sex life – adventurous, sexy, and fun. In fact, the opening scene is quite fun, role playing behind Marti’s locked office door. I enjoyed that a lot. Jackson is one of those men who can win a woman over every which way, so when Marti keeps rejecting his love for her and his proposals of marriage, he tells her he’ll do anything to make her feel comfortable saying yes.

For Marti, it’s more that she’s not up to his standards – no education, tattoos, blue-streaked hair, piercings, and she manages a bar for heaven’s sake. Officer Jackson Teague deserves more than that. Of course, as far as he’s concerned, it’s all in her mind. He loves all of things about her. But when Marti fudges and tells him she has a bucket list of things to try before she marries, Jackson calls her bluff and demands to see her list.

At first he’s a little taken aback at what he reads, but with the help of his five best friends on the force with him, Jackson is determined to show Marti she has no reason to fear commitment from either one of them. So they set up the situations she wants to experience – a hooker working a street corner, making love in a cop car, and other such scenarios, each a tad more erotic than the last. And while these scenes are very erotic, ménages five ways and then some to help Marti give Jackson the answer he wants, this is where my problem with all of it comes about.

These buddies may be Jackson’s best friends, two of them since high school, but a man who loves a woman as much as Jackson loves Marti (and as much as she loves him but just won’t admit it yet), I just can’t see him letting any man put his hands and mouth on her and his cock inside her. Jackson even at one point says no penetration, but the next thing you know, all kinds of penetration are going on. And when Marti discovers Jackson sees beyond her reason for concocting the list in the first place, all of the shenanigans should have ended, but it’s Jackson himself who insists they’re nowhere near done with her yearnings. Yes, in the end Marti wakes up after her fantasies are realized; the men are still best friends despite their wild and wicked weekend, so all’s well that ends well. The journey getting there just doesn’t work for me as well as it does for them. I do love the depiction of Jackson on this cover, though. Whew-boy, just like he’s described in the book.

Despite all of this, however, I like these characters, including Jackson’s buds. They’re fun and likeable, and since this is the first book in the Delta Heat series, we’re going to see more of them in the future. It will be interesting to see what Ms. Devlin does with them all.

Grade: C

Summary:

Sometimes a man’s just gotta call for backup…

Marti Kowalski is all wrong for Officer Jackson Teague—he just won’t listen to reason. She didn’t finish high school, runs a bar. Has a tattoo and a blue streak in her hair. Yet he still wants to marry her? She can’t say she’s not tempted, but she’s got a bucket list to complete before she ties the knot.

Not just any bucket—more like a fifty-five-gallon drum of sexual wishes so explicit, there’s no way one man, even Jackson, can fulfill them all.

When Marti turns him down again, Jackson doesn’t give up, he insists on knowing why. That’s when she shows him her list. He takes it, thinks about it—and calls on the only men he can trust: four buddies from his academy graduating class.

Between the five of them, he’s sure they can come up with a plan to check off every item on her list in one wild, wicked weekend. That is, if she has the nerve to follow through—and if he can bear to share her.

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of  The Secret History of a Good Girl by Aimee Carson
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents  7 Feb 12

Aimee Carson is a new author to me, with two Mills and Boon/Harlequin books under her belt. I settled down for a good read, and on the whole I wasn’t disappointed.

Alyssa is an events planner, and she’s pitching for an important contract with the Samba Hotel. One thing I don’t understand is why these women with little experience get the big jobs in these books. What’s more, she has a secret, something she doesn’t tell prospective employers, but one, I would have imagined, that people in a position of trust must reveal. Why didn’t they know? But when she confesses to Pauolo later in the book, it comes as a complete surprise to him.

I know that realism isn’t a hallmark of Presents/Modern, but I do expect to be able to believe the setup. There are a few WTFs in this book, but I let them ride. The most successful of this line don’t depend on generalizations and vague explanations to tell the story, and while Pauolo and Alyssa are vividly drawn characters, some of the situations and internal thoughts I feel I’ve read before and didn’t really read like those of individuals.

Pauolo is the macho, tall, dark, handsome male who doesn’t believe in marriage. He’s been married before, and it ended badly. However, Pauolo loved his wife, and she divorced him to marry his brother. I don’t understand why, at thirty-three, Pauolo has given up. True, the loss of his wife six years before would have marked him, but he is young enough to consider another long-term affair, unless he is immature enough to think that once is it, and to do him justice, he is not the immature type. He left his father’s business and set up his own, leaving his brother in sole possession. He rides a Ducati and he never wears a suit and tie, though I wasn’t sure why. He just does. I’d have liked a little more background to give Pauolo more depth, but some factors of his personality are left hanging.

There is one scene that made me laugh aloud, when Pauolo gives Alyssa a chance to ride his motorbike. I’m assuming that the Ducati is one of the big ones, but it sounds more like the cute girly ones in this scene. I did enjoy imagining her on one of the beasts Ducati produces. I do ride motorbikes, and twisting the throttle will find you on your back on the ground, probably with a ton of metal on top of you, unless you know precisely what you’re doing. You don’t have your first motorbike lesson on one of those.

Pauolo is interesting, but he opens up to Alyssa a little too late in the book. I do like the way he treats her fairly, but the contrivances that keep her from being his employee are a little much, since she has an office in his hotel and works exclusively for him for most of the book. His stubbornness is irritating, but it is part of his character and probably meant to annoy.

There are some pleasant developments, not least when Alyssa decides to discover more about Pauolo’s first marriage. She does something I don’t like her doing, but in the process discovers that (gasp) Pauolo’s ex-wife isn’t a complete bitch and has a mind of her own. That I enjoyed. Alyssa annoys me sometimes, but she’s a bearable heroine, and she works hard for her happy ending.

