Category / Harlequin

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Hot Island Nights by Sarah Mayberry

Format: E-bookMSRCover
Read with: Amazon Kindle & Mobipocket Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Blaze, #566
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Nathan Jones
Heroine: Elizabeth Jane Mason
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 1, 2010
Started On: September 7, 2010
Finished On: September 7, 2010

What I adore most about novels by Sarah Mayberry is the fact that her books offer more than just a fabulous roll in the bed which the Blaze line of books are famous for. Her books open up a world of possibilities with in depth character development and there is always a story begging to be told from start to finish. This book is no exception to that fact. When one reads the back cover of the book, he or she might be lulled into thinking that this is just your average good girl gone bad story. But it offers so much more and I loved every bit of reading Nathan and Elizabeth’s story maybe as much as or more than Ms. Mayberry must have loved writing their story.

Elizabeth Jane Mason was on the verge of tying the knot with her fiance’ Martin St. Clair within 8 weeks, whom she had been with for the past 6 years. Amidst bouts of panic and  questioning herself on whether she was doing the right thing, Elizabeth was a mess which she attributed towards prewedding jitters. She had always felt that there was something missing in her relationship with Martin who worked for her grandfather at his prestigious law firm. Elizabeth had been brought up by her grandparents when her parents had been killed in a light plane accident 23 years back. Elizabeth had always been the good girl, never giving a reason for her grandparents to worry over, always giving up what she had wanted in life in favor of what her grandparents thought was what she wanted and needed.

All the tension and unease Elizabeth is feeling comes to head when she receives the shocking revelation that John Alexander Mason whom she had always known to be her father was in reality her stepfather. Her actual father was a man named Sam Blackwell of whom she had known nothing about, until she had requested for a copy of her birth certificate to be mailed over so that Martin could apply for their marriage license. The final straw is realizing that even Martin had known about it when her grandfather had taken him into his confidence right after Martin had proposed to Elizabeth. Feeling immensely betrayed by the fact that her family and her fiance had made choices for her that they had no right making, Elizabeth calls off the wedding and heads off to find her real father and to find herself whilst she is at it.

Four days later, Elizabeth arrives in Phillip Island in Victoria Australia, Sam Blackwell’s last known place of residence. When she knocks on the door, the man who opens up the door wearing nothing but a threadbare towel and looking like he had just got out of bed with bloodshot eyes, he literally takes Elizabeth’s breath away with his superb body on display.

Nathan Jones (Nate), is a man who is haunted by memories too painful even to contemplate. Drinking from noon to night till he achieves the perfect balance to embrace the oblivion offered by sleep until the next day, surfing and walking the beach around the island and hooking up with an available woman a night or two is how Nathan prefers to live at the moment. A horrible accident that had taken the life of Olivia his sister whom he had loved more than anything in his life had left him with scars on the inside rather than the outside. Giving up all management rights of Smartsell, the business he and his lifelong friend Jarvie Roberts had built from the ground up so that he could take each day as it arrives, Nathan doesn’t envision his life changing the pattern it had taken since the night that irrevocably changed his life 6 months ago.

When Nathan opens up his door to eye the beautiful woman who stands on his doorstep and finds out that she is looking for his buddy Sam, all Nathan offers Elizabeth (Lizzy as he calls her), is that he would let Sam know that she had come looking for him. Elizabeth is more than infuriated at the gall of the man and his disinclination to help her even when she professed to being the daughter that Sam had never even met. Resigned to the fact that she would have to wait around since Nathan had informed her that Sam was gone for the moment to participate in the Sydney to Hobart yatch race and would only return during new year which was nearly a month away, Elizabeth returns to her hotel and tries to make the best of her stay and loose her inhibitions a bit.

When the sleep that Elizabeth had been craving for after the long journey eludes her, with thoughts of Nathan and his beautiful body crowding into her mind unwittingly which annoys her to no end, Elizabeth decides to go downstairs and check out the beer bar which was full of people as night was settling in. It is there Elizabeth encounters Nate again, whom she can’t help but follow around with her eyes. The red hot attraction that blazes to surface seems to be mutual on both ends, and Elizabeth who has never done an improper thing in her life has wild mind blowing sex with Nathan on the beach before the night is through.

