Category / Review

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Last Summer by Theresa Weir

Format: E-bookimage001
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Fanfare
Hero: Johnnie Irish
Heroine: Maggie Mayfield
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January 1, 1993
Started On: September 5, 2010
Finished On: September 6, 2010

When it came for the time to post the review I somehow do not remember where I picked up this title from, but boy, am I glad I did! This story swept over all my emotions, tugging at my heartstrings, made me yearn to take Johnnie in my arms and comfort him like I have never comforted anyone in my life. Yes, his story is that tragic, not that the author goes on and on about how he was neglected and abused during his childhood, but a clue here and there makes  the readers sum up on their own how hellish his childhood had actually being, and that just put a perpetual knot of emotion in my throat that refused to leave even long after I was done with the story.

Johnnie Irish, born into the small town of Hope, Texas hated his hometown with a vengeance. Born to a mother who had whored her life away, beat him up and beat him real good if he even whimpered during the beating session, put him inside a closet whilst she entertained various men and often forgot that he was even there and when he had grown older, kicked him out of the house for the night where he lay on a cold dark slab of stone near his derelict house and much later got into all sorts of trouble running around town at night. It was only later that Johnnie had realized that his dead mother had actually being crazy and insane, and she had always blamed Johnnie for the way she had chosen to live her life in the end.One of her regular visitors was Brace Cahill, cop of Hope who was as mean as they come. Brace who was married wasn’t amused when Johnnie had walked in on him and his mother and though Johnnie had sworn that he wouldn’t say anything to anyone about Brace visiting his mother, before Johnnie knew it, he had been arrested over some petty crime, and driven out of Hope by Brace himself.

The only good thing about Hope that he remembered was his high school drama teacher Harriet Lundy whom he affectionately called Harry. Johnnie had landed in drama class because none of the teachers would take him in and give the belligerent boy a chance. Though Harriet had her misgivings at first, when Johnnie took center stage, she could see the immense talent that this sensitive boy contained in spades. Harriet had always believed in Johnnie and advised him that never to let anyone make him think that he is not good enough.

Now fifteen years later, Hope beckoned him in the form of an invitation to be the main attraction in Hope’s homecoming parade. Johnnie, a well known actor who had several hit comedies under his belt felt the lure of coming back home and showing its residents a thing or two too strongly to turn down the offer.

Maggie Mayfield though she had not been born and bred in Hope, she had come to love its barren land and its open skies. Maggie had moved to Hope with her husband Steven because of his emphysema (An abnormal condition of the lungs marked by decreased respiratory function; associated with smoking or chronic bronchitis or old age). Though Steven had passed on a couple of years ago, Maggie had stayed back rather than return to Ohio where  Steven’s family lived.

From the very start, Maggie had been dead against Johnnie being included in the parade. From what she has read and heard about Johnnie who lived his life in the fast lane, partying away long into the night and had the usual habits of celebrities, Johnnie had not sounded like someone who would appreciate Hope and its residents. And when Johnnie steps off the small plane that brings him to Hope, it is Maggie who is there to receive him. Though Maggie had not bothered with her appearance on behalf of Johnnie and had resolutely made up her mind that she would not be swayed by his good looks, in reality his looks does knock her out of her loop for a bit. But then Johnnie does something that lives up to his disreputable image and that fancy notions in Maggie’s head takes a flying leap.

Things had been going pretty well in the parade that is until Johnnie had brought out a beer and started drinking in the midst of the parade. Angered beyond belief, Maggie had abruptly stopped the car which had landed Johnnie on his butt rendering him unconscious for a bit. And when she spies the syringe that slips out of his pocket, Maggie is surprised at the disappointment she feels that Johnnie actually lives up to his reputation of drug abusing. After being treated at the local hospital for concussion, Johnnie makes his way to see Harriet and then Maggie. Johnnie has no idea why he wants to apologize to Maggie for ruining the parade, which in actual reality was something he had wanted to do. At Maggie’s home, Johnnie collapses and it is then Maggie finds out that the syringe that he carries is for insulin as Johnnie suffers from diabetes.

Johnnie goes back to his life in California and Maggie resumes her life in Hope. But the thoughts and memories of the brief encounter between her and Johnnie always stays fresh in Maggie’s mind. Though she knows that Johnnie most probably must have forgotten about her, Maggie can’t help thinking about Johnnie. When Johnnie goes back, he starts partying harder than ever and lands in a bit of trouble which in the end lands him in jail. When his agent and only close friend Sherman comes to pick him up he finds Johnnie nearly dead of insulin shock.

Thus Johnnie takes Sherman’s advise and goes to recuperate and it is to Hope he returns to that summer. Maggie was having the first day of play rehearsal with her students and was having all sorts of problems with the piano player who had stepped into replace the original piano player piano player who had fallen down and broken both her wrists. To her surprise, it is Johnnie who walks in and saves the day. Though Maggie knows better than to trust Johnnie with keeping his word, she has no choice but to accept him as her new piano player. With the time they spend together, Maggie slowly starts to see beneath the surface of the man who jokes away to keep his emotions at bay. When Johnnie professes that he wants Maggie and she turns him down, Johnnie is more than surprised because it was actually a first time for him.

