Category / Contemporary

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Into The Fire by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookintothefire
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Mira
Hero: Dillon Gaynor
Heroine: Jamie Kincaid
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 1, 2003
Started On: August 31, 2010
Finished On: August 31, 2010

My first Anne Stuart certainly didn’t disappoint. I have always wanted to try out one of her books since all her fans rave about the fact that she writes about the most cold heroes ever. Since I am a big fan of cold, aloof and tortured heroes I have been meaning to give her Ice series a try. I did start reading Anne Stuart’s To Love a Dark Lord, a book that seemed to be getting rave reviews but turned out I was bored after the first couple of pages. But this book managed to hook me from the very beginning and I just had to finish it or most probably I would have stayed up all night to do so.

Jamie Kincaid, the adopted daughter of Isobel and Victor Kincaid has always known that when it comes to the affections of her mother whom she loves dearly, she has always come at a weak second place to Nate Kincaid, Isobel’s nephew whom she had taken under her care when Nate’s parents had died a tragic death in a fire when Nate was 10 years old. Everyone had loved the charming feckless Nate with his glorious good looks and easy charm. For Jamie, the arrival of Nate had been a godsend. She had adored Nate and believed that he could do no wrong and had looked up to him like the older brother she would never have.

When Nate befriends Dillon Gaynor, the bad boy from the wrong side of town, no one approves of their wild ways and their relationship. Dillon who had been abandoned by his mother when he was 8 years old to a drunken father had dropped out of high school right before graduation had always had a wild streak in him a mile wide. Getting into fights, getting drunk and high on weed and the women that flocked around him who craved getting into bed with the dangerous looking bad boy he is, Dillon was every innocent girls wildest fantasy. Jamie wasn’t immune to Dillon’s dangerous charm and though she tried to stay away from Dillon, somehow she always ended up craving his attention.

And then one fateful night, on Jamie’s prom night, she gets a taste of what Dillon can offer in his arms right after which she is raped brutally by Paul Jameson, quarterback of the football team and president of the student council. Jamie doesn’t know that Dillon served 18 months of his life in jail for beating Paul up within an inch of his life. Now twelve years later, Nate has been murdered and the police had really done nothing to find out what had happened. With Isobel going deeper into depression everyday, Jamie was finally forced to seek out Dillon, the man she wants to avoid at all costs to get some answers and to get closure for all their sakes.

Dillon lives in a run down part of Wisconsin and Jamie’s first impression that although Dillon had become more handsome and rugged the past couple of years, nothing had really changed. Though Jamie helplessly responds to Dillon on a level that she has found impossible to connect with another man, Jamie doesn’t trust Dillon within an inch of her life. But when she is stranded with her car requiring repairs, her purse containing her identification lost, Jamie has no choice but to reside at the dismal lodgings that Dillon calls home.

Right from the beginning, Jamie feels an evil presence watching and waiting in the derelict building that served to be the deathbed of Nate. Though Dillon wants nothing to do with Jamie with whom he had been obsessed with since forever, and though he believes that he would never be good enough for Jamie, the invisible connection that seems to grow stronger with every minute they spend together finally culminates in Dillon having the best sex of his life. Dillon wanted nothing more than to bed Jamie and send her packing, but the best laid plans always have a way of getting screwed up.

Things start going awry right from the very beginning and though neither Dillon nor Jamie believes in ghosts, it feels as if they are being haunted and hunted by a ghostly presence who nearly manages to kill the one woman who means the world to Dillon. Like all reviewers have mentioned, this book certainly has a dark edge to it that I just loved. I loved the fact that Dillon though reformed somewhat, essentially remained the bad boy he was which made him real appealing as the hero. And Jamie though she does start out as a scared and witless woman, the way she fights for the man she loves won her my wholehearted approval in the end.

Needless to say I loved the book and will definitely be going back for more of Anne Stuart’s fabulous books.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Just a Taste by Deirdre Martin

Format: E-bookJust a taste
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: New York Blades, Book 7
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Hero: Anthony Dante
Heroine: Vivi Robitaille
Sensuality: 2.9
Date of Publication: January 2, 2008
Started On: August 30, 2010
Finished On: August 31, 2010

I have been collecting up and reading books of the theme where the hero has been previously married, but the wife is dead, and circumstances force the hero to get married again, against his better judgment. Sometimes the hero has been betrayed by his wife and has vowed never to love or feel again, other times the hero has adored his previous wife and has set her on a pedestal that is difficult to reach for anyone else. Needless to say, such instances create great stories and if the author is particularly talented you get wonderful stories like Sunset Embrace by Sandra Brown, Night in Eden by Candice Proctor etc. This book was recommended on a thread on Amazon and since I was able get an e-version of the book, I decided to give this a go since it sounded like a fun read regardless of the fact that I had never tried out any books by Deirdre Martin before.