What starts out as an island fling with the only man who had the ability to rock her world slowly turns into something more as the days pass. Elizabeth’s first impression of Nate as a carefree beach bum slowly changes as she realizes the depth of intelligence that he keeps well hidden behind the facade that Nate puts up. Nate in turn faces the fact that Elizabeth and the time he spends in her company is more effective in keeping  those dark memories and dreams at bay than any alcoholic beverage. And though Nathan has nothing more to offer a woman than a fabulous time in bed, he finds himself seeking out Elizabeth and what her delectable body offers him. In true Blaze style Ms. Mayberry knocked my socks off with the sizzling steam these two generate.

When finally Sam makes contact with Nathan and Elizabeth gets to talk with her father, she knows from the unenthusiastic response that she receives that she is a complication that Sam wants to do without at  the moment. The hurt and dejection that settles on Elizabeth’s shoulders somehow reaches out to Nathan who doesn’t want to rescue any damsels in distress. Nathan offers to take Elizabeth sailing and in the end comforts her by conveying to her that Sam was a rather reclusive man who loved nothing more than sailing the vast oceans.

When Nathan starts to feel things are getting too serious betwee him and Elizabeth he decides to call things off, but in the end the powerful effect of the trauma that Nathan faces every day since the accident propels him to seek Elizabeth’s company. Elizabeth knows that even though they had spent just 5 days with one another give or take a few hours, she had found something she had craved all her life with Nathan and refuses to give up on him no matter how hard Nathan tries to push her away.

Slowly Nathan starts to heal though the guilt he stores deep inside him for surviving the accident and being unable to help his sister fills him with self loathing and anger. Ms. Mayberry doesn’t offer any quick solutions to Nathan’s problems which made this book a winner for me. When tragedy nearly rips the woman he loves from his arms, Nathan once again tries to close himself off of the possibility of being happy and loved and it is Elizabeth’s stubbornness that saves them in the end.

I definitely loved the epilogue which portrays their lives six months after, with Nathan slowly healing and mending with an unwavering Elizabeth by his side. The story ends off with the tale of Martin and Violet, Elizabeth’s best friend who had loathed each other and have got together begging to be told. But I guess it’s too much to hope for their own story even though I would love it if it were to be told. Kudos to Ms. Mayberry for weaving the magic she so effortlessly creates with her characters whom you can’t help but fall in love with before the story is through.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Soldier and the Baby by Anne Stuart

Format: E-booksoldier
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: American Romance, #573
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Reilly
Heroine: Carlie Forrest aka Sister Maria Carlos
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: February 1, 1995
Started On: August 31, 2010
Finished On: September 1, 2010

I found this book when I was searching for recommendations on titles where the hero and heroine are forced to come together under circumstances and endure an adventure together being one with the nature. These types of books have a certain appeal for me and I bet for most romance readers because the plot line tends to create a unique set of circumstances that bring out the best and worst in each of the characters involved, and if the writer is especially good, you get awesome tension and romance to go along with hair raising adventure trying to escape from mean bad asses.

Reilly, a retired soldier who lived a solitary life up on the mountains in Colorado owes his army buddy Billy Morrisey more than his life. When his buddy had been killed by renegade soldiers in San Pablo requesting that he take back his wife and new born child from the war torn country of San Pablo in Central America, its the least that Reilly could do. Though the stories that he had heard about Billy’s wife Caterina were less than flattering, he owed his buddy and he would push his personal feelings aside and get the job done and trek through the swamp forests in San Pablo one last time to get her and the baby to safety. Tall, whipcord lean with long hair, a mean looking gun strapped to his waist and handsome enough to take a woman’s breathe away, Reilly was a force to be reckoned with under any circumstances.

Carlie Forrest had spent the first 10 years of her life in California where her parents had ministered to migrant workers. The next 7 years had been spent in a variety of places and she had always waited on the sidelines so that her parents would notice her and remember her existence when their lives always seemed so full of the people they wanted to help. Their ending had been brutal and bloody whilst Carlie had watched on shocked and unable to do anything whilst the entire village with her parents had been gunned down by rebels. Relief workers who had discovered her had taken her to the convent Our Lady of Repose where Mother Ignacia and the other sisters had worked their soothing magic on her. Now 9 years later, Carlie was convinced that she was destined to be Sister Maria Carlos for life though Mother Ignacia kept stalling and asking her to reconsider whether being a nun for life was what Carlie really wanted or whether it was escape from something else that she craved.