The last scene doesn’t work for me at all, I’m afraid, but I’m venturing into spoiler territory here. I think I know what the author was trying to do, feature a facet of Pauolo’s personality that had proved significant to his character, but when he does the right thing, Alyssa responds with baffling stubbornness and that leads to another scene, which, let’s say, isn’t a bit romantic.

And the pop references drive me a bit nuts. They seem to be all the wrong things for my taste, and that is a risk you take when you use such references. Comparing the hero to Taylor Lautner doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t work for me a lot. I’m a David Bowie girl, George Clooney, even Brad Pitt, but no, not Lautner. Not even his chest does it for me (too much make up). And discussing a Lady Gaga concert as if I’d actually like to attend one—gah! Radiohead or nothing, I say. Constant comparisons until the book is about three-quarters overstrained the narrative a bit, without adding colour. While it’s nice to have modern references, in a year, maybe two, the book will be outdated (whereas Clooney and Radiohead will go on forever, lol!) Phones are always “cellular phones,” and not the more familiar “cell.” That might be an editorial decision, though. It did stop me once or twice.

The sex scenes are fairly standard, not too hot, and many are described in narrative or after the event. I wondered if Ms. Carson is comfortable with writing scenes at that level of heat, and euphemisms and the softer phrases are used in place of the more explicit. However, there’s no doubting that these two are into each other.

I did enjoy the read, but it isn’t a book that I’ll remember for too long. And please, (and this is addressed at the whole line, not just Ms. Carson) enough with the event planners already. We’re in a recession, so how many event planners can there be these days?

Grade: C+

Summary:

Play with fire…

Miami hotel tycoon Paulo Domingues knows that beneath his events planner’s southern priss, Alyssa Hunt is all sass. Little Miss Prim has Paulo’s inner rebel roaring to life – he’s determined to seduce the fire out from behind it!
And you might get burnt!

Tough-cookie Alyssa hasn’t fought tooth and nail to shake off her past to be blindsided by one smooth-talking boss. Until, punch-drunk with desire, she succumbs to temptation and realises what she’s been missing out on! But will Miami’s most wanted bachelor run when he discovers the real reason behind her good-girl façade…?

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

LynneC’s review of Stud (Cat Star Chronicles, Book Eight) by Cheryl Brooks
Futuristic Romance published by Sourcebooks 7 Feb 12

I haven’t read any of the Cat Star Chronicles before, and I plunged right in with this book, Book Eight of the series. I had few problems picking up the world and the characters, and I enjoyed the read. However, it isn’t everything I hoped it would be. I was in the mood for something different and this book certainly delivered that for me, but even though I don’t read much SF or fantasy, some of the customs were familiar to me.

The hero, Tarq, is a cat-person, and he is good at sex. Very, very good, and it helps that he has—extras. Long blond hair and pointy ears don’t usually turn me on—even when it’s Legolas—but he did have some interesting quirks, like his inability to read the menu. Not to mention his Magic Peen. He’s a very wealthy whore, who no longer charges for his services. After his world was destroyed, he is doing his bit to increase the numbers of his kind. He thinks the only thing he is good at is sex, because he’s dyslexic. The word is never used, but from the first page it’s obvious what his problem is, when he admits he can’t read the menu. I like the way Tarq copes with his problem, and it does seem realistic – learning ways around confessing his problem and thinking of himself as stupid because of it, but I don’t like the way it’s left hanging, with Lucy realizing what it is but little else.

The heroine, Lucy, is a waitress when we first encounter her, and she works in her father’s diner alongside a down-to-earth alien cook and a hermaphrodite, who is too lightly drawn for my liking. The hermaphrodites were by far the most interesting aliens for me. The beginning reads like a waitress in a category romance, with the father who shouts a lot, a notebook, albeit an electronic one, and the diner atmosphere that would be worthy of anything in the USA. She doesn’t recognize Tarq at first, but realizes her mistake when she sees an ad on the TV for his services. He works in a brothel and has produced hundreds of children. With his race under threat, it’s his duty as well as his pleasure. I think Tarq’s character is a little thin. Apart from his magical, athletic peen, which seemed to produce gallons of lubrication and ejaculate, here called snard, which tastes of chocolate and cream – which is described in huge detail and often – I find Tarq a bit of a cipher. His motivations are a little too straightforward, for a person who has lost his homeworld.

Lucy is a tiny bit irritating. At first she is a Cinderella, straight out of the story, and she only decides to run away when she gets pregnant. Her pregnancy doesn’t impinge much on the story, apart from a bit of morning sickness, and most of the story is, in fact, a road novel. She and Tarq decide they can’t stay together, even when circumstances change, and I feel that conflict becomes progressively weaker as the story goes on, and less believable. It turns into a big misunderstanding before it’s finally resolved.

There isn’t a romance and courtship in this book. Tarq recognizes Lucy as his mate from page one, and Lucy is dazzled by this glamorous, famous creature, famed for his prowess with sex. I don’t know why she falls in love with him and I’m not entirely convinced that she does.

This is a light read, an amusing one rather than anything involving or angsty. One or two things niggled me from the start. Lucy? Really? This book is set thousands of years in the future and they’re still using American-style diners? Furthermore, some of the cultural references are closer to our time than they are to anything futuristic. Kentucky Fried Chicken and the diner culture, together with some inconsistencies in the world-building. No communicators clipped to belts? With the ubiquity of cellphones, I would have put them in, but then, the second half of the book wouldn’t have been possible.

However, this is a fun read and light read, one you don’t have to concentrate on to find out what a tflwt is, or how F’rty is related to the clan Yu’oki. One for the long flight or the train journey. Or, as I read it, a late-night read before going to sleep.