This is the 7th book in the New York Blades series and though the New York Blades is supposedly a hockey team, there is very little hockey involved in the book. Anthony Dante is the handsome head chef and half-owner of the Dante’s restaurant that has been in the Dante family for generations. A place that had started out as a pizza parlor, Dante’s was now an upscale restaurant that served homey Italian cuisine to a wide range of clientele. Anthony was still grieving for the untimely death of his Angie who had been a cop killed during duty. A year on, Anthony still visits his wife’s grave every Sunday morning and talks to her about everything that had happened during the past week. Still stubbornly holding onto his wedding ring, Anthony is not ready to move on to greener pastures and start living again. The only thing that stirs his passion is his restaurant and the magic that he can create inside his spotless kitchen.

When stunning French chef Vivi Robitaille moves across Dante’s and starts sprucing up the place to open up a new Bistro, Anthony with the typical egoistic nature of most chefs knows that none can beat Dante’s. Vivi has no intention of competing with Dante’s or any place else. Leaving France and coming to America was supposed to be Vivi and her half sister Natalie’s chance of starting over. Vivi was tired of the fact that in France cooking was considered to be a profession for the men and Vivi wants success on her own terms and the move to America was off to a good start if she may say so. Vivi and Natalie has a strange relationship as Vivi was the daughter of the mistress of Natalie’s father. Their father had left the major share of his wealth to his legitimate daughter and Vivi had to depend on Natalie for the funds required for opening up the bistro.

When Vivi meets the handsome and brusque Anthony, Vivi knows right on that the happy neighborly feel that she had been striving for would totally be lost on the genius who resents the fact that Vivi was changing things around the neighborhood. Though Anthony’s brother and half owner of Dante’s Micheal Dante who had just retired from his career at New York Blades and was struggling to adjust to being a stay at home dad adores Vivi on sight, Anthony bristles at the mere thought that Vivi has the audacity to challenge him in his kitchen. It’s not long before the sparks between Vivi and Anthony fly, and it is with amusement that Micheal watches from the sidelines and encourages his brother to make a go for it.

Ultimately, Vivi and Anthony hit the sheets and are pretty confident of making their relationship work when remnants of the fear that resides in Anthony as a result of his wife’s death rear its ugly head. When Vivi refuses to be understanding about what happened even when Anthony professes that he loves her and that he has moved on from his dead wife, Vivi gives him the stupid reason of it not being the right time for her to start a relationship with problems brewing up between Natalie and herself regarding the finances required for the bistro. I felt like giving Vivi a swift kick for hurting Anthony like that! Still feel like it!!

In the end, Vivi and Natalie manage to work out their differences, find a solution for the financial havoc that Natalie created and successfully open up the bistro. Towards the end, it is Natalie who convinces Vivi to go for the man she loves and is miserable without, when Natalie was dead set against Vivi’s relationship with Anthony in the  beginning. I found it a bit unbelievable when Natalie who has a pretty strong personality and fights for everything she wants and believes in just gave up on Anthony and then needed a nudge from her sister to finally find the courage to embrace true love and acknowledge the fact that it wasn’t Anthony who hadn’t been ready to let go of Angie but herself.

Ms. Martin has created a wonderful set of characters with the Dante family and it was wonderful and engaging to read their interactions. It was especially endearing to read about how Anthony had to step in between his brother Micheal and his son little Anthony who actually wanted to cook rather than play hockey as his father wanted him to. Though I did not like how Vivi acted out, this book was still a pretty good read.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Forbidden Fruit by Charlotte Lamb

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents, #1584
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Giles Kent
Heroine: Leonie
Sensuality: 2.8
Date of Publication: August 1, 1993
Started On: August 27, 2010
Finished On: August 27, 2010

My first novel by Charlotte Lamb certainly had me reading this short novel in one sitting. Though I can’t say I fully enjoyed every minute of the battle of wills between Giles and Leonie, I did enjoy Ms. Lamb’s writing style and might pick up a novel or two of hers  to read in the future.