With the army and rebels tearing through the country, all the sisters had fled to Brazil. Carlie had stayed behind because one of the sisters was too sick to be moved and Caterina Rosaria Morrisey de Mendino was too far along in her pregnancy, almost ready to give birth and couldn’t travel. Being the only person with any medical training, Carlie had stayed behind to see to the two patients. When the sister had died and Caterina also died right after childbirth extracting the promise from Carlie that she would take care of little Timothy Morrisey for her until her husband came looking for him, Carlie is at a loss to what to do. Being in a war torn country presented enough danger as it is to a woman who was alone with no weapons to protect her. On top of that Timothy was the grandson of the notorious Hector Mendino, deposed and executed dictator of San Pablo which made Timothy a target from both sides participating in the war.

When Carlie lays her eyes on Reilly he knows that he is not Caterina’s husband though Reilly assumes that the woman who just stepped out of the shower looking delectably sinful was the famous Caterina who had fled from her husband because their marriage had hit a rough patch and when things had gone sour in San Pablo had wanted her husband to come to her rescue. Though her flashing blue eyes and protective nature towards the baby puts her at odds with what Reilly knows about her, he is more than convinced that she is Caterina.

Carlie goes along with the plan on making Reilly think that she is Timothy’s mother. Suddenly Carlie who had led nothing more than a sedate peaceful life for the past 9 years feels all extremities of emotions in the presence of the larger than life Reilly. The way he makes her blood heat with a single look or touch makes Carlie question for the first time whether being a nun is what she really wants in life.

With danger from the rebels closing in on them at every turn they take, Carlie has no choice but to rely and trust Reilly who truly had the power to bring her to her knees. When Reilly realizes that Carlie is not what he had assumed her to be, and that he had nearly defiled a woman of God, he is more than furious to say the least. However he cannot help his desire for the willful woman who so courageously treks right alongside of him and coos nonsense to the baby she holds in her arms. And right in the midst of the war torn San Pablo, Reilly who had never ever loved, falls head over heels in love with the one woman he cannot have.

This was a good read with enough tension between Reilly and Carlie plus good adventure to keep the pages turning. I sometimes felt like knocking on Carlie’s head a time or two for her stubborn willfulness but then again, Carlie’s life hadn’t really prepared her for the shock of one of the finest specimens of the male species wreaking havoc on her senses.

Favorite Quotes

“One man’s democracy is another man’s fascism” 

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Forbidden Fruit by Charlotte Lamb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyhow, till my next review comes up!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Wildfire Encounter by Helen Bianchin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sweet Tempest by Helen Bianchin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Double Standards by Judith McNaught

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purchase Links: Amazon

[xrr rating=4/5]

Caliber Seal: GREAT READ!

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Valentino’s Love-Child by Lucy Monroe

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

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

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

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

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

For me this was just an okay read.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Promise of Happiness by Betty Neels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Indecent Suggestion by Elizabeth Bevarly

Format: E-bookin
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Blaze, #189
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Turner McCloud
Heroine: Becca Mercer
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: July 1, 2005
Started On: July 26, 2010
Finished On: July 27, 2010

Indecent Suggestion is a book that I have been eying ever since I discovered my love for the theme where best of friends turn into lovers. So finally when the e-format was published I managed to get myself a copy and sink into the story that I had been waiting for so long.

Turner and Becca have been friends since childhood and they had managed to stay together and go so far as to work for the same company and work as a team to land advertising projects for their company. One vice of theirs ever since they became teenagers had been their desire for smoking. The opening chapter of the book had me wondering whether the hero and heroine were already going at it even at the start of the book, but I later realized that the chapter was all about their mutual craving for a cigarette.

Thus, it is this mutual craving that they cannot seem to let go of that lands Becca and Turner at a hypnotherapists place upon Turner losing a bet that he could go without lighting a cigarette for 24 hours; a bet Turner loses at the last minute because he doesn’t want to give into the intense craving he has had for his best friend ever since they were teenagers, a fact that he had become adapt at hiding from Becca all too well.

The hypnotherapist, thinking that Becca and Turner are the married couple who have been having problems consummating their marriage puts them under and suggests to them a codeword when heard would drive the couple into a frenzy to have uninhibited sex with one another.

