Category / Forbidden Love

Falling in love between hero and heroine considered forbidden within society or in the hero or heroine’s perspective.
Eg: During the colonial times, love between an aristocrat and an ex-convict was considered forbidden.

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Beg Me by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-bookbegme
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Drake Bennett
Heroine: Tania Sinclair
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: November 19, 2010
Started On: November 19, 2010
Finished On: November 20, 2010

Ever since Ms. Walker announced on Twitter that she had an upcoming contemporary erotic romance release titled “Beg Me” and that she was going to release it on Smashwords, I have been on tenterhooks so to say, awaiting eagerly for its release. One reason being that I love books by Ms. Walker as her titles ALWAYS deliver what they promise and also because regardless of the fact that I love all sorts of romances, contemporary romance is the genre I prefer above everything else. And so onto my review I go, of this very different title by Ms. Walker, which I couldn’t put down since I loaded it onto my Kindle around 2 hours back.

Tania Sinclair is a woman who is haunted by the death of her husband Kyle Sinclair, and 3 years on what devastates her more than anything else is the fact that Kyle’s identical twin brother Kent had ruined all of the good memories that she had stocked up on her beloved husband who had embraced the rough and kinky side of her that craves for the not your usual type of sex, but rather role playing of a bit more kinkier variety. It doesn’t help matters when her ex-mother-in-law Gail Sinclair blames her for the deaths of not one but two of her sons, something Tania would much rather prefer feeling than the emptiness that she had been living with since that fateful night two years back.

Sick and tired of being unable to enjoy what she wants to enjoy, Tania turns to the one man who she knows she can trust enough to deliver on all counts. Drake Bennett, Kyle’s best friend since childhood, someone who had come to mean a lot to Tania as well all through the years. Though Kyle nor Tania has a clue, Drake had fallen in love with his best friend’s girl when they had just been dating and Drake knows that his heart and soul would belong to Tania though he knows that she is far from getting over that nightmarish night that had put those deep shadows in her eyes.

When Tania proposes that Drake ease her back into the world of sensual delights and give her back the one thing that she craves more than anything else, Drake who can never  say no to the woman he loves gives in, knowing that if all Tania wants from him is just sex of the rough and kinky variety that she sometimes craves, his heart would just break into pieces when he would have to walk away from it all. But as Tania learns from Drake’s first touch itself, the feelings that he invokes even with a graze of his fingers on her skin creates total havoc on her senses and the answering need that she sees deep within Drake’s eyes acts as the most soothing healing balm of all on her tattered heart and soul.

As the title itself is testament enough, this story contains material that would prove offensive to certain readers. Role playing which includes playing out of rape fantasies take place within this story and so if you are the type of person who does not like such content in your erotica then this book is not for you.

Apart from this book being one of the most different books that I have read to date, I liked the “forbidden love” aspect of the story as in Drake loving and lusting after the wife of his best friend, but being honorable enough never to cross that line when Kyle had been around. And even when the playing field had evened out, Drake had bided his time until Tania had been the one to approach him and initiate things to take their platonic relationship to the next level. I absolutely loved Drake as the hero because even with all the intensely wicked role playing that was going on, he still managed to show his tenderness and love for Tania through his actions. The way Drake breaks down during the last couple of scenes just damn near broke my heart, and made me love him even more in the end.Though I enjoyed reading this highly unusual romance, I do wish that Ms. Walker had included some scenes of “normal” or rather tender love scenes between Drake and Tania that would have balanced out the story in the end.

I would recommend this for readers who can withstand their erotica with more than the usual rough and kinky sex, and for those who are fans of Ms. Walker’s contemporary erotic romances.

Kudos to Ms. Walker for pulling it off with a story such as this one, and I can’t help but wish for more contemporaries from her, which I keep bugging her about now and then on Twitter.

Favorite Quotes

“Can you make it so I can’t remember?”
His throat went tight, He could barely manage to breathe. Slipping out of his booth, he moved to sit next to her. She leaned against him with a sigh. “No, baby. I can’t. I would if I could, though. I’d take it all away if I could.”
She sniffled. Then she sighed and reached down, touching his inner forearm, tracing a fingernail over the skin there, along the lines of his tattoo. The stylized S. “You would, wouldn’t you, Superman?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her brow. “I’d undo the past three years for you if I could figure out a way.”
“How about you just keep holding me for a little while instead?”
“Yeah.” He breathed in the scent of her hair, felt the crack in his heart widen. “I can do that.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Fire And Ice by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookfireandice
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Ice, Book 5
Publisher: MIRA
Hero: Hiromasa Shinoda
Heroine: Jillian Lovitz
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: May 1, 2008
Started On: November 18, 2010
Finished On: November 18, 2010

As all good things in life do come to an end, so I have reached the end of this highly entertaining romantic suspense series by Anne Stuart. Though I still definitely yearn for more of Ms. Stuart’s heroes, I would have to dig through some of her other books to find the fix that I am craving for even now. I hear that her House of Rohan series is really good and I am definitely going to try them out, as soon as I catch my breathe from the latest roller-coaster ride that I just disembarked from.

The Hero: 27 year old Hiromasa Shinoda or Reno is hardly one’s typical romance book hero. Reno is cousins with Takashi O’Brien, hero of the 3rd book in the Ice series which I reviewed earlier. Readers who have read or are reading the series in order would have come across Reno in Takashi’s story, and even then I found myself intrigued with the complexity of his character. Half-American and half-Japanese as well, Reno is the grandson of the head of the infamous Yakuza family, a family steeped in organized crime in Japan. Reno’s complexity doesn’t come from his mixed heritage, but rather the mass of contradictions that he actually is. Whilst Hiromasa Shinoda looks respectable and is a man with a high IQ with a degree in Engineering, the darker and edgier side of him known as Reno can most well be described as a punk Yakuza gangster. With long spiky hair that falls well below his waist colored in crimson red, and two teardrop tattoos on his high cheekbones and hard-ass attitude, Reno is the ultimate bad boy with a deep rooted animosity towards American women as his own American mother had abandoned him once she had grown tired of playing Yakuza royalty. Serving as the Committee’s newest recruit, Reno hardly fits in with the typical Committee material but shows his true potential when things turned quite rough in Ice Storm, the 4th book of the series.