Maggie comes to care about and in the end fall in love with the mass contradictions of a man that Johnnie was. But the nightmares that Johnnie tries so hard to keep at bay, nightmares that features his dead mother and her endless torture sessions, Johnnie is desperate to leave again and nearly does so 3 days before the night of the play. Maggie is furious with Johnnie that he had once again gone ahead and proven himself worthy of his reputation. But then Johnnie agrees for Maggie’s sake that he would stay behind until the night of the play. By then, Maggie had realized that no matter how hard she had tried not to, she had given her heart to the one man who was so ill suited for her.

Sharing a night of passion which ends in a tear stricken Maggie flying into the arms of Elliot, her brother-in-law, a scene that Johnnie witnesses and breaks something within him, he goes back to his life in California though thoughts of Maggie are never far from his mind. Meanwhile, 2 months later, Maggie finds out that she is carrying Johnnie’s child, a fact she decides not to share with the father to be, thinking he wouldn’t care.

Harriet’s letters bring Johnnie back for a visit, and it is then he realizes that Maggie is pregnant. Maggie deliberately misleads him to think that it is Elliot’s baby. Johnnie, whom women had always tried to trap into marriage through pregnancy, suddenly finds himself craving to be the father of the baby that Maggie carries in her womb. Broken in more ways than he realizes, he bids farewell and well wishes to Maggie and her life with Elliot and once again leaves Hope to turn up on Maggie’s doorstep once again when he receives word from Harriet (who suffers from Alzheimer and rambles on in her letters) that Maggie was working towards becoming a single mom.

Maggie on the verge of giving birth is not prepared for a confrontation with Johnnie who seems livid at the thought of Maggie going through pregnancy and parenthood alone. But when he realizes that Maggie is in pain it is Johnnie that stays with Maggie throughout her difficult labor which results in a C-Section. During the course of the hours, Maggie starts to have misgivings about how she has misled Johnnie and decides to come clean, though she knows that Johnnie would feel immensely betrayed by the fact. Johnnie who is enthralled by little Alex and takes to parenting like a pro, finds out the shocking truth before Maggie is able to confide in him and this drives Johnnie over the edge and sends him running back to California once again.

Later on, a year goes by and it is Harriet’s funeral that brings Johnnie back to Hope and back to Maggie and Alex. With his own demons to slay before Johnnie can find true happiness and serenity, it nearly looks as if Johnnie ends his life with his destructive behavior towards the end.

As I said before, I was thoroughly enraptured with Johnnie’s character. Long after I finished the book, I realized that it had always been Johnnie who had come after Maggie though Maggie is the first to realize how deeply her feelings run for Johnnie. In the end I realized that though Maggie had insight into Johnnie’s character, she never really believed in him as Harriet did and that didn’t sit very well with me. But in the end, it is with Maggie that Johnnie finds the peace that he craves for and I loved reading the story that depicted his struggles to find it.

Favorite Quotes

“I’m afraid,” she (Maggie) confessed in a wobbly voice.
“It’s okay to be afraid. I’m afraid all the time.”
She choked out a sound of disbelief. “What are you afraid of?”
“Everything.” A thoughtful pause. “You. You scare the hell out of me.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Abe Books

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Morning After by J.K. Coi

Format: E-bookmorning after
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Ellora’s Cave Quickies
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Hero: Leo
Heroine: Leslie
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: January 12, 2010
Started On: September 4, 2010
Finished On: September 4, 2010

I usually refrain from reading Quickies because even though most of the time these quite short stories do pack a good punch, in the end I feel sort of cheated out because the story would have been wonderful if the character development had been more and the story just a teeny tiny wee bit longer! Even then, its always a delight now and again to read a good Quickie romance from Ellora’s Cave. When I came across this title, thanks to Pearl whom I follow on Twitter as well as on Goodreads, I knew with the 5 star ratings that this book had received already that it should be one hell of a read even for a Quickie and I must say I wasn’t disappointed.

The book comprising of just about 50 plus pages start off when Leslie wakes up after her worst hangover to find herself in bed with the last person she thought she would end up with – her husband Leo from whom she was in the process of getting divorced.

Leslie had grown up rich and pampered with her father Rick Jordan being a successful lawyer with his own law firm Jordan, Maxwell, Palmer. When Leslie had met Leo who is described as to have been a bad boy (which I would have loved to read more about!) her father had never taken to the idea of them getting together. Nevertheless, Leo and Leslie had been married for 7 years and they had been blissfully happy until it had all come crashing down.

Leo owns his own agency catering to movie stars, authors etc. When one of his clients had shot into stardom overnight, so did his business right alongside with it. For the first time since he married the love of his life whom he loved and adored with every fiber of his being, he was able to pamper her with all the luxuries that she had grown up with. But the demands on his time had been relentless from then onwards.

