Category / Toe Curler!!

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Society-Page Seduction by Maureen Child

Format: E-booksociert
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Dynasties: The Ashtons, Book 3
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Simon Pearce
Heroine: Megan Ashton
Date of Publication: March 1, 2005
Started On: November 23, 2009
Finished On: November 26, 2009

After reading the last book that I reviewed, Condition of Marriage by Emilie Rose I found myself interested in knowing more about the Ashton family which according to the series tag line says “The Ashtons — A family built on lies…brought together by dark, passionate secrets.”

Condition of Marriage  being the first book of this series that I read was actually the 9th book in this 12 book series. The story of Simon Pearce and Megan Ashton is the 3rd book in the series, and this was the book in which all the ugly secrets of Spencer Ashton, the father whose cruelty, lies and deception which is the underlying theme of this series, all start to unravel.

Spencer is married to Megan’s mother which as I mentioned in my previous review, turns out not to be a valid marriage since Spencer never really divorced his first wife. All these secrets and more start to come out of the closet in Megan and Simon’s story.

All her life, all Megan had wanted was her father’s approval, though he never had a word of encouragement or praise for either of his children. Megan works as a wedding planner and this is how she meets Simon Pearce, whilst planning his wedding to a bride who jilts him on the day of their wedding. Simon who was marrying for practical purposes, no mushy emotions involved thank-you very much, quickly proposes that Megan goes through the marriage with him, for a period of one year in order for him to expand his business with those whom seem to think that an unmarried man is not one to be trusted in the business world.

Megan, having her own reasons, which includes the fact her father is readying to marry her off to the Senator’s son, so that he would gain more power over government channels when running his business, decides to marry him on the spur and thus begins Megan’s and Simon’s story. Although this story wasn’t as sweet and beautiful as Jared and Mercede’s story, there was enough depth to the characters and plot line to make this an interesting read.

I guess most probably I would end up reading the stories in The Ashton’s series with the most interesting plot lines. Right now I am dead set on reading Name Your Price By Barbara McCauley and Just a Taste by Brownyn Jameson. And who knows, I might just end up reading the whole 12 books in the series, to quench my curiosity on who was ballsy enough  to kill Spencer Ashton!

Purchase Links: Amazon 

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Condition of Marriage by Emilie Rose

Format: E-bookconditionofmarriage
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Dynasties: The Ashtons, Book 9
Publisher: Silhouette 
Hero: Jared Maxwell
Heroine: Mercedes Ashton
Date of Publication: September 1, 2005
Started On: November 21, 2009
Finished On: November 22, 2009

This I think is the first multi-author series that I have ever tried and the first book by this author that I have ever read. This was a really beautiful love story and of course, it didn’t hurt that this romance was that of my favorite theme, where best of friends find true love with one another.

The Ashton family’s history explained in snatches here and there throughout the novel is focused on Ashley’s father Spencer Ashton who is this huge multi-millionaire who is portrayed as a man who never cared for anyone but himself. He has children from three ‘wives’, only one of them to whom he was actually legally married to and never divorced from, rendering his other two marriages unlawful and thus the children classified as bastards in the society. This whole series revolves around his mysterious murder, and how children from all his three wives come to terms with the legacy that their father had left them with, together with on how each find everlasting love with their meant to be’s.

Mercedes and Jared’s story is the ninth book of the series. Mercedes and Jared has been the best of friends ever since Chloe, Jared’s wife and Mercedes’s best friend since college died of a car crash together with the baby Jared and Chloe were about to have. Their story begins when Mercedes finds out she is pregnant with the father of the baby (Craig) wanting nothing more from her than an abortion to get rid of the baby.

Jared has his own demons to fight on top of the forbidden bouts of desire he starts to feel for Mercedes all of a sudden. Mercedes battles with the same desire, blaming them on her over zealous pregnant hormones. Craig all of a sudden comes back into Mercedes’s life, demands that she marry him so that he can reap off the millions that Mercedes might supposedly inherit from her father’s assets. Jared offers a way out by offering to marry Mercedes, and the moving journey that takes place after their marriage made for a really wonderful read.

I do not know whether all the other stories in the series are as good as this one, but I have got the mind to try them out since this is one of the most beautiful love stories that I have read in a long time. Truly satisfying read and of course Mr. Hotness himself didn’t make it any harder to fall in love with this story.