The Heroine: Jillian Lovitz or Jilly as she is called by everyone close to her is 20 years old and a genius who has never had the chance to experience the stuff that normal childhoods are made up of. With a high IQ that had refused to sit idle whilst she experienced life, Jilly had graduated from high school when she had been fifteen, college when she was eighteen had never had the chance to develop normal relationships. With big brown eyes, a wide mouth and short blond hair and well around 6 feet tall, Jilly had always felt more like a giant around her five foot something, petite mother who had acted more like a spoiled child herself than an adult all her life. Jilly’s one solace in life had been Summer her half-sister who had always looked out for her and mothered her whom she misses terribly since she married Takashi and moved to Japan.

Storyline: It is Jilly’s yearning to experience life and the need to divest herself of her status as a virgin that ends in a disastrous one night stand which propels her to fly to Japan to drown her sorrows in the arms of Summer. However, unbeknown to Jilly, Takashi and Summer had gone into hiding to escape a bunch of mercenary killers who were gunning for their lives. And it is Reno who rides to her rescue on a mean looking Harley and whisks her away to safety whilst Jilly’s heart acknowledges the fact that in reality she had come to Japan wanting to seek Reno out, the man who had fueled all her adolescent dreams for the past two years. This time rather than international terrorists out to take the world, the danger that surrounds them rises too close to home for comfort and it will take every ounce of Reno’s willpower to keep his hands of Jilly whilst they run for their lives dodging killers and bullets as they race through Japan trying to figure out who and why they have been targeted.

The First Encounter: Jilly and Reno’s first encounter takes place at the end of Ice Blue, the story of Summer Hawthorne and Takashi O’Brien. Even with his deep rooted animosity towards American women, Reno is helplessly ensnared right from the first moment he lays his reluctant eyes on Jilly.

Time period: This story has a contemporary setting and takes place in the UK, Japan and later in the US.

Narrative Form: This story is told in the 3rd person form in both Reno and Jilly’s point of view for the main part of the story.

Awareness between the hero and heroine: What drew me to this story in the first place was the attraction that flares between Reno and Jilly at the end of Ice Blue. Even back then, Takashi and Summer had realized what was happening and had taken steps to avert someone like Reno from taking advantage of an innocent like Jilly. However that had not stopped either of them from dreaming about the other or wanting the other. Though Reno’s yearnings had been more sexual in nature whilst Jilly’s had been more dreamlike in nature, it is the white hot and undeniable attraction between the two that Reno certainly doesn’t want any part of that makes this book so damn attractive. Whilst Jilly spins dreams of the possibility of a happily ever after with the ultimate bad boy Reno, Reno is determined to keep his hands off from Jilly because he knows that she is more trouble than it is worth. But when push comes to shove and Reno has to keep Jilly safe, the close proximity proves to be Reno’s undoing where Jilly is concerned which makes this read truly worthwhile.

The turning point: Reno is someone who likes older women for the fact that they are more experienced and bring less unwanted emotion into the picture. But when he is unable to let go of the memory of the one encounter that brought him close to Jilly for the next two years, Reno knows that he is in more trouble than he had ever anticipated. With an all grown up Jilly getting up close and personal with him, it takes Reno everything he has to keep his hands off, until need obliterates everything else. For Jilly who has spun all her adolescent dreams on Reno it is just a matter of time before she hits the point of no return where Reno is concerned.

Likes:

  1. Hiromasa Shinoda. As I said earlier in my review, the complex nature of his character is one of the main reasons that made me race through this story at such a fast pace. I loved the fact that he alternated between being the good and nerdy Hiromasa and the ultimate bad boy Reno whilst the bad boy wins most of the time. Whilst his bad boy Harley riding image appeals on so many levels to my slutty inner self, it is the medium between the two that made me fall for him in the end.
  2. Jillian Lovitz. She is such a treat to read about. Her positive optimism when it comes to Reno is what made me love her. Even though at times Reno’s words and actions cut deep, and Jilly keeps telling herself that familiarity with Reno would breed contempt and in the end she wouldn’t feel so vulnerable with Reno, it is Jilly who identifies the fact that it is not that Reno doesn’t feel anything for her but rather he is terrified of just how much he feels when it comes to Jilly.
  3. The premise of the story. I loved discovering tidbits about Japan and their customs and lifestyle. In fact it made me even search up on the Internet on some of the stuff that I came across in this novel such as the Japanese Capsule hotels and the Meiji Shrine. For someone who has always held the view that Japan is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, reading about it in this novel just drove home the point that I need to do some traveling ASAP.
  4. The element of forbidden love in this story. Throughout the whole of Ice series, it has been the nature of their jobs as employees of The Committee that had kept the heroes/heroines unable to face the fact that even they are vulnerable enough to fall in love when it comes to  the right person. However, Reno and Jilly’s story is different such that Reno tries to keep his hands off of Jilly not because he doesn’t want her, but rather because he had promised his cousin’s wife that he would stay away from her and for someone like Reno, family loyalty comes before anything else.
  5. And oh yes, even though totally unrelated, I loved listening to Breaking Benjamin’s latest album Dear Agony all throughout when I was reading this book. The music just brought something extra to the story which is hard for me to explain but nevertheless played an important role in enhancing my enjoyment of a story well spun.

Dislikes:

Again, what’s with these abrupt endings? I just don’t get it! The story flows so smoothly, you ache for the hero and heroine to get their happily ever after, and wham bam thank you maam, the ending just comes out of nowhere and slaps you on the face something fierce. I so dearly wish this weren’t so. I mean it would be nice just to leave us readers with a healthy dose of an epilogue (even a page or two would suffice) to tide us over and take with us images of the ending we had envisioned right through the story. *glum sigh*

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of Anne Stuart.
  2. Fans of romantic suspense. Even though this is part of a series it can be read as a standalone.
  3. Fans of the Ice Series by Anne Stuart.