Leonie is engaged to marry Malcolm Kent, younger brother of the impressive and forbidding Giles Kent. Leonie had grown up with her grandmother after her father had died and her mother hadn’t wanted the responsibility of rearing up a child on her own. When Leonie meets Malcolm’s family for the first time comprising of Malcolm’s mother and Giles and a sister she meets later on, Leonie knows that she is not what  they would have chosen as a bride for Malcolm. That doesn’t deter her from being convinced that Malcolm and she are meant to be together. And she more than senses the turbulent emotions that come to surface whenever Malcolm’s stern brother is around with a mocking smile to grace his lips and she knows that Giles hates her and wishes that he could break her and Malcolm apart.

Tragedy strikes when days before the wedding Malcolm who is on a business trip to Switzerland meets a skiing accident which effectively ends his life. Giles comes as the bearer of the bad news and its a testament to just how devastated that Leonie is by the news that she sheds the wedding dress that her friend Angela was fitting on her just moments ago, not giving a thought to who was with her. Needless to say, Leonie completely breaks down and she is surprised at the empathy and kindness that Giles shows her during those few moments.

Things take a turn when two months later, Leonie finds that she is pregnant with Malcolm’s child. Though her friend Angela urges her to contact the Kents since they do have a responsibility towards Malcolm’s child, Leonie is determined that she wouldn’t touch a penny from the Kents since they never wanted her for Malcolm in the first place. However, Leonie’s mother takes matters into her own hands and contacts Giles who turns up at her doorstep and later forces her into marriage with him.

I found the contact between Giles and Leonie a bit too scarce in the novel. The first half of the novel goes by with just sporadic  meetings between the two. It is only when Giles forces Leonie to marry him under the pretense that he would fight for the custody rights of the child that confrontations between the two really start to take place. Even when Leonie realizes that she has fallen in love with Giles, she doesn’t act as someone who has fallen in love, but rather fights to the bitter end thinking Giles to be ruthless enough to use her and discard her when he has no more use for her.

I don’t know why, but there was a certain element missing in the novel which just didn’t make the cut to make the book a favorite read. Whilst reading this book, I found myself remembering a favorite Harlequin of the same theme, Bride in Blue by Miranda Lee. Now that was a good book! Maybe I should hunt it down and read it once again!

Anyhow, till my next review comes up!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Wildfire Encounter by Helen Bianchin

Format: E-bookFront
Read with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents, #527
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Rafael Savalje
Heroine: Sara Adams
Sensuality: 2.9
Date of Publication: September 1982
Started On: August 24, 2010
Finished On: August 25, 2010

This was a book I saved onto my Kindle long before I read my first Helen Bianchin novel. Ms. Bianchin started writing in the 1970’s, way long before I was even born. But even back then, her stories pack a punch with her larger than life heroes and willful to the point of being irritating heroines.

Blair Adams, Sara’s father, borrows money from richer than sin Rafael Savalje, makes a couple of bad investments and ends up debt ridden up to his neck. Next thing Sara knows, her father has committed suicide, leaving her and her mother at the mercy of the hateful Rafael for whom Sara feels  nothing but contempt, loathing and hatred blaming him unjustly for her father’s suicide.

With no way out of their debt-ridden situation, Sara has no choice but to agree to marrying Rafael. Rafael proposes marriage stating that he wanted a motherly influence for his young daughter Ana whose mother had died shortly after prematurely delivering Ana. Ana was already pretty taken with Sara who was a  teacher who actually cared about her students.

Within less than a week, Sara finds herself wedded to the man she despises more than anything on this Earth. Sara who is a pretty willful character, finds herself always at odds with the virile enigmatic man that she married. I found myself often irritated with Sara because no matter how well Rafael tried to treat Sara, she always ended up verbally or physically attacking Rafael which in the end left a bad taste in my mouth.

