Category / Red Hot Reads

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Angel Creek by Linda Howard

Format: E-bookangelcreek
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Western Ladies, Book 2
Publisher: Pocket
Hero: Lucas Cochran
Heroine: Dee Swann
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: January 1, 1998
Started On: October 9, 2010
Finished On: October 14, 2010

Surprisingly, this is one book by Linda Howard that I do not remember ever reading. I do however remember reading the first book in the Western Ladies series, A Lady of the West which I have the mind to re-read again sometime.

This story takes place in the town of Proper in Colorado. Lucas Cochran upon the death of his father is the new owner of the Big Double C ranch which he has high hopes and big dreams of turning into an empire one day. One of the things that stands in his way and one of his many contentions with his father when he had been alive had been the issue of buying the land through which Angel Creek the most abundant source of water that ran through the surrounding mountains into the valleys. Lucas, a hard man who does not budge once he has made a decision has mapped out his life to the extent that he has decided on the woman whom he would marry, Olivia Milican, the daughter of the town’s only banker  in order to take his life along the path he had chosen. What Lucas hadn’t counted on is the desire to claim and posses that unfurls and rages out of control as soon as he meets the Dee Swann, the feisty owner of the land through which Angel Creek runs.

Dee, whose parents had moved to Prosper when she had been a fourteen year old school girl had only known of Lucas in passing. Eight years older than Dee, Lucas had already been a grown man and had left Prosper shortly after she and her family had arrived and settled down. Life had thrown its fair share of tragedies at Dee when Dee’s mother who had been a school teacher had died when she had been at the age of sixteen closely followed by the death of her father when she had barely turned eighteen. At first the sheer aloneness which she had found herself in had frightened her to no end. But Dee, a passionate and strong woman had quickly learnt to safeguard what’s hers and take care of herself by growing a garden of vegetables which saw her through the year. Men turning up with offers to buy out her land wasn’t something new for Dee, but the strong tug she feels towards blue-eyed Lucas Cochran is something she had never ever felt before.

With two people who are as strong-minded as these two, coming together is an explosion that is waiting to happen which Linda Howard as always handles superbly. I swear, Linda Howard writes the hottest love scenes, sometimes much racier than the most explicit erotica, racier in the sense that you feel more whilst reading these scenes than you feel when reading erotica that is done not so tastefully.

Dee falls head over heels in love from the moment Lucas claims her as his though Lucas takes a bit of time to identify that what he feels for Dee is not something that he would find with just any woman. But Angel Creek and the deep abiding love that Dee feels for the land that surrounds her and brings her peace unlike anything else is a source of contention amongst the two until another party who showed his interest in the land suddenly decides to take matters into his own hands when drought threatens to take away everything he has built from scratch.

With rage and fear coursing through Lucas at Dee nearly been snatched away from his life because of the dreaded land, Lucas presumes to know what would keep Dee safe above everything else which nearly drives them apart in the end. There are two side stories that go hand in hand with Lucas and Dee’s story, both equally interesting in their own rights. And as usual, being the sucker for epilogues that I am, I loved reading about how all the couples fared in the end knowing that each found true love and happiness with their life partners in the end. There’s nothing more a true romance reader could ever hope for!

There were several things I loved about Dee. She is headstrong, not your meek average heroine who would grate on your nerves. Rather, she is the sort of woman who knows what she wants and works hard to achieve what it is that she desires. When true love does strike, Dee doesn’t strive to change who she is so that she can fit into Lucas’s plans. Rather she takes whatever time she has with the man she loves, consequences be damned! Lucas sometimes made want to hit him a time or two on the head, but he is a man who is in love and lust with the woman who is made for him. And I am always a sucker for a hard man who can treat a woman gently enough and goes crazy enough to lose their iron clad control. So all in all, a great read though I took my own sweet time in finishing up. You all can blame my busy work schedule for that!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley

Format: E-bookladyisabellasscandalaousmarriage.jpg
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Highland Pleasures, Book 2
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Lord Roland Mac Mackenzie
Heroine: Isabella Mackenzie
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: July 6, 2010
Started On: October 4, 2010
Finished On: October 9, 2010

I have finally managed to finish the second book in the Highland Pleasures series which started off with a bang with The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie which I reviewed earlier this month. This is the story of Mac who is 3rd in line to receive dukedom. We get to see glimpses of Mac and his intriguing as well as extremely likable and separated wife Isabella Mackenzie who befriends Beth and reluctantly shows signs that she misses and loves her husband something fierce.