Favorite Quotes

Snap out of it, Reno!  he told himself. You’ve just managed to rid her of any romantic notions. Don’t blow it by thinking with your dick again.
The funny thing was, it wasn’t his dick that was giving him trouble. Yeah, for some crazy reason he still wanted to screw her when he should be concentrating on other things. But even more, he wanted her lying on the narrow cot with him, her body crammed up against his, her arms around him, her face against his shoulder, her heart beating against his.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor

Format: Paperbackwhspers
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ivy Books
Hero: Lucas Gallagher
Heroine: Jesmond Corbett (Jessie)
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication:  July 3, 2001
Started On: September 23, 2010
Finished On: September 24, 2010

This story is set in Tasmania in the Australian continent in the 1800’s, a time during which this picturesque island witnessed the most shudderingly brutal excesses of the British convict system according to the Author’s note at the end of the book. I have read a couple of books set in Australia during this time period some of which I have reviewed previously.

Jesmond Corbett (Jessie) returns to her beloved home known as Corbetts Castle  in Tasmania after spending two years studying Geology at the Ladies Academy of Science in London. Engaged since childhood to marry Harrison Winthrop Tate, childhood friend and the only son of their closest neighbors, Jessie is glad to come home even though the thought that her robust and energetic father who had died 3 weeks after she had left to London and wouldn’t be there to welcome her with open arms saddens her.

Anselm and Beatrice Corbett had had 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys out of which the youngest of each were the only ones who were alive. Whilst Cecil and Reid Corbett had both died horrific deaths, one at the hands of the merciless sea that surrounds the island and the other at the hands of the rogue Aborigines, the sisters Jane and Catherine Corbett had succumbed to the effects of Scarlet fever. Beatrice who was strictly British and upheld the iron control on her emotions that the British were famous for had always let the fact be known that she had adored the 4 children who had died more than Warrick and Jessie, both of whom had always been a trifle wild and harder to bend to the rules of the society.

Jessie knows that no matter how hard she tries to please her mother by molding herself into something she is not her mother Beatrice would never be completely happy or satisfied with her efforts. And when upon her return she lays eyes on Lucas Gallagher, an Irish convict who sets her pulse racing with the danger and wildness that seems an integral part of him, Jessie instinctively knows that Lucas answers some deep calling within her that yearns to be set free.

Lucas is a man hell bent on escaping the harsh life he had had to endure as a convict up until now. Lucas is a man far too proud to ever accept the fact that he is not his own master and the thought that he would practically die as a slave in the wilderness of Tasmania makes him more determined that he would escape or die trying. But when he lays eyes on the beautiful Jesmond Corbett, a woman who is forbidden to him on so many levels within the society he was forced to live in changes everything.

No matter how hard Jessie or Lucas tries to deny the intense connection between them, they find themselves helpless in the need to be with one another. Lucas tries his damnedest to say no to what his heart clamors for when Jessie looks at him with those beautiful blue eyes of hers, but one forbidden kiss flares every need that he has ruthlessly tamped down til now.

Once Jessie had tasted passion in Lucas’s arms, she knows that there is no going back and that marriage to Harrison who was as rigid in his views on the proper behavior of genteel women in the society as Beatrice would mean a slow death for the passionate and vibrant woman that she is. But then again, there is always a heady price one has to pay for indulging in the forbidden desires of the heart and both Lucas and Jessie would have to love and trust one another beyond anything comparable in order to triumph over all obstacles in their way, to embrace a love as fierce as the wilderness that surrounds them.

A story so beautifully written that you cannot help but be ensnared by the magic it slowly weaves on you, Candice Proctor surely knows her stuff with the beautiful characters she creates. I am just sad that she doesn’t write romances of this kind anymore because she is so good at creating the most beautiful love stories and Night in Eden is a testament to her glaringly obvious talent in this regard.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Abe Books

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Yule Be Mine by Jennifer LaBrecque

Format: E-bookyule
Read with: Adobe Reader & Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Forbidden Fantasies, #11
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Sam Kendrick
Heroine: Giselle Simone Randolph
Sensuality: 2.9
Date of Publication: November 22, 2008
Started On: September 22, 2010
Finished On: September 22, 2010

My first book by Jennifer LaBrecque started out pretty good and somehow lost its luster towards the end. The setting of the story is certainly a unique one, quite appropriate in fact for a series entitled as Forbidden Fantasies.

Giselle Randolph meets her younger sister Helene’s husband Sam Kendrick on the Christmas Eve after they both eloped and got married in Las Vegas which was preceded by a courtship of 6 whirlwind weeks upon meeting one another at a resort in the Caymans. In the Randolph family, Helene has always been the beautiful one, the one to whom the male species seemed to be endlessly drawn to whilst Giselle took after her father’s side of the family and had always been the responsible and the studious one.

Sam, a professional photographer now, had grown up as a bastard child with a single mother in public housing and had always had a need a to prove himself by always having the best. When he had encountered beautiful Helene at the resort whilst shooting for a brochure as a favor for a friend, Helene whose beauty had drawn everyone’s eyes around her had made her seem like the ideal wife material for Sam, that is until he walks into a kitchen filled with homely Christmas smells and encounters Giselle with her long brown hair and freckled nose with a bit of flour on her face looking like the hottest mess that Sam had ever encountered.

Giselle cannot believe herself when she responds on such a base level to her younger sister’s husband. The flare of attraction that leaps between the two is undeniable from the start and though both try to ignore the fact somehow Sam cannot help thinking that he ended up marrying the wrong sister just two days after his honeymoon.

The story takes off again, two years later, nearly a week before Christmas Eve with Giselle working for the Life Trendz Magazine and busily preparing for her assignment in Sedona where a new age guru was claiming that on the third day after the winter solstice there was an incredible spike at the energy vortexes in Sedona which helped people fall in love. Giselle had one ulterior motive apart from getting a good story for the magazine; to once and for all get over Sam Kendrick by finding someone else to share her life with the help of the energy vortexes, if that is what it took.

Everyone else thought that Giselle wanted to get over her recent divorce from Barry Treadway, who had been Giselle’s escape route from the intense and forbidden attraction that had played havoc with her hormones and feelings for her sister’s husband. But Sam and Helene’s marriage had lasted only 8 months before Sam had strayed and Helene was now happily married to Danny, a college buddy of Sam’s. The Randolphs were pretty much in line with the opinion that Sam was scum for the way he had treated Helene, though Giselle’s treacherous heart still longed for him.