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Kill Me Twice by Roxanne St. Claire

Format: E-bookn167206
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: The Bullet Catchers, Book 1
Publisher: Pocket Books
Hero: Alex Romero
Heroine: Jasmine Adams
Date of Publication: September 7, 2005
Started On: November 12, 2009
Finished On: November 16, 2009

I found about Roxanne St. Claire whilst browsing through books on Amazon.com. I was surprised to see that her Bullet Catchers series has been quite well received by readers, in fact all her books in this series has got a reader rating of at least 4 or 4.5 stars. So I decided to check out this series that has got such a good reaction from readers of romantic suspense and I would have to say that Roxanne St. Claire does spin a good tale.

This introductory book in the series stars Alex Romero as the bullet catcher with side characters Max who is the lead in the next book of this series and Dan. With Lucy Sharpe as  the owner of this elite team of body guards who serve ultra-rich clients, Alex is handed an assignment which he considers to be in league with baby sitting when he has to protect Jessica Adams, a famous news reporter in Miami who reportedly has a stalker after her.

Alex turns up at Jessica’s place and is surprised to find himself with Jasmine, Jessica’s identical twin sister, from whom Jessica has asked to cover for her whilst Jessica pursues a hot lead in a story which will propel her career to the national fronts. Jasmine or rather Jazz, being fiercely independent resents the presence of Alex at first, but quickly comes to realize that Jessica may in fact be in danger and with everyone of Jessica’s acquaintances acting weirder by the moment.

The story is good, the romance between Alex and Jazz sizzles and the twists in the novel surprised me at the end and although I finished this book in 4 days time due to lack of available time to read it, this is the kinda book you can read in one sitting.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Mercenary by Cherry Adair

Format: E-bookmercer
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: T-FLAC, Book 1
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Marc Savin
Heroine: Victoria Jones
Date of Publication: February 1, 2008
Started On:  November 2, 2009
Finished On: November 7, 2009

This was my favorite kind of romance novel. Throw in a strong alpha hero, a heroine who doesn’t get on the reader’s nerves and a bunch of bad guys who could just topple everything over for the blossoming romance between the hero and heroine, I would say that makes for a pretty good read.

Previously I have read other books in this author’s T-FLAC series and I would have to say this would have to be one of the best novels in the series. Victoria Jones leads a spinsterish life when her twin brother Alex, who is a T-FLAC agent goes missing during a mission and is declared dead by the T-FLAC organization.

Marc Savin, who brought Alex into the organization, trained him and was his partner for a couple of years, now lives a secluded life on a ranch looking after horses in Mexico. Betrayed by the woman he loved once who turned out to be working for one of the terrorist organizations that they were investigating, Marc doesn’t trust any woman to get close to him.

Victoria and Alex share a telepathic bond which allows her to know that her brother is not dead, but being held captive by one of the terrorist organizations that the T-FLAC was investigating, and seeks Marc’s help to bring her brother back to safety. Astounded at first to know that Alex even has a twin, and reluctant to believe anything Victoria was saying, Marc decides to drag Victoria along to find Alex and bring him back home.

Hiding in a cave in an island controlled by terrorists, Marc finds that he is not immune at all to the lady by his side. The romance and the exciting adventure that unfolds makes for a great read. Of course, happy endings always makes a book worth reading especially when a hero has to grovel his way back into the heroine’s graces, which is hard to come across in novels these days.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to readers who love a good romance novel with a bit of adventure tossed right into it.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer

Format: E-bookMorning Glory
Read with: Stanza
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Hero: Will
Heroine: Elly
Date of Publication: January 1, 1991
Started On:  October 29, 2009
Finished On: October 30, 2009

The first book that I ever read from this author and it proved to be a real satisfying read. The story takes place during the World War II period in the US. Elly was labeled as the crazy one and the town folk didn’t care much for her. Her husband dead, with two kids and one more on the way, she advertises for a husband in the local newspaper.

Will was a drifter who walked into the town looking for a job, after serving time for murder. Answering the ad for a husband, Will never thought that his life would forever be changed by Elly and her children, who give Will something to live for in life.

This story is really sweet, because you can feel both characters develop throughout the novel. Both Elly and Will had given up hope that they would one day be loved by someone like the love described in the novel. The novel was a refreshing change because there were no silly problems that went unresolved because the hero and heroine couldn’t bear to talk honestly with one another. All in all, a real good romance novel, packed with a whole lot of emotions that romance lovers would find themselves reading this book in one go.