Though Sara finally does admit to herself that she loves Rafael and that she cannot live without him, I didn’t feel that Sara was really worthy of the kindness and love that Rafael continued to shower on her although Rafael tended to face life with cynicism that was apparent in his drawl and his mannerisms. I felt like shouting out at Sara “Are you fricking dumb or something?”. Anyhow, I made it through the novel, a novel filled with Sara’s childish tantrums and Rafael’s childlike treatment of his bride, which I say is what she deserves! Ugh!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sweet Tempest by Helen Bianchin

Format: E-bookFront
Read with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents #744
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Jake Stanton
Heroine: Stephanie Matheson
Sensuality: 2.8
Date of Publication: November 1, 1984
Started On: August 24, 2010
Finished On: August 24, 2010

I always come across books by Helen Bianchin though I have never given them a try before today. Having some free time and coming across this quite old Harlequin Presents romance, I wanted to indulge in a book where I wouldn’t have to think much and invest myself in the book. Surprisingly I found myself turning the pages quickly, fascinated in spite of myself in the drama that you can always find in a Harlequin romance.

Stephanie Matheson works as a secretary with her father who holds his own veterinary practice in Bacchus Marsh, south-west Victoria. When the opportunity to attend a conference which is to take place in Los Angeles for a month comes knocking on James Matheson’s door, he is more than excited. And when through an unexpected turn of events, Jake Stanton the son of one his long term friends, who has returned from the states recently agreed to look after the practice for the month whilst he was gone, it was a too good an opportunity for him to turn down. Entrusting the care of Jake to his daughter and making arrangements so that their housekeeper would take residence at their home for the duration, James leaves her daughter Stephanie with a feeling of trepidation ever since the moment she lays eyes on Jake.

Jake with his sardonic drawl and a cynicism that never leaves his eyes invades the thoughts of Stephanie far more than she likes. And when the housekeeper that was supposed to live in with them breaks her leg and has to be hospitalized, Stephanie knows that she would have to bear with Jake and his irritable presence.

When her boyfriend Ian, who lives with his mother and who in turn despised any male or female that might threaten her relationship with her son finds out that Jake is living with Stephanie, all hell breaks loose in their relationship front. Before long, a lifelong friend who turned into something more turns into a stranger who can’t seem to get over his jealousy of Jake and his presence at Stephanie’s home.

Though Stephanie denies that she feels anything for the ruggedly handsome Jake, her body betrays her every time Jake takes her in his arms. When Jake’s beautiful ex-wife Alana comes calling, Jake resorts to using Stephanie as a shield to prevent Alana from getting her claws once again into Jake and his fortune.

Stephanie doesn’t know how she ended up playing the role of a doting fiance to a man she despised. There were times when I wanted to hit Jake on the head for the cruelty he showed to Stephanie. And there were times that I wanted to shake Stephanie so that she would grow a spine or two. But all in all, the book served its purpose and gave me a light and fast read which was what I wanted in the end.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard

Format: E-bookmr.perfect
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Sam Donovan
Heroine: Jaine Bright
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication:  July 25, 2000
Started On: August 15, 2010
Finished On: August 16, 2010

OMG! Sam Donovan has shot up right into the #1 position on my absolute hottie alpha male list. I have no clue as to why I don’t remember this story as being a remarkable one. Maybe it has got something to do with the fact that when I first discovered Linda Howard as an author I just “gobbled” up all the books of hers that I could get my hands on. And boy, am I glad now that I re-read this one!!

Jaine Bright works at a computer related company called Hammerstead Technology. And it was a Friday ritual for Jaine and her three friends Marci Dean, Luna Scissum and T.J Yother to meet up at a local bar and grill called Ernie’s after work for a girls-only unwinding session. Out of the four, Marci was living in with a boyfriend named Brick whom the rest didn’t seem to think much of. Jaine who had been engaged three times and all three times the engagements had gone awry, was wary of men at best and steered clear of them. That is until her drunken looking neighbor who had the gall to suggest she quiet down in the middle of the day so that he can catch up on his beauty sleep whilst he comes home every night at the most odd hours banging and clanging his way through the street, making Jaine regret her decision to buy a house in the nice quaint neighborhood she was living in. And she had just discovered that her neighbor who seemed to vibrate with fury whenever she was around was a cop. Whilst T.J was the only one of them who was married, and that to her high school sweetheart, Luna was in an on an off relationship with a football star, who didn’t seem to have a faithful bone in his body.