Grade: C

Summary:

Even for a Zetithian, Tarq Zulveidinoe’s sexual prowess is legendary. Believing it’s all he’s good for, Tarq sets out to perpetuate his threatened species by offering his services to women across the galaxy…

BUT ONE FORCE CAN BRING THEM TOGETHER…

Lucinda Force is the sensitive dark horse in a self-absorbed family, repeatedly told that no man will ever want such a plain woman. Lucy longs for romance, but is resigned to her loveless lot in life-until Tarq walks through the door of her father’s restaurant on Talus Five…

No excerpt available.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Cowboy Comes Home (Colorado Cattle Barons, Book 1) by Barbara Dunlop
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Desire 03 Jan 12

Books like this one seriously depress me.  On the surface, it has a lot going for it.  We have a sexy guy on the cover, a cowboy that returns to his hometown many years after leaving, it’s the first book in a projected series, and on top of the whole “reunion”-vibe, the hero falls for the sexy girl next door.  Seriously, I couldn’t download this one fast enough.  Unfortunately, it seriously flubs on the execution.

Caleb Terrell left home at 17 and didn’t look back.  Naturally he turns out to be one of those 27-year-old global CEO-types that proliferate in Romance Novel Land.  Anyhoo, his asshole daddy (the reason he left home in the first place) has finally kicked the bucket.  But the old man is still causing chaos from beyond the grave.  Instead of leaving the family ranch to Caleb’s fraternal twin brother, Reed – you know, the one who stayed behind even though Caleb begged him to come with him?  Yeah, the old man left the ranch to Caleb.  Sick jerk-wad that he was.

Mandy Jacobs is worried about her neighbor and BFF, Reed.  He hasn’t been seen since his father’s funeral, and now his estranged brother is in town.  Caleb had plans to sign over the ranch to Reed, what with him staying behind and putting up with their old man for ten years.  But now that Reed has vanished?  With only a snotty note left behind?  Yeah, Caleb can’t sell the place fast enough and get back to his life in Chicago.  Standing in his way?  Mandy.  Who isn’t about to let him up and sell the place while Reed is off pouting.

This book suffers from what I call Hero Logic.  The backstory of Caleb’s rotten childhood is certainly compelling stuff, and even if my eyes were rolling excessively at a globe-trottin’ 27-year-old CEO, you can’t help but admire his work ethic.  Unfortunately, he’s also a jerk.  He’s all set to just turn the ranch over to Reed.  But because Reed isn’t waiting for him when he gets there?  Yeah, Caleb takes this to mean that Reed must not want the ranch, so hey, he’ll just sell it and give the money to him.  Seriously, I’ve met rocks smarter than Caleb.

Mandy’s a nice enough girl, even though her meddling does get tiresome.  I like that she has a sharp tongue and doesn’t let Caleb walk all over the situation.  The first chapter in particular is really good stuff, with Mandy giving as good as she gets.

Ultimately, though, the problem with this book is that it’s a Desire (so less than 200 pages) that is the first book in what I’m assuming is going to be a long series. There’s too much noise surrounding the romance.  Mandy has six siblings, three of whom get quite a bit of lip service here, plus a sister in New York who’s mentioned more than once.  Then you have Caleb’s sexy, high-powered lawyer showing up.  Oh, and, of course, a mysterious private investigator gets name-dropped once said lawyer convinces Mandy to hire him to find Reed.  There’s also Mandy’s parents, a local gal they run into at the rodeo, and so on and so on.  I can appreciate that the author needs to set up the series, but, seriously, do all these people need to be in this book?  Uh, no.  And because they are, that means we spend less time on what the reader really cares about – the romance between Caleb and Mandy.

So, at the end of the day, I’m depressed.  Granted, I could just be hitting a wall with series, because there are moments here that really sparkle for me.  But then the noise would intrude, or Caleb’s Hero Logic would kick in, and I couldn’t slog through the rest of the book fast enough.  Reed’s book is up next, and given that he does run away to pout instead of confronting his estranged brother?  Yeah, not interested.  Moving on.

Grade: C

Summary:

At a Crossroads

After years of being the black sheep, an unexpected inheritance has finally drawn Caleb Terrell home. But that doesn’t mean the cowboy-turned-CEO plans to settle down on his family’s Colorado ranch. His single-minded goal is to sell and get out… until he’s reunited with the sexy girl next door, Mandy Jacobs.

Her mere presence reminds him of happier times. Denying Many seems impossible, but seducing her can lead only to heartbreak. There’s no room in Caleb’s agenda for such a delectable distraction. Because once he gives in to temptation, he may not be able to walk away.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Laura C’s review of The Professor by Cathy Perkins
Romantic Suspense published by Carina Press 23 Jan 12

Meg Connelly just wants to get through her complicated life as a grad student, student advisor, and waitress. She has a hard enough time with the rich, spoiled kids in the sorority she oversees, she doesn’t need hot SLED Agent Mick O’Shaughnessy upsetting her life. But Mick’s investigating a serial murderer and Meg’s right at the center of the investigation.  And even if she weren’t, he’s not so sure he could leave her alone.

I began this book with great expectations. Despite their pervasiveness, I still enjoy serial killer stories. And the descriptive passage that begins this book, with the police at the scene of a body’s discovery, is nicely narrated:

The body lay in dappled shade. Patches of light caught pale flesh—an ankle here, a hip there. Resurrection ferns spread lacy fronds, partially concealing the limbs. Mick wondered if the irony was deliberate.

This deep into the woods, the trees blocked the breeze and the humidity increased as the air sucked moisture from the thick mulch spread across the forest floor. The noxious mixture of smells pressed against him in a cloying layer that was nearly visible amid the shifting patterns cast by the overhead branches. Pausing at the edge of the clearing, he batted at the flies circling his head. He hated flies. He associated them so strongly with death that a fly in his condo drove him crazy.

