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 Once A Ferarra Wife by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 24 Jan 12

Sarah Morgan is a great Mills and Boon writer. Her books contain real characters and fresh takes on the standard Mills and Boon tropes. I know I’m in for a good read when I pick up one of her books and this is no exception.

Laurel is flying into Sicily to attend her best friend’s wedding, but when she arrives at the airport, the passengers are asked to wait until a VIP has embarked. She looks out of the window to see some posh limousines and her soon-to-be ex-husband. The VIP is her.

A delicious beginning and from then on the book doesn’t let up. This is a reunited, second-chance story, but although the tropes are more than familiar, the treatment isn’t. Laurel and Cristiano have their specific problems and they concern them, nobody else. Cardboard characters don’t belong here, nor do situations that are just excuses for drama. What happened to these people is because of what they are, and the external events are triggers.

Cristiano never stopped loving Laurel, and he is the one with the emotional openness. He is also a workaholic, and after returning from college in his early twenties at his father’s death, he’s parlayed the company into a big multimillion concern. His brother, Santo, who is, I hope, the subject of an upcoming story, also has a lot to do with the company’s rebirth and continued prosperity.

Laurel left Cristiano after she lost their baby, and he only sent her a text to say he’d see her soon. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? But where I objected to the casual use of a stillbirth in Lynne Graham’s recent offering, Bride For Real, here this incident is given serious treatment and consideration. It’s the characters’ reaction to the event that starts them on the road to reunion, but only after a painful separation.

Cristiano didn’t realise that Laurel’s pains were serious, but his real problem was that he didn’t understand Laurel properly, or her needs. If he had, he would have recognised her cry for help and come immediately, but he didn’t. He comes from a loving, close family who have given him the confidence to display his feelings. Plus, he’s Italian.

Laurel is the opposite, coming from a childhood in care homes and foster homes, where she has learned to keep her emotions to herself. So when Cristiano demands affection, she can give it, but only up to a point. She doesn’t understand Cristiano, or rather, she doesn’t dare to. She’s no Cinderella, though, she has a successful fitness business, and although not as wealthy as her husband, she doesn’t need him.

The reversal of the roles works really well. While Cristiano is still a powerful alpha male, his ability to express his emotions acts in his favour. He is closer to himself, and he can reason, but in the case of his wife, he makes assumptions that, in reality, don’t work. The dazzling sexual attraction between them blinds them to their problems at first, and then it is too late.

#The story unfolds naturally and after one heartbreaking scene at the wedding, the story takes a turn, and they start to reconnect. Almost. Nearly, not quite. Morgan doles out the surprises and developments into a smooth, engrossing read that I didn’t want to put down until I’d finished it.

This is what a Modern/Presents book should be, the use of the standard tropes to examine and delve into character, to show us what happens when a standard external plot happens to a particular couple. So what Laurel will do wouldn’t be what Polly (from Ms. Morgan’s last book) would do in the same situation.

That’s the joy of it, and that’s why I look forward to each release from Sarah Morgan.

Grade: A

Summary:

For better…or for bedding? Laurel Ferrara wouldn’t know a happy ending if she fell over it – of course her whirlwind wedding was always going to end in disaster. But it wasn’t as simple as just walking away. From the moment she is summoned back to Sicily the shivers of unease set in… The command comes from legendary billionaire Cristiano Ferrara, the husband she can’t forget – but it might as well have come from the devil himself. The outrageously gorgeous Cristiano’s power is a potent reminder of this Sicilian dynasty’s unbreakable rule: once a Ferrara wife, always a Ferrara wife…

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.

LynneC’s review of On The First Night Of Christmas by Heidi Rice
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 29 Nov 11

I don’t do many seasonal reads, just a few, and this offering looked like a fun one. It didn’t disappoint. In an England being blown into the sea by gale force winds, this was just the book to sit indoors and cuddle up with a kitty and a fire. Nothing earth shattering, just well written and fun.

Heidi Rice is a “solid” write with excellent style, engaging characters and believable situations. She rarely gets the fuss that some Harlequin writers do, because she produces well-written books in time and on point. Because she is so good at writing the category romance, it’s easy to overlook her. You read the book, smile when you put it down, and then get on with your life. That’s what Harlequin is, at base, all about, and it’s one of the reasons the genre gets such an unfair battering from time to time.

Cassie is walking to the Tube in London when a car splashes her. She is annoyed enough to rip open the passenger door and yell at the driver, until she recognises him as someone she went to school with. Jace the Ace he was called then. Now he’s Jason Ryan, millionaire and New York resident, in London to conclude a deal on the company he made his name with.

The professional backgrounds of the two protagonists are lightly drawn and not very convincing, but the story isn’t about that, so pushing their careers into the background seems appropriate for such a feel-good book. It did add to the fairytale feel of the whole story.

Cassie was too young to date Jace at school, but she isn’t now. Jace comes from the regulation broken home, but one of the things I like about this story is that Jace doesn’t get the immediate cure from his instinctive recoil from anything involving revealing his feelings. There is a nice epilogue that copes with that.
Jace takes Cassie back to his hotel, and they are into each other like anybody’s business. The sex in this book is great, hot and believable and a touch wild, but still vanilla m/f. Far from bland, though.

Rice sets out two main problems for Jace and Cassie and spends the story exploring them. Jace lives in New York and Cassie lives in London. However, her career, as some kind of illustrator (told you the descriptions were vague!), isn’t too much of an impediment. Jace’s inability to get involved is a problem, and instead of walking all over her and then grovelling, Cassie helps him come to terms with his feelings. There is a very nice grovel scene, though, when the inevitable black moment is reached and passed.

Cassie has relationship issues, having dated two low-lifes in the past and even been engaged to one. There is a lot of the naïve to Cassie, although she claims to have gone to an inner London high school, a place where it’s very difficult to remain that naïve, but as I, said, Christmas fairy story.

The two set out to enjoy London in the festive season. Jace doesn’t do Christmas, but he’s not exactly a Scrooge. He just doesn’t do it. Cassie makes him, and even shows him that you can do Christmas shopping in Oxford Street in an hour, if you plan properly. That’s almost one fairytale too far for me, having scrambled through Selfridges and other shops just before Christmas, as queuing to pay can take that long, but okay, yes, you can just about do it. Though as an inveterate shopper/browser, it sounds a bit pointless to me!

The story flows well and is an effortless read, exactly what you need at this time of the year. Definitely a great read to get you in the mood when you take a break from wrapping presents!

Grade: B

Summary:

Cassie’s tips for the Perfect Christmas Fling!

1. ‘Tis the season to be daring: Find the perfect Mr. Right Now (extra points for a bad-boy-turned-billionaire) and be brave about getting him—even if that means jumping straight into sexy Jace Ryan’s car!

2. Enjoy the ride: Once you’ve chosen your man, get swept away by the moment! For once, Cassie’s determined to stop worrying about the future, but she must remember one thing…

3. This fling is just for Christmas: Jace Ryan’s a seasonal special. Do not start falling for him, Cassie, no matter how perfect the package or how much you’ve enjoyed unwrapping it.…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of His Christmas Acquisition by Cathy Williams
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 29 Nov 11

I have enjoyed Cathy Williams’ books in the past, but, sadly, this one isn’t one of them. Tired situations, tired characters no thicker than a sheet of paper, and a tired style make this a disappointing read.

Apart from his habit of wearing jeans to work, Ryan Sheppard is the usual type of Modern/Presents hero. He is powerful, wealthy, owns his own company—and the other stuff. He behaves in a conventional way, so making him a computer entrepreneur and getting him to wear jeans for work is only a thin disguise. He isn’t updated at all. This would have been fine, but Ryan behaves exactly as he is expected to by the reader, and there is really very little to say about him. He doesn’t stand out and he isn’t different. We have the standard supermodel-type girlfriend, except that Williams’ versions all seem to have hair down to their waists. Apart from that, they’re interchangeable, only there to compare to the wholesome heroine.

Jamie is a doormat of the first order, but at the beginning of the story she is running on empty. Her sister, a complete and utter bitch, is currently separated from her husband, a vet (not a veteran, an animal doctor) and the vet is the man Jamie used to work for before she came down to London to get away from him. Because she was quietly and desperately in love with him for years and she doesn’t think he noticed. No man is going to ignore that, unless he’s brain dead. She runs to London to get away from her sister marrying the vet. And meets Ryan.

Her sister makes Jamie ask people to Christmas dinner, including Ryan, and then Jamie does all the cooking while selfish people drink her wine and enjoy their day. It doesn’t say a lot for Jamie, who, after all, brought her sister up, that Jessica turns out to be such a dyed-in-the-wool, irredeemable bitch. What happens to Jessica in the end is so unbelievable that I nearly threw my Nook across the room.

Ryan and Jamie do the “this is only for two weeks” thing that is fast becoming one of my most unfavorite tropes in Harlequin-dom. Almost every author is using this artificial construct, and it is getting wearing. If an author who knows how to write interesting stories about real characters used it and added internal character pressures, then count me in, but when the hero just says it, for no real reason, or the heroine agrees to it, then it doesn’t work as well.

One of my big disconnects with this book is the head hopping. It’s a long time since I read head-hopping this wild and confusing in a published book. Unpublished authors do it all the time, and it’s one of the big things they are asked to change by critiquers. We’re told that you won’t get published if you head hop, and it’s true, most editors are very anti. Either Williams has earned her place because of her previous titles, or she has an editor who doesn’t care about this, or she doesn’t have an editor at all (this being Harlequin, I doubt that last bit). But during the first chapter, I started to mark the head hopping. After that, I didn’t bother. She changes points of view in the same sentence, so that at one point Ryan is thinking something about Jamie, and by the end of the sentence, the reader is in Jamie’s head. It’s only made worse by using a masculine-sounding name for the heroine, so, at first, it’s hard to remember if Jamie is the hero or if it’s Ryan.

A disappointing read, as if several tropes were jammed together, and a few characteristics added for effect.

Grade: D

Summary:

There’s only one item left on entrepreneur Ryan Sheppard’s Christmas list—something scandalous for his buttoned-up secretary…
It seems that disapproving Jamie Powell is the only woman that doesn’t fall at Ryan’s feet. Jamie is well aware of her boss’s heartbreaker reputation…fending off his discarded women is virtually part of her job description!
Ryan’s hoping a Christmas trip to the Caribbean will entice Jamie out of her pencil skirt and into the skimpiest of bikinis! And, with the boardroom transferred to the beach, surely there’s little harm in indulging in a little festive pleasure on the side…?

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of A Moment On The Lips by Kate Hardy
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Nov 11

Kate Hardy is a great writer. Her style is easy to read but deceptively clever, so you don’t notice it until you think, “Hey, that’s good.” She brings her characters to life, and they’re not cut out of cardboard. They have characteristics and traits that make them determinedly individual. I always know I’m in for a great read when I pick up a Kate Hardy book.

A Moment on the Lips is no different. In this, Carenza has taken over the family ice-cream business in Naples, after her grandfather fell ill. Before this, she was a party girl, mainly in London, with little thought to anything else. But her grandparents brought her up, so she owes them. A shame she doesn’t have the experience to go with the job, but she is smart enough to know she needs a mentor. So she goes to Dante.

Dante owns a chain of restaurants, and although Carenza doesn’t know it, he owes her grandfather. Their businesses overlap, but aren’t in direct competition, so he sees her when she asks, do-me shoes and all. That’s where the story starts, with him cynically noticing her shoes. He remembers her from before, and he hates that he still wants her.

So follows one of the steamiest scenes I’ve ever read in a Presents, even though they don’t get to fourth base. They reconnect, and how!

The following story becomes inevitable, but they won’t consider anything permanent. Once the misunderstandings of the first part of the book are swiftly cleared up, and glory be, they actually sit down and talk about it – Dante agrees to mentor Carenza and they set out on the wild journey that will lead to their happy ending.

All Kate Hardy’s efforts are concentrated on the two main characters. That means that the supporting cast is often thinly drawn, although there are a few memorable cameos, such as Dante’s PA, that I enjoyed. And the plot isn’t her main forte. The two main characters enjoy each other very much, and most of the problems come from the outside, forcing them apart. The story of the problems with the ice cream business will be familiar to many Presents readers, and the conclusion won’t come as a surprise, since the villain is clearly telegraphed from the get-go. In fact, there is little tension in the book, but a delightful story of two people getting over their initial doubts about each other and falling in love.

Naples is nicely described, but Hardy ignores the terrible part of the city that any visitor can’t help but notice. The huge piles of garbage, for instance. And as the owner of ice cream parlors, Carenza would definitely be paying protection money. So this is an imaginary, idealized Naples. Perhaps putting in some of the real place might have added some interesting shades to the book. But I wouldn’t have sacrificed any of the luscious love scenes for that.