So it was no wonder that on that particular Friday, when all four of them were bummed out about the men in their lives, as a joke, the four of them came up with a list of qualities that they require their Mr. Perfect to have. Things like being faithful, nice and dependable makes their way to the top of the list whilst the bottom of the list tended to get a little raunchy. A little harmless fun between friends on a Friday night turns into a nightmare when Marci during a moment of weakness shares the list with the editor of the newsletter of their company bringing all four of them into the limelight.

Meanwhile, at the home front, Jaine’s sister Shelley was pissed off at Jaine because her mom had entrusted the care of Booboo, her parents pet cat to Jaine. And David, Jaine’s brother was pissed off at her because their dad had entrusted the care of his vintage car to Jaine rather than David. And when the list leaks out and becomes a national sensation, Shelley and David seem to be equally pissed off with Jaine. And to top everything off, Jaine sights her “detestable” neighbor Sam naked, and oh boy does she fall hard and fast in lust with every luscious inch on display! And it doesn’t help matters when Sam says stuff like if he starts kissing her, it wouldn’t end up being JUST a kiss, which has Jaine all hot and bothered.

The dialogues between Jaine and Sam cracked me up big time! The conversation they have right after Sam and Jaine kiss for the first time (and boy that was one of the HOTTEST kisses ever!) is one to be savored. Jaine has on her mind to torture the sexy cop who seems to occupy her thoughts throughout the day, but eventually the joke is on her when Jaine is as frustrated as Sam is to hit the sheets. And when they do get round to have wall banging sex for the first time, Sam’s reaction afterwards had me laughing so hard!

Things with the list create enough of a spectacle such that Marci’s boyfriend Brick leaves in a huff and T.J’s husband blames her for ruining his image in front of his work buddies. A rift that had been growing for the past two years suddenly become a gulf big enough that their marriage seems to hit the rocks for the first time with T.J unwilling to apologize for some harmless fun she had with her friends.

But the list brings out the worst of a psychotic killer and suddenly what started out as a bit of fun between friends ceases to be that. When Marci is murdered in her home, bludgeoned to death with a hammer and sexually assaulted, Sam’s protective instincts kick in and thus starts a race against time to find the killer who lurks so close by.

I loved every single minute of reading this book. A quick page-turner with witty banter between all characters, a spunky heroine who grabs life by its “balls” and a sexy hero who makes my toes curl just thinking about him with a villain who just managed to creep me out because I was all alone in my room was enough to make my day! Highly recommended for fans of romantic thrillers. You cannot go wrong with this one!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Double Standards by Judith McNaught

Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Temptation, #16
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: J. Nicholas Sinclair
Heroine: Lauren Danner
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication:  June 1984
Started On: August 12, 2010
Finished On: August 12, 2010

I think this is the 3rd or 4th time that I have re-read this book and this is one story that doesn’t get old. There is none like Judith McNaught who can create cynical, tortured heroes who fall that much harder for the right woman. And this book is no exception to the rule with the drop dead gorgeous Nick Sinclair, president of Global Industries which owned Sinco, Sinclair Electronic Components in which Lauren worked for.

Lauren who is half Italian and half Irish, who grew up in Fenster, Missouri with her father who was a small town teacher and her stepmother and two step siblings ends up in an interview with Philip Whitworth to secure a job for herself, an interview which her father had arranged. Though Lauren had misgivings about the Whitworth family since her childhood memories of the one visit to the Whitworths didn’t include anything memorably good, Lauren agrees to the interview because she is desperately in need of a job that would help ease the financial burdens on her family.

When Lauren is propositioned by Philip to spy on the Sinclair Industries based on the suspicions that someone was leaking bid figures from the Whitworth company to the Sinclairs, Lauren doesn’t feel so good about saying yes to the deal. But when all she has to do is let Philip know if one of the four names of the executives who are involved in the bid preparation process is ever mentioned at the Sinclairs seems not so bad to someone as desperate as Lauren is for a good job.

However, at the last minute Lauren has her doubts and deliberately fails the interview session she has to undergo to secure the position at Sinco. But however, a chance encounter with Nick who provokes all Lauren’s senses has Lauren wanting to work where she could be close to Nick. Not knowing that Nick is the owner of Sinco and Global Industries, Lauren agrees to go away for a weekend with Nick to the Hamptons, a weekend during which Lauren offers Nick her heart and her body.

However Lauren’s rosy dreams of forever ever after come crashing down in the cold hard reality once the weekend is over and Nick pushes her away. Thinking and believing that Nick wouldn’t dismiss her so easily, Lauren waits around two weeks for the call from Nick that never comes. And it is when she starts her secretarial position at Sinco that she finds out that Nick is not the man she thought him to be.