With the type of business that Leo has, it is inevitable that entertaining till the wee hours of the night goes with the territory. With Leslie being agoraphobic, she was ashamed of the fact that Leo had to leave her alone to do his business wining and dining most of the nights, but when evidence to the contrary surfaces, Leslie is forced to acknowledge that her cheating no good of a husband had lied to her in the end.

Without giving Leo a chance to explain, Leslie had thrown him out of their home and had her father run interference. For two whole months Leslie had been miserable in the knowledge that Leo had broken her heart. With her father dropping hints that he would like nothing better if Leslie moved on with David, her divorce lawyer who was the newest junior partner at his firm, Leslie had been scheduled to meet him at the night club into which her gorgeous husband had walked in with a platinum blond on his arm.

Leo had rescued her from inevitable disaster when the guy she had been flirting outrageously with had spiked her drink. Now lying in bed the morning after with her body yearning for her husband’s touch with Leo pulling all the dirty tricks up his sleeve to entice her back into his arms, the morning ends with one inevitable conclusion.

Even then, Leslie refuses to give Leo a chance to explain nor does she tell him why she left him in the first place. But Leo is relentless in his desire to find out and win her back and in the end, when Leslie does show him the evidence of his betrayal, a videotape of him having sex with his latest client, Leo’s explanation restores her faith back in the man who is her soul mate.

A story that is a quick and hot read that left me breathless at times, J.K. Coi should write more contemporary romances, albeit a little longer ones that we can sink our teeth into. A story with the underlying message that communication lines between partners should always be open, this is one Quickie all erotica contemporary lovers MUST read!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Ellora’s Cave

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Walking After Midnight by Karen Robards

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Dell
Hero: Steve Calhoun
Heroine: Summer McAfee
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: October 1, 1995
Started On: September 3, 2010
Finished On: September 3, 2010

Walking After Midnight has the features that makes a romantic suspense novel a page turner. With unbeatable romance, a larger than life hero and a heroine who matches him in every way with mean as hell bad guys running after them, this book kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

Summer McAfee is 36 years old, divorced from Dr. Lemuel C.Rosencrans, a urologist who had left her to get married to his 22 year old nurse. Right after high school, rather than go to college as her parents had wanted her to, she had taken the money her parents had set aside for her college and left to make her way as a lingerie model. She had always thought there would be ample enough time left to study afterwards but life happened and before she knew it, younger models were replacing her and she returned home to Murfreesboro, Tennessee in Smoky Mountains. There she had met and married Lem, who had in reality married the model that she had been and not the woman she really was. Lem had tried hard to mold her into what he wanted her to look like and Summer had let him do that for 5 long miserable years during which she had developed bulimia as a result of starving herself to look good enough for her husband. When Lem had left her with no means to support herself, Summer had done the only thing viable and used the only skill that she had developed as a housewife and started cleaning for other people. And thus her baby Daisy Fresh Janitorial Services had been born.

One of Daisy Fresh Janitorial Service’s most important clients was the Harmon Brothers, a chain of funeral homes which required that the place be cleaned up during the night. Though Summer had hired a cleaning crew of two members who had not turned up for the 2nd time that month, in the end it was Summer who had to see the job through for the night. Being alone in a funeral home was making her skin crawl with her imagination going overdrive. With the toilets scrubbed to her satisfaction, Summer is about to leave when she spies the light that is switched on in the embalming room. Knowing that her client required her to switch off all the lights before leaving the premises, Summer makes her way into the room against her better judgment.  When she sees a second uncovered body in the room with bruises all over, and sees the body move, Summer knows that she wouldn’t be able to put the incident out of her mind until she checks whether the body is dead for real. Before she knows how it happened, the bruised and naked body on the table threatens her with a wicked looking scalpel and kidnaps her from the funeral home.

Steve Calhoun had served as a detective with the Tennessee State Police until scandal had ruined him and his career. Right after high school Steve had joined the Marines and later on majored in Law Enforcement. Steve and his buddy Mitch had always been tight and together since childhood. Whilst Mitch was taller, leaner, handsomer and smoother compared to Steve who no one would describe as handsome but has an impressive body with an enigmatic presence, Mitch had been the hell raiser whilst Steve had been the dependable one of the two. When Mitch got into all sorts of trouble, it had been Steve who had born the brunt of rescuing him from whatever mishap Mitch had gotten into. When Mitch and Steve meet Deedee at a local hangout during high school, Steve is immediately drawn to her but it is with Mitch whom Deedee hopelessly falls in love with and gets married to. Even during marriage, Steve had covered for Mitch when he had cheated on Deedee. Steve had met Elaine after he left the Marines and married her who had borne him his daughter Corey. Though Steve had gone through all his life based on the motto Semper fidelis – always faithful, on a night he was drunk, he had succumbed and had sex with the lonely wife of his best buddy. Two weeks into the affair, Steve had started to feel guilt creeping in on him and had broken things off with Deedee who later committed suicide in his office leaving behind a tape which showed steamy interludes between Steve and Deedee and a note on his computer that she was committing suicide because he had broken up with her to go back to Elaine.