When Giselle lets Dareen, her friend and photographer at the magazine know about her feelings for Sam during a moment of drunken oblivion, Darren contrives to bring these two together and backs out of the assignment to Sedona which Giselle and himself were to go together. Instead the object of every erotic fantasy Giselle has had for the past two years is to accompany her on the trip, a trip which she had started out with the very intention of forgetting the man who was to be her companion.

Sam wants a chance to test whether the connection that he was sure that they both had felt two years ago was worth something looking into. The flare of reluctant desire in Giselle’s eyes proves to him that she is not as immune to Sam as she would like to be, though the shady truth about how his marriage to Helene ended keeps Giselle at a distance that Sam would like to eradicate once and for all.

With a little magic in a place filled with all the right kinds of energy, Sam and Giselle finally give into the red hot desire that they had felt for one another right from the start. An amulet which tunes Sam into Giselle’s every erotic fantasy certainly helps him along in his intention to be Giselle’s love slave for the trip. And suddenly both Sam and Giselle know that they both want more than just three days together, but rather a lifetime of happiness with one another, but Giselle has to overcome her insecurities and fears about her relationship with Helene’s ex-husband before that is possible.

As I said earlier, this book did start out with a bang and in the end, the heat and steam just wasn’t enough for me. I expected more fireworks from two people who have had a longing and desire for one another for such a long time, and forbidden desires at that. With a little more heat between the two, this could have been a great read. So in the end, it was a disappointed me who finished the story, but all in all not a bad read.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Forbidden Fruit by Anne Rainey

Format: E-bookAnne Rainey - Forbidden Fruit_pic0001
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Red Sage Publishing Incorporated
Hero: Luke McGiffin
Heroine: Ava Sweet
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: April 2, 2008
Started On: September 20, 2010
Finished On: September 20, 2010

I read my first Anne Rainey book ages ago. Ever since I joined Twitter and found Ms. Rainey there as well, I have had a hankering to read one of her books. And because there is nothing like a short novella to spice you up in every way possible, I chose to go ahead with this book which features a hot as sin hero and a heroine who is more than his match in bed and out of it.

Ava Sweet has had a hankering for the dark haired, leather jacket wearing Luke McGriffin ever since the McGriffins had moved into her town when Ava had been a senior in high school. Luke had been every girl’s hottest dreams personified and though Ava who had always been a tomboy and been more comfortable as a track star and basketball MVP of Green Valley High School and scoffed at the idea of women swooning all over Luke, secretly she too had yearned to be taken in his arms to experience the hard, fast and hot loving that Ava knows only Luke can give her.

Now a veterinarian assistant, Ava is called to Luke’s place because he had found a cat on his front porch and didn’t know what  to do with it. Ava overhears her best friend’s brother and the star of her wicked fantasies respond to his best friend Pete Redding’s observation that Ava is hot with incredulity. Ava is shaken to the core to hear her worst fears confirmed – that Luke would never see her as a desirable woman with her own needs and desires. Before she knows it, Ava stalks in, claims the cat, kisses Pete senseless and agrees to a date with him next Friday and knees Luke in his balls before stalking out.

Jen McGriffin, Ava’s best friend and captain of the cheerleader team in high school can barely contain her glee when Ava plans to get a makeover to show Luke what he has been missing all these years. Jen is going to make sure that before the night is through, Luke would be down on his knees begging Ava to come home with him. But Luke isn’t as immune to Ava as Ava thinks he is. Having wanted her from the first day he had walked into high school and seen her, and knowing Ava to be quite the headstrong and independent woman she is, Luke had steered clear of her and sowed his wild oats elsewhere always thinking that Ava would wait around till he is done and ready to commit to her. But knowing that Ava, the woman who is the most prominent figure in his wildest dreams is about to go on a date with his best friend makes Luke livid with jealousy.

The coming together of Luke and Ava is searingly hot and I enjoyed reading every minute of their encounter. It’s always good to see the bad boy lose control of his emotions and fall in love. Since this is a novella, I didn’t expect much from the storyline, but even then, if this story could have been a bit longer, I bet it would have completely knocked my socks off! Now who wouldn’t want a bad boy like Luke McGriffin I wonder! ;)

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Just My Type by Erin Nicholas

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: The Bradfords, Book 3
Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd.
Hero: Jason MacDonald Gordon
Heroine: Sara Bradford
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: September 14, 2010
Started On: September 16, 2010
Finished On: September 17, 2010

My first Erin Nicholas book was certainly a delightful surprise. I came across this title when I entered the Samhain Publishing website on a whim. The hot cover itself made me salivate over the book, and in the end the book synopsis was enough to lure me away from my HUGE to-be-read pile and indulge in this tale which enchanted me on so many levels.

At first, when I started on the book I thought this would be the typical romance where the forbidden younger sister of your best friend is taboo forever, and the illicit longings that still continue to rage the hero no matter how much he tries to prevent those feelings finally take a turn and they would end up having wall-banging sex, some trivial problem would crop up now and again until they attain their happily ever after. But this story offered so much more than just your typical erotica romance. The sex scenes were hot but did not take the center stage of the novel, which made me appreciate the encounters between the two more.

This is the 3rd book in the The Bradfords series by the author. The Bradfords family comprises of Sam, Jessica and Sara of which Sara is the youngest and thus the child who was cosseted most by the rest and Sam’s best friends Jason McDonald Gordon (Mac), Kevin and Dooley. Sara’s mother had walked out when she had been a baby and her father had been killed when he had interrupted a burglary at Jessica’s apartment when Sara had just been 10 years old. Since then, Sara had been taken care of Sam and Jessica and Sam’s circle of friends who were as protective of her as they would be of their own family. Now 25 years old, Sara is determined that she is going to make Mac and her together forever a reality, even if it has to be her that has to take the first step.

Mac who is 12 years older than Sara and 7 years senior to Sam should know better than to make his best friend’s youngest sister the object of every erotic desire he has had for the past couple of years. Mac knows that he is not the type of man that Sara needs and he is determined that he would not betray the trust that his best friend has in him that he wouldn’t cross the line and do something stupid where Sara is concerned. But all his best laid plans go awry when a very determined Sara climbs into his lap and kisses him senseless at Sam and Dani’s wedding reception, a sight that doesn’t go unseen by a very pissed off looking Sam who Mac manages to convince that he is not looking to start anything with Sara. To drive home the point with Sara who is busily imagining all sorts of fun she could have with the object of her desires, Mac makes out with another woman and makes sure that Sara would walk in on them, a plan that works too well in driving Sara away when she ups and leaves to the Carribean, all alone for the very first time in her life.