Two local detectives looked up, acknowledging Mick’s presence. His short hair marked him as a cop as much as the holstered pistol and gold badge clipped to his belt. The locals would already know who he was. He hadn’t been able to escape the publicity surrounding the murders—the Captain kept putting him in front of television cameras.

Unfortunately, the procedural stuff is really the only aspect of the book that is strong, and it’s not strong enough to support the rest of the story. The characters are cardboard. There’s no real intimacy between the hero and heroine. She spends her time running away from him and he spends his time alternately chasing after her and telling himself he shouldn’t pay her attention since he knows nothing about her.

And then there’s the sex. I don’t mind whether my romances do or don’t have sex, so that’s not a problem, but this book has the worst of both worlds—plenty of perverted villain sex, but no lovemaking, no happy sex to offset the ugly sex. To me, that’s a problem, particularly in a book that calls itself a romance. I had no sense that these two characters could make it as a couple.

I also had issues with the villain. “The Professor” is such a cartoon that I had to stop reading his sections entirely in order to finish the book. Here’s a sample of the interminable scenes with the villain:

He returned to his den, intending to work, but found himself contemplating his current situation instead. All too soon, the coverage of Emily’s death would degenerate into a repetition of the same limited facts, followed by more inane commentary from a consulting psychologist. The Professor wasn’t sure if he found them an irritation or pompous frauds. Their sloppy research and analysis would never be tolerated in his field. Settling more comfortably in his desk chair, he reviewed their arguments.

They thought he was “afraid” of women; that he had “issues”—who came up with that term anyway? Whatever happened to plain-old problems?—with a domineering mother. After Ashley, they’d debated whether he was using a condom or “failing to maintain an erection.” Whether he was a homosexual. Whether he could have normal sexual relations.

He’d laughed over that. How much more normal could you get than using a woman for her sole purpose in life—sex? He didn’t use a condom to protect himself from the women or disease. Semen was evidence, so he eliminated it.

None of them—the police, the shrinks, the reporters—understood. The pleasure, the euphoria transcended mere sex. He closed his eyes, sinking into the vivid memory: He presses his palm against her flank, feeling the liquid warmth of her blood, hotter than her skin. Hot, like the passion that burns inside the human beast. Hot, like the life force that he has claimed.

He lifts his hand to his nose. The scent is distinctive and metallic. Opening his mouth, he licks the wet slickness. Even the taste is metallic. The ancients ate the flesh of their vanquished. Cut out the heart and consumed the soul, taking their enemy’s strength for their own.

Pressing his tongue to his palm, he savors the woman’s blood and feels her mystery enter him. It runs through him, triumphantly adding to his mastery. His penis stirs in response. Earlier, he’d climaxed explosively while his hands tightened around her neck. Her fear fed his appetite. Stripped of the veneer of respectability, she’d shown her true nature—a groveling whore. Pleading, desperately begging, offering her body in a pathetic bargain, as women have bargained throughout history.

Finally, I had problems with the setup. The hoary old saying “write what you know” comes to mind. Take it from a career academic with degrees from schools big and small, private and public, the atmosphere and relationships within the college are all wrong. Meg refers to one of her professors, a man she both TAs for and writes papers for, as “Mr.”  Um, no. If he’s teaching grad students, he’s a “Dr.” And Meg never goes to class. We never really see her studying. Grad students are consumed with academics. Yeah, they have jobs, frequently more than one, but nothing is more important than their classes while they’re in that phase of their education or their dissertations when they get to that phase.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Someone is murdering women on South Carolina’s college campuses: three women, three different schools. The Governor’s order to State Law Enforcement Agent Mick O’Shaughnessy is simple: make it stop. More political maneuvering diverts Mick to nearby Douglass College. There, instead of another dead body, he finds Meg Connelly, grad student and faculty advisor for the latest victim.

Determined to finish her master’s degree, Meg doesn’t need anybody’s help – including her estranged family – to succeed. There’s something irresistible about Mick, but the last time she let someone get close to her, she lost everything except her self-respect.

As the investigation heats up, so does their relationship. But Mick’s interest in Meg doesn’t just endanger her heart–it puts her in the sights of the killer.

No excerpt available.

LynneC’s review of Tool Belt Defender (Lawmen of Black Rock, Book 5) by Carla Cassidy
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Romantic Suspense 20 Dec 11

Occasionally I venture into romantic suspense territory, and this book is from that Harlequin line. And, in any case, how can I resist a book with the title Tool Belt Defender?

Unfortunately, I don’t share Cassidy’s tool belt fetish, even when Batman is wearing it, and the hero of this book is no Batman. He’s an ordinary guy, an ex-lawyer from Chicago who is setting up in the small town as what we in the UK would call an odd-job man. It isn’t the most obvious place for hero material (my odd-job man also worked as Captain Mayhem, a childrens’ entertainer, so I can say that my new shed was built by Captain Mayhem – there has to be a book in that!). In this book, the occupation gives the ex-lawyer a chance to develop his muscles so he can rescue the heroine from her dilemma.

The heroine is Brittany, who was the town’s deputy to her brother’s sherriff, but is now recovering from a trauma. I found it difficult to believe she could recover so quickly from a trauma that involved her getting kidnapped by a serial killer and kept confined for four months, while the baddie tormented her every day talking about what he was going to do to her. She is shown as jumpy, but she isn’t going to therapy, something I’d have thought her employer would have insisted on for quite a long time, and she doesn’t have many other symptoms. She was kidnapped from her car, for instance, but we see her pootling around quite happily in the story. She doesn’t like to go into town because people stare, and she’s lived as a virtual recluse since the attack. Considering how quickly she gets together with the hero, especially since he’s a stranger to her at the start of the story, her trauma seems to come and go, as the story demands.

