Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: Standalone Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Joaquin Francisco Del Castillo Heroine: Lucinda Paez Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: September 26, 2000 Started On: June 23, 2023 Finished On: June 28, 2023
‘Desire is rarely so immediate as it is between us. That intrigues me, but it won’t hold me. Don’t fantasize about a future beyond tomorrow…’
Don Joaquin’s Pride by Lynne Graham brings to readers a passionate and tumultuous romance set against the backdrop of Guatemala’s lush landscape and delivers on the kind of intensity between the main protagonists that Ms. Graham is renowned for in her novels. First published in September 2000, the novel is about the fiery relationship as it unfolds between 30 year old Joaquin Francisco Del Castillo, a proud and intense billionaire industrialist, and 22 year old Lucinda Paez, a young woman caught in a web of deception and desire.
Lucinda, known as Lucy, is thrust into a precarious situation when her twin sister, Cindy, requests her help in impersonating her. Cindy’s motives are far from altruistic, and given the complicated history between the twins, Lucy succumbs to the emotional “blackmail” that Cindy is so effective in wielding.
From the onset of her arrival in Guatemala, Lucy is thrust into close proximity with the intense and complex man that Joaquin is. Lucy who has had very little experience with men, much less men of Joaquin’s worldliness and caliber, finds herself helplessly ensnared in the web of desire that holds her enthralled, while Joaquin makes it no secret of his distrust towards her. The case of impersonation of identity keeps Lucy at a position of disadvantage, even as the passion between Joaquin and Lucy builds and Lucy finds herself falling in love for the very first time in her life.
Ms. Graham as always, excels in the portrayal of the internal conflicts and the evolving dynamics between the main characters, with a side of secondary characters who add nuances to the story. While Joaquin himself is a formidable and deeply conflicted man driven by principles of justice, his mistrust towards Lucy is understandable given the main conflict and confrontations between the two that drives the narrative forward.
Lucy herself is no heroine of the doormat variety. However, given her emotional vulnerabilities and guilt when it comes to her twin Cindy, these facets to her character renders her ineffective when it comes to gaining equal footing with Joaquin, whose pride itself is a force to be reckoned with. Ms. Graham is skillful in the way she portrays Lucy’s emotional vulnerabilities and her unexpected attraction to Joaquin, adding layers of depth to their passionate encounters.
The novel’s setting in Guatemala adds richness to the story, with vivid descriptions of the country’s landscapes and cultural nuances enriching the backdrop against which Joaquin and Lucy’s romance unfolds. Ms. Graham’s attention to detail (not too much because that tends to bog a story down with unnecessary details) brings the setting to life, offering readers a sensory experience that enhances the emotional intensity.
However, while Don Joaquin’s Pride excels in its portrayal of complex characters and compelling conflicts, some may find the story line occasionally predictable. But I believe that it is at times, this predictability itself that makes a story worth your while, based on your mood as a reader.
Recommended for fans of Lynne Graham’s intense romance novels. Joaquin is as intense a hero as any.
Final Verdict: Don Joaquin’s Pride offers a captivating romance with passionate protagonists in a lush setting as the backdrop, delivering a satisfying blend of emotional depth and romance!
Favorite Quotes
Their eyes met. An infinitesimal little tremor ran through Lucy. Her heart skipped a beat, began thundering in her ears instead. Green like emeralds, green like fire. A thought which didn’t make any sense at all, but then nothing that Lucy experienced in that moment had anything to do with normal thought. She watched the colour score his fabulous cheekbones with a level of wonderment that was undeniably mindless. Insidious heat curled up in the pit of her stomach, making her suck in her breath and blink, and at the same moment she blinked he turned away.
Joaquin Del Castillo was a male of innate and fascinating contradictions, Lucy acknowledged sleepily. Fiercely proud and icily self-contained in his hostility towards her, yet too honourable, it seemed, to make her suffer unnecessary discomfort. Against the backdrop of the flaming sunset, he stood over her like a huge black intimidating shadow. ‘You look like the devil,’ she whispered, with a drowsy attempt at humour. ‘I will not take your soul, señora…but I have every intention of stripping you of everything else you possess.’ Stray words fluttered in the blankness of Lucy’s brain. They did not connect. They did not make sense. With a soundless sigh of relief, Lucy sank into the deep, dreamless sleep of exhaustion.
‘The word you use with me is sí…it means yes, and I like to hear it,’ Joaquin Del Castillo confided in a deep dark drawl that rasped down her spine like sandpaper on silk, and he drew her in to him and banded his arms round her narrow ribcage instead. ‘Say it for me…’ A strange all-pervasive ache stirred deep in Lucy’s pelvis, wiping out her ability to concentrate. ‘No—’ ‘Sí…’ Joaquin instructed, slowly crushing her swelling breasts into the hard wall of his chest, one strong arm sliding down her back to curve round her hips and hold her fast as he studied her with flaming mesmeric intensity. ‘Dios…you will say it to please me.’
His dark head lowered to capture her exploring forefinger between his lips. Lucy watched him in shaken fascination. A soft gasp was dragged from low in her convulsing throat. Every pulse in her treacherous body went crazy as he gently sucked, silken black lashes almost hitting his cheekbones. Like ice cream on a hot stove she could feel her flesh melting over her bones in a sweet, strong agony of need so new to her experience it overwhelmed her defences. ‘Sí…’ Joaquin prompted thickly as he lifted his arrogant dark head. ‘Sí…’ Lucy framed without even knowing what she was saying, utterly enthralled by the wash of agonising sensation pulsing up inside her.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: This Time, Forever, #1 Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Cesare Falcone Heroine: Mina Carroll Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: September 01, 1995 Started On: March 01, 2023 Finished On: March 02, 2023
Entirely focused on him, she felt light-headed. ‘I didn’t know—’ ‘Didn’t know what?’ Cesare whispered unevenly, dropping his hand to the bedspread wrapped beneath her arms as he coiled fluidly up so that their eyes locked. ‘That wanting like that is rare? That most people go all their lives without ever feeling like this? It’s a hunger so strong it has to be satisfied…and it’s bound to rage out of control.’
A Savage Betrayal by Lynne Graham, first published in September of 1995 is told in the third person from the heroine’s perspective. The story begins with the heroine, Mina Carroll, who while working alongside her boss at the charity benefit that her workplace organized, runs into none other than Cesare Falcone, the man who broke her heart years ago.
Four years back, a freshly graduated Mina found herself at the receiving end of a cutthroat job interview, after which Cesare hires her as his executive assistant. Two months in, Mina realizes that she was head over heels in love with her boss, and by the end of the third month, Mina is sacked rather unceremoniously, and that too without a reference.
Discovering that her one night of passion with Cesare right before she was sacked had borne its fruit, Mina finds herself in the tough position of having to juggle being a single mother and making ends meet in a world that is frightful for women who do not have the kind of support systems that prevent them from falling into utter destitution.