When Mac hears that Sara has left and the letter that Sara leaves for him propels him to seek her out from where she is at. The letter drives home images of a wild and uninhibited Sara ready for his type of loving rather than the sweet and innocent version of Sara, a change that Sara is determined to bring about in her plans to entice the man who means everything to her in this world.

Somehow, Mac’s hands-off policy doesn’t seem to work very well where Sara is concerned. When Mac realizes that Sara would not give up on her aim of seducing him into her life forever, and no matter how many dirty tricks Mac pulled out of his sleeve she would not be thwarted, Mac does the only thing he believes would change her mind about him forever, marry her and show her just how unsuited they are for one another.

But as it is the norm with Sara, she manages to surprise him by adjusting well to life in Oscar, Mac’s hometown which is a far cry from Omaha where Sara had grown up and where all her friends and family resided. Sara who has always been a little bit spoiled, cocooned and overprotected all her life suddenly finds herself having to work hard at making friends, and in the process finds out a lot about herself and what she wants in life. Though Mac at first tries to stay away from Sara and what her delectable body offers, in the end its a battle that he loses when he professes to Sam that he is in love with Sara and plans to make her happy for the rest of her life.

In the end, what Mac thinks that Sara wants and needs are actually very different from what Sara actually wants and desires. Mac refuses to treat Sara anything less than the way she deserves to be treated in bed and out of it, though Sara craves to make Mac lose his iron-willed control over his emotions that makes Sara feel that she is missing out on a lot. Mac’s refusal to really listen and understand the desires of the one woman who makes his heart melt all over finally drives them apart, just like Mac planned before everything became so complicated and he wanted Sara permanently in his life.

What I loved most about this novel is the depth of character development that takes place throughout. Sara, who at first I imagined would live up to her princess image surprised me the most by being plucky, strong, sassy and being unafraid of going after what she wanted. The woman she grows into in spite of all the protective forces that surround her is a woman who ought to be admired. And Mac certainly makes for a yummy hero, who just needed a knock on his head now and then to let him know just how much he was missing out on by thinking that he knew what Sara needed and wanted. All in all I loved this delightfully surprisingly good story. Though the cover art is steamy hot, I just wanted to point out that Mac is described as someone who had shaved his head bald for as long as Sara had known him, but the guy on the cover has a shitload of hair on his head, if I am not blind! ;)

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shades of Twilight by Linda Howard

Format: E-bookShades of twilight
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Pocket
Hero: Webb Tallant
Heroine: Roanna Davenport
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: September 1, 1997
Started On: September 14, 2010
Finished On: September 16, 2010

As Catherine Coulter says on the cover of the book, Linda Howard is definitely an author who makes all our senses come alive with her cleverly spun romances. All my senses were on red alert from the start till I read the very last line of the book. No author does alpha heroes better than Linda Howard and that my fellow readers, is a fact.

Shades of Twilight is a story that is focused on  the Southern, rich and generations old Davenports family. The story kicks off when Roanna Davenport is just a mere 7 years old, Jessamine (Jessie) 13 years old and Webb Tallant 7 years older than Roanna who are all 1st or 2nd cousins. Roanna’s parents along with Aunt Janet who had been Jessie’s mother are killed in a car crash rendering their grandmother, the strong head of the household Lucinda mourning the loss of two of her children in one day. The Davenports resided in a mansion like house called as  the Davencourt, which Lucinda ruled and managed over. Though Webb is not a Davenport, he comes from Lucinda’s side of the family and she loves him and sees the strength in him that would make him the best choice to lead Davencourt in the years to come.

Whilst grandma Lucinda adored the beautiful Jessie where Roanna never did learn how to be graceful and always had a way of finding trouble where ever it may be, Roanna was afraid for the most part that the death of her parents would mean that she would be sent away. But in the end, grandma Lucinda overrides the discussion by stating that both Jessie and Roanna would live at the Davencourt. Even from that very tender age, Roanna hero worships Webb and the ground he walks on. Webb always had time for her, played with her and in general made her feel better than anyone else in the family.

But Roanna knows that as destiny has decided, Webb would take control of the Davencourt and from the way his eyes possessively roamed over Jessie, he would claim her as well. Spoiled to the core and illegitimate, Jessie had always resented Roanna for the fact that Webb always seemed to stand up for her and protect Roanna from Jessie’s bullying. The only place where Roanna feels any comfort is with the horses that the Davenports breed and there she blossoms and blooms like a flower starving for sunlight.

When Roanna turned 15, Webb and Jessie had married leaving Roanna heartbroken. Two years pass by and everyone at Davencourt knows that the marriage is far from a happy one. With Webb thrust into the cutthroat world of business whilst at the same time attaining his masters, he had little time for the tantrums that seemed to be a daily part of Jessie’s life upon her discovery that she is not able to control Webb like she does with other people who surround her life. And when she starts her illicit little affair with her own birth father, Jessie can barely keep her glee to herself. Meeting her father at hours for a time during the day, it is on one such day that Roanna follows Jessie and comes upon Jessie and her mystery lover whilst going at it like a bunch of animals. Angered beyond belief and hurt on behalf of Webb, Roanna makes her way home vowing never to tell Webb what she had witnessed.

That night, things take a turn when Webb who always badgers Roanna about how little food she intakes, offers her comfort in his arms. An innocent embrace slowly spirals out of control when Webb who has never seen Roanna as anything else other than a sister finds himself fiercely aroused, and a kiss initiated by Roanna has both of them nearly out of control when Jessie walks in on them and starts shrieking the house down. Jessie eventually manipulates the turn of evens to make it sound as if Roanna had deliberately tried to set up the scene in the kitchen so that Jessie would walk in on them, and the loathing and anger that Roanna sees in Webb’s eyes breaks her heart to pieces.

