Category / Contemporary

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Betting Hearts By Dee Tenorio

Format: E-bookBetting Hearts
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Rancho Del Sielo, Book 1
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Hero: Burke Halifax
Heroine: Cassandra Bishop
Date of Publication: June 6, 2006
Started On:  October 30, 2009
Finished On: November 1, 2009

This was my favorite kind of romance novel since its a swell story of two best friends turning into lovers. Cass and Burke have been best of friends since they were in their early childhood. Although neither Cass nor Burke has ever professed to have underlying romantic feelings for one another, Cass and Burke has always known they could count on one another with their lives.

This delectable story starts when Cass runs into  her ex-fiance’  Luke who broke up with her through a letter professing that she wasn’t woman enough for him and that he was actually gay and left town, turns up with a fiance’ in tow, who turns out to be a pretty blond.

Somehow, Cass ends up breaking Luke’s nose, and Luke in turn plans to hold the wedding in their hometown, and just somehow Cass ends up with a bet that Cass could turn on her feminine wiles and become the woman that Luke never saw underneath her tough-as-nails exterior. Burke unwillingly helps along this scheme, whilst the whole town watches for the sparks that fly between Burke and Cass, all the time wondering when they would succumb to the chemistry which is so obvious to everyone else but the couple-to-be in question.

I would have to say that I enjoyed this novel a LOT. It was a refreshing change to see all issues tackled with a lot of humor and the dialogue between all characters are pretty fun and made me want to laugh out loud several times. I recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good bout of romance with a sexy hero to die for and a heroine who gives as good as she gets with humor to keep the ride through their story a memorable one!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Few Good Men by Tori Carrington

Format: E-bookA Few Good Men
Read with: Stanza
Length: Short Stories
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
Series: Uniformly Hot, Book 1
Hero: 4 heroes
Heroine: 4 heroines
Date of Publication: January 1, 2009
Started On: October 2009
Finished On: October 28, 2009

Tori Carrington is one of my favorite authors of the Blaze line in the Harlequin series. When I first found this author, I was surprised to know that Tori Carrington is the name used by Tony Karayianni and Lori Schlachter (husband and wife) who write these delectable books together. Their books are totally hot and tend to give great story lines as well.

A Few Good Men is a collection of four stories about men who serve in the military and their lives back in their home country. Each story is relatively short, thus wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been, though issues were hastily resolved so that it wasn’t a total waste of time to read these four short stories.

The four absolutely hot men in these novels are Corporal Eric Armstrong, Corporal Eddie Cash, Lieutenant Matt Guerrero and Captain Brian Justice. From the four of these stories, I didn’t read Brian’s story because it didn’t seem to interest me that much. Of the three that I DID read, I would have to say I loved Eric’s story the best.

Eric, while on duty in Afghanistan/Iraq, starts meeting up with a woman online. And it turns out to be his best friend’s wife. His best friend was killed whilst on duty. This story, if it had been a long one, would have made a very satisfying read, although it wasn’t half bad as a short story.

Corporal Eddie has an affair with a woman whilst on leave, and goes back on duty to find out that she is pregnant with his child. Eddie’s story is pretty sweet considering how he tries to woo the mother of his child, without really knowing how to go about it, except for the fact that he is a pretty decent guy and wants to do everything according to his well laid out plan, which tends to backfire on him at moments. This too could have made a great story, but I wouldn’t wanted to have read it as a long novel.

Finally Matt’s story is slightly different, such that he is married and has three kids of whom two are teenagers. I felt that Matt’s story was too rushed, and there was really no resolution of the problems that both Matt and his wife had actually being having.

All in all, this book is a good read to pass the time. Could have been better if all books could have been published as full length novels.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: You’ve Got Male by Elizabeth Bevarly

Format: E-bookyouvegotmale.jpg
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Spy Quartet, Book 1
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Dixon
Heroine: Avery Nesbitt
First Published on: October 1, 2008
Started On: October 2009
Finished On: October 21, 2009

Being the first book that I have ever tried from this author, I would have to say that it was a pretty good read.

Avery Nesbitt, the heroine is this genius computer buff who created a virus that would have halted all cyber traffic across the world, and this too when she was a teenager by accident, her motive being to teach her cheating boyfriend a lesson he would  never forget, ends up doing time in jail. Her family, the overly wealthy Nesbitts, cut her off from that day onwards. After 2 years, being released from prison, Avery sets up her own techie firm and has been living alone with her cat, and suffers from agoraphobia i.e. the fear of being out in open spaces. Then she meets Mr. Supposedly prince charming online, whom she finds to be cheating on her again.

Unknown to Avery, Dixon, who works in this un-nameable organization set in the US government after 9/11, has been tracking her online activity without much success, because the one agent who went rogue on them is actually the Mr. Supposedly Prince Charming that Avery has been in contact with. Avery is taken into custody, a deal made with her, so that Dixon and Avery has to work together to bring this rogue agent to justice by luring him to meet Avery out in the open.

