Category / Contemporary

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Open Season by Linda Howard

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Jack Russo
Heroine: Daisy Minor
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: July 17, 2001
Started On: June 13, 2010
Finished On: June 14, 2010

Daisy Minor, small-town librarian has just turned 34 years old. She is single, frumpy looking at best and well on her way to attaining spinsterhood when she realizes that she wants more out of life than living with her mom and aunt. So Daisy decides to change everything about her, from her appearance to moving out and getting her own place.

Chief of Police Jack Russo was a brusque, hard-nosed Yankee who had served in the SWAT in New York and Chicago when his great-aunt back in Hillsboro dies leaving him her place, a place where Jack had spent his summers as a child. Suddenly tired of all the pressures of working as a cop in the city, Jack moves to Hillsboro and finds himself smiling at the verbal sparring matches he has with the town’s frumpy librarian.

Once her make-over is complete, Daisy decides to hit the night clubs to scout for a husband, and is delighted by the appreciative attention she receives. However to Daisy’s  horror she becomes the source of the start of a brawl in the club and in a matter of seconds finds herself being escorted out of the club by Jack who continually seems to invade her personal space.

The second night Daisy decides to visit the club, she unknowingly witnesses the murder of a man and this puts her in grave danger to which Jack is alerted to when he receives a suspicious call from the mayor who is  involved in the business of smuggling young girls into the country to sell them at a high price to prostitution rings.

Explosive passion and romance are intrinsically woven together with a plot of danger with an interesting cast of characters that makes this book one you cannot put down. The witty banter between Daisy and Jack right from the beginning makes you smile and the ease with which they fall in love will remain with you for a long time.

Linda Howard can always spin a tale where her male characters are to die for and Jack Russo is no exception to the rule. Reading this book the second time round was as good as the first and readers who love romantic thrillers wouldn’t be disappointed in this tale.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Place to Call Home by Deborah Smith

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Hero: Roan Sullivan
Heroine: Claire Maloney
Sensuality: 1
Date of Publication: May 4, 1998
Started On: June 8, 2010
Finished On: June 11, 2010

Bearing a strong resemblance to the storyline of Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred, this is a story that captures the essence of the ties of a loving family, how tragic mistakes can unravel even the most close knit of families and how love triumphs over in the end.

The first half of the book focuses on the childhood of Roan Sullivan, the boy from the wrong side of the town with the drunk whoring father and Claire Maloney, the girl who has got everything. Claire comes from a large family, the richest in town. Though Claire and Roan couldn’t be more further apart from one another in social standing, Claire takes an uncanny liking towards the dirty boy with the grey eyes who stands steadfast through all the ribbing and torture dished out by his father as well as other boys in the town.

The author cleverly spins the tale as told by Claire, as to how she falls in love with Roan at the tender age of 10 or so, a love that captures the reader’s heart right from the very beginning. Roan doesn’t trust anyone apart from Claire and one mishap after another leads to Roan living with the Maloneys.

However, a tragic incident involving Roan’s father and Claire which ultimately ends up in Roan killing his father, makes Claire’s parents decide to send Roan off to a church home for a month and Roan disappears thus destroying an essential part of Claire which strains the ties she has with her family.

Claire never stops searching for Roan all throughout the twenty years that they spend apart. Meanwhile Roan too has been keeping tabs on Claire and the Maloneys and a tragic accident involving Claire finally propels him to return to Claire while she recuperates at home.

Now a rich and successful man, Roan has never forgotten how quickly hope can be extinguished by those for whom you care for, and though he is not bitter about the Maloney’s decision to send him away, Roan has turned into a man who has locked away his emotions, except for those that he feels towards Claire.

With secrets of his own to keep, Roan and Claire start off 20 years later to revel in the love they have had for one another, a love that can only last once the previous hurts have been healed. An engrossing tale, this is one story even non-romance readers ought to try, because this is definitely a book of the can’t-put-down variety.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Forbidden Passion by Emilie Rose

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Desire
Hero: Sawyer Riggan
Heroine: Lynn
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: May 24, 2010
Started On: June 3, 2010
Finished On: June 3, 2010

Ever since I read the book Condition of Marriage by Emilie Rose and went through the list of published books by the author I have wanted to get my hands on this book as the synopsis seemed to hint at an intriguing story. And of course the raving reviews this book has received on numerous bookseller websites didn’t help. I have been scouting all over the Internet to find whether an e-version of the book had been released for quite sometime now. And to my delightful surprise last night I found that the book has been released on Kindle in April this year. (Woohoo!)