Coming to the realization that the spark that has always existed between her and Cesare burns even brighter than before, and that she is just as vulnerable to the heat between them, makes Mina wary, especially in light of the revelations that Cesare believes her to be a deceitful tramp, perhaps the only woman who has ever made a fool of him in the worst way possible.
Cesare’s belief that Mina committed a criminal offense four years back is an ironclad one, citing that he is in possession of irrefutable proof with which he could send her to jail even now. While Cesare continues to believe the worst about Mina, the way he is helplessly ensnared in the web of desire that clouds his judgement is something he perhaps despises about himself.
Cesare definitely drives a hard bargain, expecting Mina to be his and only his satisfying his every carnal desire, and in bed, Mina knows that she is able to drive him just as wild as he does her. When the truth of her conception four years back comes to light, Cesare is of course livid and devastated, and what ensues leading up to the climax of this delectable story was just unforgettable.
A Savage Betrayal is a novel that is evidence of Ms. Graham’s remarkable talent in weaving a story that would have required so little to completely unravel. At certain points, I was left wondering as to how Ms. Graham would be able to turn things around, to show to readers why Cesare was worth all the heartache, grief, and pain that Mina goes through, even as she struggles with her enduring love for a man who sees very little of worth in her.
The story is one that is brilliantly executed, with the sexual chemistry and heat between Mina and Cesare off the charts hot and steamy. Perhaps the one reason the story got to me so much is the fact that the reader has to discover how Cesare feels about Mina through her perspective of his actions. The hero who comes off as ruthless and says often the cruelest things (which Mina is perfectly capable of handling), is unable to bear it when he witnesses Mina being hurt, in pain, or in tears. That is how the reader knows just how deeply that Cesare feels for her. And there is of course the red blooded alpha male whose possessive streak rears its head whenever he feels that what is his is in danger of being claimed by another, and the red hot jealousy that courses through him every single time!
I loved how Cesare meets his daughter who is just as temperamental as he is which gave me a couple of good chuckles that broke the never ending tension that is consistent throughout the story. This book had such good verbal warfare happening alongside all that sizzle, which made Mina and Cesare highly entertaining. The way Ms. Graham managed to make Cesare so arrogant, powerful, sexy, and vulnerable was nothing short of amazing, paving the way for everything to just click into place when all was said and done.
Recommended for fans of Lynne Graham and those who love explosive love stories between two protagonists whose verbal warfare just adds to the spice factor!
Final Verdict: A Savage Betrayal is a novel that is fierce in the way it consumes all your emotions. Those who love a good angst-fest; this one is for you!
Favorite Quotes
Her breath hung suspended and then he pressed his mouth hotly to the tiny pulse flickering wildly above her collarbone. Every bone in her body melted in a burst of feverish heat. Her head fell back, her throat extending. She trembled violently, an upswell of sensation suddenly released with devastating force. Her hands flew up of their own volition, one finding his shoulder, the other spearing into his hair, and just touching him again felt so good that she ached.
‘Move, Cesare!’ Cesare continued to stare at her as though he was mesmerised, brooding golden eyes intently fixed on her. Outraged by his lack of response, Mina planted a small hand against his broad chest to thrust him out of her way. A lean hand whipped up and unexpectedly trapped hers, preventing her from withdrawal. ‘What the heck are you—?’ she began. Without the smallest warning he grabbed her right there in the middle of the street. Two strong hands clamped to her waist as he lifted her up against him and brought his mouth smashing down on hers with an explosive sexual hunger that travelled through her like forked lightning.
The first day when you walked into that interview I decided I could not possibly employ a woman whom I wanted to strip and fling onto the nearest bed!’ Helplessly her head flew up. She couldn’t believe her ears. ‘I gave you a nightmare interview…and you took it,’ Cesare condemned with lingering disbelief at such unfeminine strength of will and staying power. ‘You were trying to scare me off?’ Mina questioned in a tone of revelation. ‘I was a fool. I gave you the job.’
‘You’re mine,’ Cesare muttered thickly, one strong arm closing fiercely round her to stress the assurance, and he simply shifted his hand smoothly from beneath hers and slid it beneath the parted edges of her bodice, slowly curving his fingers over the firm thrust of one unbound breast. It had been so long since she had known such intimacy that her teeth clenched on the sweet pleasurepain of her own helpless excitement, and in the interim her hand fell away. He tugged the dress open, exposing the smooth pale flesh he sought, discovering the delectable curves she had tried to conceal. With an unashamed groan of hunger he caressed a pouting pink nipple with almost worshipping fingers, watching the bud bloom into aching prominence.
On some other level she was aware of the cooler air that brushed her skin as her dress fell away entirely and then he was laying her flat, crushing her mouth under his with raw, unashamed hunger. Her hands swept over his silk-clad back in sudden frustration, instinctively seeking the satin-smooth skin she remembered. His muscles rippled as he tautened and broke the connection of their mouths. Her glazed eyes opened on that shock of separation. He was ripping off his shirt, and she remembered that from before, but she heard no warning bells. Past and present had merged indistinguishably. The pectoral muscles of his lean, golden torso were hazed with a sprinkling of ebony curls. Like someone in an hypnotic trance, she focused on the blazing gold of his eyes and sank ever deeper into his power.
He pulled her to him with strong hands and instantaneously attempted to sink into her with one powerful thrust. There was a flash of momentary pain that made her bite down on her tongue and taste blood. Cesare muttered something in Italian, settled his hands on her hips and drove into her again, making her tender flesh yield more fully, and the sensation was so unbearably pleasurable that she moaned in shock and delight, for she had worked so hard at forgetting, had made herself forget, that most intimate moment.
Cesare had turned pale at one glimpse of her Caesarean scar. ‘You’ve had surgery,’ he breathed as she sat bolt upright, grabbed clumsily at her discarded dress and concealed herself behind it as best she could. ‘Major surgery—’ ‘No, only a little female thing,’ Mina lied in desperation, evading his shocked gaze. ‘It looks much worse than it is.’ ‘What was the matter with you?’ he demanded tautly. ‘I told you, something female and private—minor.’ ‘It doesn’t look minor—’ ‘But it is and I’m sorry you find it so offensive,’ she said wildly, ready to say or do anything to throw him off the subject. ‘Of course I don’t find it offensive but naturally I was disturbed,’ Cesare asserted stiffly, ‘and if that is the result of some minor female problem you must have had a third-rate surgeon!’
‘It doesn’t even have to be my best,’ Cesare murmured thickly, dense black lashes screening his gaze to a sliver of hard gold as he scanned her feverishly flushed face and unwittingly pleading eyes. ‘The one thing you ever gave me that was honest…why? You can’t control it. But I can—’ ‘Can you?’ Mina was in another world, one where she felt far more than she thought. Her hand lifted of its own volition, shyly smoothed along his strong, clean shaven jawline, fingertips softly brushing a high cheekbone. Her nostrils flared on the warm maleness of him. That close, it would have been sensory deprivation not to touch. He dipped his dark head and trapped her fingers with his mouth before she could reluctantly drop them again. Her eyes squeezed shut on a wave of unbearable excitement as he sucked first one finger and then another and her breath rasped in her dry throat, liquid fire running through her quivering body, melting every bone to boiling honey. She was poised on the edge of an erotic anticipation so intense, it consumed her.