The mother of all arguments that Webb and Jessie has that night ends when Webb walks out fed up of Jessie and their marriage. And it is Roanna who walks into their room later to find her murdered, with her head bashed in. The whole family is quick to blame Roanna who the police rule out from the very beginning. In the end, Webb is their number 1 suspect, though his airtight alibi doesn’t allow the police much room for conviction. That night, everything changes in their family. Webb who had always been the darling golden boy of the family comes under accusations and the one time he needs his family, except his mother and another aunt, all his family turn their backs on him. Roanna does try to offer him comfort, only to be rebuffed in front of everyone else, which finally shatters her completely. Finally, with the investigation over with, Webb walks out on the family, never looking back.

Ten years later, Lucinda begs Roanna to bring Webb back home. Lucinda needs to make her peace with Webb, and hand over the reins of the  business to him as cancer is slowly taking her over. The ten years had left its toll on Roanna  as well. Gone was the coltish, exuberant girl brimming with energy and mischief. In her place was a cool, remote young woman who never hurried, never lost her temper, seldom smiled and much less laughed out loud. n her mind, she had been worthless and unlovable as she had been when Webb had rejected her apology and the comfort she had offered at Jessie’s funeral. So she had destroyed herself and built a new person who doesn’t feel much, and goes through the daily routine of life like an automated machine. The act of convincing Webb to come back to Davencourt stirs the only emotion that she had felt in 10 long years and Roanna knows that she would never fall out of love with the man who had captured her heart so completely when she was a mere child.

Webb, who has made something of himself in Arizona is shocked by the classy woman who stands in front of him. Vivid erotic encounters featuring him and Roanna had kept much of his dreams occupied and Webb’s control finally breaks and he makes it a condition that Roanna have sex with him for his return to Davenport, an act that he deeply regrets next morning when he discovers that he wants Roanna to come to him on her own terms rather than him forcing her.

Webb’s return to Davencourt is hardly met with applause from the rest of the family who sometime or the other have slowly moved into Davencourt and were leeching off Lucinda. It is upon his return that Webb learns just how close Roanna had come to losing her life and the thought that he would not have known about it leaves him weak with fear. A love that had unfurled as that of a love of a brother towards sister had changed into something else on that fateful night when all their lives had taken an unimaginable turn. And Webb was determined that he would make Roanna his, and prove to her that she belonged with him, as he surely belonged to her.

Amidst his return, the killer who had laid dormant all those years return with a vengeance, to finish off what was started that fateful night 10 years back. A novel that portrays the secrets and lies that a family holds and takes with them to their deathbeds, a story of intense love and passion that withstands  the test of time and distance, this story just took my breath away, even the second time round.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O’Connell

Format: E-bookeyes
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Cord Bennet
Heroine: Anne Wells
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: April 9, 2010
Started On: September 13, 2010
Finished On: September 14, 2o10

Rarely do we come across books on Amazon that have received an average rating of 5 stars. This is one such book that has achieved this status, which caught my eye once again whilst browsing through a discussion thread. Reading the synopsis, I immediately knew that this would be my kind of story and I immediately fell in love as soon as I started on page 1.

Anne Wells, has always shamed her family in one way or the other. Having never really bided by the conventional rules of the society and not being a real beauty to make men swoon at her feet, Anne had always stood apart from the rest of them. Elroy Turrell had been the first man who had taken an interest in her and Anne had been whisked off to Chicago to live with her aunt since her father Edward thought that a farmer’s boy was really beneath them. Then had come Richard Tyler, a banker’s son whom she had met in Chicago. Engaged to the  man for 4 years, Anne had broken things off with Richard because she had finally seen the light and knew things would never work between a woman who wanted her independence and freedom from the restrictive rules of the society whilst Richard was of the opposite mindset. The broken engagement had enraged her father much more and eventually he had brought her back home. And then trouble had started when George Detrick, a widower, older than Anne’s father started pursuing her, a man who was fat and greasy with beady eyes and smelled worse.

Edward Wells was delighted by the fact that his daughter could be married off even though Anne made her refusal to wed him pretty clear. Driven into a rage beyond anything Anne had witnessed from her father before, Anne was locked up in a boarded room, given little food than what was necessary, her father’s plan to get her to agree to marriage with Detrick or starve to death. Anne finally manages to escape before she is driven to do just that, and hitches a ride unbeknown to the owners of the carriage. When the storm that had been raging had driven her to seek shelter in a farmstead, little does Anne know that she would sleep through the night to wake up and find herself at the home of Cord Bennet, a man despised and feared throughout her hometown.

Cord Bennet, a man with an unusual shade of light brown eyes, jet black hair with a bronze face that was all angles and plains who emanated a fierceness with his stillness has a soft spot for Anne though he doesn’t admit it. Cord had been the first child of Jamie Bennet’s shocking second marriage to an Indian woman named Song. Though Cord and his sister Marie had been protected from the vicious tongues of the townspeople who didn’t take too kindly to the mixed blooded children, they had been tolerated because the Bennet family had been richer than anyone else in town. But it hadn’t taken long for Cord and his sister to wise up and face the fact that they would always be treated differently than their step siblings.

When Cord hears of the circumstances that had landed Anne at his home and needing his help to get to Chicago to see whether her aunt Clara would once again put up with her, Cord knows that he would help her regardless of the outcome. But when Edward comes looking for Anne with a mob crowd rather than a search party and slaps Anne around to make her admit that the savage and brute that Cord was rumored to be had taken advantage of her and raped her and Anne refuses, all hell breaks loose. Cord who is rumored to have special skills in fighting, acquired during his days living with the Indians is unable to do anything to protect Anne or himself. Beaten to the point of death until he agrees to marry Anne since Detrick refused to wed a “soiled” woman, Anne and Cord make their vows amidst violence that had me reeling. Even afterwards, Cord has to helplessly watch on whilst Anne’s father watches on with the judge whilst the group of bullies Anne’s father had rounded up try and rape her.

It is by a miracle that these two survive the unjust violence that was unleashed on them. Thinking that Cord would die during the days that follow, Anne still stubbornly nurse him through, a man who is black and blue all over and bleeding in his urine. The doctor’s prognosis isn’t good either and its by sheer force of will of Anne that Cord comes through. Thus starts a fragile relationship based on an acquaintance that had been made when the both of them had only been 10 years old, when Anne had come to the rescue of Marie who was been bullied by other girls in class with whom Cord had not known what to do with.

