A beautifully written, subtle, angsty story by one of the best writers of modern category romance. My first keeper for 2013.
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
Evie Jones and her business partner, Max, need additional funding for a project that could make their careers. When they attempt to enter a marriage of convenience in order to gain access to Max’s trust fund, they’re faced with a very big inconvenience—Max’s brother and Evie’s ex-lover. Eleven years ago, Evie and Logan had a week-long affair that ended in heartbreak. The sex was too rough, she was too inexperienced, and they were both too consumed by passion to take care of themselves and each other.
There’s no denying the chemistry that still exists between Evie and Logan. Logan wants nothing to do with her—his memory of their affair is steeped in shame and self-loathing. Evie knows that they’re different people now. She’s had eleven years to come to terms with the affair, and to understand her needs and boundaries. Evie is convinced there could be a way for them to find happiness together, but to do that she will have to convince Logan to give their relationship another chance.
This book, one of the launch titles for Harlequin’s new KISS line, is my first keeper for the year.
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A slow-paced, almost old-fashioned story with a conventional romance set against somewhat unconventional circumstances. This isn’t your ordinary secret baby story.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
I seem to be on a category romance reading kick lately, and for some reason I’ve been picking up the sweeter lines. Award-winning Australian romance novelist Barbara Hannay’s story about a heroine agreeing to be a surrogate mum to twin babies caught my eye, primarily because ever since I had twins, I’ve been very interested in the way twin pregnancy and birth are represented in romance fiction.
Ever since Mattie Carey was dumped via text message by her long-distance fiance, she hasn’t had any meaningful relationships with men. So when her best friend, Gina, loses her ability to carry a baby, Mattie offers to be a surrogate. To prevent awkward questions in her small country town, Mattie goes to stay in Gina’s brother Will’s apartment in Sydney, but when she gets there she finds a temporary guest already there. Jake, Will’s best friend, is on a short break from work as a environmental scientist with a mining company in Mongolia.
Although Mattie tries to keep her distance from Jake, he’s pretty hot, not to mention a decent person, and they end up sleeping with each other on his last night in Sydney. They keep in touch via email until one day Mattie stops replying, and the first chance he gets Jake pays her a visit to make sure she’s okay. What he discovers is that she’s pregnant.
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If characters recovering from cancer aren’t a trigger for you, then this is an enjoyable romance with a slow build and a lot of lovely moments in between.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
It’s rare to find a story where the heroine looking at herself in the mirror and describing what she looks like actually has a purpose. (I know you’re already thinking of ditching this post after that, but stay with me.) Blair Macintyre is recovering from breast cancer treatment and she’s sick of people treating her as, well, the poor woman with breast cancer. Her strategy: bluffing.
One of Blair’s key strategies is to look normal—thus, the need to spend time in front of the mirror, applying make-up, putting on false eyelashes, and ensuring her wig is on properly:
She pulled the wig on over her scalp, tugged it into place, and then turned back to the mirror to make whatever adjustments were necessary. Adjustments that would help her look normal. Adjustments that would help her look whole and healthy. Adjustments that would hopefully ensure people started treating her like a fully functioning adult again.
The scenes with the mirror serve a double purpose, because by turning away from it as she puts on her prosthesis, Blair shows that she doesn’t actually feel normal and whole.
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Flirting With Intent by Kelly Hunter (The Wests, Book 1)
Starts off beautifully, but sizzling chemistry can’t save a couple that feels like they won’t last six months, let alone a lifetime.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
It’s no secret that, despite discovering her work only last year, Kelly Hunter is one of my favourite category romance authors. Flirting With Intent doesn’t disappoint in the writing department—it includes some beautiful, subtle scenes—but there’s just something lacking between the couple in this book.
It’s not chemistry, because from the moment Ruby Maguire and Damon West meet, the pages fairly sizzle. They embark on a high intensity, high risk affair after their attempts to flirt without intent dissolve in a blaze of kisses and hot limo sex—mostly off-page, but that doesn’t diminish Hunter’s ability to convey the passion between them.
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Two Against The Odds by Joan Kilby
This book takes risks and touches on issues not often found in the romance genre, but the lack of chemistry between an unsympathetic heroine and a hero who doesn’t seem ready for a long-term commitment make this one a DNF for me.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
I wanted to like this book. There are too few older heroines in romance, and this book deals not only with a twelve-year gap between the heroine and the hero, but it tackles issues not normally found in the genre—abortion, miscarriage and tax evasion.
Rafe Ellersley is sent to audit Lexie Thatcher, an artist who hasn’t paid her taxes in four years and has so far ignored all communication with the tax office. He’s not overly enthused about his job, but he needs the money to be able to fulfil his dream of owning and running a fishing charter.
Lexie Thatcher is in the middle of a painting that she plans to enter in the Archibald Prize, but she’s experiencing painter’s block. The last thing she needs is the tax man hanging out at her place, asking her for receipts, and worrying about how much she may have to pay in back taxes and penalties.