Lynn has been married to Sawyer’s adopted brother Brett for the past four years. A time during which Lynn has learnt that love is not what it seems to be and that a person could really whittle away and breakdown from the constant emotional roller coaster her marriage to Brett was. Lynn and Sawyer end up having mind blowing sex mere hours after Brett’s funeral, an act that puts Lynn in a bit of a predicament as she and Brett had tried to make their marriage work for one final time and started trying for a family just before Brett was killed.

Sawyer and Lynn has a shared history together, and Sawyer has no idea what kind of a monster Brett really was. Believing Brett to be the younger brother Sawyer had always worked his butt off to provide for and never understanding the reason why Lynn never waited for him and got married to Brett instead, Sawyer proposes marrying Lynn when he finds out that she is pregnant even though Lynn has no idea who the father could be.

Lynn never thought that a man could be understanding, loving, kind and attentive towards her needs and wants. Marriage to Sawyer opens up all the possibilities that were closed off to her before and it is not long before Lynn falls for Sawyer all over once again all the while thinking that all Sawyer wants is the temporary arrangement they agreed to before they got married.

Skillfully seductive, this book is a good read for a quick bout of romance with characters that you can relate to. Wish the story could have been longer!

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Italian Doctor’s Wife by Sarah Morgan

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Medical Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Nico Santini
Heroine: Abby Harrington
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 20, 2010
Started On: May 30, 2010
Finished On: June 2, 2010

Although I read romances of various genres, medical romance is one that I tend to stay away from. I remember that the last time I read a medical romance was way back in the 90’s when I first started reading romance books. Back then, maybe it was because of my reading preferences at the time, I found myself bored with the whole aspect of medical romances where doctors fell in love with nurses.

I picked up this book with that thought at the back of my mind, that most probably I would give up reading this book halfway through. But to my pleasant surprise I found myself intrigued by the various medical literature to be found in the book, which might have something to do with the author having being a nurse herself.

This story is about nurse Abby Harrington who chooses to have a baby through an anonymous donor at an insemination clinic. To Abby’s shock, Nico Santini, the eldest brother of Abby’s best friend Lucia, who is one of the most successful pediatric heart surgeons, seeks her out and drops the bombshell that he is the father of Rosa.

Nico thinks that he donated the sperm to a couple in their late thirties and instead is angered to find out that he was betrayed into thinking that by his own sister and thinks Abby to be in cahoots with Lucia in deceiving him. Nico plans on filing for custody of Rosa thinking Abby to be an unfit mother to raise a child of his, when he is  ultimately proved wrong by just how loving Abby is with Rosa.

However the tabloids somehow find out that Abby and Nico have a baby together which propels Nico’s proposal for Abby to marry him. Abby agrees to the marriage in terms of it being a marriage of convenience but to her immense surprise and pleasure finds out that Nico has other plans in mind.

I found this story to be a charming one where misunderstandings were resolved by conversing like rational adults rather than swimming in a pool of them until the reader is ready to scream in frustration. And of course the vivid details of open heart surgery procedures carried out proved to be quite informative and made this story though short an interesting read.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Waiting for it by Rhyannon Byrd

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Hero: Jake Farrel
Heroine: Taylor Moore
Sensuality: 5
Date of Publication: March 31, 2004
Started On: May 28, 2010
Finished On: May 29, 2010

I picked this book up because I always love a romance that tells the story of two characters who have a shared past history together. This novel is about Jake and Taylor who both met one another during their high schooling years when Taylor moved to Jake’s town.

From the first moment Jake and Taylor laid eyes on each other it changed their worlds. However, Jake’s best friend Mitch had worked towards creating enough misunderstanding between the two that Jake leaves town without once looking back at the heartbroken Taylor he leaves behind.

Life moves on and Taylor marries Mitch, who makes for a miserable husband all through. Mitch sleeps around on Taylor, a fact that she knows though she never thinks of leaving him until she walks in to find Mitch in bed with the town whore which finally propels her to leave Mitch after 10 years of miserable existence with him.

A year later, Jake returns claiming that he has always loved Taylor and that he has waited around all these years till Taylor could be his. Though Taylor loves Jake to distraction, she is not ready to trust Jake with her heart though she is more than willing to trust him with her body for the multitudes of raunchy rides Jake takes her on. The whole book is basically porn, most of the pages which I skipped through cause too much of anything gets to be tiring.