Read this for a charming love story that hits the spots well. Perhaps one day Kate Hardy will get her teeth into a full-length romance. I’ll be in the queue to buy it.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Dante Romano may be dark and delectable, but Carenza Tonielli will never sell him her family’s ice cream empire. Only she needs him—to help her learn how to run it! And when Dante looks at her as if she’s the next decadent sundae on the menu, even wary Carenza just can’t resist mixing business with a bowlful of pleasure.…Cue one red-hot fling that’s blowing her mind! But, unlike Carenza, her ice-cool Italian is adept at keeping his emotions well under wraps, so she decides to turn the tables on Dante and prove that sometimes living in the moment is sinfully good for you!

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of  The Power and the Glory by Kimberly Lang
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 2 Aug 11

There’s something vaguely disturbing about having a romance with a title from the Lord’s Prayer. Especially when that romance is most definitely not an Inspirational. I believe it also has something to do with the American Constitution, but I’m not sure. However, I think Jesus came first. To read that the heroine is a hippie type who doesn’t believe in marriage means the title is rendered fairly meaningless.

The heroine is Aspyn Breedlove, who I think was meant to be called Rowan. She is the daughter of conservation activists. She’s named after the mountain ash, which is why I say she’d have been better as Rowan, the alternate name for the mountain ash. She is a hippie in the loosest sense, with no real belief in the lifestyle. If this was portrayed differently, this could have worked really well, but as it is told, the hippie/activist is merely a veneer. Aspyn is an airhead, with no more passion for her beliefs than I have for little yappy dogs (sorry, I came off worst in an encounter with one the other day). She demonstrates no understanding for what being a hippie means or what working for a cause entails. It just provides her with a cute background and sets up the meet cute at the beginning, but it’s as thin as ice on a window and as durable. When her parents finally arrive on the scene, they have no compunction in using the Internet to keep in touch, although they’re conservationists. Masts in jungles, energy consumption? They condemn her for joining the campaign, instead of seeing her as an instrument for the cause. It just doesn’t gel.

The hero is Brady Marshall, one of the powerful Marshalls of Lang’s new series. While I give a cautious welcome to the idea of politics as a background, I’m not sure it works, because of the necessarily superficial treatment it has to receive as the background to a romance. Brady is the campaign manager to his father, Senator Marshall, and three weeks before the election, he’s run off his feet. Brady is a very busy man, he is attracted despite himself to Aspyn, and he starts an affair with her. Brady is the executive hero of many a Modern romance, but there’s not really anything to make him special. Transpose him to an office setting and he’d work just as well. And I think that’s why I had a disconnect with this book.

We are told Brady is intelligent and handsome, and we are told that Aspyn is sweet and trusting. Actually, in a political situation Aspyn is TSTL without the redeeming features of Gardener in Being There. And I don’t get the connect. We do get some sexy scenes, but more often than not, when they get to making love, we get a fade to black. After the undressing, the fondling, the foreplay, that comes across as cheating. We get the promise, but not the act.

The background is interesting, but not convincing. As we’re all learning so painfully, politics is a dirty business, where compromise is essential and beliefs are diluted to nothing. Politicians just don’t have the respect they used to, if they ever did at all. Although Aspyn’s parents do state the usual polemic about politics, the solution is seen as insultingly easy. I think the problem I have is that the backgrounds are used as the main conflict. There’s nothing inside, no deep disagreement of opinion that would drive this couple apart. They might have to compromise the way they live, but they are always going to be together, and the machinations have nothing to do with the great sex they share or the way they feel about each other. Or so we’re told. Politics is nothing if it’s not grey, and that might be another problem. The Modern Romance line works best when the moral decisions are more clear-cut. Although there is an attempt to give both sides a fair hearing, there isn’t the room to do more than skim the issues. Maybe, if a specific example had been cited, it would have worked better. Maybe, if Aspyn and Brady were more involving characters, it might have worked better. As it is, I got three quarters of the way through and realised that although the book is competently written and has a background that at least tries to go beyond the norm, it isn’t going to engage me and I actually didn’t care if Brady and Aspyn got together in a hippie commune or in the White House.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Introducing The Marshalls… A rich, powerful family that mixes business, politics…and pleasure. If the U.S. had a royal family—this would be it!Any red-blooded woman would kill to be handcuffed to political hotshot Brady Marshall, but campaigner Aspyn Breedlove wants to raise awareness—not her own acute consciousness of those delicious, iron-hard muscles beneath Brady’s expensive suit.…

But in a shock move, she’s made a part of the Marshall re-election campaign.… Aspyn hopes she can dance with the devil and create change from within. But what chance does she have when that devil is sex-on-legs Brady Marshall—and as Christmas closes in, she wants to do considerably more than kiss him under the mistletoe…!

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Sex, Gossip and Rock and Roll by Nicola Marsh
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 4 Oct 11/Mills and Boon Riva 6 May 11

I love me a good rock star, so the title and the cover picture on this book got me all excited. Perhaps Mills and Boon had relented and allowed that rock stars can be alpha. No such luck. The hero of this book is Luca, who is a finance manager, and the heroine is Charli, the manager of the tour of an aging rock star. Sigh.

The title is more than a bit misleading, since rock is only a lightly drawn background and there is no gossip at all.

Luca is compared favourably against the rock star, but, really, would you take a finance man over the likes of Mick Jagger, Duff McKagan, and Bruce Dickinson? Really? Nah, a rock star has a louche, decadent attraction that a finance manager just can’t compete with. At one point Charli, the heroine, describes rock stars as skinny and pale. Really? That’s the cliché, not the reality.

Whatever. The rock star featured in this book, Storm Varth, is on a comeback tour, and he plays “hits” and “medleys,” making him sound like something out of the Ark. I didn’t find the portrayal realistic or convincing. He’s a cliche, not a real character. Most rock stars have actual talent, for instance, and certainly the ones that last for a long time do. Storm is more a figure of fun, and I don’t really get a feel for him. He’s a caricature, and he releases CDs instead of albums (the difference being, of course, that downloads are as important as CDs these days). The tour is also the place where the money is made these days, not the albums. Everything has changed recently, even in the world of dinosaur rock.

Niggling apart, I did find the read a little tedious, but that might have been the fault of my toothache as much as anything else. I know we’re supposed to be impartial, but it wouldn’t be fair not to admit that I read this book in the throes of raging toothache.

I put aside the toothache, my disappointment in the sketchy background, and the preconceptions that Harlequin had evoked and got on with the read.

Luca and Charli both have commitment issues and even involvement issues. That makes for a frustrating read, as they spend nearly the whole book dancing around each other, refusing to commit, coming close, backing off. What’s more, their commitment issues are caused by their childhoods, Luca after he was rejected by his father and Charli after her no-good mother went off. I’m finding the “My mother made me into a wimp,” and “My father made me into a bastard” tropes increasingly tiring, and they are serving as an easy excuse for the premise of the story. How about making the characters their own people, taking responsibility for their own lives, and creating something rich and full? Writers for this line (Caitlin Crews, Kate Hewitt, Sarah Morgan) have shown it can be done.

And, throughout, they keep on referring to their horrible childhoods, until I want to scream, “Get over it, already!” Everything is blamed on that. And they knew and used it as a crutch. If their backgrounds affect them that much, then maybe they should have gone to a shrink for help. In fact, I’m not sure their relationship would last an awful long while, despite the happy ending in the book. They still didn’t seem to be over it.

If this book had instead a sexy rock star hero and a manager heroine and showed an understanding of rock music, I would have loved it to pieces. As it is, I’m a bit lukewarm.

Grade: C

Summary:

In all her time as premier tour manager to Australia’s stars, Charli Chambers has never had someone as infuriating – or delectable! – as successful businessman Luca Petrelli along for the ride. He might always be in the gossip columns, but there’s no way she’s letting him claim VIP status! But Luca’s wicked eyes are just too tempting…

In spite of herself Charli’s soon attending after-parties – just for two. She wants to believe this is one duet that’s about to go platinum, but in spite of Luca being unprintably good in bed can she ever get close enough to the real Luca for their fling to be more than just a one-hit wonder?

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of  The Return of the Stranger by Kate Walker
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Oct 11

Kate Walker’s book is a re-envisioning of Wuthering Heights. It is a roaring success in some ways, a failure in others, and a lot depends on how you want to look at it.

Wuthering Heights (which my spellcheck keeps wanting to correct to “Withering Heights”) is a classic novel about the elemental forces of nature. What it isn’t, as Kate Walker says in her introduction, is a love story. It’s the story centered around two people who can’t help themselves and in many ways never grow up. Cathy and Heathcliff are, IMO, deeply dislikeable characters who nevertheless fascinate. They don’t think, they don’t reason, they just are, particularly when they’re together. Cathy isn’t just wilful, she’s so selfish she thinks nothing of endangering the health of her unborn child. Heathcliff is a force of nature, and not in a good way. He’s rude, selfish, heedless and at times deeply stupid. It’s the first and only novel by Emily Bronte, and it shows all the weaknesses and strengths of that. The plot is poorly constructed, the narrative voice awkward, probably deliberately so, and yet it is an outpouring of a deeply passionate nature. And it’s a long book. The first part of the book, the famous bit, is all Heathcliff and Cathy. The second is their offspring, and what happens to the next generation, but although the plot is interesting, the characters aren’t nearly as vivid.

Kate Walker is a writer of immense experience in writing the 50,000-word romance, particularly for the Mills and Boon Modern line (reprinted in the US as Harlequin Presents). She is also academically linked with the novels of the Brontes. But she is never anything but a professional, and in her retake on the classic, she’s trimmed the characters, rejigged the story and characters, and turned Emily Bronte’s astonishing debut into a satisfactory romance.

She has also trimmed the wildness and the insanity of the original. But how do you tame that and have something left?

In Walker’s version, Heath (cliff) has returned back to the family home for revenge. One of Walker’s themes is revenge, so this aspect of WH plays into her stories nicely. Kat (Cathy) is a widow, her husband, Arthur, dying after laying waste to the estate and his fortune in the time-honored gambling, women, and booze tradition. That’s a big difference from the original, where Edgar Linton loves and marries Cathy and cares for her until her death, despite Heathcliff’s intrusions. I always rather liked Edgar, despite his snobbery. But in Walker’s version, Edgar is made into a bad ‘un and has used and abused Cathy. His sister, who in the original book marries Heathcliff, here is Isobel, an airhead who is spending money the estate no longer has. While this unbalances the original, it does rebalance the story and give it some tropes that readers of Harlequin Presents will be more than familiar with.

By making Heath less wild, more civilized, and by ‘emasculating’ Cathy, Kate Walker has turned the original story into a category romance. Of course, without the insanity and the madness it is “just another book,” but it would be hard to contain that within the covers of a 50,000-word category romance. It is a readable romance that fits well into the Modern line with recognizable characters and plot, which is more inspired by Wuthering Heights than anything else. Kat doesn’t have the inner strength of Cathy, nor the independent spirit. She is acted on rather than forcing events to happen, and she doesn’t have to face Cathy’s problem of being a strong woman in a man’s world. While she stands up to the problems landed on her by her now-dead husband, she doesn’t initiate any ideas of her own and is prepared to accept whatever the bank manager tells her, rather than fight. I can see the original Cathy faced with this situation, leaving the house, dropping the key through the letterbox and walking away without looking back.

There are some sly references to the original, such as Heath’s facial scar, given to him by Cathy’s brother, and the huge dog. There did seem to be a title error – although Cathy is a countess and her late husband an earl, his mother was a Mrs., unless he inherited from his uncle, which didn’t seem to be the case, that would have been impossible.

The only truly successful short version of the story is, in my opinion, Kate Bush’s wildly insane single. She gets the insanity and the nature aspect just right. This book tames the story, turns it into a mainstream romance, which is, after all, what Mills and Boon wanted her to do. But I’d love to see her let loose on the full book and given free rein to put the insanity back.

In fact, I’m quite tempted myself. But I’d go a completely different way.

Oh, and I’ve included the British cover, as well as the US one. Do I have to explain why? That is some serious male totty!

Grade: B

Summary:

Lady Katherine Charlton has never forgotten the stable hand with dangerous fists and a troubled heart from her childhood. Now the rebel is back, his powerful anger concealed under a polished and commanding veneer.

When ten years of scandal and secrets are unleashed, with a passionate, furious kiss, Heath’s deepest, darkest wish crystallizes: revenge—and Kathy—will be his!

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Doukakis’s Apprentice by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 20 Sept 11

Sarah Morgan writes books about poor but feisty heroines and rich but unjerky heroes. Although she uses the usual Harlequin/Mills and Boon tropes, she uses them intelligently, to illuminate the characters, rather than by rote, to get through a story. This one is no different and I had fun with this book.