Cesare tensed, momentarily holding himself back, and then her tongue flicked against his in an enticement that was entirely instinctive and, with a raw groan of need, he ravaged her reddened mouth with potent hunger. Suddenly she was no longer upright but lying back. His hand slid up one trembling thigh, wrenching the dress out of his path. She was out of control, her breath sobbing in her throat, her heart racing. She clung to any part of him she could reach, her fingers clutching at his hair, the back of his neck, splaying against the silk-clad heat of his taut abdomen, scratching down his long spine, clothes, always clothes getting in her way, driving her mad with frustration.
‘Get out of here, Cesare!’ ‘But this is our wedding night, cara.’ Mina’s teeth clenched. She wanted to leap off the bed and thump him but she was afraid that the bedspread would fall off. ‘The answer is no!’ A winged ebony brow elevated. ‘Did I ask a question?’ ‘You need it spelt out to you?’ Mina intoned, quivering with fury. ‘OK. I am not prepared to share a bed with a man who thinks I’m a gold-digging, dishonest tramp!’ ‘Why not?’ Cesare enquired softly. ‘If I’m prepared to sacrifice my principles—’ ‘Yours?’ Mina flared in disbelief. ‘Who else’s? If I could keep my hands off you, don’t you think I would?’ Cesare murmured with grim satire. ‘Do you really think that it was my secret ambition to take a wife who could be described as a gold-digging, dishonest tramp?’
He leant over her, nibbled erotically at the reddened fullness of her lower lip, and as she trembled, he uttered a strangled groan and shuddered, every muscle tautening with whipcord tension as he lifted her against him, searching out the moist heat between her thighs. She writhed, cried out, unbearable sensation rising to a sudden shattering peak that was pure torment. ‘I can’t wait.’ He brought her down to him with aching slowness and agonising control, forging his entry little by little, and it was so staggeringly exciting that she somehow wanted to faint with delight and scream with frustration at the same time.
He took her by storm and she felt possessed, driven, inflamed by the feeling that he was out of control. All honeyed pliancy and complicity, every fibre of her body pitched to an unbelievable height of anticipation, she let herself go, lost herself entirely in the thunder of her own crazed heartbeat and the fevered tension coiling ever tighter inside her. With every driving thrust he took her higher, and then suddenly the whole world went multi-coloured, her back arching, her teeth clenching as she sobbed, ‘I love you…I love you!’ on the peak of a shuddering and ecstatic wave of drowning pleasure.
‘Why do you think Steve hates you so much? Steve and I dated for four years and we were never intimate, never even partially intimate! But I only knew you for three months and he actually dared to tell me once that that was the hardest thing of all for him to accept…and I thought at the time, To hell with fragile male egos—and I still think it!’ ‘Mina—’ ‘So if you want to go on thinking that I bounced straight out of bed with you into bed with him, go ahead! I’ll phone and tell Steve…he would be absolutely delighted to know you think that! But how dare you try to drag me down to the level of a slot on some pathetic male sexual score card?’ A dark flush of blood had highlighted his hard cheekbones. ‘That was not what I was doing,’ he told her rawly. ‘That’s exactly what you were doing! All that sophistication on the surface, and underneath what are you?’ Mina splintered tempestuously. ‘You’re so primitive you haven’t even made it on to the bottom rung of the evolutionary ladder!’ ‘Whatever turns you on, cara,’ Cesare murmured, eyes a sliver of flaring gold below his black lashes.
‘This time…you really are mine,’ Cesare murmured roughly, framing her hectically flushed face with hard, possessive hands as he looked down at her, eyes of molten gold alight with desire and primitive satisfaction. But those hands weren’t quite steady and that big, powerful body trembled in the circle of her arms. On a very female level, she was fully attuned to that awareness. ‘Absolutely mine,’ Cesare savoured, lowering his dark head to her breasts, circling a taut bud with the tip of his tongue and then hungrily engulfing her achingly tender flesh with the raw heat of his mouth.
‘We should have made better use of last night,’ Cesare muttered raggedly. ‘I want you so much, I ache…’ Without warning, he pulled back from her and communicated with the chauffeur. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘It’ll take over an hour in this traffic to reach the town house…’ Minutes later he was tugging her out of the limousine in front of a well-known hotel. Ten minutes after that they were standing in a luxurious bedroom. ‘This is crazy,’ Mina protested weakly. ‘Everything I do with you is crazy,’ he muttered thickly, hauling her into his arms.
She lost herself in him. Her heart hammering, her slender body writhed beneath his, desperate for the completion that only he could give. She clutched at his hair, scored the satin-smooth skin of his back and then arched and sobbed as he sank into her in one powerful thrust. ‘Nobody is going to take you away from me,’ he said savagely, scanning her with glittering golden assurance. ‘Nobody!’
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Brides for the Taking, #3 Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Jax Antonakos Heroine: Lucy Dixon Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: May 23, 2017 Started On: February 27, 2023 Finished On: March 01, 2023
Sold for the Greek’s Heir by Lynne Graham is the third installment in the Brides for the Taking series, published under Harlequin in 2017. Ms. Graham brings to readers the story of Greek billionaire Antonakos and single mother Lucy Dixon, with the tale unfolding from the perspectives of both protagonists.
Jax is the proverbial man-whore and bachelor and likes his life that way, even as his father wishes and pushes him in the hopes that Jax would marry the woman of his choosing. Jax makes no commitments and has no intention of giving into his father’s demands. He is marriage and children averse, the bitter divorce that resulted in the split of his parents having left its mark on him. Living with his mother was not a walk in the park either, with a father who pretty much ignored his existence up till he did not have a choice but to.
Lucy arrives in Greece to finally unite with her long lost father. The fact that he accepted that Lucy was mother to a fifteen month old baby girl seals the deal for her, up until she comes face to face with the father of the baby, i.e., Jax, who pulled the disappearing act on her.
Lucy was a naive nineteen year old virgin when Jax swept her off her feet. Devastation hit when Jax abandoned her, and made it all but impossible for her to reach him with the news that she was pregnant with his child. Lucy is therefore determined that she would not give Jax the time of the day, that is until machinations by her father which she has no knowledge of, forces the hand of Jax into offering her marriage.
When Jax comes face to face with the one woman who had shaken his very existence, the shock of discovering that he is father to a toddler pushes him into taking action to ensure the best for his daughter. It certainly does not help matters when Jax is driven by the nightmarish revelations that forced him to cut ties with Lucy in the first place, and that proves to be the ultimate conflict around which the story revolves.