This story kicks off when Isabella comes calling at Mac’s home after she left him 3 years ago, a period during which although they had come across one another neither had resorted to exchange pleasantries with one another. After Ian’s marriage to Beth and his intuitive probing into Mac’s life sends Mac running back to London in the intention of wooing his wife back into his life, Mac didn’t anticipate that his wife would walk in on him painting a woman in all her naked glory.

Isabella comes calling on Mac because someone seems to be creating forgeries of Mac’s art work and selling it for profit, something which Isabella knew that Mac doesn’t do since he always donates his immensely good paintings to anyone of his friends who wants them. Though Mac treats the issue lightly, Isabella is outraged to think that someone was so blatantly going about impersonating Mac and creating extremely good forgeries of Mac’s paintings.

Although a lot of heartache and pain still lingers between Mac and Isabella, neither one of them has stopped wanting one another or loving each other. Each in their own ways had suffered during the 3 year period of separation and had stayed faithful to each other all throughout. Now Mac is more than ready to properly court and woo back his wife, something which he had failed to do when Mac had gatecrashed Isabella’s coming out ball on a wager placed by his friends that he wouldn’t dare go uninvited to Earl Scranton’s virginal daughter’s coming out party and steal a kiss from the lady in question. But from the first moment that Mac lays eyes on beautiful Isabella, his heart thuds something fierce and the wanting that takes control of his heart and body makes him seduce his way into innocent Isabella’s heart and before the night is through they are lawfully wedded wife and husband rocking London with scandal. Mac vows that this time round he would do proper by the woman he loves more than life itself and gently court her back into his life.

However all plans go awry when Mac’s home is set on fire and Mac moves into Isabella’s house in town stirring London with scandal once again. The threat on Mac’s life gets him serious about the very possible fact that someone intentionally wants to impersonate him and would go to any lengths in order to achieve what he wants. And when Isabella is nearly kidnapped by the mad man himself who manages to escape and elude the authorities once again makes Mac stick to Isabella like glue.

Amidst all this, Mac’s creative juices which he thought he had lost when Isabella had walked out on him starts stirring the minute Isabella lets him know that she would pose naked for him for a series of erotic paintings his wild and partying friends had wagered him into completing. Its not only the creative juices that start flowing when these rather wicked painting sessions start up. Isabella who had always managed to heat his blood in ways unimaginable stirs his pent up longings with one touch and sets both of them ablaze with a desire that would no longer be denied.

Slowly these two embark on a journey fraught somewhat with danger with a mad impersonator on the loose. However even that doesn’t stop these two from rediscovering each other, understanding what had driven them apart and healing over the much heartache each had gone through in the end. Though Isabella is reluctant to see the change in Mac and accept that he won’t revert back to his wild ways once again she is no match for the desire of her heart to accept Mac back into her life. But before these two can possibly ever hope for a happily ever after of their own they have to face a madman who is hellbent on removing Mac to achieve his ultimate destiny of claiming Isabella as his own and Mac has to face his own fear of opening himself up to his beloved wife and make himself finally face what loving someone is really all about.

My favorite part of this book as many who has read the first book in the series would agree with me was catching glimpses of Ian and Beth throughout the story. And yes, I loved those bits at the beginning of each chapter that somehow managed to let the readers know what marriage between Mac and Isabella had been like before via newspaper clippings rather than taking the reader through a boring narrative of what life had been like for both of them. Though Isabella and Mac are likable characters, there just was that elusive something missing that didn’t make Mac’s story as good as Ian’s. Though after reading through the sneak peak of the next book in the series The Many Sins of of Lord Cameron which is to come out during the summer of 2011, I am very much intrigued in learning more about Cameron. He sounds like someone who would make for a great story.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Format: E-bookmadness
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Highland Pleasures, Book 1
Publisher: Leisure Books
Hero: Lord Ian Mackenzie
Heroine: Beth Ackerley
Sensuality: 3.5
First Published on:  April 28, 2009
Started On: October 1, 2010
Finished On: October 2, 2010

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie lived up to and exceeded all the expectations I had before I started on this novel. A lot of romance readers on Amazon seem to unanimously agree that this is one of the best historical romances that has been published of late and the awards that this book has received is testament enough that this story is a favorite amongst many romance readers.

This story is the first title in a series entitled as Highland Pleasures by Jennifer Ashely of which the second book in the series has already been published on July of this year. The Mackenzie family is Scottish in its origins and was one of the most powerful families in the region during the 1800’s. Hart Mackenzie who is the Duke of Kilmorgan is the eldest followed by Mac, Cameron and Ian who is the youngest.