Although the serial killer is dead, Brittany starts seeing signs that he’s around, such as a red balloon tied to her mailbox and a note pushed through her door which mysteriously disappears. Her brother the sheriff and everyone, except Alex, thinks it’s part of her trauma and dismiss it as her imagination. I find that somewhat hard to believe, too, considering one of the things the experts in serial killers always look for are copycat killers. Any sign would have been followed up, unless the sheriff is incompetent, and since he’s Brittany’s brother, I don’t think he’s meant to be. And if it is her imagination, then surely they would encourage her to see a shrink?

Alex has a daughter. He’s a widower, and one reason he’s moved to a small town is for the family infrastructure he can have there (the girl’s grandparents live in the town). Although he does explain why he’s given up lawyering for odd-jobbing to Brittany, I’m not sure I buy it. He seems somewhat without ambition and a bit directionless to me, although he’s perfectly happy building Brittany’s deck. Yes, she has a deck. Alex’s daughter is a moppet, a poppet, and she is infuriating. When events catch up with them later in the book, I found her Pollyanna attitude distinctly annoying, and I would have told her about death and taxes a lot earlier. It’s just me, I know, but I really don’t like it when cute kids show up in romances. They tend to bring the sugar level right up and provide a useful McGuffin for the author, which can lead to lazy writing.

The book is easy to read, and the events unfold as they should, apart from the “oh, let’s have sex” scene which I find a bit puzzling, as if it’s put in because, well, there has to be one somewhere. I’d have preferred it towards the end, perhaps when the heroine has gone through her ordeal and the hero wants to prove his love to her. It doesn’t seem to fit where it is. They are vaguely fancying each other, and then it’s, oh, well, we might as well, and there it is.

The weakest part of the story is the internal plot, which deals with the motivations and inner feelings of the characters. All too often the reader is told how the character is feeling and not shown it, or told the feeling and then the character made to act accordingly. The reasons that keep the hero and heroine apart are weak and not altogether convincing. The external plot works well, and if the internal motivations had matched that, it would have been a better read.

Grade: C

Summary:

“It’s party time.”That’s the “invitation” shoved under her door. It’s got Brittany Grayson fearing for her life…and her sanity. She’s sure the monster who once held her captive for months is dead, so why his chilling words in the note? His menacing face in the window? And why won’t anyone —even her lawmen brothers—believe that somehow he’s after her again?

Brittany just wants a normal, independent life in Black Rock. Romance is out of the question…although she’s okay as friends-with-benefits with Alex Crawford, her hunky, marriage-phobic contractor. Alex, a single dad, has his own good reasons not to fall for Brittany. But none of them matter when the race is on to find the killer who’s kidnapped her!

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Carrying the Rancher’s Heir by Charlene Sands
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Desire 3 May 11

They caught each other at a vulnerable time for them both, decided to forget the past and the future and spend the night together. A delicious premise for a romance novel, but sadly, one we only see in brief flashbacks. But for all that, the book didn’t disappoint, and we get to see Tagg and Callie together through the force of circumstance, and then falling in love, despite their determination not to.

Callie is the daughter of local rancher Hawk Sullivan, and when she finds she is pregnant with Tagg’s baby, she at first doesn’t tell him. However, she knows she will have to, she doesn’t make the idiotic mistake of playing with another person’s life (her unborn child). So she goes to tell Tagg, but ends up telling him that she’s working at the charitable facility that his brother, Clay, has opened. Tagg isn’t happy, and he doesn’t like his renewed attraction to Callie, but when he discovers she’s pregnant, he insists on marrying her.

Tagg has a troubled past (whoopee, I love a hero with a troubled past, as long as it doesn’t prove an excuse or a plot device). He is a cowboy (another whoopee in the Connolly household). Callie isn’t a shrinking virgin, she knew exactly what she was doing when she slept with Tagg and she doesn’t regret it (oh yeah). She also faces up to the consequences and so does Tagg.

They have what the romance book calls “chemistry.” In other words, they fancy the pants off each other, and they prove it very nicely indeed, once they marry, but they don’t trust each other. Callie is the daughter of Tagg’s biggest business rival, one who has snatched a contract from under Tagg’s nose recently. And yet they both try to put that aside. However, deep down, both know they’ll have to cope with that problem sooner or later.

Tagg was married before, and his wife died in an air crash after having an argument with Tagg. While he hasn’t blamed himself unnecessarily, he still blames himself for the way his marriage was heading and what he said to her. He vowed not to let another woman that close to him again, but he isn’t so stubborn that he doesn’t recognize sexual attraction and liking when it happens. He feels both for Callie.

I’m a bit disturbed to see Callie riding all over the place after she knew she was pregnant. I hadn’t got on the back of a horse since I was about eleven years old, and still when I got pregnant, my doctor insisted on telling me that I mustn’t, in any circumstances, ride a horse. I have no idea why, but I presume it’s the danger of being thrown. Even the best rider falls sometimes, and arguably the best are the ones that fall more often, because they might take chances a more cautious rider wouldn’t, but I didn’t see this ban in this book, although I’ve seen it in others. I did want Tagg to enforce the no riding thing, but he seemed unaware of the problem, as well.

I really enjoy the description of a modern ranch and the management involved, as well as Tagg’s other business ventures. It takes me to a world I never hoped to see until a few years ago, and it will perform that function for other readers, too. I just love me a man in chaps, a big hat, and an easy way of talking. So you might say I was already prepared to enjoy this book.

There is nothing groundbreaking about this Desire, but there doesn’t have to be. Sands takes well used themes and uses them to enhance and illustrate the characters of two likeable people who still have some things to learn about each other and themselves.