Polly Prince is the lynchpin of a small but successful advertising agency when her company is taken over by businessman Damon Doukakis. Damon is driven, hard, and he practices the “hot desk” system, where an employee doesn’t have a permanent workstation, but uses the first available empty desk. It’s true that this is an exaggeration of what happens in business, but threading through the story of Polly and Damon is the story of the reconciliation of two diametrically opposed management styles.

On paper the agency is a very poor investment, but Damon improves that when he fires everyone on the board of directors, who have been milking the profits without concern to the workers. That sounds familiar, too. He moves them to corporate headquarters, and gives Polly a chance, despite the fact that he knew her years before and he has an understandable grudge against her. Her aged father has run off with his much younger sister. They are at loggerheads from the start.

A lot of management style is concerned with the nature of the business, but improving productivity is sometimes closely linked with what you want to produce. If it’s advertising, then it’s an ephemeral, intangible product and a lot depends on the “talent.” If they’re not happy, then they can’t work to their full capabilities, and there’s a loss in productivity. Polly isn’t just the lynchpin, she’s the talent, too, something I found a little bit hard to swallow, but I can’t say it spoiled my enjoyment of the story. She has a pink, fluffy pen and a pink notebook that she creates in – having known “talent” in the past, that really rings true. They do have favourite talismans that they feel comfortable with. And creativity is usually done in a furious rush, leaving weeks of filtering, research, and developing the chosen ideas before involving the client.

I had some experience in an ad agency in the past, and it was one of the most enjoyable, if demanding, parts of my career. Hours were extremely flexible – you could take two- or three-hour lunch breaks, but for part of that, you might be in Oxford Street, drinking in the latest trends and studying shop displays, but you could equally be working in the office until midnight. That’s my preferred way of working anyway, so it suited me no end. And Polly works like that, too.

When we first meet Polly, she is dressed outrageously, including a pair of hot pink tights that Damon takes immediate exception to, not knowing that they are produced by one of the agency’s biggest clients and one that she is hoping to do more business with in the future. I enjoyed how Polly shows Damon what she’s doing, letting him discover for himself what she is doing and why, and I enjoyed Damon’s realisation and eventual capitulation. He isn’t an unreasoning boss. If something works, then he’ll use it and he slowly unbends.

I enjoyed the relationship between Polly’s father and Damon’s sister and their ultimate resolution. There is a lovely wry conversation at the end, which I won’t spoil for you, but I like a story that isn’t all sweetness and light at the end. The resolution to the office problems is perhaps a little unrealistic, but I can’t say it bothered me too much, and there is a really nice touch including a fish.

Of course, that means Polly as well. The love story is a little more conventional, but I enjoyed the development and the way Sarah Morgan blends it with the business story. I bought into their story, and it unfolded very sweetly, until I was rooting for this couple. This is a book where the hero and heroine actually do some work, and we see them doing it, which went a long way towards persuading me that these two, although starting from opposite ends of the spectrum, will make a success of their future together.

Grade: A

Summary:

Wanted: willing apprentice to handle indecently arrogant (but incredibly sexy) tycoon With her family business in crisis Polly Prince does her best to keep calm and carry on. But hard work alone can’t save her company from a takeover by the infamously ruthless Damon Doukakis…or her traitorous body from the lethal sensuality of her boss! As his new apprentice, Polly accompanies Damon to Paris to negotiate the business deal of her life! Worse still, Polly must at all costs resist Damon in the most dangerously romantic city in the world…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of The Highest Price To Pay by Maisey Yates
Contemporary Romance published by Mills and Boon Modern 1 Aug 11

This is a terrific book. Instead of dealing with the non-issue of an African-French man and a Caucasian American woman, it deals with what lies beneath the skin. I love that a book featuring a hero and heroine from different races didn’t dwell on that aspect of their relationship, but all the issuesaere about her skin, not his. What’s more, the fashion background reads authentically, so I could really relax into this one and enjoy the hell out of it.

Blaise, our hero, is a wildly successful financier. In a bunch of debts he recently bought with another deal, he finds Ella Stanton’s fashion business. Ella has talent and she has a working business plan, but it’s a five-year plan. Blaise wants to accelerate that, and before he’s met Ella, has decided that her business is one he’d like to invest in. Ella thinks he’s blowing her off but agrees to work with him. Their romance develops from there, and it involves one of my favorite themes, learning to let go and let the other person in, to drop all the barriers.

Ella has been in a devastating house fire, which left her with serious burns. The book doesn’t pull punches about them. She’s lost feeling in parts of her body, and the burns are nasty. But she doesn’t cover them up, or, rather, she uses a clever legerdemain trick—she displays some and hides the worst. So it’s her skin that’s the outer manifestation of their problems in this book.

Layers on layers. How I love that. Ella is a strong woman, but not to the point of stupidity. She knows how much Blaise can do for her business, and she accepts it, using his contacts and his high-profile personality. And he colludes in that, is willing to lend her all that. He doesn’t blackmail her, he doesn’t force her into anything. The decision to become lovers doesn’t depend on that. I love that, too.

This book has everything the Presents/Modern line demands, but all of the requirements – the wealthy background, the alpha male, is used to further the story and the romance. Blaise uses his power and his appearance as a don’t-care lover to cover up his hurts, but he doesn’t wallow in them. He just gets on with things. And he is absolutely gorgeous. For years I’ve had a hopeless crush on the Saville Row tailor and designer Ozwald Boateng. Not just because he is OMG gorgeous, but because he designs men’s suits like you wouldn’t believe. Melt-in-the-mouth tailoring. So it’s a treat to put him in this book as “my” Blaise. Modern decided to put a yummy African model on the front of the book, so if I want Ozwald, I can have him. I mean, look at the cut on that suit (tailor’s tip – if the shoulders fit, the rest of the suit usually follows).

Speaking of fashion—the backgrousnd to this book reads authentically. Yates knows what goes into design and making a line, and although some parts are skimmed over, it doesn’t matter, because this is a book about romance, not fashion. It works. The only bit that jars a little is the choice of colors for a studio. Most designers have a “white room” which they can hang with colors if they want to, to show the design and the colors without fear or favor. I don’t care, to be honest, and I bet there are some designers around who don’t have that reverence for white rooms. It works with Ella’s personality.

This is the second book I’ve read from this line that features an ethnic mix (the other was The Restless Billionaire with a Bollywood heroine) and all I can say is bring it on. It’s not the ethnicity it brings to the line, but the backgrounds. The Restless Billionaire brings some of the excitement of Bollywood to its story, and this one brings the beauty of Malawi, where Blaise’s mother came from. Because this book features two strong characters, I find it the much more satisfactory read.

Blaise must overcome the fact that both his parents, although not turning their backs on him, rejected him, and then he did something despicable to his brother, something the story doesn’t skim over, and Ella must cope with the barriers she’s put up since the accident that scarred her so badly. I won’t go into details, because that would be spoiler territory, but there is a lovely, tender scene with a rose, and the proposal scene later had me in bits.

Love the read. The ending is a little bit rushed, I’d have loved more, but still, a great read that I highly recommend.

Grade: A-

Summary:

‘While it has been reported that I may be missing my own soul, I have no interest in yours. This is about money.’ When Ella’s failing business comes wrapped up as part of Blaise Chevalier’s recent takeover, he plans to discard it – as is his usual way with surplus goods. Then he meets Ella! Cast from the same fiery mould as he is, she makes an intriguing adversary. Perhaps he could have a little fun with his new acquisition… As proud and strong as she is beautiful, Ella is determined to prove Blaise wrong about her business and her worth. As long as she hides her hint of vulnerability and denies the flicker of attraction between them when she catches her enemy’s eye…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of The Crown Affair by Lucy King
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 6 Sep 11

I loved Lucy King’s first book for Harlequin, and I gave it an A. So I picked this one up with high expectations. The characters in this one tip over the edge into TSTL and the sketchy research makes for a less-than-convincing background. This book is the story of two immature people who would rather flounce and pontificate after their lusting than discuss and be honest with themselves and each other.

The lusting at the beginning is embarrassing. It goes something like this:

“Oh look, a man with his shirt off – phwar.”

“Oh look, a sexy woman in revealing clothes – phwar.”

Do they get it on immediately? No. Because he’s a king avoiding the paparazzi and she’s an architect who is fascinated by his – manor house. At one point she gives a textbook description to “prove” she’s an architect. The thing is, I’ve never had an architectural lesson in my life, and I could have said the same thing by looking at the building, which by her description sounds a lot like Sulgrave Manor. When they finally get to the point, she won’t do it because he sits her on what she calls “a solid mahogany Regency breakfast table.” Finally she consents to do it on a sofa, which she whimsically says she will do as long as it’s flame-proof. By this point I had a toothache.

Anyway, he is super-conscious of the press and suchlike, which is why he is living alone in the manor house – and why he is chopping wood half naked. Yeah, right. Like they’d leave him alone for that? Like they wouldn’t find out where he is in ten minutes and be buzzing the place in helicopters? This man, already a million-trillion-dillionaire, has discovered he’s unexpectedly heir to a small European country, and the press is leaving him alone? The British press? The press that not only hacked the cell phones of celebrities but also, it is now alleged, the lawyers of the celebrities? No. Just no.

And she’s an architect with assertion problems who has just lost her job. She wants to get into restoration, which makes me wonder why she didn’t do a restoration course (most of those take seven years to get the qualification) instead of architecture. So she’s confused, ditzy, and she wants to build your house. No.

They meet, and he takes her to his house and lets her wander around on her own. On the basis of a paragraph that she could have learned by heart from a guidebook. This man is so security conscious he should be locked up for his own safety. But they get together, and, sigh, have bit of afternoon delight. At this point, the lusting is really getting on my nerves, and I want them to get together and get it over with. Because I can’t stand any more blocks of text describing how sexy they are in such clichéd terms that, although I’m sure this book is new to me, I keep checking the publication date to see if I could have possibly read it before somewhere. And it’s “standard” lust, the kind that isn’t specific. Hot man plus sexy woman equals sexy time. The characters never come to life, and, although I’m told repeatedly what they are and who they are, I never see it from their actions or their thoughts.

Here’s a sample:

He ran his gaze over her and her body burned in the wake of its trail. Her breasts swelled. Her nipples hardened and molten heat pooled between her legs. Desire whipped through her and she had to fight not to tremble.

See what I mean? It’s a lot easier to give an example. Hardened nipples, molten heat, ho hum. Very few authors are immune to doing this, but when all the descriptions are like this, it starts to get a bit stale. Lucy King seems to have read a lot of erotic romance from about five years ago.

Throughout there are chick-lit phrases that I really don’t enjoy, because there are so many of them. “uber-fashionable,” “uh-oh,” and more and more, so that the book is overweighted by them. It makes Laura sound very immature, and I’d begun to think that maybe she shouldn’t be allowed out on her own. I’m also irritated by the plethora of one-sentence paragraphs. Very mannered and noticeable, when I’d rather have been reading a smooth-flowing story.

The second part of the story is when Laura applies for a job in Matt’s new principality for restoring the palace. Again, no. For a job as huge as the one described, a team of tried and true restorers, with expertise in various disciplines, would be employed, not a young person without a team who had lost her previous job. It just wouldn’t happen. Neither would it happen that someone as newsworthy as Matt would have escaped Laura’s attention. Are we to believe that she decided that the house she was so passionate about at the start of the story didn’t matter? She didn’t research the owner, the man she’d just had sex with? She didn’t see his face or hear an account of him on the news? Like I said, she shouldn’t be allowed out on her own.

But – someone who enjoys a lighter tone, someone who misses chick-lit, who likes the Bridget Jones style voice of the heroine and the uber-sexiness of the hero is going to love this. I fully expect to see some reviews where the readers adored it. But I’m afraid the book isn’t for me and I found it a struggle. The plot holes and unbelievability, plus the immaturity of the characters and the author’s jagged style, combined to make this book a struggle for me to read.

Grade: D-

Summary:

Close encounters of the royal kind

After being made redundant and finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman, Laura decides it’s time to take charge of her life. However, the last thing she expects is for the new Laura to end up having wild, naked fun with the gorgeous guy next door…

She virtually runs away afterward in shame— but so what? She soon gets a new job, on the Mediterranean island of Sassania, no less! But the island has a new king—aka Laura’s guy next door! Now they’re both in trouble, for King Matt should be focusing on affairs of the state, not on reigniting a hot affair of his own…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Too Proud To Be Bought by Sharon Kendrick
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 23 Aug 11

Sharon Kendrick is a writer of extremes. She can write books that make you want to scream in frustration or books that give you the rare “happy sigh” moment. This is a happy-sigh book, and I’m going to try to explain why.

Every writer has themes she likes to work with. Kendrick’s is dangerous, because love is her theme, and what people sacrifice for it. That’s why we sometimes get the scream books, because the heroine lies down and takes everything the hero throws at her, and the hero is the biggest jerk in creation. But if she gets it right, it’s immensely satisfying for romance readers. When it doesn’t work for me is when the heroine behaves like a doormat, when the hero behaves like a jerk, or when there’s an external event like a secret baby or a big misunderstanding that comes in the way of the lovers. But when the characters are well delineated and they behave like real people instead of the author’s puppets, the theme can still work remarkably well.