The story that follows is pretty charming and romantic as well. I got to learn a lot about this new phobia (since there are so many, one can never keep track of all of em’). Dixon is the super sexy type of hero that any heroine would fall in love with immediately. And throw into the mix the crazy Nesbitt family, you’ve got a hell of a novel on your hands.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Guilty Needs by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-bookGuilty Needs
Read with: Mobipocket Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Series: Standalone
Hero: Colby
Heroine: Bree
Date of Publication: September 19, 2008
Started On: October 10, 2009
Finished On: October 10, 2009

Shiloh Walker is absolutely one of my most favourite authors. Her books have a fantastic mix of emotions that can make you really cry, and throw into this wonderful sexy characters who know what they want and aren’t afraid to go after what they want. This is the THIRD time that I have read this book and it wouldn’t be a lie to say that I will most probably read this book again in the near future cos I just can’t seem to get enough of this wonderful story.

Bree, Colby and Alyssa are the main characters in this story. Bree and Alyssa have been the best of friends since childhood rather like sisters to one another. Colby is the shy introvert who bloomed late in life. Alyssa and Bree both notices him in high school, but Alyssa is the one who ends up going after him and eventually marries him.

All the while Bree, silently loving Colby all her life, stands on the sidelines, envying what Alyssa and Colby have together, but determined not to lose what she has got with Alyssa, never acts on her feelings. That is until, Alyssa gets diagnosed with rapidly advanced cancer and dies leaving behind a devastated husband and a beloved friend in great turmoil with Alyssa’s dying wish which strikes a chord of longing deep within her heart.

Guilty Needs is a very appropriate title for a book that is steeped in unvoiced longings and desires that just creates the most wonderful sexual tension that I absolutely reveled in. Colby finds that he has an attraction, (which is putting it mildly), towards his wife’s best friend which fires up all the guilt inside of him which makes him leave everything behind until he gets himself sorted out. 

This is a really moving story and the passion between these two scorches ones hard disk drives whilst reading. I highly recommend this book for all romance lovers and especially for those who love books from Shiloh Walker. I tell you, you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Wild Orchids By Karen Robards

Format: E-bookwild
Read with: MS Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Warner Books
Hero: John Roberts “Max” Maxwell
Heroine: Lora Harding
Published on: January 1, 1994
Started On: September 2, 2009
Finished On: September 2, 2009

For those who have read my last review (Island Flame by Karen Robards), I mentioned that the most favorite book of mine by this author is Wild Orchids which was the second book of this author that I tried. Writing the review for Island Flame and thinking about the book Wild Orchids, which I had previously read twice, made me stop the book Sea Fire in the middle (the second book  in the Pirates series) to read Wild Orchids once again, and sigh… I wasn’t disappointed! So here is my review for this special book, which most probably, I would end up reading AGAIN sometime in the near future.

This book starts when Lora, who is on vacation in Mexico, finds herself kidnapped at gun point by Max who is on the run for his life from the Mexican authorities. Max married previously, fought in the Vietnam war, and carries the emotional baggage of a war that turned pretty ugly. Lora, a teacher in a quiet town, engaged to a Mathematics teacher at her school, had been nursing her paralyzed mother for ten years or so, and was trying to enjoy a long awaited vacation after her mother dies of pneumonia leaving both her children with a bit of money, allowing Lora to splurge a bit on herself for a change.

Max, a strong alpha hero, from the moment he kidnaps Lora, who gives as good as she gets, has his hands full. Desperate attempts to escape which are thwarted at the last minute by Max, exasperates him endlessly, whilst Lora and Max start to feel the first stirrings of an attraction to one another that won’t be denied. The witty dialogue between Lora and Max never fails to amuse me.

Halfway through the novel, Max releases Lora to return back to wherever she came from, advising her not to go to the cops, when Lora just does the opposite and finds out that she really doesn’t want to turn Max over to  the authorities a moment too late and finds herself locked up. Max and his buddies rescue her from jail and in a harrowing chase, ends up on the plane which was to take them away from the hell hole. However, fate had different plans, when the plane crashes in the midst of the thick jungle, leaving one of Max’s buddies dead, and the other Tunafish (Theodre) with a broken ankle.  Max finds out that who loaned him the plane had double crossed him, and in fact the plane was full of millions of dollars worth of dope.