Grade: C+

Summary:

The passionate, impulsive evening Tagg Worth had spent in the arms of brown-eyed beauty Callie Sullivan was madness. Visions of their tryst still haunted him, but their one-night stand was a mistake the wealthy rancher swore he would not repeat. Hawk Sullivan’s daughter was strictly off-limits—especially since Hawk’s main goal in life was to put Tagg out of business.
Then, suddenly, there was a baby on the way. His baby. Tagg vowed to do the right thing, no matter what it cost him. But his inconvenient new bride tempted his solitary heart down a path a Worth didn’t dare follow….

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Unlikely Wife by Debra Ullrick
Inspirational historical romance published by Love Inspired Historical 03 Jan 12

One of the reasons I like historical western romances is that I love heroines with a harder edge to them.  Granted, there were many civilized parts of the world that were unforgiving to women, but you had to be a tough cookie to survive in the American frontier. Being stupid wasn’t really conducive towards….oh, survival. Debra Ullrick’s latest inspirational romance features my kind of heroine, but sadly it fumbles on the execution.

Michael Bowen is a prosperous rancher in Idaho Territory and is ready to get married.  So he places an ad, and begins corresponding with Selina Bowen.  Her letters are magical, and she thinks pretty highly of him as well!  Before you can say Big Misunderstanding Ahoy these two get hitched, sight unseen, by proxy. Naturally Michael about swallows his tongue when his wife gets off the train looking like an outlaw – wearing trousers, a beat-up hat, and carrying a rifle(!) – instead of the genteel lady who wrote those letters.

Turns out that Selina cannot read or write, so her BFF wrote the letters for her. Selina told her what to say, but it turns out the BFF fudged with the truth just a wee bit.  Loathe to go back on the oath he took before God and his local preacher, Michael takes Selina home.  However, he’s torn by the fact that the woman he fell in love with doesn’t seem to exist.

Many a historical western has been written about a mail-order bride arrangement gone awry, and Ullrick’s spin on it is actually quite believable. Unfortunately, the bulk of the conflict for a very good portion of the early going seems to sit squarely on the fact that Selina wears…..pants! Seriously, the hero practically has a raging case of the vapors over it.  I get that a chick wearing pants would be rather unconventional, but the guy is living in Idaho Territory. You’re telling me there ain’t one unconventional chick within spitting distance of him? It’s also hard to be tolerant of his dislike for her wardrobe especially when his entire blessed family seems to love the girl, on sight. So exactly what is the problem? She’s resourceful and his family adores her.  Ooooooh, but she wears pants!  ::eyeroll::

Selina is a straight shooter, is shaped by a life lived in poverty, and is pretty unbending about changing herself for a man considering the types of relationships she witnessed back home.  The main issue here is dialect.  Yep, the author writes all of Selina’s dialogue in the vernacular.  I swear the word “iffen” is going to haunt me in my dreams.  There is a way to convey Selina’s background (poverty, lack of education) without having the reader slog through hillbilly dialogue that even the writers of Hee Haw would have axed from a script.

This book is marketed as an inspirational, and the God Stuff here is pretty heavy.  If you’re a reader who reads inspirationals because you want a Christian message?  Yeah, you’ll probably be right at home.  However, if you read inspirationals more because they are “clean” than any overt religious elements?  Be prepared for things like:

“The Lord wants His children to depend on Him, Michael.  You may not be able to love Selina on your own, but God can do it through Christ as you submit to Him.  Ask God to give you a deep, lasting love for your wife, Michael, and He will.”

Just what every girl wants to hear, I love you because I asked God to make me love you.  Who said romance was dead?

Despite my varied issues with this story, I still managed to inhale it in one day. It’s also hard to outright hate on a book when the main message of it (it’s OK to be different) is so genuine.  In other words, the story’s heart was in the right place.

Grade: C

Summary:

The arrival of Michael Bowen’s bride, married sight unseen by proxy, sends the rancher reeling. With her trousers, cowboy hat and rifle, she looks like a female outlaw—not the genteel lady he corresponded with for months. He’s been hoodwinked into marriage with the wrong woman!

Selina Farleigh Bowen loved Michael’s letters, even if she couldn’t read them herself. A friend read them to her, and wrote her replies—but apparently that “friend” left things out, like Michael’s dream of a wife who was nothing like her. Selina won’t change who she is, not even for the man she loves. Yet time might show Michael the true value of his unlikely wife.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Say It With Diamonds by Lucy King
Contemporary Romance published by Mills and Boon Modern Romance 1 Jan 12

Lucy King has considerable talent as a writer, and her first book for Harlequin was fabulous. However, the subsequent ones are evidence that she hasn’t yet settled in properly. It is fascinating to see the development of a writer with this house, since their requirements are so stringent. I do have hopes that eventually Lucy King will become one of Harlequin’s stars. Or she could break out and join another house, writing the books with more open requirements.

In this one, the heroine is old for a Harlequin heroine, thirty-five, but she doesn’t always behave that way. But then, what thirty-five year old does? Bella has her own jewelry business, and a man visits her out of the blue to ask for her opinion on several pieces he produces from his pocket and tosses carelessly on the counter. Lucy examines them and realizes that despite their fabulous appearance, the stones in them are fake. She accompanies the man, Will, to a bank vault, and it’s here that she learns that her new client is a duke. He takes her to the vault and she spends time splitting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Then a woman enters, a lovely blonde in fashionable clothing, and Will realizes that she has been taking the gems and replacing them with fakes.

I had a few problems with this beginning. First, if Bella is a jeweler and she knows her stuff, surely she’d recognized pieces from a great and famous collection? Second, Will wouldn’t be carrying the pieces in his pockets, because of the potential damage that would cause. They’d be in boxes, carefully packed. Third, I would have thought that she’d need some kind of security. The security at the bank vault seems worryingly lax, too. There is this lack of attention to external plot detail throughout, and sometimes I stopped and went “huh?” Like the time Bella is working on an emerald in a pendant. In a pendant? Surely the jeweler works on the gem before it’s set? And we didn’t hear if the jewel was an engraved cabochon or a faceted one, in which case she wouldn’t be cutting it in situ. Things like that kept recurring. I’d have liked a more authentic background and a bit more research. I know the background and setting are secondary considerations to the romance, but done properly they can enhance and add to the characters and the individuality of the story. I can’t help comparing this story to Day LeClaire’s Dante’s Inferno series, where the jewelry background has helped to make the series something really special.