While I did enjoy some of the aspects of the story, I felt that the prose of the novel was all wrong for Lynne Graham, or at least the Graham novels that I always enjoy and revel in. Lucy was definitely a welcomed change from some of the doormat variety of heroines you come across in category romances especially. But at the same time, Jax failed to invoke all those heady emotions in me which I look forward to when it is especially a Lynne Graham novel. All the attributes that should make him so were there, and he should have been appealing in every sense, but somehow the elements did not come together in the way that I expected perhaps.
I guess this has a more modern streak going through the story, which perhaps is not a bad thing in itself. However, I believe I jive better with older Graham novels.
Recommended for fans of Lynne Graham and those who love category romances featuring the forced marriage trope!
Final Verdict: Sold for the Greek’s Heir is a hit and miss sort of novel; there were aspects that worked and those that did not.
Favorite Quotes
Just one kiss, she bargained with herself, just one, but the man who had once seduced her with kisses had no intention of breaking his perfect track record. He always knew what she wanted and he gave it to her, all the seething passion he had taught her to crave. He kissed her and she went up in flames. Her body flared into shocking awareness and suddenly burned back to almost painful life with every plunging thrust of his tongue.
‘I can’t get enough of you,’ Jax growled between the urgent biting kisses that bruised her lips and the devastating plunge of his tongue that made her slight body jackknife in reaction beneath his. ‘We’ve got all night,’ she whispered through rosy swollen lips, eyes glazed with passion. ‘I’ve got a hunger that one night won’t come anywhere near satisfying,’ Jax told her rawly, fisting a hand in her tumbling curls as he snaked a string of kisses down over her collarbone and found a plump, pointed nipple to torment with attention.
‘Thee mou, I want you so much,’ Jax ground out as he slid over her, his hands strong on her hips to angle her back. He entered her slowly, urging her tender flesh to open for him and stretch, and the sensation made her dizzy with yearning and wildly impatient for more. He eased back and then pushed in hard and deep and her body convulsed and tightened round him, intense sensation ravishing her. A string of tiny sounds was wrenched from her parted lips as he ground into her and picked up the pace, raw excitement flooding her as she tilted up to meet him, hot, damp and abandoned as the wild roller coaster of sensation raged on and on.
That fast she wanted him intolerably and with every probing plunge of his tongue she wanted him more. Evocative little noises were wrenched from low in her throat as skilled fingers teased and played to prepare her for his entrance. And then he tilted her back and thrust into her with vigour while she clung to his shoulders, her ankles wrapped round him. He grunted with raw male satisfaction, his hand supporting her hips as he pounded her yielding body with delicious force. Excitement writhed through Lucy in an unstoppable surge and she reached her peak with an involuntary cry, convulsive waves of exquisite pleasure rippling through her lower body as an orgasmic flush spread over her sun-dappled skin.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Bennett Sisters, #1 Publisher: Mills & Boon Hero: Nicholas James Thorne Heroine: Vivian Mitchell Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: January 01, 2008 Started On: February 27, 2023 Finished On: February 27, 2023
‘I’m your future now. I’m the one who controls your destiny.’ She gave a little yip as his free hand slipped under the hem of his sweater to splay warmly across her quivering, tautly stretched belly. ‘And I’m the one who controls your fertility. The first child you’ll ever carry in your womb will be mine. The first baby to suckle at your breast will belong to me, as you will…’
Vendetta by Susan Napier, first published in January of 1998 is a very short read, the length of a novella I must say, and even then, Ms. Napier managed to surprise me with just how meaty the story was when all was said and done.
The story begins with the hero Nicholas James Thorne waiting for the arrival of Vivian Mitchell to a remote island that he owns, to close a vital property deal on behalf of Marvel-Mitchell Realties. Nicholas is a man who has been biding his time for ten long years to get his revenge, and he believes that Vivian for all intents and purposes got away scot-free, without a scratch, when he had lost it all.
When Vivian arrives at the godforsaken island, which she had expected more from since it was owned by a millionaire, she finds out that nothing is as as she presumed it would be, starting from the man himself, who aggravates her, intrigues her, and arouses her in equal doses. Once Nicholas reveals his nefarious intentions, it is already too late for Vivian, who knows deep in her heart that Nicholas has managed to steal her heart without much ado.
As outlined earlier in the review, though it is a very short read of just 70+ odd pages, this was still a very compelling story in many ways. The shocking revelations regarding both Vivian and Nicholas made this quite enjoyable. And even though I missed the heady and sensual scenes of passion that Ms. Napier is very capable of delivering in her novels in Vendetta, the simmering sexual tension was definitely in place whenever Nicholas and Vivian were together.
This could have been such a swell read if it had been the length of a usual category romance novel, and I will forever mourn the fact that it was not. Recommended for fans of Susan Napier, stories featuring revenge arcs, and those who love a lightly themed beauty and the beast story.
Final Verdict: Vendetta offers a titillating read of the larger-than-life and scarred to boot Nicholas, whose best laid plans turn to ashes when Vivian makes him forget his best intentions.
Favorite Quotes
‘Poor Vivian, no wonder you look so pale and tense.’ He casually brushed her cheek with his thumb and she nearly went through the roof at the bolt of electricity that sizzled her senses. They looked at each other, startled. His gaze dropped to her soft naked mouth, open in shock, then to the sliver of thickly freckled skin revealed by the modest cleavage of her blouse and the faint suggestion of lace hinted at by the trembling rise and fall of her lush breasts against the cream silk. In that single, brief glance he stripped her naked and possessed her.
Vivian knew he was talking about Peter. Briefly surfacing from her passion-drugged state, she tried to arch away, but Nicholas shifted his hand from the back of her neck to the front of her silk blouse, slipping his fingers into the prim neckline and ripping it open with a single downward stroke that scattered the pearl buttons like lustrous tears across his chest. ‘Nicholas!’ Her gasp was lost in a spasm of violent sensation as he flicked open the tiny plastic catch between her breasts and allowed them to tumble free of the confining lace. The ginger freckles were stretched over their swollen fullness, the soft pink tips swaying against the hard contours of his chest, contracting instantly into tight points that scraped and caught on his own peaked masculine nipples.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Sean Heroine: Megan Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: January 02, 2006 Started On: February 10, 2023 Finished On: February 11, 2023
“How did you reach the point of,” she searched for a polite way to phrase the question, “considering prostitution as a source of income?” “Some of the kids I knew were whoring, but I wouldn’t at first. I was sure I could find a job. But the days went on and I had no money. This kid, Donnie, convinced me sucking c#ck was a pretty simple way to make fifty bucks. So one night I did it.” Megan swallowed. “How did you feel about it?” “I didn’t feel anything. He was right. It wasn’t such a big deal and I had enough money to eat for a few days.” His voice was perfectly steady and emotionless.