I skimmed through more than 90% of the book to unravel the actual story behind, a story that appealed to me and would have made for a better read if the emotional and background development of the characters had been given more depth rather than just focusing on the whole sexual aspect of the story.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo | Jasmine Jade

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Wed by Deception by Emilie Rose

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle & MS Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: The Payback Affairs, Book 3
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Lucas Daniel Stone
Heroine: Nadia Kincaid
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 9, 2008
Started On: May 20, 2010
Finished On: May 21, 2010

This is the third book in the payback affairs series by Ms. Rose and features Everett Kincaid’s third child and only daughter Nadia Kincaid and her believed to be dead husband for eleven years Lucas Daniel Stone.

Everett Kincaid is a man who has wronged all three of his children in one way or the other. And Everett has laid out his will in such a way that all three of his children had to fulfill certain “tests” that he had set aside before they all could be secure in the vast inheritance that Everett has left for them.

Nadia’s task was to live in Dallas on a limited budget, without holding a job and with none to look after her. Learning to survive on her own is supposed to be Nadia’s challenge and she is in for the shock of her life when her neighboring tenant returns home and Nadia finds him to be none other than Lucas, the husband she thought had died right along with her son in the accident that had left Nadia scarred for life.

Though nothing can bring back Nadia’s ability to have children, her life had resumed with some sort of normalcy until the shock of what Nadia’s dad had really done behind their backs to keep them apart comes to haunt her.

Lucas doesn’t want to feel small and helpless, the way he had felt eleven years ago when he  thought his wife had wanting nothing to do with him anymore. During his weakest moment he had grabbed what Nadia’s father had offered and built himself an empire that rivals the Kincaid’s. On a personal vendetta of his own to rub Kincaid’s face in his success by literally buying out every piece of business the Kincaid’s own, Lucas never thought what happened eleven years ago was by no means any fault of Nadia, the only woman who had ever made him succumb to love.

Nadia and Lucas both have to learn to trust one another amongst all the lies they have been made to believe for the past decade and give in to the intense passion that has always been within them before they are able to find ever lasting happiness with one another.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Touch of Surrender by Rhyannon Byrd

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle & Mobipocket Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Primal Instinct, Book 5
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Kierland Scott
Heroine: Morgan Cantrell
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: May 1, 2010
Started On: May 17, 2010
Finished On: May 19, 2010

Boy, was I glad to find out that this story had already been released when I finished reading the previous book in the series which I reviewed earlier. Towards the ending in the book “Touch of Seduction”, the sparks that fly between Morgan and Kierland were scorching enough as it is. And the shared history between the characters which were hinted at made my curiosity rise to levels that refused to be left unattended to.

This story continues the war that is going on between the Watchmen of which Kierland is the leader and the Casus, who are after the Dark Markers which are the only weapons capable of killing the Casus and sending them back to where they came from. To make things complicated Kellan, Kierland’s brother goes into the Casus territory deep in the wastelands where exiled supernatural forces live at to find the witch Chloe who was taken hostage by the Casus and willingly allows himself to be imprisoned.

Morgan and Kierland though they have been avoiding each other for the past ten or so years when things went awry as Kierland refused to give into the desire that Morgan as his student invoked in him, has no choice but team up in the quest to journey through the wastelands to get to Kellan. Though Kierland would like nothing better than to send Morgan off back to England where the Watcmen’s safe house was located at, Morgan’s presence becomes vital for the mission since she is the only one who is able to track Kellan’s whereabouts.

Whilst Ashe Granger a Deschanel who is an ex-lover of Morgan is the only one who can trek through the Wastelands safely joins the search, the intensity of the feelings that Kierland has to face forces him to come to the inevitable conclusion that he and Morgan have no choice but to try and get each other out of their systems. Kierland proposes this to Morgan who accepts the offer which starts off a spine tingling delicious affair where Ms. Byrd does an excellent job in scorching up the pages.

What makes these books remarkable is the fact that both the romance, intense page scorching passion and adventure both play an equal role which makes these books hard to put down. Though I tended to like the previous book a teensy weensy bit better, this book itself is great as well.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Touch of Seduction by Rhyannon Byrd

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Primal Instinct, Book 4
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Aiden Shrader
Heroine: Olivia Harcourt
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: April 1, 2010
Started On: May 14, 2010
Finished On: May 16, 2010

Though I am not much into paranormal romances, I picked this book up on a whim since I remembered reading Ms. Byrd’s Against the Wall and liking her writing style. And since I have hit a dry spell these days on the reading front I decided to give this book a go and came out with a satisfied grin on all fronts!