Ian Mackenzie is a genius (who was suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome?) who was gravely misunderstood during his childhood. With a father who was driven to rages and drinking, Ian had always been the odd one who had stood out from his siblings. With his analytical genius mind which would remember everything he has read or heard verbatim and the ability to play music that he has heard once flawlessly though he never understands the normal modes of behavior always lands him in trouble. When Ian witnesses the murder of his mother at his father’s hands during one of his fits of rages, Ian’s father has him declared insane and locks him up in an asylum where he spends his childhood until his father’s untimely death ends in Hart attaining dukedom. Because Ian is misunderstood, he has always been labeled as the mad one in the family. The Mackenzie’s though powerful has always been considered wild and uncouth and it was considered unfit for a lady to be in the presence of a Mackenzie without a chaperon.

Ian and his tendency to collect Ming porcelain items lands him in the company of Sir Lyndon Mather who has got himself engaged to Mrs. Thomas Ackertey (Beth Ackertey), a widower who had come into a considerable fortune on the passing of her employer Mrs. Barrington.  Beth’s father had been a Frenchmen who had seduced her mother, a daughter of an English squire into marrying him which had ended up in her mother being disowned. Her father had died when Beth had been quite young leaving them both destitute which had resulted in both mother and daughter having to seek refuge at a workhouse. When Beth’s mother had died when she had been 15 years old, Beth had managed to acquire a teaching position at the workhouse and when she had turned 19, Thomas Ackerley the vicar newly in charge of the workhouse had married her. A year later, Thomas had died of a fever and Mrs. Barrington had hired her as her companion whom Beth had looked after for the past 9 years.

When Beth first lays her eyes on Ian, his massive height, width of his shoulders together with his dark hair and amber eyes that always seem so restless take her breath away.  The heat that slowly starts to burn within her in the presence of Ian is something that Beth had almost forgotten that her body could feel. Having agreed to marriage to Mather had been Beth’s way of making sure that she would never be lonely during the years to come and also the route to having her own children someday. What she never expects to happen is for Ian to warn her of Mather’s rather unusual sexual preferences and the fact that Mather was actually interested in her money rather than herself. Ian knows something worth protecting when he sees one and he so badly wants Beth. And before the first encounter between the two is over, Ian thoroughly kisses the delectable Beth and proposes marriage to her as well the latter of which Beth refuses though she is more than tempted.

Ian wants to protect Beth from all the rumors and the darkness that surround his family. The murder of a whore named Sally Tate that had long gone unsolved which Detective Inspector Lloyd Fellows was trying to pin on the Mackenzie’s with a vengeance; particularly to send Ian back to the asylum where he supposedly belongs to is something that Ian would rather Beth doesn’t find out. When another whore who named Lily Martin is viciously murdered Fellows swears that he wouldn’t stop his quest for justice until the Mackenzie’s pay for their crimes. Beth however has a mind and a will of her own that Ian has no idea how to predict or control and before long Beth has it in her mind to find out who actually committed the murders so that her beloved husband would finally be free of the nightmares that haunt him day and night.

I absolutely loved reading this story. Ian is a hero so very worth drooling over with his eccentric and unusual behavior. What he fears most is looking Beth in her eyes because it is the one place in this world that Ian fears he might lose himself in. Ian who doesn’t know how to express emotions like normal people do has a hard time believing that he has the capability of falling in love, something which Beth disproves so beautifully before the story is through. I loved Beth for her courage and unwavering belief in the man she comes to love, and for the fact that she understands Ian better than anyone else. The love scenes are beautifully done with a hero whose unwavering focus on what he is doing is a delight in itself. I am so very interested in reading about all the Mackenzie men because Ms. Ashely has definitely whetted my appetite for more.

All in all, recommended for all romance lovers. This is a MUST read!

Favorite Quotes

She heard the echoes of Ian’s screams in her head. Beth pressed her forehead to his hands, her heart wrenching. Ian’s hands were large, sinews hard under his kid-leather gloves. Yes, he was strong. In the Tuileres Gardens, it had taken both Mac and Curry to pull him away from Fellows. That didn’t mean others could try to tear at that strength, try to defeat him. The doctors in the horrible asylum had done it, and now Fellows was trying to.
I’m falling in love with you, she wanted to say into their clasped hands. Do you mind awfully?