This story is so beautiful on so many levels. Cord, a man who is hated even by his own family and of whom everyone expects and always believes the worst of finds himself with a woman who puts her undying trust in him and his character. Whilst Cord had always expected to live in a quiet corner of town until the end of his days, the unexpectedness of having Anne in his life shakes him to the very core. Sweet yearning and desire unfurls in a man who would sell his soul to keep Anne by his side through eternity, though he knows a woman like Anne is too good for a man like him.

Anne blossoms under the strong and patient man that her husband is. The awareness which Anne has of her husband which she doesn’t even know, slowly kindles and burns into something beautiful that made every scene with Cord and Anne one worth a lot of sighing over. Anne and her zealous for life paints Cord’s otherwise bleak life in colors. A future that had seemed endless with no joy insight is suddenly filled with laughter and joy and togetherness as these two tackle life, its everyday challenges, and taming Cord’s family and the townspeople all in one go.

But Edward Wells, who is seething at the mere thought of her daughter being “forced” to live with that “savage” is livid when Anne refuses to come home and annul the marriage to which Edward had forced her into. His cunning plans rips Anne apart from Cord, just when Cord had come to accept the fact that things between Anne and him were meant to be and was not a temporary arrangement. I so fell in love with Cord, for his gentleness which was his innermost strength that everyone else refused to see, but was so clear to his wife and partner for life. Beautiful ending for a beautifully done story, which makes me yearn and wish for another book by the author sometime very, very soon!

Very highly recommended for lovers of historical and American Western romances. This is a book that is a definite winner, one not to be missed!

Favorite Quotes

(Anne)”Do you know that every time you look at me like that you erase the hurt of at least a hundred times someone said I wasn’t ladylike enough? You make me feel so – female. I think to myself that must be the way a hungry wolf looks at a lamb.”
He moved then, walked to her. She found herself thinking maybe topaz, maybe his eyes are like smoked topaz. This kiss was not tentative, but sure and certain. For months she had dreamed of kisses, but the sensual magic of the firm lips was sweeter than anything she had known to dream about.

Cord fought sleep, wanting to savor this moment and the memories of the day. Anne’s breath fanned across his throat sweetly. I wanted you so much it hurt. She made him feel like the king he was sure she had been born for. He thought of her face as she ran into his arms after the race, the feel of her in his arms dancing in the summer night. Perhaps there would never again be such a day, but he had this one. And he had her – now.
As he finally stopped fighting sleep, he wondered if maybe just occasionally the gods designed a woman fit for a king or a prince and then gave her to an ordinary man. Maybe they did such a thing once in a while, knowing an ordinary man would treasure her more, love her better. Maybe they even let him keep her – for a while.

Whirling in Cord’s arms, Anne was aware of nothing but the floating sensation and the eyes of gold so close to her own and so somber.
“You know, Annie, a long time ago an old man told me beauty doesn’t mean much in a woman. It disappears with age. But he said some women have something better. They have a special glow that lasts all their life and just gets richer. You’re like that. You really shine.”
She could feel her eyes growing moist.
“Don’t cry.”
“I’m not.”
Her hand slipped from his shoulder to his face without conscious thought. He rubbed his cheek lightly against her fingers and kissed her palm. The scandal would last a hundred years, she thought, and willed her hand back to his shoulder. The smile started then, a real smile, teeth flashing oh so white in his bronze face. Her heart soared, and in truth, that night Anne Wells Bennett was not the only one who saw beauty in her fierce, dark man.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: One Summer by Karen Robards

Format: E-bookone summer
Read with: Amazon Kindle & Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Dell
Hero: Johnny Wayne Harris
Heroine: Rachel Grant
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: June 1, 1993
Started On: September 2, 2010
Finished On: September 2, 2010

This was a title I read sometime back when I first discovered Karen Robards as an author. I have always remembered this book to be one that I had immensely liked and thus I decided to revisit this story and see what had intrigued me so much back then.

Rachel Grant lives in the sleepy town of Tylerville. Coming from a rich affluent family Rachel now past thirty years of age was resigned to the fact that she would most probably spend her life in Tylerville as a high school English teacher. With her sister Becky married to Michael Hennessey, the one man who had managed to fire up her dreams and living elsewhere with her husband and three girls, Rachel knew that she would not be able to leave her mother Elisabeth and her father Stan Grant behind when her beloved father was suffering from Alzheimer disease and taking its toll on all those who loved him.

Johnny Wayne Harris is the boy from the wrong side of town. Rachel had been Johnny’s English teacher and it was only she that had seen beneath the tough as nails exterior that Johnny puts up in front of everyone else. The Harris family was considered to be white trash within Tylerville and everyone always figured that Johnny would in the end turn out to be just like his father, when in fact he had turned out to be worse when he was convicted of the vicious murder of Marybeth Edwards who had been seeing Johnny back then on the sly. Though Rachel believed that Johnny hadn’t committed the murder, the state decided that he in fact did and had sent him to jail.

Now Johnny was back, having to work off his parole and Rachel wanting to give him a second chance though she knew Tylerville would be in an uproar for the fact, offers him a job at her family’s hardware store. From the moment that Johnny steps off the bus Rachel knows that he is not the boy that she had envisioned in mind. The sullen even then handsome boy had filled up and in front of her stood a lean, hard and tough man who had matured into a dangerous looking man.

Johnny had always had the “hots” for his then teacher Rachel and had always fantasized about her during his teen years. But even then Johnny had known that apart from the age barrier that had seemed vaster back then, they would never be of the same social standing within the society and any relationship that they could have would be doomed right from the start. But Johnny was tired of dreaming and never having and all of a sudden he craves Rachel with the burning desire of a grown man.

Rachel is appalled when she feels the first inklings of red hot desire when she sees what a superb specimen of the male species that Johnny is. And with him enticing her every step of the way and slowly seducing her into his arms, Rachel who had always cared about Johnny more than she had let on suddenly finds herself out of her depths in the strong feelings that Johnny invokes in her. Its not long before the flames of desire that keeps burning finally burst out of control and Johnny is a man who definitely knows how to keep his woman happy.

