Sandy M’s review of Desired (Miranda’s Chronicles, Book 1) by Anna Jeffrey
Contemporary Romance published by Anna Jeffrey Books 4 Aug 15
Normally I stay away from the new rage of serial writing that’s the thing lately. I’m not sure why, because though I moan and groan over a weekly television show that makes me wait seven long days to find out what happens next, I live with it. Guess ’cause I have to. Such is the case with the romance serial. So when I moaned and groaned at the end of this first book of Anna Jeffrey’s Miranda’s Chronicles, I hope the wait between stories isn’t an inordinate amount of time. I want to know what happens to Tack and Miranda!
Especially after the way he breezes into her life, takes her to his hotel and loves the heck out of her, then after she breezes out the next morning, hoping he’ll call, and she’s just beginning to get over him the tiniest bit when he surprises the heck out of her and you. At the very, very end of the book. Aaaaargh!
Miranda has made a good life for herself after being on her own the last ten years, helping her mother and younger sister from afar as necessary. She’s the owner of Gala, her up-and-coming event planning business, and she sidelines as a bartender and model. She’s definitely on her way up. Especially after last night’s event for millionaire Drake Lockhart. Helping him sell his multi-million-dollar apartments is where life as she knows it becomes non-existent. Harvey Tackett – or Tack as he prefers – walks in to see a few units and Miranda has a hard time concentrating as she shows him around.
The chemistry between these two hits hot and heavy from first glance. You can feel it jump off the pages when they’re together. You know something is going to happen between them, but not when you expect it. Tack goes alpha on Miranda, lowering her resistance smoothly and efficiently, promising her everything she’s never had in a man’s bed before. And he delivers. Big time. And it all makes Miranda realize she’s not the one who was inadequate in the sex department in her past relationships. But since Tack is in town for only one night, when she leaves the next morning as he still sleeps, she hopes to hear from him again, because what they shared means something to her.
Apparently, however, it doesn’t mean the same to Tack. As Miranda goes about taking care of her mother and her medical condition once again, getting her younger sister started on her life away from home for the first time, she can’t help but check her phone a million times to see if he’s called. A lot of us have been there, right, ladies? And we’ve been disappointed, just as Miranda is. So she begins to make the decisions she needs to, heal her broken heart, and get back to her life.
And that’s when the blasted man blows into her life again…and you’re made to wait to find out what the hell is going to happen next! His smooth moves almost – almost – take the “Aaaaaargh” out of that last scene. Good thing these two entertained me up to this point, or I might have been one of those readers who throws books across the room. I do have a couple of little nitpicks: Normally I like first-person point of view when reading, and maybe it’s because of this short format that I’d really like Tack’s POV. Hopefully that may come later. Also, I don’t like the use of a character’s full name late in a book, and Miranda does this a number of times when thinking about Tack Tackett. Now, maybe it’s the repetition, because I don’t like that either, but mostly to me it’s like reminding me who he is, like I can’t remember. I know that’s more than likely not the case, just what it feels like to me. I’ve just been in the bedroom with this man, I don’t need a reminder of his last name, and I’m sure most women wouldn’t use a last name when thinking about him, damning him, or whatever the situation may be. Okay, pet peeves over!
I still enjoyed this first romp with Tack and Miranda, and I’m looking forward to however many parts there are to their book. I’m hoping Ms. Jeffrey will eventually take us into Tack’s cowboy world, because she does them so very well.
Grade: B
Summary:
Miranda March wears her extraordinary beauty like a mask to conceal her emotional vulnerability. A successful small businesswoman, she might appear to be in control of her universe, but ever in the back of her mind is the one thing that can yank the rug out from under her at any moment: Her mother who suffers from mental illness.
Enter handsome, sensual—and rich—Harvey (Tack) Tackett, a friend of a friend, in town overnight on business. The instant they meet, Miranda feels a connection that stirs her to break one of the rules she lives by—no foolish flings with men passing in the night. After a night of passionate lovemaking like she’s never known, profound emotions emerge. She believes the feeling is mutual. But Tack leaves town without so much as a call and she hears no more from him. As she struggles to overcome her disappointment, she learns her mother has sunk into a depression that calls for immediate attention. Miranda has no choice but to move Mom in to live with her. Her life will never be the same.
From out of the blue, Tack reappears. But it’s too late. Miranda is committed to her duty to her mother. Trying to have a romantic relationship with Tack or any man would be as hard as mixing oil and water. She has already tried and failed at that. Can she solve the conundrum and find a happy-ever-after with Tack?
No excerpt available.