Ian closed his eyes. Beth watched emotions flicker across his face, the uncertainty, the stubbornness, the raw pain he’d lived with for so long. He didn’t always know how to express his emotions, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel them deeply.
When Ian slowly opened his eyes, he guided his gaze directly to Beth’s. His golden eyes shimmered and sparkled, pupils ringed with green. He held her gaze steadily, not blinking, or shifting away.
“I love you,” he said.
Beth caught her breath, and sudden tears blurred her vision.
“Love you,” Ian repeated. His gaze  bore into hers harder than Hart’s ever could hope to. “Love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, love you…”

Ian cupped her chin and turned her face up to his. Then he did what he’d been practicing since the night on the train – he looked her fully in the eyes.
He couldn’t always do it. Sometimes his gaze simply refused to obey, and he’d turn away with a growl. But more and more he’d been able to focus directly on her. Ian’s eyes were beautiful, even more so when his pupils widened with desire. “Have I told you today that I love you?” he asked. “A few dozen times. Not that I mind.”
As a young woman who’d been starved for love much of her life, Beth lapped up Ian’s generous outpouring of the words. He’d surprise her with them, catching her as she walked down the hall, pushing her up against a wall, breathing, “I love you.” Or he’d tickle her awake and tell her while she tried to hit him with a pillow. The best was when he lay against her in the dark, fingers tracing her body. She treasured his whispered, “I love you.”

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Kiss to Kill by Nina Bruhns

Format: E-bookKiss to Kill
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Passion for Danger, Book 3
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Hero: Captain Gregg van Halen
Heroine: Dr. Gina Cappozi
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: April 6, 2010
Started On: September 29, 2010
Finished On: September 30, 2010

I am finally done with the Passion for Danger series by Nina Bruhns and I have to say that that was one heady and wicked ride that she takes the reader on.  I fell in love with all her characters that she managed to create so vividly that I felt like I was part of them when the series ended. I really do not know for sure whether the series has ended though it definitely does feel like it when the 3rd book in the series concluded.

Though this is the story of the irresistibly sexy, dark and dangerous Gregg Van Halen and Dr. Gina Cappozi, this is also where my much coveted for story of how Christopher Alexander Zane (Alex) and his long time best friend and FBI Special Agent Rebel Haywood also find their happily ever after with one another though the road to happiness is not an easy one for either of the couples.

For those who have read books 1 and 2 in the series they would already know that Gregg and Dr. Gina had become lovers in book 1 when Gina’s best friend Rainie had been taken by the Zero Unit of CIA to which Gregg also belonged to. Gregg’s mission had been to stop Gina from asking unnecessary questions by using whatever means necessary. What he hadn’t counted on was the fact that Gina would reach out and call to something deep inside of him no other woman had ever been able to touch and that she would become the center around which his world revolved.Coming from a broken family, Gregg had been forced to watch his father beat his mother when he had been young. Intervention had landed him in hospital. When his mother had died when he had been 5 years old and his father had started the vicious cycle with other women, Gregg had finally left home when he had just been 10 years old and survived long enough to land in the army and later at the Zero Unit of CIA.

Gregg had just been following orders when he had brought Gina to the Zero Unit’s headquarters. Gregg’s orders had been to leave to Kurdistan on a 3 week mission immediately afterwards and he had only learnt of Gina’s capture by Al Sayika upon completion of his mission when the trail had gone long cold. Knowing that all the clues pointed towards  him as the traitor and the mole within CIA hadn’t deterred him from his self-appointed mission of rescuing his woman and keeping her safe.

Gina however is a woman who has other plans for her ex-lover. Betrayal from the man she had fallen so helplessly and completely in love with during such a short period of time had cut deep into her. Her plan is to exact revenge on Gregg, kill him with her own bare hands. To meet this end, Gina had agreed to act as bait to draw and lure Gregg in so that the STORM agents who were protecting her would finally be able to capture the traitor who had played such a vital role in making all their lives miserable. What Gina doesn’t fully comprehend is the fact that Gregg had been with her all the way, even when she had been recuperating from her injuries at Haven Oaks, a STORM-owned sanatorium in central New York. And when push comes to shove, it is Gregg who rescues her from imminent execution, a plan put into motion by a desperate man trying to tie up all the loose ends.

Meanwhile, Alex who had been left at the altar by his fiance Helena has also been recruited as a STORM agent and because of his lingering issues after his capture and torture at the Al Sayika’s hands for 16 months, Alex had been assigned to guard Gina’s home; a duty from which he is relieved in order to investigate some newly received intel which puts him directly at the path of Rebel, the one woman he has vowed he would stay away from because Alex is sure that he would never be able to give Rebel what she definitely deserves. But Alex can’t help himself when Rebel is nearly blown to pieces, another present from Al Sayika, and with no fiance to hold his loyalty, Alex lets his baser emotions take control with the woman he loves and wants to stay away from.

Rebel needless to say is ecstatic when Alex finally takes her in his arms and shows her in reality what she has been craving for ever since she had laid eyes on him. And when Alex drops the bombshell that nothing more could come out of their encounter Rebel is heartbroken to say the least and even a bit enraged to find why Alex had actually contrived to marry her friend Helena and presumes to know what Rebel actually wants in life.