Finding Home, written by Lauren Baker and Bonnie Dee, published in January of 2006, is a story that is beautifully crafted. It is a story about finding love in places that you least expect, of how society often seems to fixate on the wrong issues instead of righting the grave injustices inherent, and how love of the truest kind will always persevere.
Written in the third person, told solely from the heroine’s perspective, Finding Home brings to readers the story of 23 year old Megan who works as a copy editor at a weekly LA paper, with dreams of becoming a reporter. To speed things up on making that transition, Megan decides that a freelance expose was in order, and sets out to tackle the issue of male prostitution.
When Megan meets 17 year old Sean (known as Mouth on the streets), she is fascinated by how self possessed he appears and how nothing seems to faze him. Quickly befriending him, Megan finds out that the story that she started out to write in an attempt to advance her career is not for the faint of heart, and that she cannot detach herself from the lived realities of the young adults who are forced into prostitution for one reason or the other.
As Megan finds herself in over her head when it comes to Sean, and a sequence of events culminates in Sean requiring time to heal from injuries inflicted, Megan offers him room and board at her place, at least until he is better able to take care of himself. Megan’s offer comes without any expectations on her end, and it is heartbreaking to come to the understanding that for a young adult like Sean, his life which has been an endless series of being taken advantage of by other people, trust is the hardest commodity to come by.
As proximity gives room for the awareness that has always existed between the two of them to grow in leaps and bounds, Megan finds herself in the unenviable position of having to deny her heart when it comes to Sean, as the feelings that she harbors for him increases by the day. Things come to a head and when Megan finally gives in, it is not without self-recrimination, doubts, and being self-conscious about society’s perception on the relationship which buds to life between them.
Sean’s story is not a unique one, but nevertheless a heartbreaking one. A deadbeat mother who was more concerned about where her next fix would come from, Sean had abandoned ship as soon as he was able to, with the knowledge that he could take better care of himself than his mom ever could. Being homeless and bunking with other kids who were of the same fate, Sean had found himself bartering away his body for cash to make ends meet.
The lifeline that comes in the form of Megan is one that Sean doesn’t realize that he needed. Megan, with her soft heart and bleeding emotions for the boy she gets to know and the man she comes to love, rescues him from a life of continued destitution and poverty, and gives him that needed chance to be independent, find himself, and find his way back to her. His home.
That was in essence what was so moving about the story. This was why it was such an emotionally gripping tale that turned out to be a riveting read in many ways. Even though Megan is older of the two in terms of age, it is Sean who seems to be emotionally more mature, perhaps as a consequence of having shielded himself for so long from the realities of childhood trauma.
The chemistry between Megan and Sean from the onset, sexual and otherwise, was an intriguing aspect of the story. Megan’s warmth towards Sean is evident from the start, and even when their relationship crosses all those lines it rightfully should not, somehow it makes sense because Megan and Sean fits in a way that is indescribable.
Megan truly does try to resist giving in, and I believe if the positions were reversed, even I, as the reader would not have felt the need to explain how much she tried to resist. It is the norm to read about and hear about older men succumbing to much younger women, or getting into a relationship with a woman in a vulnerable position. But because it is the woman who holds the long end of the stick in this dynamic, I guess we needed “more assurance” than we usually would under the circumstances. Which is telling in itself about the inherent bias that we harbor.
Society perhaps, will always reserve judgement about cases such as Sean and Megan, and it is with good reason, I admit. But there are also those rare happenstances when two people just fit, and age becomes just a number. Fact that it was Sean who took the needed time to start on a path that would allow him to start healing, to face the demons of his past, showed the kind of maturity that I would expect from an older character. His declaration of love for Megan was all the more meaningful because he comes to that conclusion on his own terms, and that, was just beautiful.
The fact that the story was written solely from Megan’s perspective was another reason why this story made such a huge impression on me. I am a sucker for stories where it is hard to read what the hero is feeling except through the heroine’s often biased perception. And that, is a treat to my senses!
Definitely recommend this gem of a romance to readers who can set aside their preconceived notions and give Sean and Megan the chance they truly deserve!
Final Verdict: Finding Home is the kind of novel that invades your heart with stealthy determination, until absorb all of it, one must. Therein lies the true beauty of this story!
Favorite Quotes
She wondered what, or who, he was thinking of to make him so hard, and hoped it was her. Megan felt caught in a trap, unable to move, her senses on overload, and while every brain cell screamed at her to get out, step back into the corridor and ignore what she’d just seen, her animal instincts wanted her to move closer. Her body betrayed her. She felt hot and wet and melting to the core of her being, her sex aching for his touch.
He started slow, holding back and building the pressure with light, controlled strokes, driving Megan into a frenzy until she grabbed his ass with both hands, pulling him deeper inside her. Her gesture seemed to shatter his self-control and he started really fucking her, hard and fast. His mouth slipped down from hers to her neck, biting her, until she reached her peak again, and much to her surprise, because Megan wasn’t usually a screamer, she swore and cried out, overwhelmed by the strength of the climax which ripped through her.
Megan turned her mouth into her shoulder to stifle her moans. She gripped the edges of the sink as she was carried on a wave of pleasure that seemed to crest ever higher, triggering spasm after spasm in her. This was so hot, so wild, and so not her. She wanted to scream or sob. Sean leaned forward and his hand snaked over her hip and onto her clit, rubbing and circling. He continued to slam into her hard and rough. Their harsh breaths and the slap of flesh on flesh were the only sounds in the room. Megan whimpered as her whole body contracted and released in an amazingly powerful orgasm.
A faint trail of hair led toward his chest. She examined the hard planes of his chest, his peaked nipples, the sharp lines of his collarbones and his broad, muscled shoulders. The curve of his neck led to his face. Sean looked down at her, lips slightly parted, his wet hair messy on his forehead, his blue eyes caught between arousal and amusement. As their eyes locked, he ran his tongue across his lips. Megan sighed. “Jesus, Sean,” she breathed. “You’re beautiful.”
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Historical Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Dear Lady Truelove, #1 Publisher: AVON Hero: Henry Cavanaugh Heroine: Irene Deverill Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: March 28, 2017 Started On: December 07, 2022 Finished On: December 24, 2022
“I should like you to consider what impact your decisions may have on the lives of other people. If my mother suffers ridicule and condemnation because of you and your publication, what responsibility do you bear? If her life is ruined, what consequences should there be for yours? Given the part you will have played in her downfall, what punishment will you deserve?” She inhaled sharply. “Is that a threat?” she asked, her chin tilting up in defiance. “There is nothing you can do to me, sir.” “You think not?” He gave her a pitying smile. “Oh, my dear Miss Deverill.”
The Truth About Love and Dukes by Laura Lee Guhrke is the debut book in the four book series entitled Dear Lady Truelove. This also brings me to the review of my last read from 2022! Told in the third person from the perspectives of both the hero, Henry Cavanaugh and the heroine, Irene Deverill, this historical romance features an unconventional heroine who runs a gossip tabloid/newspaper to make ends meet.