So from the beginning this story has familiar themes and tropes. I wouldn’t expect anything less of Mills and Boon, and while these books appear in the US under the Harlequin Presents banner, they are a product of the London office of the company and they have a distinctive difference from, say, Harlequin Desire that is hard to pin down but is there, nevertheless.

The heroine is Zara Evans, a girl working as a waitress. The hero is a Russian megarich owner of department stores, Nikolai Komarov. They meet when she gate crashes a party in order to model a dress that her friend, an aspiring designer, has made. So far, so absolutely Mills and Boon. And I have to admit, it’s a setup I love in certain circumstances. The Cinderella one taken to its classical best.

Nikolai wants her, takes her home, but she decides against the encounter. Much to his surprise, he pursues her, as he is the kind of billionaire women fall over themselves to get to. And of course he gets her, employs her as a waitress for a weekend visit from a potential client, and they sleep together. At the end of the weekend, he leaves her a big cheque, and she rips it up.

It goes on from there, and you can probably guess what happens. I like this book so much because of the characters. Zara isn’t so much “proud,” as it says in the title, as self-respecting. She respects herself too much to let him have his own way all the time and turn her into an accessory. She loves him, but she doesn’t kowtow. And she doesn’t just flounce off all the time either. She tells him how she feels. At one point she decides to continue the relationship, and later it’s her own realization that she feels cheapened by the accessory tag that makes her leave. Although she’s a waitress, and she started the job after realizing her godmother, who brought her up, had more debts than assets, she is good at it and she enjoys it. She always wanted to go into agriculture and went to college, but after her guardian died, she gave it up without self-pity. I like that about her. And that she explains herself when asked.

Nikolai has what has become the standard Mills and Boon hero. Very rich, made his money himself, brought up in the backstreets of Moscow (or it could easily be London or New York or even Athens, it doesn’t make much difference except that he says “da” instead of “ne,”) and thinks his mother abandoned him to his wicked aunt and uncle. But although he finds it hard to get in touch with his emotions, that doesn’t make him a jerk or, at least, not a deliberate one. When she talks, he listens, and glory of glories, he does something about it. He doesn’t mistreat her or blackmail her into his bed, he doesn’t class her as below him or anything like that, and he tries to buy her because that’s what he usually does. Zara makes him see that’s wrong.

Another thing I like is that Kendrick doesn’t denigrate women who choose to be bought. One features briefly in the story, and she isn’t a bitch, isn’t described as plastic, she’s just doing what she does, and when Zara is her waitress, she doesn’t treat her like dirt.

The story shows how Zara admits she loves Nikolai, and there is a delicious scene at the end when she gives in, drops all her barriers and lets him in. It also shows two people coming to like, respect, and love each other and I totally bought their happy ending.

Get this one  if you want to read a classical trope done well.

Grade: A-

Summary:

The humble waitress and the Russian billionaire…Waitress Zara Evans doesn’t belong in glittering high society. That is until she finds herself unexpectedly at an exclusive party, and manages to captivate the most sought–after man in the room—Russian oligarch Nikolai Komarov.

For Nikolai, there’s something about Zara’s beauty that makes her stand out from the first–class crowd. Experience has taught him all women have their price, but he has never encountered anyone like Zara—a young woman who is too proud, too independent, too willful to be bought…

No excerpt available.

LynneC’s review of From Dirt to Diamonds by Julia James
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 23 Aug 11

When you want the pure, true crack that is Mills and Boon Modern romance, you turn to Julia James. She gives you all the wild madness, the extremes of the Cinderella trope that is the basis of the line, and the purple prose. Not to mention the exclamation marks! (note; not the same person as Julie James, who writes those lovely romantic comedies. Not many laughs here). From Dirt to Diamonds is no exception. If you want an engrossing, emotional read about characters you can sympathize with, you’re not going to find it here. Where other writers can take well-worn tropes and give you a great, emotional read, James gives you fairytales and extremes of emotion that verge on insanity. So be warned.

In this one, the heroine is going by the name of Thea Dauntry, but she used to be Kat, the daughter of a drug addict who was in her turn the daughter of an alcoholic. So Kat becomes a model (what else?) and falls under the influence of a blackmailer who threatens to cut her if she doesn’t either give him money or do some porn shoots for him. So she steals from the hero and when caught doesn’t come clean. The hero proceeds to ruin her career. Her blackmailer is conveniently offed at this point. And now we’re about three chapters in, so I’ll put spoiler alerts for any more plot details.

Kat decides she is going to change, not go the way of her mother and grandmother, who she never knew, so she becomes a well-paid model. Then after Angelos (I’ll come to him in a minute) ruins her, she reinvents herself but is still a model. WTF? So how did she do that? She has a passport, presumably under her new name, papers, and nobody in her profession recognizes her as the girl who used to be Kat, although Angelos has no trouble recognizing her across the space of a crowded restaurant. Thea’s also got class. She knows the difference between Rachmaninoff and Shostakovitch and she reads. In fact, she behaves like a fifty-year-old in a twenty-something’s body. She doesn’t like being stared at, she doesn’t drink and she doesn’t take drugs. And she’s a model.

So realism just went flying out the window. Forget it, it doesn’t belong here.

The hero, Angelos, is your Greek tycoon hero. Tall, dark, brooding, all that. Executive. Loves to hike in Switzerland. He ruined Kat without really investigating the whys and wherefores, and he hates himself for the attraction he feels for her. So it’s all about him. When he meets her again, he wrecks her plans to marry a nice young man. For the young man’s good, naturally. What a hero. Prince Charming he is not. So he takes her away with him, because that’s what you do to someone you want to ruin. OMG the angst.

And if we can’t feel the angst from the story, James emphasizes it with prose that doesn’t stint on adjectives or exclamation marks. Here’s a bit from early in the book, before James has really got into her stride:

“A hard sliver of satisfaction darted in her mind. All the shock and the panic she had felt were gone now—completely gone. Unneeded and unnecessary. Instead there was now thin, vicious satisfaction. It was fitting—oh, so fitting!—that he should be here, in the moment of her life’s grateful achievement, when he had nearly, so very nearly, destroyed her life.

But I wouldn’t let him! I clawed my way back and now I’m here, and I’ve got everything I’ve wanted all my life! So go to hell, Angelos Petrakos! Get out of my life and stay out for ever!

Then, casting him away with her damnation, she gazed into Giles’s eyes. The eyes of the man she was going to marry.
On the far side of the room Angelos Petrakos’s eyes were bladed like knives.”

There is a sick fascination with this kind of prose, the kind that wonders what is going to happen next, if she can get any purpler. Well, she doesn’t disappoint in that respect. I was going to DNF this, but I wanted to see where it went, reading with the awed fascination usually reserved for watching a great film director crash and burn. Or a media mogul. I mean, you’ve got to admire a vocabulary like that. But does she have to use it all up at once? Eyes wander all over the place, and, in one instance, they twine together. And exclamation marks are used with complete abandon.

This is the way Modern/Presents authors used to write twenty years ago, as we’re all discovering with some of the reprints that Harlequin is throwing at us. There is a hard core of authors who write like it now, but none with quite as much abandon as Julia James. Read and marvel.

Grade: F

Summary:

He’ll stop at nothing to settle old scores!When Angelos Petrakos spies supermodel Thea Dauntry in a swanky London restaurant, he knows she’s not really the effortlessly elegant woman she seems to be…

For Thea, Angelos’s reappearance is disastrous! Dining with a viscount on the verge of proposing, the last thing she wishes to be reminded of is the street–smart, quick–tempered girl she once was.

A lucky encounter years ago with the gorgeous Greek tycoon enabled Thea to make something of her future. But Angelos can’t forget how she used him—and he’ll stop at nothing to bring her down. Not even seduction…

Read an excerpt.

One of the accusations frequently leveled at romance books is the amount of tropes we have. Things like secret babies and big misunderstandings. They crop up all over the place, but I’m not totally against them, because when they’re used properly they concentrate the reader on what matters most – the characters involved.

In fact, you could say that if they’re used well, they can add extra insight, because it’s how the characters react to situations that is more important than the situation itself. But all too often the trope is used as an easy way to progress a story, and the characters behave in a predictable and disappointing way.

So what tropes are there? Well, in the Harlequin/Mills and Boon Presents/Modern line (and some M and B Riva books, too), and the Harlequin Desire line, they can be particularly prevalent. It’s one of the reasons I read them, to be honest. You can gauge an author’s skill with how well she can bring the trope alive. Some I will tolerate, some I’m less fond of, but blessed be the author who can bring them all to life and make them seem fresh. I’ll look at one of my unfaves in a little more detail.

The Secret Baby – usually the heroine has a baby that the father of the child doesn’t know about. Usually the father is also the hero of the book, and the story is about them coming to terms with the situation. Not one of my favourites, I have to admit. I can’t get over a couple of things. First, the father has a right to know, unless he’s abusive or dead, and even in the first category, there might be a case for him to know. Second, when there’s a weak, defenceless being involved (no, not the heroine, but the baby), then that being must take priority. So whatever the heroine thinks about the hero, she should tell him. Particularly when she is poor and he is rich. That baby has a right to certain things, and one of them is a comfortable childhood, if at all possible.

I’ve seen this one work, but only rarely. I even wrote one myself, but it wasn’t really a secret baby. Texas Heat has a heroine unable to get hold of the hero. He has good evidence to believe she betrayed him and he has cut himself off from her. But she doesn’t stop trying, even though she thinks he’s a shit. Because of the baby. I’ve seen books where the heroine is living in abject poverty, in a damp and bug-infested slum, and the hero is your rich billionaire, and then she feels resentful when he takes over. Say what? She doesn’t deserve to be in charge of a child, IMO.

That’s why I decided not to review Olivia Gates’ latest, The Sarantos Secret Baby, although I’m a big Gates fan. But although I decided to give it a try, the heroine is a complete idiot and doesn’t deserve the baby. Willfully keeping a baby’s existence from the father, however controlling the father is, isn’t a good basis for the story, and I spent the part of it I did read in complete sympathy with Ari and wondering why he doesn’t just take his baby and leave.

Melanie Milburne’s The Unclaimed Baby is another one. In this one the hero and the heroine both  behave badly. She doesn’t tell him about the baby, and when he finds out, he threatens to take the baby away. Bear in mind that the heroine, Bronte, is living in her native country, Australia, and she’s providing well for the baby. He is rich, sure, but that’s all he has going for him. So he makes her believe he can take her baby away using the courts? At that point the book fell apart for me. No, just no. The likely outcome is that the courts would award her custody and a maintenance allowance. There is no believable reason why Bronte should believe Luc and go away with him, except for the contrivance of the story. It’s shorthand, a shortcut to get the H/h together and, for me, anyway, it just doesn’t work. If Bronte is as thick as a brick, then maybe. Or if she has a record of criminal violence, maybe again, but none of that applies. Actually, Bronte is a complete doormat. After their split, he cut off contact with her. Rich people can do that. Changed his contact details, told his people to keep her away kind of thing. When she discovers she’s preggers she tries, but can’t get in touch. And then she apologises to him when he rants at her?

I chose those two books as examples because they are authors I usually enjoy who came unstuck when they started down the secret baby route. In fact, I can’t think of a book offhand that has done it right for me, although I keep reading them. Or DNF’ing them. It seems this is a trope that is fraught with difficulty, but I’m sure there have to be some great ones out there. I think many writers do it for That Scene, where the hero stops short, stares at the baby and sees a miniature of himself (or where he refuses to acknowledge the child). Combined with the Big Misunderstanding, it can be one of the biggest fail tropes ever. So the author who can carry it off is skilled indeed.

Anyone got any great secret baby stories? One where the heroine and the hero behave like adults, the baby isn’t used as a blackmailing device, or a way to force the hero and heroine together, where they actually think about the baby rather than their own selfish needs?

Lynne Connolly’s review of  Front Page Affair by Mira Lyn Kelly
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 4 Jan 11

My second happy sigh book of the year – I must be in luck!

The plot isn’t exactly original, but it doesn’t matter, because Kelly is telling the story of two likeable, personable people who will draw the reader in.

Payton has always liked Nate, but he’s kept away. Nate, haunted by an inappropriate moment, when he glimpsed her half-naked when they were both teens, kept away from guilt. He used to be a good friend of Payton’s brother. However Nate came from an inferior class, and later made his money himself.

Now he needs someone to distract the press from a secret. The secret is quite complicated, but it works as a reason, and I was enjoying the characters too much to bother with it too much. Basically, Nate wants to protect a woman who claimed he’d fathered a child, when he hadn’t. But he wants to distract the press. Payton seems like a good way of doing it.