As STORM and Gregg closes in on the traitor, the story of Gina’s ex-fiance Wade Montana and Metro Police Detective Sara McPhee also starts to unfold though its more of a side story. Before the traitor is caught, suspicions fall on both Gregg and Wade who both in their ways had contributed unknowingly towards the imminent capture of Gina by Al Sayika. The final showdown between the good and the bad guys definitely delivered what I wanted with a shocking revelation for a villain in the end.

As right from the very beginning, I totally heart Gregg and love the way he protects his woman though he believes he is not capable of giving or receiving love because of his dark past. The man he has shaped into makes for a deliciously edgy and dark hero enough to spice up the dreams of even a rusted old woman. Alex though at times I felt like hitting him on the head a time or  two beautifully made up for it in the end. Though Gregg and Gina is my favorite couple from the series (might have something to do with the fact that I am irresistibly drawn to Gregg) Alex and Rebel do come as my second favorite couple with Bobby Lee and Darcy from the previous story in the third.

This is a great series worth your time if you are a fan of romantic suspense who can handle equal amounts of terror and sensual delights all packed into one.

Favorite Quotes

In the mirrored film noir frames of the moving window, he (Gregg) searched her face for any sign of recognition. Or of alarm. And found none. Her eyes passed quickly over him.
But within himself, crouching right next to the anger that simmered and roiled in his chest, he felt a bone-deep physical recognition of her. And had a sudden, overwhelming need to put his hands on her. A need so potent and visceral it nearly sucked the breath from him.
He knew this woman, intimately. Knew her flesh and her fears. He had plunged deep inside her and felt her quake with the pleasure his presence there had brought her. And had felt her tremble with the fear of his absolute power over her.
He wanted to feel her quake and tremble again.
But she would never allow it. Never accept him again as she once had.
Because he had betrayed her.

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

outstandingread

 

by mvbookreviewer

Review: If Looks Could Chill by Nina Bruhns

Format: E-bookiflookscouldchill
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Passion for Danger, Book 2
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Marc Boudreaux Lafayette (Marc)
Heroines: Tara Reeves
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: December 1, 2009
Started On: September 21, 2010
Finished On: September 29, 2010

This book has taken me like forever to finish – not because the story was in anyway boring or didn’t measure up to its predecessor. I managed to get distracted by other books that I just HAD to read before I could come back and finish this great book which I left hanging for a while. Once again I just have to point out the fact that I am so VERY glad that I gave this series a chance based on the rave reviews this series has received. These books manage to keep the tempo up and running and I have never encountered a dull moment when I lost myself in the 2 stories of the series that I have managed to read so far.

Its hard to say that this is just the story of Marc Boudreaux Lafayette (Marc) and State Trooper First Class Tara Reeves (Tara)’s story alone – because this is just so much more than just your average romantic suspense story that is focused on one single hero and heroine. Rather equally interesting heroes and heroines come together to make these books one of the hottest and best romantic suspense books I have had the fortune to come across. I have to warn you though, before you proceed that there might be spoilers in my review for readers who have never read these books.

This story kicks off 5 years before the present day at the Dumani Embassy in Istanbul when two STORM (Strategic Technical Operations & Rescue Missions) agents Marc and Bobby Lee Quinn together with then CIA agent Darcy Zimmerman work together on a mission to access and photo digitize documents contained on the well guarded 3rd floor of the Embassy building – papers that contained the identities of the elusive two leaders Jalil Abu Bakr and Abbas Tawhid of the al Sayika terrorist organization. The papers also contained al-Sayika’s plans of a bio-weapon mix of deadly viruses to unleash to fulfill their purposes. This scene opens up the possibility of a very delicious liaison between Darcy and Bobby Lee, an attraction that flares between the two so scorching that  they don’t really have to play the part of being infatuated with one another to provide the diversion needed for Marc to do his thing. However, things go awfully wrong and Marc ends in jail, Darcy gets kicked out of CIA for unsavory conduct and gets hired by Bobby Lee as the newest recruit of STORM in the process as well.

Five years later, the setting is Lower St. Martin Parish, Louisiana where the al Sayika group has pretty much succeeded in creating the bio-weapon mix of the deadly viruses that could wipe out an entire continent. To meet this end, Dr. Gina Cappozia had been kidnapped at the end of book 1, a process that had been seemingly helped along by Captain Gregg van Halen of the Zero Unit of CIA. Kick Jackson (hero from Shoot to Thrill) and his best friend Alex Zane who had undergone 16 months of torture under the hands of al Sayika’s Jalil Abu Bakr, who had been killed by Kick at the end of Shoot to Thrill; had their own ideas about how a mole within the CIA was operating against them. Thus STORM was keeping  the whereabouts of Alex under wraps for the moment and in the process working to identify the mole and stop the terrorists from achieving what they hoped to gain on American soil.