Henry, the Duke of Torquil is at his wits end because of his fifty year old mother and her letter to the Dear Lady Truelove column, verifying to the ton that his mother was indeed in love with a younger man who happens to be an Italian artist. What has Henry livid is the fact that without thought or concern to what it would mean to the reputation of the family and his two unwed sisters, the response from the columnist has put gasoline to fire by advising his mother to follow the path where passion leads her.
As a consequence, Irene who owns and runs Society Snippets and is the author of the column finds herself faced with the infuriating Duke. Henry seems to be capable of invoking emotions from Irene that she has never experienced before, and for the first time she understands that she is capable of great anger and greater passion as well, all for a man who does not mince words when it comes to what he thinks of the work she undertakes.
Irene is a woman forced into the situation by familial circumstances. While her grandfather had owned the lucrative Deverill Publishing and her father had inherited the business when he had passed on five years earlier, her father managed to bring the entire business to ruin within just an year. To put food on the table and make ends meet, Irene takes on the challenge of bringing her own tabloid paper to life and enjoys doing so, hoping to turn the paper into something more serious and meaningful in time.
Things come to a head when Henry bargains or rather threatens Irene to do the impossible, i.e., make his mother change her mind, and gives her an ultimatum of two weeks while throwing her into situations in which she has to spend more time with the exasperating man himself which brings them both closer to the edge than either of them bargains on. Passion is easier to conquer than the heart, and it is this lesson that both Irene and Henry must learn before a life of shared togetherness and everlasting love is possible for them.
The overall premise of the story had such great promise. I mean how can you go wrong with a widowed hero who keeps his highly sensual and passionate side of him under a tight leash and a woman who is unlike anyone else he has ever come across, who stirs him from the inside out? And this being a Laura Lee Gurhke novel, I had such high hopes for it, which alas did not materialize fully.
Things that worked for me includes the Duke, whose character I loved along with his stuffiness. His character makes sense given how he was brought up by a rigid father who was uncompromising in many aspects, and demanded that Henry follow in his footsteps and stifle the side of him that is passionate. His one indiscretion when he was nineteen years old and the repercussions of it is not something he has forgotten and is paying penance for eight years on.
To be saddled with familial responsibilities that includes two unwed sisters, a penniless younger brother, and a lazy brother-in-law, along with a mother who had suddenly fallen passionately in love inviting societal gossip and ruin to the family name is enough to make even the sternest of men break their stride. Henry attempts to resolve the problem in the only way he knows how, and in the process learns that one cannot control what is beyond one’s own will.
Now Irene on the other hand, did not really win me over even though I really wanted to fall for her character. While I understood the state of affairs which resulted in her having to find an occupation to save her family from ruin, I found her tiresome for the most part. I am all for strong heroines who stand up to their male counterparts, but I just felt that she could have done a better job persuading Henry without all the tongue lashing that she gives him at times.
The story was also a huge disappointment in terms of the red hot passion I was expecting – Ms. Gurhke delivers phenomenally on that score in most of her books, and I was quite ready for the delivery on that score, especially with a tightly buttoned up hero such as Henry. But alas, it fell a bit flat in that regard if you ask me with the story focused on how clever the heroine is for the most part which ruined things if you ask me. I would have loved to see more romance unfold than arguments and recriminations to show how her intelligence and how much she fought for the rights of all mankind.
I feel like that romance writers today try too hard to walk away from what works for their readers, what they are good at writing, trying to conform their stories to the demands of the ever changing society. From skimming most of the reviews on the rest of the books in the series, this seems to have disappointed long term fans of Ms. Gurhke for one reason or the other. Perhaps I might be tempted to pick one of them up somewhere along the way, as I am not someone who entirely depend on other reviews to pick books to read.
Recommended for fans of historical romances who love a heroine that has a modern outlook in life. The one thing you have got to love is the gorgeous cover this one totes!
Final Verdict: A tightly buttoned up Duke and a heroine that I could not really muster up enough enthusiasm for rendered this to be a less enjoyable read to what I was expecting!
Favorite Quotes
He’d swept into her office and into her life two days ago like an arctic storm, seeming the most frigid man she’d ever met, but despite that, strange heat began spreading through her, making her skin prickle and her toes curl in her slippers. He was close enough to her that when she drew in her breath, she could smell the scents of castile soap and bay rum that clung to his skin. She could almost hear his breathing. Time seemed to hang suspended as he filled her senses with a new and different awareness. The awareness of him as a man.
He could be so infuriating, so damnably rigid. And yet, she could not deny his love for his family. It was, she now knew, absolute and all-encompassing—the center of his world. Until now, she hadn’t really appreciated how deeply ingrained in him that quality was, or how attractive it could be. In truth, she hadn’t known such men as that existed at all.
She closed her eyes, and the moment she did, he overwhelmed her senses. There was nothing else in the world but him. His scent—castile soap, bay rum, and something deeper. His taste—port and fruit. His arm like a steel band around her waist. His clothes, soft velvet and crisp linen against her palm, and beneath them, his heart, thudding hard in his chest.
“And do you want to know the most aggravating thing about you?” she demanded, punctuating each word with another tug on his lapels. “It’s that every time I start to think what an amazingly attractive man you are, you open your mouth and ruin it!” Henry blinked, startled, certain he hadn’t heard correctly. “You think I’m attract—” “Henry?” She eased between his legs before he could think to stop her, and pulled him closer. “Just shut up,” she said and kissed him.
Irene stared at him, shocked and dismayed. “All this time,” she murmured, “through these nights we have been together, I have been so happy. But you . . .” She stopped, finding it hard to say the words out loud. “But you have not.” “I have.” His voice was fierce, harsh. His gray eyes were dark and turbulent, but in his face, there was pain, pain that hurt her, too, that made her feel as if her heart was being ripped out of her very chest. “Here in this room, when it is just us and there is nothing else, this time has been the happiest of my life, Irene. But life cannot just be this room. And out there, I am in agony.”
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Standalone Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Saverio Lombardi Heroine: Holly Sansom Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: November 01, 2001 Started On: December 11, 2022 Finished On: December 12, 2022
Rio was pacing the waiting area, talking in staccato Italian on his cell phone, the cynosure of interest for every female in the vicinity. He lowered his phone, tawny eyes welding to her with gleaming intensity, a faint and wicked smile curling at the corners of his beautiful mouth. ‘Bella, Fiammetta…’ he drawled with lazy amusement. And in that same moment, Holly knew beyond all doubt that she had fallen passionately in love.
The Italian’s Wife by Lynne Graham is another one of her stellar reads, published in 2001. The story begins when 29 year old Saverio Lombardi (Rio), billionaire head of Lombardi Industries, one of the biggest, most successful companies in the world, walks in on his fiancée of almost two years cheating on him, most shockingly with another woman. Reeling from the rude awakening, it is as Rio is on his way home that fate puts 20 year old single mother Holly Sansom on his path, forever changing the trajectory of his life once and for all.