The lovely blonde turns out to be Will’s aunt, who looks younger than she is, and she’s been selling the gems to make money to feed her internet bridge addiction. Bridge? Not poker or casino games? And the problem is easily solved. Will makes her promise not to do it again, and off she goes. The whole situation reeks of plot device, just something to bring the hero and heroine together and to hint at Will’s difficult background.

Bella is desperate to marry and have children. I wasn’t too keen on that aspect. While I could understand it, the desperation seems to indicate that she hasn’t thought of alternatives, like artificial insemination, asking for a donor, or even adopting. Is it marriage or children she wanted, and why? The motivation doen’t reflect on her behavior in the book, which starts with her bonking Will in the back of his chauffeured car and then lusting after him afterward. She confides in him that she wants a lasting relationship, and they part, only to come back together in uncontrollable lust later on.

Will is as thinly drawn as Bella. He has deep motivations for not wanting what Bella wants, but until later in the story, it seems like another contrivance, something taken out of the “how to write romance” textbook in the “provide a conflict” chapter. As a writer who sometimes finds that bit tricky herself, I do sympathise with Lucy King, but the conflict is a bolted-on one, provided because they need something to keep them apart. Although that’s better than providing a conflict from outside the relationship, I still find a disconnect between what the characters say they want and what they actually do. Will chases Bella, even when he knows she wants the thing he doesn’t, and she goes with him. When she states they would have a short, torrid affair, my heart sank a little, because this is a trope that is fast tiring me. “Let’s go at each other until it burns out.” The problem with it is that if they do that, and if they do burn out, there’s no story as far as a romance writer is concerned, so it’s one we know will end in a lasting relationship. There’s no danger there, no worry they’ll split.

But King can write. Her descriptions are excellent and she doesn’t often veer into purple territory. The sex is hot, and it’s nice to have the woman in charge for a change. Good that Bella carries condoms with her, as well as Will, although that does rather run counter to her wish for a lasting relationship. I would have liked more depth in both characters, more of the desperation in Bella, for instance. And a reason why she wants the whole caboodle instead of part of it. So a nice read, but needs more work, I think.

Grade:C-

Summary:

All that sparkles… At thirty-five, Bella might be an expert on diamonds – but she’s still missing a big fat one on the third finger of her left hand. However, at least she has her successful jewellery business – with very interesting new client William Cameron, AKA the Duke of Hawksley, no less! She’s expecting portly and chinless – but actually Will’s tall, dark and so distractingly good-looking it’s hard to concentrate on his jewels! More of a surprise: this weird chemistry between them is actually mutual. Urgent… And it catches them completely unawares in a black London taxi… All that glitters is not gold. All that sparkles isn’t diamond. All men who turn you on aren’t the real thing. But being cynical gets boring…maybe it’s time for Bella to throw caution to the winds…?

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of A Dangerous Infatuation by Chantelle Shaw
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents Extra 3 Jan 12 (M&B Modern – 1 Nov 11)

This is an old-style Modern Romance and is very much a book you can sink into for an hour or two’s pleasure. It’s a woman struggling with her life and a billionaire. Don’t expect anything revolutionary, but sometimes you need a break from revolution, and this book provides it.

Emma is a district nurse in Northumberland, and it’s snowing. She’s driving to the house of the last patient on her round, an old lady who lives in a large manor house on her own. She comes across a man who has just crashed his unsuitable but dashing car in the snow, and she gives him a lift. He turns out to be the grandson of the old lady, Rocco, an Italian and the chief exec of the car company that makes his flashy car.

So far so usual. It carries on in the same vein. While this isn’t an earth-shattering book, with one proviso it’s written in a clear, smooth style that makes the story easy and pleasant to read. Let’s get the problem over with. And this could well be my preference. It might not bother you. There’s a lot of POV transitions. A lot. I won’t call it head-hopping because that’s when you don’t know which character’s head you’re in and Shaw is skilful enough not to do that, but the reader is constantly moved from one head to another and back again. That does bother me, quite a lot, because you can’t go really deep and I’d rather not know what both characters are feeling in a scene. If the kind of thing exemplified in the passage below doesn’t concern you, then you’re good to go.

“ ‘Thank you,’ he murmured, closing the door and feeling a welcome blast of warm air from the car’s heater. It was only now sinking in that he was lucky not to have been injured in the crash, and that he could have faced a long, cold walk to find civilisation. ‘I was fortunate you were driving this way.’
Emma released the handbrake and carefully pulled away, her hands tightening on the steering wheel when she felt the car slide. She rammed the stiff gear lever into second gear, and tensed when her hand brushed against the man’s thigh. In the confines of the vehicle she was even more aware of his size.”

His thoughts, then hers, in two adjacent sentences. Then the narrative could easily move back to him again.

Now to the characters. I like that Emma is competent and, although struggling, good at her job. Not in abject poverty. Her small daughter is three, but she’s a precocious, annoying three who seems to be fully potty trained and speaks in complete sentences (not impossible, I admit). The child seems to be a five-year-old transposed into a three-year-old. I could have done without the child, who could have stepped out of a 1930’s “cute kid” movie.