The story that unfolds is fast paced, filled with action, humor and moments of glorious passion between these two strong willed characters which you can’t put down till you have read the last line. My only peeve with this book is even the first time that I read this book, I thought that Lora didn’t make Max suffer enough before succumbing, which is a problem with most of the romance books. Maybe my ultra feminine side doesn’t like the fact that the heroine suffers so much throughout the novel, and in the end the hero just has to crook his finger in the “come to me” motion and the heroine just forgets every little thing that the hero puts her through and swoons on the confession of ultimate love, desire and marriage. However, even though the ending may not satisfy me 100%, I still love this great book and would continue to re-read it from time to time.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Blue-eyed Devil By Lisa Kleypas

Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Series: Travises, Book 2
Hero: Hardy Cates
Heroine: Haven Travis
First Published on: March 25, 2008
Started On: August 16, 2009
Finished On: August 17, 2009

Yep, I have been bitten by the Lisa Kleypas bug that’s been going round! I guess it’s been going round only in the areas that I tend to move around.  But ladies, if you do start reading this fascinating novel, I assure you that you wouldn’t want to put it down and miss even one delicious bit of the novel. I think this is the second contemporary romance that this author has written. And unlike other authors who tend to mess things up by foraying into contemporary romance after writing historicals, I would say that Kleypas has clinched the deal well. Although I am not much of a fan for stories written in the first person, I would say that this novel didn’t present any such difficulties when reading.

Although I never read the first book in this series of sorts, Sugar Daddy, which I aim to rectify asap, Kleypas doesn’t make it too difficult to understand the Travis’s (heroines) family and the conflicts as well as the complex relationships within. Hardy the hero, too was first introduced in Sugar Daddy, when he won a business deal that could have benefited Travis’s family business. Hardy grew up in the slums, with an abusive father who was in and out of jail during his childhood. Growing up, wanting to be something more, he worked from the ground up to become a self-made millionaire whereas Haven grew up in the luxurious lap of family money. However, all was not roses in Haven’s life. Haven gets married to her first boyfriend Nick against her father’s wishes who cuts her off his will reasoning that Nick was only after her money. Haven moves to Dallas with her husband Nick who turns out to be a narcissist, who abuses her emotionally and at last physically throughout the marriage, until at last Haven leaves him.

Getting a divorce and moving on seems harder than Haven thought after the abusive relationship she had gone through. Then she meets Hardy once again, whom she had met at Greg (Haven’s brother) and Liberties wedding where Haven had accidentally made out with Hardy mistaking him for Nick in the wine cellar at her home. Fate brings these two people together again and both struggle with the demons of their past to conquer the feelings that they have for one another and at long last find love that could last forever.

This ain’t just a love story. This book details the horrifying circumstances a woman has to face in an abusive relationship and the strength and love it requires to overcome such scars in life. I believe that Kleypas has done a splendid job with this story. I will try and get my hands on the 1st and 3rd book in this ‘series’ and write down a review as soon as I can.

Sadly, there is only one more unread Kleypas novel in my collection at the moment. Better sink my teeth into it!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | MacMillan

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Where Rainbows End By Cecelia Ahern

Format: Paperback
Opens with: NA
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Series: Standalone
Hero: Alex
Heroine: Rosie
Published On: November 2004
Read on: July 25, 2009

This book from the author of P.S. I love you is a sweet read that clutches at your heart. Totally different from other styles of writing, this story is told in the forms of correspondences that take place between the main characters in the story.

Rosie and Alex are childhood friends who grow up together till Alex has to move away due to his father getting a better job offer in US. However, Rosie’s and Alex’s friendship does not grow weaker, instead they seem to develop feelings for each other which does not reach a fruitful conclusion till the very end of the novel by which time Alex and Rosie are in their 50’s and a whole lifetime has passed without them being together.

Rosie survives a teenage pregnancy, brings her daughter up all by herself, gets married and gets cheated on by her husband who cheats her out of the chance of finding out that Alex too did have feelings for her. Alex too survives two marriages and two kids before they both find each other.

Notes scribbled in class, SMS text messages, emails, letters and postcards make up this whole novel. I would recommend this for all true romance lovers out there!

Purchase Links: Amazon | AbeBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heat of the Storm By Elle Kennedy

Format: E-bookheat
Read with: MS Reader
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Series: Out of Uniform, Book 3
Hero: Lieutenant Will Charleston
Heroine: Mackenzie Wade
Published On: July 2009
Read on: July 29, 2009

Will and Mac have been best friends since they were 15 years old with Will having the hots for Mac since they met. While Will stays in top shape (has a body to die for!!) and puts his life in danger being a SEAL, Mac is a psychic who has had a sad turn in every relationship that she has been in. The latest breakup finally propels her into Will’s arms.

This story been refreshingly different, does not portray the guy to be tortured and cynical, but rather Mac who has issues with trusting men to accept her with her psychic abilities.

The sex is scorching and insanely HOT. The storyline good enough for such a short novel. Its interesting how for once, an author has attempted to write a novel where the guy goes for what he wants from the beginning of the story rather than the heroine who always takes whatever shit the hero has in store for her (not that I don’t enjoy those types of novels).

It takes much more than scorching sex to convince Mac that Will is the one for her. It was funny reading about how Will’s friend’s fiance helps him along in making Mac jealous after Mac tries to ignore the fact that they both had the best sex of their lives when the story begins.

If you want a read hot read with a satisfying ending, I would recommend it for you. This author is one I would keep my eye on from now on. 

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Samhain | Fictionwise | Kobo

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