Liviania’s review of Newly Fallen by Megan Hart
Paranormal romance released by Spice Briefs 1 Dec 09

I’ve followed the advice of several of the other duckies in the past.  Today it was limecello’s turn.  Anyway, I know that limecello loves Megan Hart.  Megan Hart just released a Spice Brief, the perfect way to try out her writing without committing to a large page count.  This is only my second foray into the Spice line, so it was also a chance to get a feel for that.

Let’s start with the line.  I’m clearly not an expert, but I believe the Spice books are spicy, the closest thing Harlequin publishes to erotica.  While Newly Fallen includes several explicit sex scenes, they don’t really set off my spicy meter.  They’d be fine in almost any romance, though slightly less concentrated. However, I have never been one to read a story for the sex scenes.  (Not that a good sex scene isn’t a bonus.)

Lilly Gold is celebrating Hanukkah alone when a man falls into her yard.  We’re given a brief explanation that she’s always accepted unusual things to explain why she isn’t freaking out that she has a strange naked man in her yard that knows her name.  But hey, I’ll go with it.  It’s a short story and Hart needs to move onto the relationship as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the romance fizzled for me.  Lilly and Zacharias played games some before falling into bed, but it still seems like most of their interaction was the sex.  I’d buy that it was good and thus they wanted to develop something different, but instead there was instant falling in love.  It felt too easy.

Hart’s writing was competent.  I was excited to see a Hanukkah story instead of a Christmas one.  I enjoyed that Hart used the holiday in a meaningful way instead of leaving it as window dressing.  The story was sweet.  But in a short story about a miraculous love, I need to believe in the love and I didn’t.  I found it very disappointing.  (Perhaps it’s lime’s fault for talking her up so much!)

As it is, I still need to try a full-length Spice.  But I probably won’t go for a Hart first.

Grade: D+

Summary:
Faced with spending her first Hanukkah alone, Lilly Gold wishes for a miracle that would change her life just a little bit. Then her prayers are answered–in a big way–when the most perfect naked man appears in her yard during a blizzard.

Zachariah tells Lilly he’s been sent to be–and do—anything she wants. And for eight passionate days, trapped together by the snow, he does just that, giving Lilly all the pleasure she could have hoped for. But when their holiday is over, only another miracle can keep their affair from ending, too…
No excerpt found.