Payton is pretty, confident, sassy and Nate is honest with her. Loved that there was no subterfuge between them. All the time, Payton and Nate are honest with each other. There was no big misunderstanding here. That mean Nate trusted Payton enough to tell her the truth, and she felt confident and safe with him.

Of course, their attraction proves more than either of them expects. Or there wouldn’t be much of a story, would there? Payton isn’t a virgin, but close to it. When Nate finds out, he isn’t condemnatory of anything but the man she gave herself to.

Payton has held a torch for Nate for years, but she hasn’t let it control her life. She’s dated other men, tried to forget him, but when he erupts back into her life, she is ready for him. She accepts that it isn’t going to be forever, but she accepts what he gives her, and do

esn’t show any of the pathetic gratitude that the more – uncertain – Modern/Presents heroine displays. She’s refreshingly modern, in fact.

Nate is a genuinely nice guy, but with enough of the ruthless about him to make him believable as a high-powered businessman. And lovely – he’s blond, although his hair is described as “sandy!” more than once. So I could slot Daniel Craig into the part of Nate without too much trouble. Hey, it worked for me! I do have this thing for blond men, and while I know tall, dark and handsome is supposed to be what we all want, blond does it for me.

So who, I wonder, is the man on the cover of both the UK and the US version of this book?

The book works so well because of the detail lavished on the characters. They are so easy to imagine that I just floated through, enjoying them. Every time she can add a character detail, Kelly does so, and ends up with richly detailed, interesting people who you genuinely root for.

Grade: A-

Summary: Payton hasn’t seen Nate Evans in years – not since he used to hang out with her brother in high school. But now she and Nate are guests at the same wedding where the notorious millionaire offers her a wild proposal – a sexy, scandalous and irresistible affair!
Nate’s outrageous proposition was supposed to stay only paper-thin; it was merely a ploy to distract the tabloids from another, all-too-real scandal. But neither he nor Payton expected such a very public affair to prove so very hot in private.
Or to have such lasting consequences..

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of The Man Behind the Mask by Maggie Cox
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin 11 Jan 11

I first read this one as a Mills and Boon Modern, Brazilian Boss, Virgin Housekeeper, and although I didn’t check it word for word, I don’t think they’ve changed much except the spelling in this version for Harlequin Presents. I really dislike it when they use different titles, as within a couple of pages I realised I was reading the same book with a different title.

Recently there have been some signs that HMB are changing it up a bit. The drive for brand new, fresh authors is cheering, and the new covers signaled a new approach. ( Having had some time to get used to the new covers, I can now say that I like the designs, but I still don’t like the photos very much. The people look a bit vacant to me. This book doesn’t have a new cover, but it does have a slightly different approach).

Back to the Maggie Cox story. Eduardo, a half Brazilian, has come to his English home to recover from a car accident that left him with a shattered leg and a dead wife. He meets Marianne when she is busking on the street. He gives her money but it’s not money she wants. She’s trying to regain her confidence and her life after her much older, but much loved, husband died of cancer, six months after they meet.

It’s not long before Marianne moves in with Eduardo as his housekeeper, but it takes a time before they end up in bed together. I did enjoy that Eduardo was careful not to push Marianne into anything, although he makes his desire clear. And he’s a blond. I do have a weakness for blond men. The hero on the cover doesn’t look awfully blond to me, though.

Both characters have a journey to make, and in a way they help each other, but I felt that their journey was more physical than mental. I wasn’t convinced that they wouldn’t have got there anyway, without the other person, and this made the book a little less intense than many Moderns. But this is a Modern Extra, which is now being given its own line in Riva, so there are slight differences. Less intensity, and the hero is often less forcefully alpha, and this leads to less drama and sometimes more depth of character.

But I felt a certain lack of tension in this story. It flowed, and the depiction of the wintry countryside of England is really well done. With the ice and snow outside my window as I write, I can sympathise with Eduardo’s shivers.

Although the story is mainly in Marianne’s POV, I found it harder to get to know her. Some of her decisions, I thought were cowardly, for instance, (mild spoiler alert) when she gives the house her husband had left to her back to his adult children. I felt that part didn’t really serve any purpose, and the cowardice came when she goes against what he obviously wanted to do. The children were planning to take her to court, which is their privilege, but it’s an off-the-page moment and doesn’t seem to serve any purpose in the story, except to annoy me mildly. Perhaps if he’d left her the house for a few years, until she found her feet it might have been less intrusive as a plot device. And at the beginning of the story, she wants to get back into music, but she abandons that idea when she starts to work for Eduardo. She is more a plot device than a person at times, but I enjoyed her sweetness.

A good read for a winter afternoon, pleasant and undemanding.

And Maggie – update your web page!

Grade: B-

Summary:

The scars he bears are the only visible reminder of the life Eduardo de Souza left behind in Brazil. He prefers to live in solitude. He doesn’t want anybody’s pity.

However, when Eduardo sees innocent, pretty Marianne Lockwood literally singing for her supper, he impulsively offers her a job as his live-in housekeeper. Marianne is drawn by her handsome, brooding boss and is soon willingly taken between his sheets. But Eduardo is holding back the darkness of the past, and when he whisks Marianne away to Rio, it’s only a matter of time before she finds out the truth….

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Master of Bella Terra (The Italian’s Blushing Gardener) by Christina Hollis
Contemporary Romance by Harlequin Presents 4 Jan 11

I’m not sure I like this growing habit of giving a book two titles. It means I’m in imminent danger of buying the same book twice.

The cover of this book says, “Once she was a Cinderella, now she’s his bride!” Well no, not in this book. One of those two statements isn’t true, but I won’t tell you which, because of possible spoilers.

On the whole I enjoyed this one. Kira is a gardener, having fled from a scandal in England to the relative safety of Italy. Although the reason why her scandal was splashed all over the papers, wasn’t entirely clear, since it didn’t really involve anyone prominent or anything the papers would jump on. Her family background is a little vague, but there’s enough of it to be comfortable with, though I would have liked more.

Stefano was a child from the streets, whose story unfolds during the book. He keeps buying houses, in the hope of making them homes, but they are only showhouses. He doesn’t have the knack (he should have asked me – I can make any room a complete tip in a couple of hours – very homely!) He backs away from relationships, but that wasn’t entirely clear to me, either.

The story starts in Tuscany, where Kira is waiting for the new owner of the estate on which she owns a small villa. Of course it’s Stefano, and he arrives piloting his own helicopter. Although they are attracted to each other, they back off, neither of them wanting to respond to the powerful attraction between them.

Stefano gives Libby a contract to create gardens for him. Before she signs the contract they succumb and sleep together. Then he flies her off to the Caribbean.

Stefano was an odd mixture of humour and loneliness, and it didn’t really come off for me. He was a loner, and he had girlfriends in the past, the usual Modern male, but it didn’t really come together to make a complete, assured person. And while I assumed he was in property, I didn’t know how he’d manage to move from being a child on the streets to such a huge success. I’d have liked to know more. Like Kira’s slightly sketchy background, his didn’t add up to the one person.

The best thing about this book is the descriptions of the gardens, and the way Kira creates them for her clients. She’s obviously competent, but prefers her solitude. The book is leisurely, with long scenes broken by chapter breaks, especially at the beginning, and I liked that, too, the way they came to know each other. The lovemaking scenes are vague, like the Modern/Presents books of yesteryear. In the first scene, I wasn’t sure if he’d made love to her or not, because it happens in the fuzz of description, rather than a more sharply focused scene.

But it made for a pleasant read, and it’s different enough to be interesting.

Grade: C

Summary:

Kira Banks far prefers plants to people. After a heartbreaking affair, she lives alone in the beautiful Bella Terra Valley. But when restless billionaire Stefano Albani helicopters into the estate, Kira’s peaceful existence is shattered for ever…

Notoriously charming but guarded, Stefano is fascinated by cautious, hidden Kira: this seduction will be unforgettable! But his polished routine goes awry — could it be that the tycoon who can have anything he wants might need someone for the very first time…?

Read an excerpt.

Since I’ve started writing romances, I’ve heard no end of times that the category romance is easy to write for. Not from the people writing them, but the people reading them, with the addendum “I’d write one myself, but I don’t have the time. After all, how hard can it be?” So after three attempts at writing one, I think I have the answer.

Romance writers come at the task from different directions. A story, in order to be successful, has to have two forms of conflict – internal and external. And by “conflict,” I don’t mean two people arguing, then making up, arguing and making up over and over again. Or even coming to blows. I mean the things that are stopping them getting together. If they meet, sleep together, fall in love and marry, there’s not much of a story. It’s what happens to stop them that makes it really interesting. The conflicts can come from inside and out. There’s “I’m not worth loving, so nobody will love me,” (internal) and there’s “Shit, that monster attacking me wants to kill me. But he’s so hot!” (external).

Most people (including me, ten years ago) who want to write romance tend to start with the external. It’s easier to write, easier to visualise and much easier to make a story out of it, or it is for me, anyway. If the protagonists are constantly running away from the bad guys and getting shot at, a story is much easier to keep rolling. But it’s not a romance if they don’t have that external push and pull, as well. It took me a few attempts to learn that one. More, to learn that a romance that stays with the reader is the one with more internal story than external. Memorable characters with real problems, not contrived ones, people the reader can care about and root for, whatever their situation.

I write paranormal romance and historical romance. In both there are built-in conflicts, but the more I write, and the more I read, the more important the internal story becomes, for me at least. And it’s hella difficult to get right. For most of my career I’ve been interested in instalove and the conflicts that engenders. What if you instantly fall for the most unsuitable man around? What if he falls for you? How do you know it’s the real thing, and how do you cope with the seismic shifts in your life? I’m still interested in that, but the falling in love process is also beginning to have an insistent pull.

I’ve read Mills and Boon Moderns (Harlequin Presents) a lot, even more in the past couple of years. They’re short, easy reads, and they have a comfort feeling about them. There are well-worn tropes, beloved of the reviewer – secret babies, big misunderstandings, revenge plots and so on. The hero is always alpha, a leader, and the heroine a Cinderella type. These are, as successful Modern author Penny Jordan explained to me a few years ago, fairy stories set in modern times.

But the tropes are there because the authors have to make the inner life far more important. In the 50,000 words they’re allotted, they have no time to set up elaborate fantasy worlds or the nuances of history (which is why the historical romance authors are allowed a slightly longer word length). It’s the core, the basis of romance – what internal forces are driving the hero and heroine apart.

Because I started from the other end, the complex worlds and the detail. I still love writing that, I guess I always will, but I thought it would be good for developing my skills to strip that all away and work with the internal life of the characters only.

I tried to write one earlier this year, and ended up with a story that had bombs and violence in it, as well as the love story. Well, I just couldn’t resist. I’d planned this story set in Naples and New York, and nobody could have been more surprised than me when the mob showed up and started throwing firebombs. But it seemed such a good way to develop the story that I couldn’t resist. Now I have a 75,000 word story that wouldn’t fit in the Modern line, and I don’t know what to do with it. But writing it was a blast. Oh yes, and it turned out a bit hotter than I’d planned, too. The two protagonists couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

So I’ve started again. This time my protagonists are more Modern-ish. A heroine who is the daughter of a wealthy man, forced to marry another wealthy man because of a business deal. How hard could it be?

The answer is, very.

But I’m not doing this just to sell a book. In fact, the chances of selling a book to the line is really low, because of the thousands of queries they get every year. I’m doing it to force myself to concentrate on the internal conflict, and to improve my writing in general. If a writer isn’t constantly trying to improve, maybe she should ask herself why. I’ve built a reasonably successful career, but there is no way on earth I want to write without trying to improve what I do. There is always, always room for improvement. If I were writing books just to make money, I might as well give up and start flipping burgers, because the hourly rate is so much better!

The tropes are there, because they’re not as important as what is going on in the heads and hearts of the protagonists. When a Modern fails, it’s often because the inner lives aren’t believable, or just don’t work. The eternal virgin, the magic vayjayjay that converts a hardened philanderer into a one-woman man, the sexy tycoon (I’ve met a lot in real life, but sexy doesn’t describe most of them, to put it mildly), the I’ve-been-shafted-by-one-woman-so-all-women-are-worthless trope. When used skilfully, they can be shortcuts to an exploration of inner feelings, and when the hero and heroine finally lay aside their preconceptions, it can be a great read. When used to provide a quick thrill, they usually fail, or provide a ho-hum read.

Working to make these people special and specific, individuals instead of types, is hard, especially when there are no frills in the way, details of scene and setting, to distract. I’m loving it. I don’t know how successful it will be, and God knows I have other stories to write, but I had to get this one out before I started on the next.