Rocco doesn’t let it faze him. He gets on with seducing the sexy nurse after their meet cute, when she’s wrapped up so much she resembles a bowling ball. “Good for her,” I thought. Snowy Northumberland isn’t to be messed with. But does she have a Geordie accent, I want to know? In the version in my head, she did. “Why aye, Rocco, you gan canny!” would have fit rather well into the story and might have made the heroine a bit different. Rocco is pretty much your standard hero. But I happen to like the tall, strong, wealthy Italian type, so that’s okay by me. And Rocco isn’t too arrogant. On the whole he’s a likeable character.

There is a big misunderstanding at the beginning, where Rocco thinks Emma is too bossy and managing and Emma thinks Rocco is heartless because he left his aged grandmother to live alone (he employed help, but his grandmother fired her after finding her stealing). Since that all happens in the first three chapters, I don’t feel that’s much of a spoiler, and that’s why I didn’t mind this particular misunderstanding. Emma and Rocco talk, and explain themselves, and, lo and behold, they come to a better understanding of each other.

There is a secret in Emma’s past, again revealed to the reader early, that her husband, while a hero, was also a cheater in his marriage. So she’s understandably wary of handsome bastards who go from woman to woman. While many Moderns use the trope of the character’s past life affecting their present beliefs, this time it worked for me because the past is recent for Emma – to some extent she’s still hurting. So her reticence to accept Rocco as a lover is understandable.
And that’s the way to use Mills and Boon tropes. They are part of the story, they reveal the character and they’re not stretched to unbelievable levels or tedious levels. They’re not strained. When one problem ends, another begins, or is bounced off the first one. Their past lives affect both characters, but they’re intelligent enough to reason with themselves and deal with their problems. When they come to a mutual understanding, they deserve it, although Rocco does get stuck with the precocious kid, and he even wants more. Let’s hope they find some great nannies.

Grade: C

Summary:

Rocco D’Angelo doesn’t do needy women—and he certainly doesn’t do commitment! But the spark notorious playboy Rocco feels with his beloved grandmother’s nurse, Emma Marchant, is more than the usual thrill-of-the-chase adrenaline!

Never in her wildest dreams did cautious Emma imagine she would be swept from a sleepy English village to the exotic climes of the Italian Riviera—especially by a man as disreputable as Rocco.

Emma could be the one to tame the untamable—unless her infatuation is more dangerous than she imagined….

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of There’s Something About A Rebel by Anne Oliver
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents Extra 1 Jan 12 (M&B Riva Aug 11)

I picked this because of the hunk on the cover – so unlike Mills and Boon’s usual male models and so tempting! But inside, I found the same old story with a slight twist. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, just that I expected a little more.

It’s part of the Riva line and is supposed to be a little different. That’s the trouble. It is a Modern Romance, tweaked a little. The attitudes and the dilemmas are Modern/Presents all the way.

The difference? The hero was a navy man, a diver part of a special unit like the SEALS, but after he lost a young colleague, he retired from the Service. He blamed himself for losing the young man, because he was in charge of the operation, and he brooded a bit. But the conflict isn’t deep enough for me. Perhaps losing the young man was the final straw in a series of tough assignments, but we never hear about them. Many SEALS, or the equivalent, retire because they’re burned out after a series of operations. I’d have preferred something of that nature, as it makes for a richer backstory. But Blake doesn’t appear to be too jaded, apart from a few bad dreams. He sets to organizing Lissa’s life with enthusiasm, when they get over their initial problems. Yes, that’s right, Blake is wealthy. This is a Modern/Presents book, despite its sexy cover.

The problems are that Blake’s no-good father sold his houseboat twice – to Blake and to Lissa. Luckily, Blake also owns the nearby luxury house and a considerable fortune, because his mother was a wealthy woman. Another problem lightly touched on was that his mother spent more time with her charities than she did with Blake, a bit like Mrs. Jellyby in Bleak House, presumably, except that Mrs. Jellyby and her daughter were more surely drawn.

Lissa is straight out of the Modern/Presents line. She’s in her mid-twenties, she’s an interior designer who isn’t doing too well but has bags of talent, she’s beautiful, she’s been in love with Blake for years, since before he joined the navy. Her brother is Blake’s friend.

Blake sets out to help Lissa. The problem with the houseboat disappears quickly (literally), and Blake persuades Lissa that he should invest in her business. Then they sleep together, although they know it is wrong. He takes Lissa to parties and introduces her to his mother’s rich friends and she gets on fine, her business grows like Topsy.

I think that’s my problem with this book. None of the conflicts introduced seem to meet much. The houseboat, Blake’s nightmares, Lissa’s money troubles, all melt away. It’s a true fairytale story, and nothing goes deep enough to have any bite, to get the reader conflicted or involved. It would have been better had Blake’s nightmares been true fatigue syndrome or Lissa had been a rubbish interior designer. But she’s not, she’s brilliant, and everyone loves her work. So she would probably have succeeded eventually anyway without Blake’s help.

The Riva line isn’t working for me as a separate line because the books read like their origins – Cherish or Modern. I like the Moderns, and some of my favorite authors write for that line, including Anne Oliver, but this is presented more honestly in the US as a Harlequin Presents Extra, although the cover is in itself a spoiler. However, even as a Modern/Presents, I would have liked a little more.

All in all, this is a perfectly good book about a nice couple. But that’s also its problem. It’s too nice. So there’s really only one grade for it.

Grade: C

Summary:

Her fantasy man – in the flesh! Lissa Sanderson is at an all-time low – so why does her brother’s gorgeous, brooding best friend have to come back into her life now? Even worse, the teenage crush she once had on Blake Everett is back with a vengeance, despite his scandalous reputation and the fact the ex-Navy officer would clearly prefer to be left alone. Only now she’s a woman. And Blake’s not quite so immune to her as he makes out. There’s definitely something about a rebel – and Lissa’s going to enjoy finding out just what that ‘something’ might be!

Read an excerpt.