Feeling betrayed beyond belief, Lauren is a force to be reckoned with when Nick realizes that he still wants Lauren in his bed. The sparks that fly when these two butt their heads is something worth savoring. Lauren gives as good as she gets and the tension that soars between these two makes for a splendid read.

With the secret that Lauren harbors, the fragile trust that Nick places in her comes crashing down once the truth is out, the truth that Lauren had been in cahoots with the Whitworths, a betrayal that sends Nick reeling.

As usual, the one thing that irked me was the fact that Nick humiliated Lauren so much towards the end, but when he comes back looking for her and begging her forgiveness, Nick doesn’t need to do much grovelling, just because he had a bitch of a mother. Although the way Nick suffered when he was young tug at my heartstrings every time, I couldn’t help but yearn for a bit more grovelling on Nick’s side to win back the affection of the woman who would do anything for him.

Great read which I finished in a couple of hours. This is one contemporary by Judith McNaught that I would always highly recommend.

Purchase Links: Amazon

[xrr rating=4/5]

Caliber Seal: GREAT READ!

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Valentino’s Love-Child by Lucy Monroe

Format: E-bookn295360
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Valentino Grisafi
Heroine: Faith Williams
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: May 1, 2009
Started On: August 7, 2010
Finished On: August 8, 2010

Reading up on books of the theme where the hero has been previously married and his wife is dead, and the hero has to marry again whether by circumstance or not, landed me with this book. Although I usually refrain from reading the Harlequin romances that come out these days, I decided to give this title a try because this book seemed to have got raving reviews on Amazon as well.

The book starts when Valentino and Faith have been having a mutually satisfying affair for as long as one year. Valentino refuses to acknowledge the fact that Faith means more to him than any of the other women who have passed through his bed since the death of his young Sicillian wife Maura to whom he had promised upon her sudden death that he would never love another woman again. And things seem to be working out fine, just the way Valentino wants it to, until Faith becomes pregnant with Valentino’s child.

Since Faith had a lot of problems conceiving when she was previously married to her husband Taylish who died along with her unborn son plus with a tubal pregnancy that had gone awry when Faith first got pregnant, Faith never hoped that her dreams of having children of her own and a family of her own would ever realize until she gets unexpectedly pregnant with the child of the man she has fallen in love with. Though Faith knows that Valentino is wary of things changing between them, Faith can’t help but harbor the hope that Valentino does feel something more for her than just a casual lover of his.

Most of the conflict in this novel stems from the fact that Valentino promised his dead wife that he wouldn’t ever fall in love with another woman, nor give any woman the chance to creep into his heart. But as usual the best laid plans have a way of getting screwed up and this is exactly what happens when Valentino starts wanting more of the woman who has enchanted him in and out of bed for the last couple of months. And it certainly does help matters when his family seems to be equally besotted with her and seems to want their union as much as Valentino opposes the union.

For me this was just an okay read.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo | Harlequin

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sex, Straight Up by Kathleen O’Reilly

Format: E-bookssu
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Those Sexy O’Sullivans, Book 2
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Daniel O’Sullivan
Heroine: Catherine Montefiore
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: June 1, 2008
Started On: August 5, 2010
Finished On: August 7, 2010

I read this book upon coming across this title in a discussion forum on Amazon. If I hadn’t come across this title in such a manner, most probably I wouldn’t have given this book a second glance because the cover as well as its synopsis doesn’t do justice to what a great story this book really is. I guess the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” holds true for this title. Not that the book doesn’t have enough sensuality and passion to make your toes curl, but the story that unfolds when you start reading is a lot more than just sex and what goes behind closed doors, but rather how someone who has promised himself that he would stay faithful to the memory of his dead wife for seven long years, finds out that love can happen not only once in your life, but twice.

Daniel’s wife Michelle was killed in the September 11 attacks. An auditor/accountant by profession, Daniel likes his life to be ordered and balanced as the spreadsheets that he works with. The ring that he still wears on his left hand is a testament to his need to stay faithful to the memory of the one woman who was definitely made for him. Seven years on, his brothers Gabe and Sean are tired of the fact that Daniel always seems so haunted with an air of desolate sadness that always hangs around him. And so they together with Gabe’s girlfriend Tessa badger Daniel until he agrees to go to the Hamptons during the weekend to a retreat with a bunch of lawyer friends of Sean.