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Few Good Men by Tori Carrington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: You’ve Got Male by Elizabeth Bevarly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Remembrance by Jude Deveraux

Format: Paperbackremembrance
Read With: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Atria Books
Series: Standalone
Hero: Tavey/Talis/Tariz
Heroine: Catherine/Callie/Hayden Lane
Date of Publication: October 1, 1997
Started On: October 7, 2009
Finished On: October 10, 2009

I am not much of a fan of Jude Deveraux, but the novels that I have attempted to read of hers has been interesting. A Knight in Shining Armour is one of my all time favorite romances. Apart from that I attempted to read one novel of hers, the title of which I have forgotten, which didn’t end pretty well. Remembrance is one story that I have always wanted to read, ever since my sis discussed with me about this novel, which she remembered to be a wonderful romance, which is saying a lot since she doesn’t read romance novels that much. And after reading this book, I have got to say that this book is a pretty wonderful read.

The story picks up with Hayden Lane, who is an author about to reach her forties, unmarried, who writes romance books. Remembrance starts off in first person and most of the story is narrated in second person although it does end again in first person. Hayden Lane, starts to visualize a character (Jamie), for a book of hers, which makes her lose interest in the real world, and inevitably makes her fiance’ walk out on her. Hayden, for the life of her, can’t even feel a twinge of disappointment because he left, but rather this gives her all the time in the world to absorb Jamie into her mind and soul. After her editor starts worrying about her, Hayden finally realizes that she is in deep trouble when she refuses to share what she has written about Jamie with her publisher, starts on her quest to find out what is wrong with her. Endless therapy sessions later, (which points out she wants to sleep with her father!), the self humorous dialog is quite funny and made me laugh out loud several times, Hayden visits a psychic, who points out that Hayden is so unsatisfied with this life because she has loved so deeply in her past lives, and that a curse prevents her from finding that special someone in this life.

Hayden, being someone who can’t just sit by until two lifetimes pass by for her to find her true love again, takes matters into her own hands, and gets hypnotized which starts off the story of a love that is so deep and intense that I felt like crying at times. Hayden time travels all the way to when her life began in the Edwardian times, where Callie and Tallis, born at the same hour, are two halves of one soul, that is quite beautifully described by the author.

All in all, at the end, it is a happy ending for Hayden when she meets Tariz at the end of the story. I was enraptured by the story of Tallis and Callie, as I am sure rest of the readers of this book were. This might end up as one of the books that I re-read time & time again, because Callie and Tallis’s story is one that you can read more than once and still fall in love with over & over again!

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Slightly Shady by Amanda Quick

Format: Hardcoverslightly
Read with: Hardcover Edition
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Lavinia Lake and Tobias March – 1
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Hero: Tobias March
Heroine: Lavinia Lake
Published on: May 2001
Started On: September 2009
Finished On: October 2009

This is the first book that I have read of this author; Amanda Quick an alias used by Jayne Ann Krentz. This book starts off in Rome, when Tobias barges into the antique shop that Lavinia and her niece had established in order to get by, after being cheated off by the lady with which they had made the journey from London.

Her antique shop shattered on the accounts from Tobias that the shop was being used by a vicious criminal organization for communication amongst their members by hiding messages in the antiques in the shop Lavinia and her niece finds themselves sent off to London and these two meet once again when Lavinia upon being blackmailed by someone, finding out who the blackmailer is, comes to his place to find that someone had murdered him and in the process finds Tobias at the scene who is in search for the diary that the blackmailer was using.

Then begins the rather fascinating journey these two embark upon after forming an uneasy alliance to find the diary before it reaches the wrong hands once again, with Lavinia changing her profession to become a private investigator like Tobias. Desire, passion and love takes a backstage in this novel, which had me laughing at the quirky dialogues between the two and the really funny situations that these two found themselves in at times.

The story ends with a rather unique twist, which I would say that I didn’t really foresee coming.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sea Fire By Karen Robards

Format: Paperbacksea
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Pirate, Book 2
Publisher: Dell
Hero: Jonathan Hale
Heroine: Lady Catherine Aldley
Published on: November 10, 1998
Started On: August 2009
Finished On: September 26, 2009

Being a long time since I have been able to read a book and write its review. Life happened & I had to give up reading for a little while that kept me from  finishing this book and writing a review about it.

I think that with this book, I would have to agree with the rest of reviewers who read this book. It would have been better if the author had never attempted to write this book, or rather just included whatever she had written in this book in the first book of the series.

The characters in the book never seemed to learn from their mistakes, never seemed to grow up or move on from past grievances and there was too much violence between the hero and the heroine to make me believe that they really loved one another.

Anyhow, I did finish this book agonizing page by page. I guess that says something for the book, or maybe it was just me that wouldn’t put down a book I had spent such a lot on to buy in the first place.

I do not know what I will be reading next. But I will be sure to post a review of it as soon as I am done!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Kobo | eBookMall | iTunes

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