Marc is less than happy when he encounters State Trooper First Class Tara Reeves who investigates the seemingly mysterious deaths of the swamp animals which Marc had been investigating. STORM’s orders that Tara be misled and neutralized using any means possible doesn’t sit well with Marc. Marc is not the type of man who can sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting for the action  to happen and the idea of babysitting the state trooper irked Marc more than he was willing to admit. But with his usual abundance of charm and wit he manages to convince an adamant Tara who wants to investigate what has caused the deaths that he is the best Cajun guide available to  take her along for the ride through the swamp, a ride made more precarious by the fact that Marc desperately wants to end his two year self imposed ban on sex with the delectable Tara who seems all wrong for him, an attraction that seems to be unequivocally returned by Tara herself. Their first encounter together is way off the charts hot, Marc’s Cajun charm lending that sizzling factor that zips through the reader with every scorching kiss and touch.

Equally interesting are the developments between Darcy and Bobby Lee, both of whom had been seeing each other on and off when time off from their busy schedules had allowed them to. Darcy and Bobby certainly doesn’t give the reader any reprieve to cool off after the encounters between Tara and Marc; in fact each encounter just keeps getting hotter and better. And of course, the story of Alex who is engaged to be married to Helena Middleton, whilst he yearns for FBI Special Agent Rebel Haywood, his friend and savior when he was been tortured horribly whom he calls his angel continues in this book as well and makes the reader yearn to just put them in a room for 48 hours and throw away the key until these two admit to the fact that they are definitely made for one another.

However things are far from what you expect when Dr. Gina’s ex-fiance Wade Montana comes into the scene and heads the investigation to find what has happened to her, an investigation that Rebel is part of and before long Rebel has done the hot and sweaty deed with Wade, though it is Alex that she yearns for day and night. The ending in this book for Alex and Rebel is not a happy one and I am definitely psyched to reach their happily ever after in the next book which brings back the brooding and mouth watering Gregg whose explosive encounters with Dr. Gina in book 1 knocked me off my feet.

All in all this book takes the reader on the wildest ride ever, never a moment to take a breather and get your heart rate back to its normal rhythm. Because if its not the ultimate bad guys with their hair raising evil plans to commit mass murder, the hot encounters between all equally strong and mouth watering men with women definitely made for them keeps the excitement levels always at a 10. Whilst Darcy and Bobby Lee together with Marc and Tara gets their happy endings in this story, I am definitely looking forward to how Alex and Rebel as well as Gregg and Gina would attain their ever afters with one another.

Definitely very highly recommended for fans of romantic suspense who loves a scorching hot read.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Personal Research by Cari Quinn

Format: E-bookpersonalresearch.jpg
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Hero: Nunizo McGinty
Heroine: Elena Thomas
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: September 17, 2010
Started On: September 20, 2010
Finished On: September 20, 2010

I just had to go and buy this book after reading a review posted on Goodreads by Sparklybearsy which made me smile all over and tingle in anticipation about reading this story which seems to have hit every craving spot on when one indulges in a bit of erotica now and then!

Elena Thomas, 25 years of age, works as a secretary at the McGinty, Haylor & Smith law firm. By day, she writes legal briefs, but at night and sometimes at work, she writes down scenes of her heroes and heroines indulging in wall banging, off the charts hot sex, as an erotic romance author. With two parents who are both college professors, Elena had grown up in an environment that had taught her to suppress all her emotions one way or the other. Being someone who suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, the one place where Elena lets go of the tight rein on her emotions and sensual nature is when her fingers fly over the keyboard, creating situations between her characters hot enough to make a girl salivate.

Nunizo McGinty is the nephew of Mike McGinty, one of Elena’s bosses. Half-Italian and half-Irish with amazing eyes, rock-cut cheekbones a firm jaw and distractingly full lips, I wish there was an IT guy or two around my workplace like him *wink*. Nunizo comes to America to visit his Irish side of the family and to obtain his Masters degree in English language. Dabbling in IT had been a side hobby of his and helping out his uncle at his law firm just gave him the excuse to hang around and salivate over the gorgeous and buttoned up red headed beauty who in his mind he called Bella, because it means beautiful, absolutely magnificent. *Swoons!*

Elena knows that she has a hankering for the new IT guy who seems to be popping around a lot the last two weeks. His smoldering gaze alone was enough to pin her down in her chair and one day, whilst Nunizo is servicing the printer that seems to be in direct sight of Elena’s workstation, her ogling session results in her accidentally sending pages of her newest novel to print.