Holly, with her eight month old son in tow is at her wits end when Rio “rescues” her and places her at his home. Holly has had nothing but bad luck ever since she had come to London, in all her naivety hoping that the father of her son was waiting for her as eagerly as she was to be reunited with him. Holly had been an impressionable eighteen year old, an only child who had been taken in and dazzled by the seemingly charming man who had swept her off her feet.
The same man who had been livid that Holly had chosen to have the baby and tossed her out, leaving Holly to fend for herself in a city where only the rich and affluent survive. Holly takes the lifeline that Rio throws her, because she has hit rock bottom and there is nowhere else for her to go.
Four weeks into the move, Rio finds himself faced with the unexpected; an attack of such powerful lust towards the woman who lives in his home which really shakes him up. Rio is still seething on the inside from the humiliation of calling off the huge wedding that was to take place while keeping the truth a secret, which takes its toll on him and before long, recognizing the answering need in Holly’s untutored eyes, there is no holding back on what happens next.
As circumstances would have it, Rio proposes marriage to Holly to save her from losing her son, or so he tells himself. All the while, Rio keeps the truth of his disastrous relationship with his ex-fiance to himself, which gives the story the angst factor that I always revel in when it comes to Ms. Graham’s stories, and I certainly was not disappointed.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Italian’s Wife for many reasons. I loved Rio – he was more sensitive than Ms. Graham’s heroes in her older titles, but at the same time, retained just enough of the elements that makes readers like myself salivate over her heroes. Walking in on his cheating fiancée leaves his confidence shaken, making him question every single aspect of the relationship he had with her. It is for this reason that Rio remains tight-lipped about what took place, not wanting to come off as anything but a sexy and capable man who can keep his woman satisfied in bed and out of it.
Holly’s character was just as wonderful. Having grown up in a small town, Holly is not equipped with the sort of sophistication that is second nature to a person like Rio. Holly’s lack of trust in men was understandable given how she suffered at the hands of the only man she had let into her life, the way he had taken the easy way out and left her in the lurch. The guilt of having disappointed her parents also makes her stubborn enough to weather the worst until Rio comes into her life, giving her everything that she never ever hoped to find.
I especially loved the ending, where Rio goes in pursuit of the woman he loves beyond anything else in the world, finally able to win her over with nothing but the truth. The epilogue was a lovely touch, which I always appreciate when we get a sneak into the lives of characters that we suffered and loved through to the end. And guess where Rio takes his wife on honeymoon? Yep, Maldives!
Recommend this to fans of Harlequin romances, fans of Lynne Graham, and those who love a hero who can sweep you off your feet!
Final Verdict: Rio does not know what hits him when Holly stumbles into his life. Their thorny journey towards a happily ever after was nothing short of riveting and I enjoyed every second of it!
Favorite Quotes
Her drowning blue eyes gazed up into glittering gold and Jeff went out of her mind so fast he might never have existed. She tried and failed to swallow. Rio was so close that breathing was no longer an option. Lashes lowered, she focused on that wide, sensual mouth of his and the tip of her tongue snaked out to moisten her dry lower lip. Never in all her life had she been so desperate, so shamelessly eager to feel a man’s mouth on hers. The craving was almost unbearably strong.
As she parted her lips to snatch in much needed oxygen to sustain her, Rio bent his head lower and let his tongue delve in a subtle flicker into the moist interior of her mouth. It lasted only a second, but in that second she was electrified by the instantaneous, stormy response of her own body, the surge of enervating heat that inflamed her every sense. Indeed, so great was the erotic hit of that sudden sexual foray she jerked, and if he hadn’t shot a steadying arm round her she would have fallen off the stool.
Rio made a husky sound low and deep in his throat. He just reached for her, hauling her up to him, his lean hands curving round her hips to crush her feminine mound into connection with the full, hard force of his arousal as he lifted her up against him. ‘I hope you’re in the mood to satisfy one very hungry guy, bella mia,’ Rio growled before he brought his mouth crashing down on hers with devouring heat. It was their first true kiss and it blew Holly away. Crushed to the hard male strength of his big, powerful physique, she was conscious of his virility with every fibre of her being.
Never had she ever imagined that level of sensation, so it was like one glorious shock piled onto another, so that she lurched mindless and wordless from one splintering wave of excitement into the next, and all the time the tormenting hunger was notching up higher inside her. She moaned, she sobbed and she jerked in a wild response beyond any denial, and when she was within what felt like touching distance of the satisfaction she craved with every sense he settled himself between her thighs and surged into her with measured force and cool. And suddenly she was snatched up into the eye of the storm. The feel of his hot, hard fullness stretching the slick, wet centre of her inner heat just exploded through her in a cascade of multicoloured, blinding sensation and she hit a peak of ecstasy that burned through her in an explosive flood of pleasure.
‘You’re so incredibly sensual…’ Rio breathed in a roughened growl of male satisfaction. ‘I’ll have to drag myself away from you tomorrow. You’re turning me into a sex addict, cara.’ Certainly it wasn’t very long before he tumbled her back on the bed with a groan of raw impatience and sank into her hard and fast and without ceremony, sending her excitement racing to such a peak that a strangled cry of joy was wrenched from her. And then there was nothing for her but the relentless rhythm of his lean, hard body over and inside hers and the intense pleasure that sent her rocketing to an ecstatic height with his name on her lips.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Historical Erotic Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: The Seducers, #1 Publisher: Crooked Sixpence Press Hero: Magnus Stynwyck Heroine: Melissa Griffin Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: October 01, 2021 Started On: October 01, 2022 Finished On: October 02, 2022
She was glad nobody else could hear the noise she made. To say he looked like a water god out of mythology was trite, but, oh, it was so very, very true. He strode from the waves like some male version of The Birth of Venus. Or The Birth of Adonis or Zeus or one of those randy Greeks or Romans who was always getting his kit off at the drop of a hat. Melissa realized she was sliding off the rock because she’d leaned forward so much and pushed herself back into her crack, briefly disgusted by her own avidity but quickly suppressing it. He bent at the waist and slicked water from his legs with both hands. She swallowed.
Believe it or not, it was the Grantchester series, starring a vicar (James Norton) who also moonlights as a detective in solving murder mysteries that made me read Melissa and The Vicar by S.M. LaViolette. It is an intriguing premise after all, the hero being a curate (an assistant to the vicar) whose fate is intertwined with that of a heroine who owns one of London’s most exclusive brothels.
First published in 2021 as the debut book in The Seducers series, Ms. LaViolette brings to readers the story of 24 year old Magnus Stynwyck and 29 year old Melissa Griffin, whose age difference might not have mattered all that much if not for the fact that Melissa’s lived reality makes her well beyond her years, unacceptable by society’s standards to lead a life that is considered respectable.