Though Becca and Turner had at moments in time succumbed to light petting sessions back in college and one night after an office Christmas party, Becca had always halted things before they got out of hand, out of the fear that sex would drastically alter their friendship and inevitably destroy what they had between one another.

So it takes Becca completely by surprise when she suddenly starts having cravings to get horizontal with Turner at the oddest moments. Though Turner cannot believe his good fortune when Becca comes onto him at the most inconvenient times imaginable, Turner resists giving into what his body has been clamoring for all his life.

But with like a fire set ablaze, this one burns out of control and its not long before Becca and Turner are having the time of their lives burning up the sheets. And throughout the weeks that follow, Becca comes to realize that it had been foolish of her to have kept Turner at bay for so long and she comes to realize that she might actually be in love with Turner and may have been in love with Turner all this time.

But things turn a bit confusing for Becca and Turner when they realize what the hypnotherapy session has really accomplished and it is up to Becca to convince Turner that what she feels for him is as real as the sun that rises from the East every day and that her love for him would continue to thrive for as long as they live.

I found it tedious at times to read through the numerous detailed sex scenes in the story cos I felt that the character development did not really take place along with the intense love scenes described very well by the author. If the character development had been done a bit more, I would have loved this story and it most probably would have ended up in my re-read pile.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Can’t Get Enough by Sarah Mayberry

Format: E-bookcgeno
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Blaze, #221
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Jack Brook
Heroine: Claire Marsden
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication:  October 1, 2005
Started On: July 24, 2010
Finished On: July 26, 2010

This book was out of print when I first discovered Sarah Mayberry’s writing style and I guess this was the first book that I had shipped to Male’ because the e-format of the book wasn’t out then and I couldn’t seem to dissuade myself from forgetting about getting my hands on the book. I went as far as even emailing the author in hopes of finding out whether the e-format would be available anytime soon to which she replied that it was up to the publisher to decide when and if they would release the book in e-format.

So when I stumbled upon this book in one of the book shelves at home, I decided to go ahead and re-read this (as if I don’t have plenty of books already on the to-be-read pile) and I have to say I enjoyed the book immensely even the second time round.

Claire Marsden and Jack Brook work for the same company and right from the very first moment that Claire lays eyes on the handsome, charming and devilish Jack, her lips form a perpetual straight line of disapproval. His whole effortless charm and the way the female population tend to swoon around him grates on every nerve that Claire has and it gives her a great jolt of pleasure every time that she gives him the icy cold shoulder wherever and whenever she encounters Jack.

Jack for the world of him couldn’t understand why Claire gave off the dislike vibe so much when around him. Jack sees Claire as someone who is so uptight that he mentally imagines her as someone who would likely iron her underwear. And the tight little frown that she always has whenever their eyes meet makes Jack wonder whether the woman was born with a set of lips. Jack thinks Claire could use with some loosening up and Claire thinks Jack could use with someone bringing him down a peg or two from the high horse he is on.

But things change drastically when these two are stuck in a sweltering elevator for hours. Suddenly Claire notices that Jack is not at all what she imagined him to be and that what her best friend had talked to her hours before about Jack being pretty good in the bedroom department keeps flitting through Claire’s mind. Jack is thrown for a loop when he realizes that Claire is actually HOT and that he is panting like a dog in heat when Claire strips down to her bra and skirt to escape the stifling heat. Before they know it, Claire and Jack have the best sex of their lives and right after gets rescued.

Jack, who is frighteningly commitment phobic knows that Claire is not the sort of woman who would opt for a casual role in the hay but would want more than he is prepared to give. Claire who was brought up by her father, had for all of her life tried to win his attention by trying to be the best in everything as she possibly could. Starved for affection and love, Claire can’t help but want Jack to show her that what she experienced in the elevator with him is not a one time thing but the forever kind of thing.

Jack wants to avoid Claire at all costs but the fact that they are forced to work together on a project does not help matters along. Jack wants nothing more than to strip Claire of her boxy suites and bury himself in her hot little figure and lose himself in the red hot sensations that Claire evokes. Its a battle of the wills with these two right from the start which makes this book one hell of a read.

If you want to read a romance with witty dialogues between the characters with enough sexual tension to blow you away, this is the book for you. Highly recommended for those who love the Harlequin Blaze line.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

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