Needless to say, Steve had lost his job, his wife had left him and divorced him and requested for sole custody of their daughter. Steve had agreed to it all believing that he deserved it all as the punishment that befit him for what he had done. Steve had nearly lost himself in being a drunk, but the knowledge that his own daughter hated his guts had served as a splash of cold water on his face and he had  been sober ever since. Niggling doubts had arisen with his sobriety about how Deedee had died and following up on the investigation that he had been conducting when life had gone all shitty on him had ended up in him being beaten within an inch of his life and waiting to be embalmed on the table of a funeral home.

Thinking at first Summer to be in cahoots with the thugs who were after him, Steve pretty much makes Summer’s life miserable and forces her to ride along with him whilst he tries to escape the goons who were pretty much after his head. Stealing a van with two dead bodies inside it and riding off into the night with helicopters chasing after them, Summer has no choice but to go along for the ride unless she wanted to be killed. When Summer learns who Steve is and knows deep in her gut that he wouldn’t harm a hair on her head and gets more than fed up of being on the run, being the naive woman she is decides to cut her losses and go home. Though Steve warns her that the goons who were after him would probably know her identity Summer doesn’t listen and in the end they both barely manage to escape with their lives intact with the help of her mother’s dog Muffy.

Thus begins Steve and Summer’s journey for survival through the rough terrain that forms the Smoky Mountains with the whole country on the look out for them for double homicide. Things start getting interesting when despite everything that has happened, both Summer and Steve starts to feel the first stirrings of attraction between them which blazes out of control within no time. Steve who doesn’t want the hassle of a relationship finds himself more occupied with thoughts of Summer and her effect on him than clearing up his name and delving into the heart of the matter that had landed him in this precarious situation. When Summer realizes that she had fallen head over heels in love with her Frankenstein, all bets are off and she doesn’t stop until Steve too admits that what is happening between them is special.

Their plans to clear up their names go awry when the goons in question kidnap Steve’s daughter and ex-wife and hold them hostage. All along, it is the van that Steve and Summer stole in order to make their escape from the funeral home that the goons were after and the final showdown does reveal in the end the story of crooked cops and politicians who were benefiting from drug trading within the country.

Both Steve and Summer are two broken people who finds in one another the will to heal and love again. The dialogues between the two are witty and made me smile all the way through. The adventure was good enough to keep me on the edge and the romance and passion hot enough to curl my toes. Though I didn’t care much for the paranormal aspect in the book, this is an adventure worth sinking into with a few surprises in store to make it all worth towards the end.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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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: Into The Fire by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookintothefire
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Mira
Hero: Dillon Gaynor
Heroine: Jamie Kincaid
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 1, 2003
Started On: August 31, 2010
Finished On: August 31, 2010

My first Anne Stuart certainly didn’t disappoint. I have always wanted to try out one of her books since all her fans rave about the fact that she writes about the most cold heroes ever. Since I am a big fan of cold, aloof and tortured heroes I have been meaning to give her Ice series a try. I did start reading Anne Stuart’s To Love a Dark Lord, a book that seemed to be getting rave reviews but turned out I was bored after the first couple of pages. But this book managed to hook me from the very beginning and I just had to finish it or most probably I would have stayed up all night to do so.

Jamie Kincaid, the adopted daughter of Isobel and Victor Kincaid has always known that when it comes to the affections of her mother whom she loves dearly, she has always come at a weak second place to Nate Kincaid, Isobel’s nephew whom she had taken under her care when Nate’s parents had died a tragic death in a fire when Nate was 10 years old. Everyone had loved the charming feckless Nate with his glorious good looks and easy charm. For Jamie, the arrival of Nate had been a godsend. She had adored Nate and believed that he could do no wrong and had looked up to him like the older brother she would never have.

When Nate befriends Dillon Gaynor, the bad boy from the wrong side of town, no one approves of their wild ways and their relationship. Dillon who had been abandoned by his mother when he was 8 years old to a drunken father had dropped out of high school right before graduation had always had a wild streak in him a mile wide. Getting into fights, getting drunk and high on weed and the women that flocked around him who craved getting into bed with the dangerous looking bad boy he is, Dillon was every innocent girls wildest fantasy. Jamie wasn’t immune to Dillon’s dangerous charm and though she tried to stay away from Dillon, somehow she always ended up craving his attention.

And then one fateful night, on Jamie’s prom night, she gets a taste of what Dillon can offer in his arms right after which she is raped brutally by Paul Jameson, quarterback of the football team and president of the student council. Jamie doesn’t know that Dillon served 18 months of his life in jail for beating Paul up within an inch of his life. Now twelve years later, Nate has been murdered and the police had really done nothing to find out what had happened. With Isobel going deeper into depression everyday, Jamie was finally forced to seek out Dillon, the man she wants to avoid at all costs to get some answers and to get closure for all their sakes.