Nunizo is surprised and more than pleased when he finds out just how wicked an imagination his Bella has and is determined that he would be the one who would make all her wild bottled up fantasies into a reality. Somehow a relationship that starts off based on physical need alone develops into something more, and changes Elena’s views on life and how she sees herself.

As most of the readers of this novella have pointed out, the opening line itself made me smile because it certainly was an attention grabber to say the least. The scenes between Nunizo and Elena are hot, hot, hot and made me want an Italian whispering sweet nothings in my ears (if you know what I mean!) *bawdy wink*

Great read for a novella, with a yummy hero and equally great heroine and enough smexing to last me until the next book? And I totally loved the comedic feel at times, Elena’s thoughts definitely made me laugh out loud a time or two. Elena as the chastised sexy bunny and Nunizo as Mr. Tall, Dark and Sinful! And don’t you just love the expression on the face of the guy on the cover! Sigh!

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shoot to Thrill by Nina Bruhns

Format: E-bookshoot
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Passion for Danger, Book 1
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Hero: Kyle Jackson (Kick)
Heroine: Lorraine Martin (Rainie)
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 4, 2009
Started On: September 19, 2010
Finished On: September 20, 2010

My first Nina Bruhns is one that I certainly would not forget anytime soon. I am so very glad that the hot cover art that caught my eye had me searching up on the book and in the end succumbed enough to keep my TBR pile as it is before sinking into this adrenaline packed story. This is the first book in the series Passion for Danger, and boy am I glad that the next two books in the series have already been published, cos I don’t think I would have found it in me to be patient for a period of time to find out what will happen to the rest of the interesting stories that had cropped out of this one.

Kyle Jackson (Kick) had formerly worked for the CIA NOC-Ops (Non Official Cover) Unit, which is a top secret and highly covert branch of the CIA. Kick had been 17 when he had joined the Marines, and even back then he had been damaged goods. Throughout the story, his childhood is hinted to have been a difficult one, though not much light is shed on his former life apart from the fact he had escaped from home when he had been only 14 years old. All the rage inside of him had driven him to be the most lethal kind of Marine and had led to the CIA recruiting him to their Zero Unit, which had sent him off to war torn countries like Afghanistan and Sudan on suicide missions. One gets the feeling from reading between the lines that Zero Unit is not something one escapes from, as Kick is relentlessly hunted down 16 months after he had nearly ended up been blown to pieces by a land mine in Afghanistan and watched his best friend Christopher Alexander Zane die.

The months of therapy that had followed had made Kick more determined that he would not return to his old life ever. Dodging the teams sent out to bring him back seems to be all Kick has been doing lately. And when the last attempt to take him back tells him that they mean business, Kick manages to escape knowing that with his current addiction to oxycontin, a severely addictive painkiller which his doctor had stopped prescribing but Kick had found a means to get  from a dealer. Knowing that the time has come to get detoxed from the drug, Kick walks in on a speed dating event held for the medical staff of Bellevue Hospital impersonating his friend Dr. Nathan Daneby who works for Doctors for Peace in godforsaken countries.

Lorraine Martin (Rainie) a nurse practitioner is dragged to the speed dating event by her best friend Dr. Gina Cappozia a medical doctor and a tenured professor who headed a genetics research project at Colombia University and did a stint of pediatrics at Bellevue every week against Rainie’s better judgment. Working in the ER and dealing day in and day out with blood, drugs, violence and senseless deaths left no time or inclination on Rainie’s part to be interested in dating. Having witnessed the brutal murder of her parents by a carjacker when she had been a mere twelve years old, Rainie battles with fear of random violence and hates chaos, disorder and situations that she is unable to control. Rainie has never used any means of transportation since her parents murder though she yearns to be able to be bold enough to experience the wild adventures that Dr. Nathan Daneby must face in his day-to-day life, someone Rainie has always admired throughout the years.

Gina and her tendency to date younger men who are willing to show her a good time with none of the macho Neanderthal stuff that she abhorred, had been practically salivating over the feast of young studs before her eyes with a bored and restless Rainie by her side. That is until Rainie eyes the dark and dangerous looking man who meets her eyes across the room, sending a frisson of awareness through her unlike anything she had ever experienced before starting to move through the roomful of people towards her.