Which is one that I’m looking forward immensely to writing, and dreading at the same time. The last Richard and Rose book in this cycle. I really need a clear head for that one. Meantime, if you want a failed Modern romance about a millionaire, a woman trying to start a new life for herself and the Italian mob, I’ll keep you posted. I’ll start submitting it soon, and we’ll see if it can succeed on its own.

The process has given me an immense respect for those authors who keep writing the stories and, for the most part, keep them fresh and new. I still don’t know how they do it. That doesn’t mean I’ll be getting softer in my reviews. I’ll still be telling it like it is, saying when a story doesn’t work for me and why. It’s given me new insights, which I hope will help me develop as a writer.

And I should mention that I have a new Cougar story coming out at the end of December. Sunshine on Chrome. It’s part of the Cougar Challenge series, something I’ve so enjoyed working on that it’s almost shameful. I’ll probably write something about that, sometime, because the trope has a grip on me and I have a feeling I’ll write more.

LynneC’s review of Fired Waitress, Hired Mistress by Robyn Grady
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents Extra 28 June 10

I found this book frustrating because the heroine would start something, or Grady would introduce something interesting, only to never follow through on it.

The heroine, Nina, has been rich but is now working at a luxury holiday resort as a waitress. She isn’t good at her job, we’re told, but the only time we see her in action is when she defuses and takes competent charge of a situation involving a tray of dropped glasses. So she doesn’t really come across as incompetent.

We’re told that Gabe has spent all his money on one venture, and he needs to make a success of it, but that has very little to do with the story. Except it gives Nina a chance to be competent.

We’re told that Nina really wants a job in publishing. She lost her last job through downsizing, not through her fault, and when she finds one—well, that would be a spoiler.

I did enjoy the first few scenes very much. Nina is walking on the beach, gets her foot trapped in a log and the tide is coming in. Lovely. Gabe rescues her and takes her to a hut he’s hired on the island. There’s no real reason why he’s hired it, as he has a luxury bungalow at the resort, but it does give them the opportunity to get their rocks off, which they do. By then they’ve realized they know each other in the past, something the reader realized a chapter or so before they did, but that doesn’t matter. I enjoyed the way their past history was dealt with in the present. They didn’t get on very well, and they didn’t fall in love when they were children, something that tends to make me a bit uneasy when I read it in a book. As if they stopped developing in any way except physically since that moment./

So Gabe and Nina go for it.

Since there’s a no fraternizing policy, Gabe fires Nina, but she takes it fine, until she realizes a bit later that she doesn’t have much else to do and she wants to be a really, really good waitress and earn her keep. That doesn’t really work for me, because at the start of the story she’s hating being a waitress. Nepotism got her the job and she’s very guilty about that, due to her spoiled princess past.

I didn’t believe that a spoiled princess could turn into a useful member of society merely by losing her money and meeting the right man. Gabe didn’t show her the error of her ways, he bonked her senseless and then angsted about his new investment.

And she’d stopped being a spoiled princess before he arrived on the scene, anyway. Being a journalist, especially on a fashion/gossip magazine isn’t the best way to discover mature behavior, either. The spoiled pri

ncess would have worked better at “Mode” – cough – “Shimmer.”

What worked were the scenes between Gabe and Nina. They were fun together, they talked, made love and opened up to each other. What didn’t work was – everything else. The plot is paper thin, and the secondary characters almost transparent in their thinness. But this is a category romance, so fortunately, there are a lot of one to ones.

Grade: C

Summary:

There’s only one position he wants her in…

Nina Petrelle, disastrous waitress to over-privileged island holidaymakers, has just been fired by her high-handed new boss Gabe Steele aka the smoking hot stranger she’s just spent the best night of her life with.

Gabe can’t say no to Nina’s endless sun-kissed legs and her too-smart mouth that he’s just craving to keep busy! But, despite the sun, sand and scorching hot nights, his head is definite it’s only a temporary fling isn’t it?

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

Sandy M’s review of The Sicilian’s Marriage Arrangement by Lucy Monroe
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Feb 07

This isn’t a book that I’ve had in line to read or review, mostly because of its age and I acquired it just recently in a box of books someone gave away. Then something I don’t normally do, I forgot to take my current read with me when running errands the other day.  Deciding to stop for lunch, I wanted to read. Imagine my surprise and flash of pissed off that I didn’t have my book with me. But then I remembered the box of books in my car. Ha! Sometimes things just work out, and this time I chose 1) Harlequin Presents because Lynne Connolly’s reviews of late have made me curious, since I haven’t read the line in absolute ages, and 2) Lucy Monroe is a favorite of mine, so I decided to give this particular HP a chance just because it’s her title.

I was gong to say I’m pleasantly surprised I enjoyed the book just because it’s a Harlequin Presents. Not that Presents aren’t good books now and again, as Lynne attests to in her reviews, but maybe because I remember the old Presents I read eons ago. I know I more than likely wouldn’t care for those today, because I know my tastes in romance have dramatically changed from those days. And, of course, it goes without saying that I like this one because it’s a Lucy Monroe book. That’s not to say I don’t have an issue or two with it, but for the most part I did enjoy it.

Hope is a shy young woman, blending into the background at her grandfather’s soirees after her hostess duties are complete, even ducking out and no one even notices. So on New Year’s Eve, she’s torn on whether to stay around for midnight when all the kissing will be going on. There’s no one for her to kiss and ring in the new year with. But out of the blue, dark and sexy Luciano, a business associate of her grandfather’s and the man she’s dreamed about for five years, disses a leggy blonde model and sweeps Hope into his arms for the kiss of her life. And his.

Stunned at the depth of his reaction to kissing Hope, Luciano hightails it out of the party, not to see Hope again for six months. And only then he seeks her out because her grandfather is holding all the cards, forcing him to marry Hope or lose more than his pride. Seeing Hope again in Greece, where she is enjoying her European tour, brings on a jealous rage when he spies her holding hands with a man. Stretching the truth and Hope’s patience just a bit, he hijacks her evening and the rest of her tour.

Hope isn’t sure what to make of Luciano’s sudden attention, but she’s not about to push the man away when he’s making her dreams of being with him finally come true. They end up in Palermo, Luciano’s home, and a relentless pursuit ensues until Hope agrees to marriage, a union that agrees with her when Luciano introduces her to the pleasurable world of lovemaking.

Of course, we know something has to happen to eclipse such happiness, and this is about the only nitpick I have with the book. It’s misunderstanding time. Luciano overhears a phone conversation between Hope and her grandfather, which leads him to believe she’s been in on the blackmail from the beginning, and he treats her thusly. Hope can’t figure out why her husband suddenly doesn’t want to touch her, why he’s now taking trips abroad and leaving her alone. And it’s not as easy as Luciano thinks it is to walk away.

I like these two characters a lot. Hope flourishes with Luciano. He’s of the old world, wants a wife who will stay at home and have his babies, but he learns to adjust quickly to certain things when dealing with a modern woman, especially when hurt and she’s pissed off at him. But at least they eventually do talk and work things out, so that makes up a little for the misunderstanding and assumptions on Luciano’s part.

I know it’s mostly due to Ms. Monroe’s writing that  I like this book so well, but because of that I do think I will try more Harlequin Presents in the future. As they say, I’ll never know what I find until I try.

Grade: B-

Summary:

Hope Bishop is stunned when darkly sexy Sicilian tycoon Luciana di Valerio proposes marriage. Brought up by her wealthy but distant grandfather, she is used to fading into the background. But Luciano’s sensual lovemaking makes her feel vibrantly alive. Hope falls in love with her husband and is blissfully happy—until she discovers that Luciano married her to fulfill his own ruthless agenda…!

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of One-Night Love Child by Anne McAllister
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Mar 08

I usually enjoy McAllister’s books enormously, but this one dragged a little for me. The conflicts weren’t strong enough and one part of the resolution seemed a little lame and the story didn’t have enough of a focus.

The hero, Flynn, was probably loosely based on the son of Erroll Flynn, who was a war correspondent/photojournalist killed in action. Fortunately, this Flynn wasn’t killed in action. Instead, he inherited his father’s Irish title, the Earl of Dunmore, and a run-down castle, fortunately with a broken entail, so the castle could be sold.

Flynn didn’t know about his child, sired six years before the story starts, because he is busy working as a journalist in war zones. When the letter telling him of the event finally arrives, he is earl and trying to restore the family fortunes. As soon as he discovers he has a son, Flynn arrives at Sara’s home. By the way, whoever edited this book got titles wrong. When you’re referring to a specific title, it’s the Earl of Dunmore (with capital letters). When you refer to a non specific one, it’s earl, as in “The earl will see you now,” as opposed to “The Earl of Dunmore will see you now.” It works the same way as any other title, like doctor or professor does. And that’s the American usage. In British usage, Earl is always capitalised.

Sara has issues. She and Flynn fell in love over the course of three days and he left her. So my problems begin here. However busy he is, these days he could have kept in touch. The complex equipment available on the battlefield would definitely give him the chance to send a note to the woman he loves, and surely his email address would remain constant? So – five years? No way.

Flynn’s journalist background is barely sketched in, and apart from vague references to “Africa” and so on, there’s no real details. He’s been shot, and one shooting has given him a limp, but it’s far more likely that he’d be blown up, these days. And he doesn’t seem scarred by what he’s seen, or the people he’s known and lost. He just takes up the earldom instead, as an unwelcome responsibility. Flynn has no centre, he doesn’t really know what he wants, apart from Sara and his son.

And Flynn has inherited an earldom and a run down castle. It takes Sara to tell him how to turn it around and make a profit from it. These days, it’s not a matter of going to a bank with a business plan. Banks will provide financial advisors, and stately homes are good sources of income. The old-fashioned concept of debt and how to escape it didn’t win true, especially when they got to see a local bank manager – in the UK and Ireland, they don’t exist any more. Not in the old sense of the word. It’s all corporate. Despite the token presence of laptops, nobody seemed to use them properly, least of all Flynn.

And the earldom. There is one improbability towards the end, which I’ll put in white type, for those of you who don’t like any kind of spoiler. Mouse over the following to see it.

Flynn “resigns” the earldom, or says he will in order to keep Sara. It’s possible under United Kingdom law, but it’s an extremely complicated and drawn-out process. You can’t just say it and until 1961, a peer was a peer for life. Plus, this is United Kingdom law, and Ireland isn’t part of the United Kingdom.

Because, I think, of the lack of focus, the story dragged in the middle, and had I not decided to review this book, I might have put it down. The characters didn’t hold me enough, and the simplicity of the Irish earldom, when in fact there is officially no such thing and the whole idea of Irish peerage is immensely complex and vitriolic, distracted me. I’d rather have left the peerage out of this, and just had Flynn inherit the castle, which was the point of the whole exercise. So a disappointing grade from me for this one. However, as always, YMMV.

Grade: C

Summary:

It was one night as hot and passionate as only young love can be. But they left it at that. Flynn had the world to conquer–alone. Only three months later, Sara’s life changed: she discovered she was expecting Flynn’s baby. Now Flynn has taken his rightful place as the Irish Earl of Dunmorey. But once he discovers that he also has an heir, his strategy is simple: claim his love child. He wants his son, and he wants Sara, too…as his bride.

Read an excerpt.

Lynne Connolly’s review of One Night, Nine-Month Scandal by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Sep 10
This is a great example of what a good Presents/Modern should be: exotic location, sexy hero, likeable heroine, and a story about emotions with a nice dash of humor in the mix.

I must be on a roll, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. The title is pants, but HMB are altering their title formats, so I won’t start discussing it. The cover is misleading, because the main part of the story takes place when she’s a little bit pregnant, but meh, I just hope it doesn’t put people off buying it.

Well, I tried to nitpick, but all I can find with this one are little niggles. So let’s start with the story. Kelly is a teacher in a sleepy English village, but she’s had a torrid past. When she was nineteen she met and agreed to marry a Greek millionaire, but he walked away on their wedding day, leaving her to the gentle ministrations of the press. Because he read an interview with her where she said she wanted at least four children, and he doesn’t want to be a father.

Niggle one – he should really have thought about that. In Harlequin-speak, he’s a playboy and a billionaire, so why is it any surprise to him that Kelly is hounded by the press after he leaves her at the altar? He should really have taken more care of her.

The story starts where Kelly is trying to sell the fabulous diamond ring he gave her on ebay. I loved that, that she uses ebay. I loved that her characters live in our world, not some twenty-year-and-more-old world. They have iPods, laptops, cell phones and they use them as part of their everyday existence. Kelly has seen pictures of Alekos with Marianna, a woman he’s planning to marry, and even though they’ve been apart for three years, it hurts her, so she decides to cut ties and sell the ring. Of course, Alekos’s staff see it and bring it to his attention. He buys it and comes to collect it in person.

He doesn’t collect the ring, he collects her. As a result, she finds herself preggers. And you’ll have to read the rest of the story yourself to see how it turns out, but it probably won’t be a surprise to you.