Dillon lives in a run down part of Wisconsin and Jamie’s first impression that although Dillon had become more handsome and rugged the past couple of years, nothing had really changed. Though Jamie helplessly responds to Dillon on a level that she has found impossible to connect with another man, Jamie doesn’t trust Dillon within an inch of her life. But when she is stranded with her car requiring repairs, her purse containing her identification lost, Jamie has no choice but to reside at the dismal lodgings that Dillon calls home.

Right from the beginning, Jamie feels an evil presence watching and waiting in the derelict building that served to be the deathbed of Nate. Though Dillon wants nothing to do with Jamie with whom he had been obsessed with since forever, and though he believes that he would never be good enough for Jamie, the invisible connection that seems to grow stronger with every minute they spend together finally culminates in Dillon having the best sex of his life. Dillon wanted nothing more than to bed Jamie and send her packing, but the best laid plans always have a way of getting screwed up.

Things start going awry right from the very beginning and though neither Dillon nor Jamie believes in ghosts, it feels as if they are being haunted and hunted by a ghostly presence who nearly manages to kill the one woman who means the world to Dillon. Like all reviewers have mentioned, this book certainly has a dark edge to it that I just loved. I loved the fact that Dillon though reformed somewhat, essentially remained the bad boy he was which made him real appealing as the hero. And Jamie though she does start out as a scared and witless woman, the way she fights for the man she loves won her my wholehearted approval in the end.

Needless to say I loved the book and will definitely be going back for more of Anne Stuart’s fabulous books.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Just a Taste by Deirdre Martin

Format: E-bookJust a taste
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: New York Blades, Book 7
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Hero: Anthony Dante
Heroine: Vivi Robitaille
Sensuality: 2.9
Date of Publication: January 2, 2008
Started On: August 30, 2010
Finished On: August 31, 2010

I have been collecting up and reading books of the theme where the hero has been previously married, but the wife is dead, and circumstances force the hero to get married again, against his better judgment. Sometimes the hero has been betrayed by his wife and has vowed never to love or feel again, other times the hero has adored his previous wife and has set her on a pedestal that is difficult to reach for anyone else. Needless to say, such instances create great stories and if the author is particularly talented you get wonderful stories like Sunset Embrace by Sandra Brown, Night in Eden by Candice Proctor etc. This book was recommended on a thread on Amazon and since I was able get an e-version of the book, I decided to give this a go since it sounded like a fun read regardless of the fact that I had never tried out any books by Deirdre Martin before.

This is the 7th book in the New York Blades series and though the New York Blades is supposedly a hockey team, there is very little hockey involved in the book. Anthony Dante is the handsome head chef and half-owner of the Dante’s restaurant that has been in the Dante family for generations. A place that had started out as a pizza parlor, Dante’s was now an upscale restaurant that served homey Italian cuisine to a wide range of clientele. Anthony was still grieving for the untimely death of his Angie who had been a cop killed during duty. A year on, Anthony still visits his wife’s grave every Sunday morning and talks to her about everything that had happened during the past week. Still stubbornly holding onto his wedding ring, Anthony is not ready to move on to greener pastures and start living again. The only thing that stirs his passion is his restaurant and the magic that he can create inside his spotless kitchen.

When stunning French chef Vivi Robitaille moves across Dante’s and starts sprucing up the place to open up a new Bistro, Anthony with the typical egoistic nature of most chefs knows that none can beat Dante’s. Vivi has no intention of competing with Dante’s or any place else. Leaving France and coming to America was supposed to be Vivi and her half sister Natalie’s chance of starting over. Vivi was tired of the fact that in France cooking was considered to be a profession for the men and Vivi wants success on her own terms and the move to America was off to a good start if she may say so. Vivi and Natalie has a strange relationship as Vivi was the daughter of the mistress of Natalie’s father. Their father had left the major share of his wealth to his legitimate daughter and Vivi had to depend on Natalie for the funds required for opening up the bistro.

When Vivi meets the handsome and brusque Anthony, Vivi knows right on that the happy neighborly feel that she had been striving for would totally be lost on the genius who resents the fact that Vivi was changing things around the neighborhood. Though Anthony’s brother and half owner of Dante’s Micheal Dante who had just retired from his career at New York Blades and was struggling to adjust to being a stay at home dad adores Vivi on sight, Anthony bristles at the mere thought that Vivi has the audacity to challenge him in his kitchen. It’s not long before the sparks between Vivi and Anthony fly, and it is with amusement that Micheal watches from the sidelines and encourages his brother to make a go for it.