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One Good Reason by Sarah Mayberry & Feels Like Home by Beth Andrews
A dramatic story with moments that will break your heart. Unfortunately, the hero’s emotional catharsis is rushed and the the resolution doesn’t match the story’s earlier promise.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
Gabby Wade has held a torch for her boss and best friend Tyler Adamson for four years. Unfortunately, Tyler is now very happily married—and we know it’s for read and for good because Australian author Sarah Mayberry wrote his story in The Last Goodbye (Mills & Boon Super Romance). When Tyler’s elder brother, temporarily home for reasons unknown, mistakes her for a lesbian it’s the last straw. Gabby gets spectacularly drunk…and realises that she’s been going through a long period of heartbreak and grief.
Jon Adamson is helping Tyler out with his furniture business while coming to grips with their father’s death. They come from an abusive family and Jon is wracked with grief that he didn’t do enough to protect Tyler from their violent father.
Gabby and Jon immediately feel a connection when they meet, but it’s a slow burn and they both need to face some truths before they can even acknowledge the possibility of accepting a new relationship, no matter how temporary.
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Heart Of The Desert by Carol Marinelli
A beautifully written story—the sheikh romance for readers who hate sheikh romances. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read in the Mills & Boon Sexy line.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
I’ve never reviewed a Carol Marinelli book, but I’ve tried the author’s work twice; both times were DNF, and I didn’t pick up another one of hers again until I started reading Heart Of The Desert, a sequel to her 2009 M&B Medical, Secret Sheikh, Secret Baby. It’s an absolute keeper.
Georgie Anderson almost had a one-night stand with her brother-in-law, Prince Ibrahim Zaraq, but she turned him down at the last minute and harsh words were exchanged. So when they end up back at Zaraq at the same time, it’s all they can do to be civil to each other.
A series of events finds them stranded in the desert—the desert that haunts Ibrahim and seduces Georgie. But Ibrahim is the third prince of Zaraq, and he’s bound by rules and customs that will never accept Georgie in his life even though each of them knows they may never find anyone else who will understand and accept them so completely.
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Innocent In The Ivory Tower by Lucy Ellis
When this book gets good, it’s, oh, so very good. Alexei and Maisy may reflect the traditional alpha male and ingénue pairing in category romance, but they don’t always behave as expected. And that’s a good thing.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
This book is the reason I try to read past a bad beginning to get to the meat of a story. Maisy Edmonds has been left caring for her best friend’s baby, Kostya, when she and her husband die in an accident. When the house suddenly explodes with strange men, it’s all she can do to convince Alexei Ranaevsky that Kostya needs her.
Alexei is Kostya’s godfather and he takes his role seriously. So much so that without any warning whatsoever, he storms the house where the baby is living, agrees to bring Maisy with him to provide some constancy in the baby’s life…and proceeds to pash her when he accidentally but conveniently walks in while she’s clad in nothing but a towel.
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Books like this are the reason I stopped reading category romance in my mid-20s. I hope I don’t come across too many more of them in the near future. DNF.
I have five more titles in my Lynne Graham glom pile, but I’m not sure I can bear to go on. On one hand, I knew getting into this book that Graham writes domineering heroes of the 80s alpha kind. I thought I could cope with it, but this book is such a trainwreck I gave up halfway through.
Surprisingly for a category romance, this is part two of a series. (Perhaps Graham should have just written a full length book, did anyone think of that?) The back story is explained well enough to get the gist—I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t be prepared to slog through an entire book to basically learn that Alexei finally slept with his personal assistant, Billie, taking her virginity. She’s pined for him in secret but felt she was no match for the dazzling beauties that naturally flock to her rich, handsome boss.
Unfortunately, Alexei tripped and hit his head and managed to conveniently forget the two nights they were together. More unfortunately for Billie, the oblivious Alexei tried to rekindle a childhood romance as Billie coped with the consequences of their nights together—yes, the old secret baby.
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Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife by Lynne Graham (Pregnant Brides, Book 2)
There’s nothing earth-shattering about this story. I didn’t hate the hero or the heroine, but that might be damning with faint praise.
Back in my 20s, I would have loved this book. This may be spoilery to some readers—although if you regularly read in this Mills & Boon line it would amaze me if any of this surprises you—but Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife features a tycoon hero who borders on misogyny, a contract marriage, a virgin heroine, an accidental pregnancy and a Small Misunderstanding.
But as far as these things go, Lynne Graham does a decent enough job with the plot. Sergei Antonovich was saved from a troubled childhood by his grandmother, and as she gets older he wants to give her what he knows would make her happy—a grandchild.
As you do when you’re insanely rich but scarred by a money-grubbing first wife and young hotties forever flashing their cleavage in exchange for your wad (of cash, people!), Sergei sets up a business arrangement to acquire a wife and child.
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