What this book does so well is relationships. And characters. Kelly is the first Presents heroine in ages that I loved, and rooted for her happy ending. She’s not always logical, or sensible, she doesn’t always behave intelligently, but Sarah Morgan sells Kelly so well that you don’t care. It’s great to have a heroine who leaves her belongings scattered everywhere, but who has intelligence and spirit to make up for it. It’s nice, also to have a hero who behaves like a man. He doesn’t always say the right thing, and he admits to doubt. He cares so much it’s hard for him to handle, even though he’s a big, strong alpha male. But he knows that if he tramples all over her, drags her off by her hair to his cave, he’ll hurt her, and he really, really doesn’t want to do that. Their interactions are believable, sparkling and leavened with delicious humor. Kelly says things to Alekos that you just wish more Presents heroines would say. She gets upset, and lets him see it, reduces him to a quivering jelly of doubt and confusion. Good on you, girl. And good on Alekos for taking and not storming off, diva fashion.

Niggle number two, and I think that’s it – Kelly keeps wondering when he’ll propose, and gets fixated by that. It doesn’t really work for me, that obsession with marriage. Commitment, yes, but Alekos shows her that.

I really enjoyed reading a book where the characters fall in love. They really do. You can follow the process with them, as they get to know each other better and, more importantly, understand each other. They have problems, and miracle of miracles – they talk about them. Really discuss what’s happening and where they’re going. And did I mention Kelly’s best friend Vivian? I’d love to see more of her, because she was fun, too. So often secondary characters are pretty thinly presented, but in this one I could see why Kelly and Vivian were such good friends, and I enjoyed their scenes together, too.

I don’t really mind that the baby brought Kelly and Alekos back together, but I would have liked it even better had there been no baby involved. But since that forms one of the central conflicts in the book I have no idea how they’d handle that, so, okay, baby. As a McGuffin it has its points.

I didn’t care, really. I had so much fun reading about these people, their expectations, the way they fought and made up, that I wanted to read it again when I put it down. But I can’t, I really can’t. Writers, you want to know how to take all the ingredients of a Harlequin Presents and turn it into a great story? Read this one and learn.

Good one, Sarah. Now do it again and give us some more!

Grade: A

Summary:

A sleek Ferrari in the sleepy English village of Little Molting was always going to create a stir – but for schoolteacher Kelly it only means one thing. Her ex, Alekos Zagorakis, has stormed back into her life the way he left it: completely on his own terms.

Four years ago Kelly stood, bridal bouquet in hand, realizing that her gorgeous groom wasn’t walking down the aisle to meet her. Now he’s come back to claim what’s rightfully his – and that includes one night with Kelly..

But it’s a night that has lasting consequences!

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of The Virgin’s Secret by Abby Green
Contemporary Romance by Harlequin Prensents 1 Jul 10

I usually enjoy Abby Green’s books, but, sadly, not this one. Let me count the ways…

Leo and Angel’s meet cute is when she is working as a waitress at his home and spills a drink over him. Angel is the daughter of Leo’s father’s bitter enemy but now her family has been brought down by an old scandal. Deservedly so, as Angel would be the first to admit. Add a nasty, nasty father and a sad sister, pregnant by the man who loves her but can’t marry her, and you have Angel’s dilemma.

Note that none of it is of Angel’s making. Yes, folks, we have a martyr. She is working as a lowly waitress, then, when she’s fired from that job, as a chambermaid. Oh dear, so sad. Actually Angel is so perfect she becomes tedious. Oh yes, and she’s a virgin. She went to school in Ireland, and she’s recently returned home.

Now if I objected to those tropes, I wouldn’t be reading Harlequin Presents, but these are all thrown in seemingly at random to give Angel problems. They don’t go to her heart, and they don’t explain her subsequent actions.

Leo had kissed Angel before he knows who she is, and then, when he finds out, he becomes consumed with revenge. At least in this one his Americanisms are explained by his being brought up in exile in America. He’s come home to take over the family business. I wasn’t sure what language Leo and Angel were using through the book, Greek or English, it wasn’t made clear. He blackmails her into becoming his mistress by saying he can arrange for her sister to marry her sweetheart. He then proceeds to take her virginity and treat her like crap.

Alphas don’t treat their women like crap. Other people may, but the alpha hero shouldn’t intentionally do that. It just shows him up as a creep and a predator. Ugh. Of course Leo gets a guilty conscience, but not before he’s dressed her up like a dog’s dinner and paraded her in front of people as his mistress. Mind you, with Leo screwing a woman he despises and Angel letting him, they kind of deserve each other.

One exchange I had to read twice. Angel asks him if he wants her to be his concubine, and Leo replies that no, there’s a modern term for it and that’s mistress. Come again? Mistress is so outdated, maybe last used in RL without a snigger in the sixties.

And these people have the usual Harlequin unconcern for the things we all use every day—laptops, computers, smart phones. Oh, they have them, but they don’t really use them. They’re as much accessories as Angel’s jewelry.

Speaking of which – Angel is a jewelry designer, something she gave up when she couldn’t afford it any more. Needless to say, Leo gives her a workshop. Not something that’s easy to set up, and most jewelry designers (and yes, I know a few) have specialisms. And they absolutely don’t leave precious metals and stones lying about. Insurance concerns alone insist that they go in the safe every night. However much of a hurry you leave in.

And Angel is 22. She’s crammed a lot into those years, hasn’t she? No wonder she’s a virgin, she hasn’t had time to lose her cherry.

I didn’t like this book because Angel is a doormat, to her father, her sister, and then Leo, and Leo is a manipulating bully who wants sex with someone he despises. And it contains one of those big misunderstandings that could have been explained away at the start. Leo catches Angel in the process of returning his father’s will to his study, after Angel’s father had it stolen. Of course, he thinks she’s taking it, not putting it back, and it contains information about his mother, that she killed herself—why would a will contain that? Two things immediately came to mind. Why didn’t Angel simply burn the will when she found it in her father’s possession? It’s a legal document, presumably with a copy lodged at the solicitor’s office, so why not just let Leo and his family assume it’s been misplaced and print another one? Second, Leo says it’s been recorded on security camera. So why didn’t Angel insist he watched the footage to show that she’s putting the thing back instead of taking it? After that, the plot kind of disintegrated for me, and I had to assume that Angel was both a doormat and stupid to make it work. It was another improbability piled on. After Angel takes a job as a waitress – and the fact that she was once a member of that social circle would make her employers happy to have her? Once the paparazzi find out that she’s hooked up with Leo, they’re fascinated, so why not a story about her as a waitress?  The secondary characters were sketched too lightly to really mean anything or to have motivations that I cared about, and the love story was too superficial.

And then, since the blurb gives a late part of the story away, I will, too. She gets pregnant. Oh yes, throw it all in. At that point I just wanted to give in.

I guess I was disappointed with this one because I usually enjoy Abby Green’s stories. Her plots are less contrived, her heroes not usually such assholes and her heroines a bit older and less doormatty. But I’ll probably buy her next book.

Grade: D

Summary:

Leo Parnassus has returned to Athens to head the family empire. A New Yorker since childhood, he finds life is certainly different here with family feuds and expectations to marry and produce heirs! Amid all this tradition, the beautiful girl who catches Leo’s eye is a welcome distraction.

She may be a lowly waitress, but Angel has her secrets…. Leo will be pleased to discover she’s a virgin, but not that she’s the daughter of his adversary! Or that, in nine months, there will be one more secret revealed.

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Untouched Until Marriage by Chantelle Shaw
Novel released by Mills and Boon Modern Romance 6 August 10, Harlequin Presents March 2011

A fairly good read, with some rough edges

In terms of plot, Chantelle Shaw writes pretty standard Harlequin Mills and Boon books with hot millionaires and innocent heroines. Well, somebody has to. There were one or two things that put me off slightly, although Shaw worked hard to make it acceptable, and anyone less squeamish than me will have no problem with it.

Let me explain. Raul meets Libby in the slum of a seaside gift shop, where she is looking after his baby brother. He believes she was his father’s mistress, and bore his son, whereas she is the baby’s half-sister. Her mother, a wild child and latterly lap dancer, met his adoptive father on a cruise and was only made aware of his son’s existence shortly before his own death.

So Raul decides to marry Libby and fancies the pants off her despite believing that she was his father’s mistress. Now Raul is adopted and Libby isn’t related to him in any way, so it’s quite all right for them to hop into bed together. No problem there. But the thought of anyone sharing a woman with his father, for his man-thing to go into the same place as his father’s man-thing made me shudder. Is that wrong of me? Probably, and of course the misunderstanding is sorted out on their wedding night when he discovers that she is a virgin.

I think Shaw missed an opportunity here. I’d have had him squeamish, but forced into compliance by his need to control his father’s business, half of which was left to the baby Gino in his father’s will, with his mother controlling the shares until the baby came of age. Then he discovers his wife is a virgin, realises he’s her first, and feels relief. Instead he goes into the usual alpha-fueled rage that she lied to him. Boring. I wanted more of him and his feelings, not just his immediate reactions to Libby. He goes through all the usual reactions, disbelief, betrayal, fury, and then adoration. No surprises there.

Libby was a devoted foster mother, and the baby was her reason for accepting him. She doesn’t care about his money, only what it will bring to Gino, and when he tries to buy her expensive things, only accepts reluctantly. She dresses in clashing colours and has red hair, which didn’t really endear me to her, because she is supposed to be an artist, and I thought she might have a better sense of colour. My bad. But what really didn’t work for me was Libby being 22 years old. I know some 22 year olds, and while they’re capable of being mothers, and indeed caring for 36 year old men, I found it sad that she didn’t have a chance to be properly young and feckless.

It is a hallmark of HMB heroines that they don’t, in general, ever have a wild past. Unlike Blaze heroines, who have been known to kick out the jams on occasion. Even dressed in garish clothes Libby was too staid for me, and her artistry didn’t permeate into her character, only into her appearance.

The other thing that squicked me a tad was the age difference, but then it always has. I know there are successful May/December romances, but when I read Heyer as a teenager, in my mind I always made the heroine older or the hero younger, so there wasn’t a massive age difference between them. It just seems a bit sad that anyone misses such a big chunk of experience and rushes straight into One True Love and marries. But that is some people’s ideal, so you might love it. The fantasy of the older protector is a strong one, and HMB has used the trope highly successfully for years, so it might be just what you’re looking for.

However their emotions and reactions were predictable, and pretty standard. Except for the wedding night, which I thought was much more realistic than many I’ve read in this line. Libby is a virgin, and her reaction to Raul’s lovemaking is much closer to how it must be for a young woman to have as her first an older, more experienced man who assumes she knows what she’s doing.

One of the best things about the book, and the reason I keep reading Chantelle Shaw is her writing ability. She had a great way with words and some of the best parts of the book are her descriptions of the villa in Italy and its appearance by day and by night. She has a real talent for drawing a reader into a scene. The sex is hot and explicit, and the connection between Raul and Libby, after the first trauma, is fun to read. I can’t help thinking just how explicit the Presents/Modern line has grown in the last few years. My mother would have been shocked.

Grade: C

Summary:

Mother of the Carducci heir…or innocent virgin?

When infamous Raul Carducci learns that a little baby may challenge his inheritance he will stop at nothing – a new Carducci heir will not take away what is rightfully his.

To safeguard baby Gino, unassuming Libby Maynard has been forced to pretend she is his mother – but she hasn’t counted on having to convince the wolfish Raul Carducci of her deception.

And when Raul, with his achingly seductive voice, asks her to marry him, Libby is powerless to refuse…even if their wedding night will blow her cover!

Liviania’s review of Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife by Sabrina Philips
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 June 2010

In my infinite wisdom, I pick Harlequin Presents titles to read almost at random.  But not Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife.  I chose it because I enjoyed Prince of Montéz, Pregnant Mistress by Sabrina Philips.  Unfortunately, my confidence in Philips was misplaced.  Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife is the worst sort of Big Misunderstanding novel.

Libby and Orion – Rion – Delikaris have not seen each other in five years despite being married.  She believed he loved work more than her, plus he wouldn’t allow her to find something to occupy herself while he was working.  She felt that he didn’t even enjoy having sex with her, and she was useless and unloved.  Rion worked to become rich and successful because Libby was the daughter of motor tycoon Lord Ashford and he believed she didn’t consider him worthy of her.  In short, they both believed the other to be the worst sort of person.

Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife begins promisingly. Libby agrees to give Rion two weeks to convince her to stay with him instead of getting a divorce. Libby now works for a company that gives tours all around the world.  She’s got life experience and a fulfilling job and thinks she and Rion can now make the marriage work since they’re adults instead of impulsive, infatuated kids.  Rion never wanted to separate, so he should be amendable to making things work.  I expected that they would talk and spend their two weeks getting to really know each other.