Ultimately, Vivi and Anthony hit the sheets and are pretty confident of making their relationship work when remnants of the fear that resides in Anthony as a result of his wife’s death rear its ugly head. When Vivi refuses to be understanding about what happened even when Anthony professes that he loves her and that he has moved on from his dead wife, Vivi gives him the stupid reason of it not being the right time for her to start a relationship with problems brewing up between Natalie and herself regarding the finances required for the bistro. I felt like giving Vivi a swift kick for hurting Anthony like that! Still feel like it!!

In the end, Vivi and Natalie manage to work out their differences, find a solution for the financial havoc that Natalie created and successfully open up the bistro. Towards the end, it is Natalie who convinces Vivi to go for the man she loves and is miserable without, when Natalie was dead set against Vivi’s relationship with Anthony in the  beginning. I found it a bit unbelievable when Natalie who has a pretty strong personality and fights for everything she wants and believes in just gave up on Anthony and then needed a nudge from her sister to finally find the courage to embrace true love and acknowledge the fact that it wasn’t Anthony who hadn’t been ready to let go of Angie but herself.

Ms. Martin has created a wonderful set of characters with the Dante family and it was wonderful and engaging to read their interactions. It was especially endearing to read about how Anthony had to step in between his brother Micheal and his son little Anthony who actually wanted to cook rather than play hockey as his father wanted him to. Though I did not like how Vivi acted out, this book was still a pretty good read.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Brides of Prairie Gold by Maggie Osborne

Format: E-bookbrides
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Warner Books Inc
Hero: Cody Snow
Heroine: Perrin Waverly
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: August 1, 1996
Started On: August 28, 2010
Finished On: August 29, 2010

The Brides of Prairie Gold center around the twelve woman who travel to Clampet Falls, Oregon from Missouri as mail-order brides. Wagon master Cody Snow has no idea how he ended up with agreeing to take these brides to their destination. This being the last trip that Cody was going to take, he was also carrying a stash of weapons and whiskey unknown to the brides on board to sell. A journey that was to take a period of around 6 months of their lives through rough terrain and weather, Cody doesn’t know how he is going to survive the incessant problems that seems to crop up amongst his travelers. Accompanying him as his scout is  the enigmatic half-Indian Webb Coate who makes for a pretty interesting character as well.

When Cody lays his eyes on the beautiful Perrin Waverly, the red-hot attraction that flares between them is instantaneous and unwelcome at best. Cody whose dead wife Ellen had betrayed him and got pregnant with another man’s child and died giving birth had left a bitter taste in Cody’s mouth where women are concerned. Cody had vowed that no woman would ever have that kind of power over him and his heart and he had resigned himself to settling down on his own. Perrin was a woman who had made a lot of mistakes in the past. Perrin viewed men as users of women, who always took and never gave anything back. Widowed quite unexpectedly from her jealous husband Gavin Waverly who had left her no means to fend for herself, Perrin had been at the end of her wits as to what to do when Joseph Boyd, Chastity’s wealthy banker had befriended her. In the end, Perrin had offered herself to him as his mistress, an act that had tainted her forever in the eyes of the citizens of Chastity. This journey towards a new life and a new husband was supposed to be her second chance. But life and its unexpected twists had thrown Augusta Boyd, Joseph’s proud daughter who doesn’t want anything to do with the woman who in her opinion had ruined her father which in the end had prompted him to commit suicide.

Needless to say, the journey doesn’t start off well for Perrin or Augusta. Augusta is a character that brings out all sorts of emotions from the reader. She is spoiled to the core, demanding and pretty much thinks of herself to be above everyone else who was performing the journey along with her. Augusta hires Cora to do her bidding, and whilst Cody had ordered that everyone who was traveling with him had to do their share of work, Augusta refuses to lift a finger to do work she deems to  be beneath her. With only 40 dollars to see her through the journey since her father had been completely ruined financially, a fact Augusta had managed to keep a lid on till now, Augusta is scared of not making it through the journey.

Cody as the wagon master has always opted that his travelers select a representative from their group to bring their problems to, so that Cody can only attend to those problems that are deemed unsolvable by the representative. When Perrin draws the paper marked X which effectively makes her the group’s representative, none of the group members are enthusiastic about the fact. They all know of Perrin’s reputation and were doing their hardest to ignore Perrin and not associate with a woman who had fallen from grace.

Cody curses and thanks the fact that being the womenfolk’s representative undeniably put Cody and Perrin into a situation where they could no longer avoid each other. Sparks fly and the atmosphere pretty much crackles with tension whenever Cody and Perrin are together. Though they try to deny the combustive attraction between them, it is inevitable as the rising sun that these two would come together in an explosive manner that pretty much obliterates everything else. When Perrin realizes that Cody has no intention of ever marrying again, but wants to continue their relationship, Perrin knows that she won’t ruin her second chance at respectability even if it means saying no to the man who had effectively captured her heart forever.