Catherine Montefiore works in the Montefiore auction house for her grandfather. A little on the curvy side with a talent for drawing which she keeps hidden from her mother and those close to her, Catherine comes across a hunk of a man sitting quietly on the beach of her grandfather’s beach house in the Hamptons. From the moment Catherine lays eyes on Daniel, she knows that he is a man who hides behind a wealth of sorrow that seems to linger all around him. And when Daniel strikes up a conversation with Catherine, Daniel is surprised to find how easy it is to be with the quiet and unassuming woman who all of a sudden seems to be calling to his baser nature.

Before the weekend is through, Daniel and Catherine end up having great sex, which they both know have no chance of growing into something further. And when Catherine sees Daniel put back his wedding ring on, she jumps to the worst conclusions and beats herself up about having the most fabulous sex of her life with a married man.

It is when trouble crops up at the Montefiore Auction House over a matter of price fixing with another competitive auctioneer, a crime which seems to be pointing towards Catherine’s beloved grandfather that Daniel’s firm is called in to audit and find out what has been going on. When Daniel and Catherine meet again, Daniel knows that he needs to come clean with Catherine about his dead wife, if for no reason other than the fact that he wants all Catherine has to give, even if he is not ready to let the memory of his dead wife go.

Catherine at first refuses to start an affair in which she knows she would end up getting hurt by falling in love with a man who has nothing left to give, but then again the temptation that Daniel provides is so hard to say no to as well. Once Catherine decides to live a little and go headlong into the affair with eyes wide open, Daniel starts to heal little by little and being happy becomes easier as time passes.

This was a wonderful story, definitely worth your time. Kathleen O’Reilly has done a splendid job with the character development that makes this Blaze an unforgettable one. And oh my! I didn’t know that auditors/accountants could be so HOT!!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Promise of Happiness by Betty Neels

Format: E-bookprom
Read with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Jazmin
Hero: Baron Raukema van den Eck
Heroine: Rebecca Saunders
Sensuality: 1
Date of Publication:  December 1979
Started On: August 4, 2010
Finished On: August 4, 2010

Its been ages since I last read a novel by Betty Neels. Known for stories that bring a soothing warmth to the reader, I also read a couple of her books in the late 90’s when I first started my foray into romance reading. The one thing that I always found lacking in her books even then was the fact there is little or no sensuality at all to her books, but rather a descriptive narration of the heroine’s life with the hero coming in now and then and at the very end, the hero professes his love and its a happily ever after for the happy couple.

This story is no different from the above when Rebecca encounters Baron on her journey to escape her stepmother and stepbrother from a life of servitude they had set upon her. Accompanying her are her beloved pets Bertie and Pooch, who look as bedraggled as she is when Baron offers them a lift into town. On the journey towards the hotel Baron was residing at, he learns that Rebecca is actually a trained nurse, though she doesn’t have any references to back her claim. And though Baron is not one to feel for people, he finds himself surprised at the pity that he feels for the mousy looking little thing who has had it so bad till now.

It is by chance that Rebecca encounters the Baroness, who has recently had a knee surgery done in disagreement with her nurse and it is Rebecca who helps her and puts to right what has been causing her pain. Thus Rebecca finds herself offered the job of being the Baroness’s nurse during a trip she is to make to see her sister and then later onto Holland where Baron promises that he would help her find a job and settle her down.

Looking after the needs of the Baroness seems like a lifesaver to someone such as Rebecca who had had life so hard for her after the death of her beloved father. Though Baron at first refuses to see any beauty in the nondescript little woman who takes such good care of his mother so efficiently, little by little he comes to appreciate what Rebecca stands for and who she is.

Meanwhile Rebecca continues to be in agony over the fact that she has fallen head over heels in love with someone who had professed that he was not attracted to thin mice and the fact that the beautiful Nina seemed to occupy much of Baron’s time.

In the end, its all a bit sudden when Baron professes his desire to marry her and give her everything her heart desires. I feel the story would have been better if Rebecca had left as she planned and Baron had had to come after her, just to give him a taste of his arrogance I suppose?

Anyhow it was good reading something that didn’t cause me so many emotional upheavals. So until my next review!

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