Kick had gatecrashed the party wanting two things. A woman who was needy enough to let him use sex as a means to stay with her for a couple of days until he is able to deal with his addiction better, so that he wouldn’t be as weak as a newborn babe out of the woods when he had to face his old unit. But his plans go so delightfully wrong when Rainie arouses him beyond compare, and in a moment of sheer panic when his old life had flashed in front of his eyes, Kick accidentally blows the cover he had been using and kidnaps Rainie at gunpoint.

Rainie can’t believe that a moment ago she had been letting the man with the wicked looking gun trained at her kiss her senseless and feels immensely betrayed by her body when it still yearns for his touch. Before the night is through, Rainie gives in the urge to touch and to feel with the man who sets her senses on fire, before learning that Kick was an addict looking for help to deal with the withdrawal stage. And when Kick’s former unit comes in blazing with their guns and takes both Kick and Rainie, Rainie is given no choice but to tag along.

Kick is summoned by his previous commander Colonel Frank Blair, to kill Jalil Abu Bakr, the person who was the most notorious of the two leaders of al Sayika terrorist organization which was hellbent on bombing the US embassy in Khartoum, the British, the French and the UN diplomatic mission. Kick knows that he would not be able to turn his back on getting his revenge on the man who had killed his best friend and thus amidst the withdrawal symptoms that racks his body, agrees to the mission in Sudan. Meanwhile Rainie is coerced into monitoring a rapid detox procedure which was still in its experimental stages which takes nearly 72 hours to rid the body of the effects of a drug.

With the unit operating on a tight time schedule, Rainie who has never flown anywhere in her entire 30 years of life finds herself forced to accompany Kick to Egypt from where he would be transferred to Sudan, the place of his mission. And with the withdrawal symptoms still attacking Kick’s body, Rainie forcefully accompanies them on the FedEx plane that is to airlift them to Sudan from where she would say her goodbyes to the man who had lit up her world in fireworks.

But things go awfully wrong when Rainie and Kick barely escape with their lives intact when their plane is blown into pieces over the Sudanese desert. From there, its a game of cat and mouse to evade the terrorists who had been tipped off somehow, and it is Kick’s vow that he would protect Rainie from the horrors and dangers of being captured by a vile organization such as the al Sayika.

It is on this mission that the reader is introduced to STORM Corps (Strategic Technical Operations & Rescue Missions) and Marc Lafayette who belongs to this elite organization who barely escapes with severe injuries from the blast. The three of the survivors make their way to the medical camp set up by Doctors for Peace and seeing Dr. Nathan Daneby, Kick’s long term friend and the one who evidence points towards as been the traitor nearly makes Kick seethe with anger enough to kill his friend with his bare hands.

Somehow, with Marc injured, Rainie is the only one left to accompany him on his dangerous mission and against all the misgivings that Kick has, he lets the woman he loves tag along with him. It is at the camp that Kick finds out that his best friend had not been killed, but might as well have been when he comes face to face with the shrunken skeleton of the man Alex had been, with filth and pus oozing scabs and evidence of severe beatings covering his whole body with no memory of who he is with his eyesight nearly gone.

Alex’s story is an intriguing one, one which had me more intrigued than the actual story at times. Alex dreams of a red haired woman, who comes to him in his dreams, tempts him beyond anything he has known and keeps him sane throughout the 16 months of torture he endures. When the story finally ends, Alex finds out that he is engaged to be married to a woman who he does not recognize whilst the one who walks in with her supposedly fiance, his FBI friend according to her, is the woman who had been haunting his dreams all throughout! Man, Nina Bruhns certainly knows how to keep a reader guessing till the very end and keep them begging for more, much more!

Whilst all this is happening, back in the states, Gina is relentless in her attempts to find out what had happened to her best friend. Finally her attempts yield fruit when she comes face to face with the mouth wateringly handsome and larger than life and older than herself Captain Gregg van Halen. Gregg made me go weak at my knees a time or two, with his rough and tough loving that Gina craves and ultimately struggles to give into. In the end, Gregg betrays her and leaves her at the mercy of God knows what before the story ends. Talk about leaving us hanging! But the good thing is the 3rd book in the series is Gregg and Gina’s story, and boy I can’t wait to sink into that one! And that supposedly contains Alex and his mysterious lady Rebel’s story as well. *Drools!*

Fast paced, filled with enough heat to keep you warm through the coldest night, this is one book that fans of romantic suspense should NOT forgo! Kick and Rainie gets their happily ever after with both of them learning a thing or two about themselves and rising above all the hurdles to embrace the fierce love that they have for one another. Highly recommended; if you haven’t already read this series, keep your TBR pile as it is and start on this one ASAP! Yes, it is that good!

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

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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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