I don’t think I can effectively describe what goes through during this tough journey that these brides take to reach their futures and their husbands. The rough and tough journey inevitably toughens them up. There are losses, deaths, squabbles and disease that occur during the space of the journey. Making the journey doubly dangerous is a long term enemy of Cody, who is hell bent on killing Cody and stealing the arms and whiskey that Cody was transporting. And amongst the women is a bride who has an unhealthy obsession with Cody, who thinks that she is the bride meant for Cody who in the end nearly kills the woman Cody loves with everything in his being.

This book is a pretty great read which enriches the reader with the perils of traveling during the 1800’s. Life was tough and hard and people had to toughen up and face life head on if they wanted to survive. The most remarkable change comes out in Augusta, who finally gets what she deserves and a bit more, and in the end this makes her into a better woman, who but in the end loses the man she loves, because she was too proud to think that a half Indian was beneath her.

The story of how Mem, a 28 year old spinster and Webb Coate find each other was pretty interesting as well. Webb who at first smolders at the mere thought of touching the hauntingly beautiful Augusta Boyd, finally finds everything he had been searching for and more in the arms of Mem, the woman who completes him in every way.

I recommend Maggie Osborne novels for those romance readers who require something more than just a man and woman getting together and falling in love. If you want a romance with a bite of adventure, a little bit of mystery and enough passion to knock your socks off, this is a must read.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Bride of Willow Creek by Maggie Osborne

Format: E-bookbride
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ivy Books
Hero: Sam Holland
Heroine: Angie Bartoli
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: October 2, 2001
Started On: August 27, 2010
Finished On: August 28, 2010

This is certainly an unusual story, as are most of the novels by Ms. Osborne. This was the book that I chose to read right after falling in love with Ms. Osborne’s writing style after reading Silver Lining. However, for some reason I read a couple of pages and found my interest straying towards some other book and I had all but forgotten about it until my pile of to-be read Ms. Osborne novels have shrunk into 1 or 2 books. And finally after reading this book, I for the world of me cannot understand why I put this book away because yes, this book is really good.

Ten years have passed since Angie Bartolli then sixteen years old had married Sam Holland. Angie with a formidable father had not been ready to defy him and leave with her then husband for whom her father felt nothing but loathing saying right to his face that Sam would never be able to make anything for himself. Both Sam and Angie had been young, both expecting things from the other that they had not been mature enough to understand or give. Thus Angie had stayed behind, a married innocent, whilst her husband Sam made his way to the West swearing that he would make something of himself by prospecting for gold and silver.

Now Angie’s parents have passed away and left her broke with nothing to live on. Angie wants her life to start and yearns to actually live as a married woman. Practically designated the position of a wallflower after being deserted by her husband, Angie had always been on the outside looking in, until Peter De Groot shows an interest in her and wants to start a life with her. Wanting the divorce that she should have obtained long back, without any funds to achieve what she wanted, Angie makes her way to Sam hoping that he would pay all the expenses for the year long period that she would have to wait for the divorce to come through.

The Sam that she encounters is a grown up, more vital and more handsome version of the man that she fell so swiftly in love with. Old resentments that they both thought they had buried long ago come rising to the surface, both blaming the other for a marriage that never in reality began. When Sam realizes that Angie has nowhere else to go and that he is in no financial situation to pay for the divorce that the both of them wants, the only solution is for Angie to take residence at his small place.

At Sam’s place Angie encounters Lucy and Daisy, the adorable daughters of Sam, which shock Angie more than anything else. The immense feeling of betrayal she feels when she hears that Sam had been living with Laura, the mother of his daughters until she had died of pneumonia, Angie doesn’t know whether to start crying or to start screaming. The one thing Sam regrets more than anything else is the fact that he was never able to offer his name and respectability to Laura, a fact that he, Laura and her parents only knew. But the arrival of his wife, which Sam resents with everything he is, definitely stirs up the story which makes Sam’s resentment to the forced arrangement grow.

Upon meeting Daisy, the youngest of the two girls, Angie realizes why Sam has other priorities at the moment. Born with club foot, the surgery required to correct the defect cost the earth and Sam was determined that this time as soon as he got enough money Daisy would be his number 1 priority. And with the courts having sentenced Sam that if during the 1 year period he is unable to get the surgery done on Daisy he would have to give up both his daughters to their grandparents, who loathe Sam for “seducing” their daughter into an immoral life with him.

Angie who doesn’t know squat about caring for children, slowly learns what it is like to lose your heart to two beautiful girls who could try your patience until you no longer have any left. With Lucy fighting Angie and her affections every step of the way, life is a constant battle for Angie. And feelings she had never come across before start to haunt and taunt her with her alluring husband so close by. Intimacies that develop over living in a small space contribute towards the raging inferno that is ignited inside Angie, and suddenly every waking thought and dream she has is full of Sam and the way he could make her lose herself in desire she had no right feeling now.

Sam thought that anything he had felt for Angie 10 years back had long since being buried. But the woman that Angie has grown into is more alluring than he can resist. With her fiery spirit and courage, and her affection towards his two girls Sam slowly starts to fall in love with Angie all over again.