The fourth book in the Primal Instincts series the first 3 books which I have never come across, this is the book of tiger shape shifter Aiden Shrader and small-town schoolteacher Olivia Harcourt. Aiden has been dispatched by the Watchmen, (a group mixed up of humans with a mix of something else having extraordinary abilities, to keep things on the down low and kill whenever necessary to protect their species) this time to protect Olivia and her niece Jamie whose mother Monica was killed by the Casus, a vile race of immortal creatures who’d been imprisoned over a thousand years ago for their crimes against humanity and the other clans. The Casus were after Jamie to have a taste of what its like to kill someone with witch’s blood running through them, no matter how young the child might be. With no one else to turn to, Olivia has no other options available but to trust this enigmatic man with glowing amber eyes, who kissed her senseless to the point of ultimate surrender during their first encounter.

Aiden, wary of trusting a human after what he went through when he was young, is skittish of the intense (and I say intense mildly) feelings that Olivia awakens inside him. Though Aiden tries hard not to succumb to the powerful connection between him and Olivia, he can’t help but answer the call of the inner beast within him to feel Olivia’s touch which goes a long way towards healing him.

Meanwhile the ongoing war between the Casus and the Watchmen continues, whilst a darker and a more sinister enemy arises that just may end life for the Watchmen as they know it.

Filled with continuous adventure vividly described by the author which made me feel as if I were watching a movie instead of reading a book made this a highly enjoyable read.

Am dying to read the next book in the series which is to hit the stands this month!

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Unfaithful Wife by Lynne Graham

Format: E-book
Read with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Nik Andreakis
Heroine: Leah
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: November 1, 1995
Started On: May 6, 2010
Finished On: May 10, 2010

Lynne’s Graham older romances contributed a lot towards me becoming the avid romance book reader that I am today. Likewise, this book published more than a decade back has the element that is missing from most of the Harlequin novels that are published today, even by my most favorite authors such as Ms. Graham. Thus it was a rare treat to read this romance by Ms. Graham which I didn’t want to put down once I started.

Leah and Nik have been married for five years during which they have lived apart from one another. Leah doesn’t know the reason why Nik acts so coldly towards her once they are married. Nik has his own group of beautiful women with whom he spends his nights with and this propels Leah finally towards forming a relationship of her own, fed up with a life of utter loneliness and unhappiness.

The death of Leah’s father brings about the actual truth as to why Nik has been treating Leah so abhorrently. And it is this pivotal moment that brings these two together, Nik with his tendency to be distrustful of love and companionship that goes along with it and Leah afraid to hope for anything permanent with Nik with whom she fell in love with on the very first sight.

Filled with highly sensual moments which is trademark Graham, this novel stands to be the reason why I always look forward to reading a novel by the author, no matter how disappointing her recent novels have turned out to be.

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Second Best Wife by Rachel Lindsay

Format: E-book
Opens with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Adam Lester
Heroine: Julia Gosford
Sensuality: 2
Date of Publication: September 24, 1982
Started On: May 2, 2010
Finished On: May 5, 2010

Its  been really long since I read a Harlequin romance from the 1980’s. And I have to say Harlequin romances have come a long way from back then when stories used to revolve around people you can relate to rather than billionaires and the sheiks that wheel and deal in the current stories. And oh, I should not forget the ridiculous changes to the titles of the Harlequin romances these days now ei?

This story focuses on successful international lawyer Adam Lester and how he proposes marriage to his ever efficient secretary Julia Gosford to show Adam’s lover Erica who chose to wait for all her dead husband’s money to lawfully belong to her rather than marry Adam and start a life with him that he didn’t care. Julia agrees to the marriage because she too has been jilted by her fiance who left to Canada promising he would send for her once he is settled in, but rather sends back message that he has found someone else with whom he is planning on getting married to.

Though both Adam and Julia enter their marriage with their eyes open and ready to treat their relationship as rational adults, love has a way of catching people unawares and of course along with love comes its little green eyed friend called jealousy. It is rare in a romance book to read about the hero’s infatuation with another woman whilst married to the heroine of the book though it made things more realistic than most romances. It showed that love just didn’t suddenly dawn on the hero but rather it took time for him to realize what his infatuation with Erica had been all about.

Its all the misunderstandings about Erica and Roy (Julia’s ex-fiance) that makes up the plot of this book. Everything is neatly resolved at the very end of the book giving Adam and Julia a happy ending.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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