Meanwhile, the actual killer who committed the heinous crime twelve years back is still on the loose and swearing to finish what had been started all those years back. When Johnny’s close friend and on and off lover Glenda Watkins is also stabbed to death in the same manner as Marybeth was, the town is in an uproar over arresting Johnny and sending him to the electric chair. The only thing that saves him is Rachel and her testimony that Johnny couldn’t have killed Glenda.

Johnny deduces that the only thing that the killer wants is to kill women who were in his life as his lovers. And Johnny knows deep in his gut that Rachel with whom he had fallen in love with and would lay down his life for was in danger of being murdered by the maniac on the loose.

This story is a wonderful read. The total bad boy image that Ms. Robards has effectively created for Johnny would infuse any woman’s dreams. And the man that he grows into is one worth salivating over. Rachel is more than his match with her unwavering faith in him and the love that burns deep within her heart for the man whom the society deems as unacceptable. With glimpses into Rachel’s family life, the town that abhors Johnny’s existence and the ramblings of the mind of a killer vicious enough that gave me the creeps, I couldn’t put this book down once I started. Highly recommended for those who are fans of Ms. Robards as well as those who love romantic thrillers with a good dosage of sensuality in the mix.

Favorite Quotes

Sometimes, in prison, when he’d been lying awake at night staring at the bunk over his head, Johnny had thought that he missed Wolf most of all.
Wasn’t that a damned sad commentary on his life?
The dog whined again. Knowing he was being ridiculous, that he was liable to lose the hand at the wrist when the animal charged, Johnny nonetheless took a step forward,holding out his fingers for sniffing.
“Wolf? Come here, boy.”
Incredibly, the huge animal sank to its belly and slunk forward, behaving as if it wanted to believe but feared a cruel trick. Johnny dropped to his knees to greet it, his hands reaching out, burrowing in the coarse hide, stroking and scratching as the dog whined and licked and pawed him and butted him with its head.
“Ah, Wolf,” he said as he accepted the truth at last, that this one thing that he had loved had been spared in order to greet him. Then, as the big head snuggled into his lap, he wrapped his arms around the dog’s thick neck and buried his face against the animal’s side.
For the first time in eleven years, he wept.

Thoroughly ruffled, Rachel turned her back on the source of her annoyance and started for the door. She could feel his gaze on her, and the notion that he was watching her made her suddenly self-conscious. In her teetering heels, she could not help but sway.
Just as she reached the door, he made an odd sound that caused her to glance back at him, startled.
“Rachel,” he said in what was scarcely more than a husky whisper, while his eyes drilled into hers, “don’t sleep with him. Sleep with me instead.”
Her breath caught for a moment as the words coiled around her like a seductive snake. Only by forcing herself to keep walking was she able to escape.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: After the Night by Linda Howard

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Gray Rouillard
Heroine: Faith Devlin
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: December 1995
Started On: July 3, 2010
Finished On: July 5, 2010

Linda Howard takes us on one wicked sensual ride in this novel where the wealthy Gray Rouillard clashes with the poor town outcast Faith Devlin. Everyone in the small town of Prescott, Louisiana knew that Faith’s mother Renee the town whore, a sensational beauty who with a glance can leave men wanting is Guy Rouillard’s mistress. From a very young age, Faith had been addled with taking care of her mishap family with a drunken lout of a father and two elder brothers who were well on their way on continuing their father’s legacy and an elder sister who was quickly following in the wake of their mother. And then there was the youngest in the family, a child addled with Down’s syndrome who needed continuous care and attention.

The Devlins live on the outskirts of Rouillard’s property and regardless of the fact that they never paid their rent the Devlins were tolerated because of the relationship between Guy and Renee. Faith has always worshiped the town’s golden boy from afar. Faith’s childhood was a mix of spending endless hours just watching Guy and his friends while away their time and taking care of the endless chores that await her at home. Faith has never had illusions that a Devlin would ever be deemed good enough for a Rouillard but she yearns to shout out to the world that she is different from the rest of her family.

And one fateful night, life as the Devlins and Rouillards know it come to an end when Renee and Guy run away together leaving their families to pick up the pieces. Gray cannot fathom the reason why Guy had to abandon everything and run away with the town whore and overnight Gray grows up and is left to bear the emotional and financial upheaval that his father has left in his wake. Gray is furious with the trashy Devlins and orders them to evacuate the Rouillard’s property, an order  to which Faith’s family doesn’t pay a heed. However the full extent of the impact of Guy’s abandonment together with the fact that the Devlins were just continuing life as they know it drives Gray into a mass of seething rage which sees him ridding the town of the Devlins once and for all.

Faith would never forget the night that her mama never came home and how she and the rest of her family were driven out of their only home like a bunch of outlaws in the middle of the night. And twelve years later, Faith returns to Prescott, Louisiana to find the truth about what actually took place the night Renee and Guy left in the middle of the night forever changing the lives of both families. Faith’s return to town stirs up the gossip and the anger within the Rouillard’s family and Gray feels sucker punched by the intense need to get horizontal with Faith as soon as he lays eyes on her.

Faith knows that she would never be able to deny Gray but she would rather die than be labeled as the mistress of Gray Rouillard. Gray is torn between his family and the white hot desire that runs through his veins whenever he and Faith come across one another and of course it doesn’t help one bit when he realizes that Faith turns putty in his arms. The coming together of Faith and Gray is so explosive that you would feel the scorch of the heat generated as you read through. And whilst the relationship between Gray and Faith continues to unfold till its inevitable conclusion, someone in Prescott doesn’t like the questions that Faith keeps on asking in order to piece together what actually happened that fateful night.

Packed with explosive sexual tension between two strong characters that reminded me of Aqua Man with his long hair, wide shoulders and the oh so sexy diamond stud in his ear and Faith with her cat like green eyes and red hair with the effortless sensuality that drives Gray out of his mind that bore a strong resemblance with Aqua Man’s wife in the Justice League cartoon series, this book is one that each contemporary romance lover must read!

My favorite scene in the book would have to be the one where Gray corners Faith in the ladies room in the courthouse, and man do the pages sizzle then! I would love one wicked Gray Rouillard served on a plate please!

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

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