However, trust and belief in the other that has always been the problem between the two nearly breaks them apart once again. This was a heartwarming read on how Angie comes to care for the two girls who adorable and equally headstrong, how Angie tries to save and scrape whatever Sam earns so that Daisy could have the surgery she needs before custody would be awarded to their grandparents. I definitely loved Angie as the heroine and needless to say I wouldn’t mind a Sam Holland of my own! *winks*

Beautifully done, this is a marvelous read any true romantic would love.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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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: Foxfire Bride by Maggie Osborne

Format: E-bookfoxfire
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ivy Books
Hero: Matthew Tanner Jennings
Heroine: Eugenia Foxworth
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: November 23, 2004
Started On: August 25, 2010
Finished On: August 27, 2010

If you want to read about heroines who are feisty, independent and live on the fringes of the society having to make do with what they have and are all the more strong for it, Maggie Osborne is always the author to look for. Fox is a heroine as feisty and independent as they come. Born into the rich affluent society in San Francisco, her mother who has a substantial inheritance re-marries when her father dies while Fox is quite young. Her new husband Hobbs Jennings steals the inheritance that is due Fox when her mother dies, leaving Jennings as Fox’s guardian. Since Fox was quite young, around 6 years old, she has no inkling of what is going on when she is bundled up and lands at the home of an aunt who has several kids of her own to look after. Fox ends up being more of a servant at their home and it is at her aunts place that she meets Peaches, a black man who changes her life.

Peaches and Fox strike up an unusual friendship during a time period where black people were merely tolerated. Peaches helps her get educated to the extent he is able to and teaches her everything that she knows. When Fox grows up, she and Peaches run away from their aunt’s place together and make do with whatever work they can get on their way. When Fox reads about Jennings and how he came into an inheritance when his wife and daughter died, it is then Fox realizes just how immensely Fox had been cheated and betrayed. Swearing vengeance on the man who was the reason for the hardships that Fox had had to endure, Fox promises that she would kill Jennings even if it is the last thing she does.

Fox does manage to make her way to San Fransisco and Jennings. But the world Jennings resides in makes Fox wary and she flees back to Peaches and makes a life for her and him in the West. It is there that Fox builds up a reputation as one of the most sought after scout west of the Rockies where she has led numerous folks through wild unexplored terrain until a gunshot wound ends her guiding career. Resigned to living a more sedate life, it is years later that a handsome stranger comes riding through, looking for the notorious guide Fox and encounters the woman who would change his life forever.

When Matthew Tanner, who works as an engineer in the mines of Hobbs Jennings, receives word that his father has been kidnapped and the kidnappers wanted ransom delivered to Denver in less than 3 months, he has no choice but to seek out the services of the best guide in the area. When he comes across Fox, thinking Fox to be a man, he is surprised to find the willful and defiant woman who seems more than capable of leading the cargo that would hold the ransom gold. Though Fox drives a mean bargain, Tanner knows that she is the best available and hires two men who would guard the money throughout the journey.

Fox feels her stomach tighten and hot all over every time she meets Tanner’s eyes. Suddenly Fox longs to be beautiful, demure and all those things she never had a chance to be just so Tanner would want her. Fox knows that the divide between her and Tanner is far too wide. Whereas education and ingrained culture seethes from every pore of Tanner’s body, Fox knows that as Peaches points out, her manners are uncouth at the best.

Tanner cannot understand for the world why he is drawn to the woman who leads him on the dangerous journey towards Denver. What Tanner does know is that he has never wanted a woman like he wants Fox, and though he knows that he has nothing to give to Fox, except a casual affair until they reach Denver, when Fox states that she wants the affair, Tanner knows he has no choice but to give in.

As usual in Osborne novels, the tension between the hero and heroine is what makes the book so delicious. The constant awareness between Tanner and Fox kept at a simmering high makes you sigh and wish for a tall, hard man like Tanner for your own.

Fox knows that life for her would end upon reaching Denver, because she aims to finish the job which she couldn’t complete before. Fox wants to enjoy whatever life can throw her way before submitting herself to the hangman noose, which she knows would swiftly follow when she kills Jennings. Peaches, who accompany them on the journey, who is so sick that he can barely make it through, tries to sway Fox’s mind from killing Jennings.

The journey is one filled with danger, betrayals and the death of Peaches which was heartbreaking to read about. But the biggest shock of all comes when the reader finds out who Tanner’s father actually is, and when the time comes for Fox to decide whether she is going to let her hatred for a man triumph over the love she feels for another.

I felt a teeny tiny bit cheated that Jennings in the end was portrayed not as the villain that I would have wanted, but I guess forgiveness is always better than seeking revenge, since it is that much harder always to forgive someone than to go on hating them forever.

I guess I have only one or two Maggie Osborne novels left. I am going to miss reading these wonderful novels penned by a brilliant author who makes reading romance that much more enjoyable.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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