Nope.  They just spend the time making more and more assumptions, resulting in even more unflattering portraits.  At one point Rion questions what kind of person he must be to be in love with such an awful woman.  I wonder about them too, since they both claim to be in love despite persistently seeing their significant other as scum.  But they do eventually work all their misunderstandings out.  On page 181.  Of 184 pages.

I give their happy cohabitation a week.

And you want to know what makes it even worse?  That job that Libby loved at the beginning of the book?  It turns out she’s been missing something the entire time.  Her life has been a hollow sham without Rion.  Y’know, she could remain happy and fulfilled with the life she built for herself and just think that Rion improves it.  But no.  In retrospect, it was terrible and wretched, because she wasn’t living with a man who has a knack for making her miserable.

Despite Prince of Montéz, Pregnant Mistress, I’m not sure I’m giving Philips another chance. I like her writing, but I loath the Big Misunderstanding plot. Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife was a steaming pile of terrible.

Grade: F

Summary:
Trembling with trepidation, Libby Delikaris braves the lion’s den to ask her Greek husband for a divorce. But he’s more merciless than Libby remembers and she suddenly finds her plan has crumbled.The infamous Rion Delikaris knew Libby would return before long. He’s been patiently waiting. No longer the boy from the slums, he’s ready to show his wife what she’s been missing!

Rion’s offer: a two-week reconciliation…and he’ll make sure she honors all her wedding vows!
Read an excerpt here.

LynneC‘s review of  The Good Greek Wife? by Kate Walker
Category novel released by Mills and Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents July 10 (US release 2010 Oct o1)

Kate Walker has taken the legend of Odysseus, shaken it hard and brought it up to date for this delightful morsel of a story.

It’s fun to see the way Kate Walker has taken some of the ancient Greek traditions of drama and used them in this book. First, the play would traditionally take place over the course of a day, and Walker’s book also covers a brief space of time – three days. All deaths and dramatic action occur offstage – yes, she does that, which concentrates the romance of the book very effectively. And masks. While they don’t actually wear Comedy and Tragedy masks, the two principal characters have been wearing masks up to now.

In true Greek tradition, the action of the book takes place over three days, just as old Greek dramas were to take place in a short space of time. It’s believable, because the hero, Zarek, and the heroine, Penny (Penelope) were married before his sudden disappearance two years before. In the “Odyssey,” Odysseus/Ulysses is away for ten years, but in a romance, this would be very difficult to sustain. Two years seems about right.

In the original story, one of the first I ever read, Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan Wars. He invents the Trojan Horse, which finally turns the tide for the Greeks. That’s all in the Iliad, which is really Achilles’ story. In the Odyssey, Odysseus takes ten years to get home. He has adventures, gets seduced, tricks his way out of many, and when everyone except his wife has given him up for dead, he returns home. Meantime, his beloved wife Penelope is putting off suitors, eager to marry her. She says she’ll consider it when she’s finished his shroud, an elaborately woven concoction. Every night she unravels the work she’s done that day, so it will last forever.

His son, Telemachus, goes off to discover his father and has adventures of his own.

In Walker’s book, after an argument with Penny, Zarek leaves on his boat the “Troy,” for a test voyage. There he is captured by pirates. One pirate claims that he is dead, but Penny can’t believe it. For two years she puts off his stepmother, Hermione, and his stepbrothers, who want to take over Odyssey Shipping, Zarek’s business. Then Zarek comes home. He throws out the people that Penny can’t get rid of and they are left with their central dilemma – the cause of the original row. Penny fell in love with Zarek, but she believes that he only wants her for an heir.

The strongest parts of this story are the ones from the legend. They hold strong and provide the framework for a great story. The weakest are the plot contrivances that are often used by Harlequin authors to move a story along. Namely, amnesia and a Big Misunderstanding. There is amnesia in the original, but it’s not used in quite the same way and without it, the story might have been messier.

In the Greek stories the gods had names and characters, and motivations of their own. They were part of the story, and when they manipulate unfortunate mortals, the actions have a resonance. In the modern romance, the deus ex machina is something that just happens, and doesn’t have a deeper resonance. So the amnesia is convenient, and yes, plausible, given what happens to Zarek, but it doesn’t inform either him or Penny. The Big Mis goes on a tad too long, and seems to be a contrivance, but, and it’s a big but, the action takes place over three days, so it doesn’t drag on and on as it does in some Harlequin books. So it kind of works, although I have to admit it’s not my favorite plot device. But yes, the Big Mis is explained and talked over in the space of three days, so it seems a lot more acceptable.

Oh yes. And, of course, they live in Ithaca, Odysseus’s home.

HMB category romances are, by definition, short. In under 200 pages the author has to make us love the characters, care for them and believe in their dilemmas. It doesn’t leave much room for fossicking about. It’s one reason I enjoy a well-written HMB story, because when it’s done well, the concentration leads to a wonderfully intense romance. But it also means that it’s difficult to achieve depth of character. Since the story is told almost entirely from Penny’s pov, we don’t get much insight into Zarek and how he feels about the situation. Most of his feelings are seen from the outside. I would have loved more from his side of things. But it might have fragmented the story more and spoiled the flow. A longer story would have helped, but the category is strict in its word requirements. I was disappointed not to see Zarek throw out his importunate relatives and Penny’s suitors, but that was done ‘off stage.’

I understand that this story is part of a series of Modern/Presents stories based on ancient myths. The main problem is that few of them are about romance, but stories like Baucis and Philemon, Cupid and Psyche (I think that one is a cert, I just wonder who gets it), Daphne and Apollo and many other of the stories in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” can be adopted. Just not the big, huge myths like Jason and the Argonauts and the Iliad. Do we get winged horses and dragons? I bet they’ll manage.

The other books in the series are Lucy Gordon’s The Greek Tycoon’s Achilles Heel, Catherine George’s The Power of the Legendary Greek, and Robyn Donald’s Powerful Greek, Housekeeper Wife. Checking back, I’ve already reviewed the Gordon, and found that although she’d tried for different, some aspects of the story didn’t entirely work for me. They might work for you.

B+ for bringing a different aspect to the books and for originality. It’s a delightful romance, beautifully written and a confection worth picking up.

Grade: B+

Summary:

The return of the proud Greek husband…
He was declared missing at sea – but now notorious Zarek Michaelis is back and ready to take control! First he’ll see to(of) his business, and then to his wayward wife…
For two years Penny has struggled to come to terms with Zarek’s disappearance. But enough is enough. It’s time to move on… Her proud Greek husband is still as darkly handsome as ever, and the attraction between them is just as potent. But Penny can’t trust Zarek’s motives – does he just want her body and the fortune he left behind…or to try again?

Lynne Connolly’s review of Mistress at What Price? by Anne Oliver
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin 13 Jul 10

I said in a previous review that I wouldn’t be reading Harlequin Presents if I didn’t tolerate the tropes that come up. This book proves that you can use them and still come up with a good, heartfelt read about people with more depth to them than a piece of paper. This is a good one.

Anne Oliver is a writer who comes up with some goodies and some that are standard Harlequin reads, but she’s usually worth a look. But after a disappointment or three, I didn’t have high expectations when I came to this one. Harlequin, I thought, is losing it.

I’ll keep on reading, thanks to this one. Mariel is a refreshing 27, and she’s not a virgin. I loved that, and the fact that she’s nearly 6 foot tall. She was working as a photographer’s model, but has come back to Australia after a scandal ended her career. A scandal not of her making. She wants to start again as a designer. And she meets old flame Dane. Their affair ended before it had begun, with her finding Dane in flagrante with someone else.

But now she’s back, and Dane and Mariel are strongly attracted to each other. Wealthy Dane offers Mariel a deal – he’s been voted Bachelor of the Year and he’s sick of the press attention. He wants to show the world he has a regular girlfriend and get out of the deal, even though he did it in the first place for his personal charity.

I liked Dane’s charity (bringing computers to the outback) and I liked that the setting meant something in this book. I enjoy books set in Australia, but I prefer them to have a flavour of the place, not to have it as a mere setting. And glory be, the hero talks like an Australian, using occasional phrases that I enjoyed (Strine is one of the best versions of English that there is, IMO!) I also liked Mariel. She’s competent, intelligent, and she doesn’t do anything stupid for the plot’s sake. I could enter into her dilemma with her, that she and Dane weren’t going to get serious, and when she finds herself falling for him, she wants out before he realises, because she doesn’t want him to find out and get hurt, or feel obliged in any way. I could buy into that because Dane, despite his insecurities, was a nice man and never intentionally hurt or upset her.

I also liked that we don’t get the meaning of his nickname for her—Queen Bee—until nearly the end of the book, and it’s a definite “aw” moment, so I won’t spoil it for you. They are romantic and loving without getting too mushily sentimental or making my teeth drop out with the sheer sugariness of their ending.

The medical stuff towards the end of the book is believable, too (it happened to a friend of mine). Oliver has done enough research to make it work, without overwhelming the reader and making it a Medical Romance.

I wanted Dane and Mariel to have their happy ending because I thought they deserved it. Grown up people, about the same age, fighting through their insecurities and the hand that life has dealt them to get their happy ending. Good one, Anne Oliver. Thanks for the read.

Grade: A

Summary:

Struggling fashion designer Mariel has never forgotten Dane Huntington, or his cruel rejection of her. But now, years later, the red-hot chemistry is still there and the devilish tycoon has a tantalizing deal to offer her.

He’ll help Mariel set up her dream business—if she will help him distract the paparazzi by playing his adoring mistress! Of course, both Dane and his offer are irresistible…but now the man who broke her heart is the father of her unborn child….

Read an excerpt.

LynneC‘s review of Mia and the Powerful Greek by Michelle Reid
Category novel released by Mills and Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents July 10

Like many prolific Harlequin writers, Michelle Reid is sometimes great, and sometimes not so great. For me, this was a not so great.

Mia is discovered just before the death of her father’s wife. She’s his illegitimate daughter, and basically, a Cinderella. Although her mother is married to a powerful man, Mia was brought up by her aunt in poverty. While a reason is given for Mia’s rejection by her mother, there was no explanation of why her aunt was kept short of money, and at one  point there is mention that her mother sent maintenance money. It seemed a bit forced to me.

When Mia goes to meet her biological father, he tries to care for her, but with his wife on her deathbed, and later, seven more daughters to take care of (no guesses as to how many books will be in this series – the daughters plus the secret son nobody knows about – that’s just a guess) he finds her hard to cope with. She’s shy, reticent, and she likes sewing. Any more Cinderella references and I might just have given up. There is shy and there is doormat. Even a shy girl knows when to draw the line. Perhaps after the man she wants sleeps with her and then blames her for it and disappears for a couple of months? I think I might have tried to beat his girlfriend tally with boyfriends. Or maybe when he admits he got carried away and didn’t use protection? He’s a man-slut. And Mia doesn’t know about contraception, doesn’t realise he should have used a condom. Bad upbringing, I call that. Pregnant, maybe with a disease, she still hangs around.

Nikos is the usual alpha male with a dark secret, a secret most readers will have worked out long before he vouchsafes it to Mia at the end of the book. He treats her like shit, and she lets him, although thank goodness, she does let fly occasionally. But when she does, it tends to be in a hysterical way, and then she hangs around so that he can devour her with passionate kisses. Me, I would have walked. But Mia never does. Which makes her a bit of a doormat.

Reid’s style irritated me a tiny bit from time to time. Exclamation! Marks! Less of them, please! I read the British version so maybe they’ll change that for the US version, but I doubt it. And the characters never say anything. They husk (the hero needs good throat candy), they rasp, they invite, they confide – you get the picture. And when they say, it’s often qualified with an adverb, one of my pet dislikes.

So occasionally the style brought me out of the book, with a slightly irritable, “Why don’t they just say?”

There are some nice touches. The way Nikos refuses to have locks in any of his houses, except on the outer doors, and then leaves all the doors open (why didn’t he live open plan, I wonder?) and Mia actually does answer him back sometimes. She doesn’t completely suffer in silence. She takes the cast off dresses of her stepsisters, but does it because she can’t abide waste, not because she’s kept short of clothes. It’s a kind of return to the old days, when men were abusive and women suffered, only to win through in the end. And did I mention that she’s only 21? A bit of an ick factor for me, I’m afraid. But as ever, YMMV.

Grade: C-

Summary:

While scrubbing floors, Mia dreams of a better life. Then she discovers she’s a Balfour – the illegitimate daughter of one of the world’s richest dynasties! Thrust headfirst into her new family’s spectacularly glamorous lifestyle, she’s scared..
But then comes an opportunity to learn about high society, through the chance to work for Greek tycoon Nikos Theakis, who struggled his way up, himself, from the slums of Athens to Millionaire’s Row. Nikos has got where he is by always having taken what he wanted.. Until Mia’s sweetness and integrity stop him in his tracks. Read an excerpt.