Melissa’s first encounter with Magnus comes as she moves to the village of New Bickford for a brief spell to recuperate and regain her zest for the business, as her rescuer from the vicious rooster in the village. For someone who has seen it and done it all, Melissa is awestruck by the beauty that is Magnus, who makes her feel shy and fidgety for the first time she can recall, something she had long forgotten along with the innocence of her youth.
Magnus has always known that he wanted to join the clergy when he grew up, the youngest of six brothers. His family had never understood why he wanted to take up the vocation, and he had long given up trying to convince them that this was his calling.
While Melissa finds herself enjoying the solitude and the sedate pace of life in the village, she is at the same time taken aback by how strongly she finds herself attracted to Magnus, which she knows in her heart is futile in every sense. For someone as well schooled in the art of seduction, Melissa finds her heart racing, her mind distracted, and her body reacting to the mere presence of Magnus and the charm that he wields on her heart without even trying.
Melissa’s plans to prevent her heart from breaking results in her fleeing after tasting the exquisiteness of what it means to surrender to what is between her Magnus. However, she never factors in the stubbornness that courses through Magnus which his doting mother claims to be her youngest son’s only sin. The steely determination behind the gentleness that is Magnus proves to be Melissa’s undoing, and give in she does, even with all her misgivings about them and what it would mean for Magnus, until she realizes that her past is very much part of her present, which could end up destroying not just what she has with Magnus, but her very existence in the process.
I thoroughly enjoyed and loved the heady experience of reading this novel. One thing that is always true for books by Ms. Spencer aka Ms. LaViolette is that every single story that she has written to-date has a solid tale to tell. The steam factor which she does so well only enhances the underlying story and gives it the edge and angst the stories deserve, and this is true for Melissa and the Vicar in every sense.
The great characterization of the story is what beguiled me the most, the different facets to both Melissa and Magnus which continues to surprise the reader at every turn. Melissa’s was by far the most intriguing, all the horror that she had lived through at the tender age of thirteen just being unreal. Her indomitable strength to persevere, to rise above, even when she continues to be at war with her own conscience about being the owner of the very brothel at which she had served, is a study of contrasts that really got to me. Melissa is a survivalist at heart, and I don’t think I can even begin to comprehend what it would do to anyone’s psychology to have survived the kind of trauma that she lived through.
Of Melissa and Magnus, the latter is the dreamer, the one who believes that everything would turn out alright and perhaps in his naivety, assumes that everyone would see Melissa as he does, and accept her into the fold with open arms. The most shocking truth about Melissa’s past as it unfolded is the reason this story stands out in such a remarkable way, and how Magnus seemed to shift and show us the different facets to his character which proved to be my undoing.
I loved Magnus for his gentleness, his stubbornness, his love for Melissa that was pure in every sense, his need for the woman who rocks his very existence out of its orbit, and the way he stands true to his convictions, even if it pains him to do so. There was no way on earth that Melissa could have resisted the force that was Magnus as unleashed, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
The ending was realistic, especially given Melissa’s profession and the stain it carries in society. The epilogue was lovely, and made me smile with joy from inside out. Definitely recommended!
Final Verdict: As Melissa puts it, Oh, Mr. Stanwyck, what a wonderful surprise you turned out to be! Top notch characterization makes this an instant page-turner!
Favorite Quotes
“This is wrong, Melissa.” He’d meant to sound firm, commanding—but it came out more of a question. She gave a throaty chuckle, working her way down his jaw to his neck. “How can something so wonderful—between two people who love each other—be wrong?” Her lips pushed into his cravat and her mouth settled over his Adam’s apple. And then she bit him.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: Sins, #1 Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Ben Havelock Heroine: Nerissa Havelock Sensuality: 🔥🔥 Published On: January 01, 1995 Started On: September 07, 2022 Finished On: September 08, 2022
His face was taut, his eyes hard. ‘Do I have to remind you that it was me you married, not him?’ ‘I want a divorce, Ben!’ Nerissa broke out in a voice that shook, and the room filled with an intolerable tension. ‘I’ll fight it,’ he said curtly. ‘I’ll use any weapon I have to -even if it means bringing him into it. What do you think that will do to your family pride?’
Secret Obsession by Charlotte Lamb, first published in January of 1995, is an unusual story at best, the reason why I picked this up to read in the first place. Told in the third person from the heroine’s perspective, Ms. Lamb brings to readers the story of Ben Havelock and his wife Nerissa who have been married for just three months when the story begins.
Ben and Nerissa’s had been a whirlwind romance, where Ben had pursued her in earnest since meeting her a year earlier at a party given by one of his clients, who happened to work with her. Ben being a very successful and wealthy barrister and a divorcee at that, had convinced Nerissa that they would work after managing to draw out all truths about about Nerissa and leaving her pretty much in the dark when it comes to understanding who Ben is inside out during their courtship.
Things come to a head when Nerissa receives the news that her adored cousin Philip is in a coma, Philip whom Bend would never agree to let her go to be by his side. For Ben knows the truth of Nerissa’s feelings for Philip and the reality behind the family unit within which Nerissa had grown up which makes for interesting reading.
Nerissa flies the coop (of course), to be with the man who had been the most important person in the world to her up till the point where the truth had been forced out leaving both of them devastated in the process. Nerissa is a woman torn about how she feels about her husband Ben; she wants him, thinks about him when he is not around, he is necessary for her, but she does not know him as she does Philip, and therein lies the problem.
When Ben comes in hot pursuit of her and forces her to face the ugly truths about her past (which is also very much present) which she has been playing ostrich about, it is up to Nerissa to decide whether she wants to fight for her marriage and the man who has become the most important person in her life unbeknownst to her, the man that she had actually fallen for without realizing the hows and whys.
As mentioned earlier in the review, Secret Obsession is not your usual run of the mill variety of story, the most shocking revelations being about Nerissa’s past and how that had shaped her up as the person she is at present. Nerissa meets Ben at a turning point in her life, when she had been desolate about the futility of the future she had envisaged of a love that was impossible.
For Ben, trust is a hard commodity to find, having held up the short end of the stick in his previous marriage. Some would say that Ben is a glutton for punishment given how he who swore off marriage altogether, and then goes onto tie the knot with Nerissa, a woman who was definitely going to cause him a lot of heartache and pain along the way.
I loved how Ben forces Nerissa into examining the depth of her own feelings when it comes to a whole host of issues that are revealed along the way and his patience with her. Most men would not have found it possible to be that patient, knowing that your wife’s heart belonged to someone else, the wife that you fell for a long way back.
While the story had a lot going for it, I found the execution of some of the aspects to be a bit problematic. There were elements of the story that definitely held my attention, like how obsessed Ben actually is about his wife, even when he had sworn off of marriage altogether when his first marriage failed so spectacularly.
I was also intrigued by Nerissa’s feelings – seldom do novels explore the nuances of the female emotions as it does Nerissa’s in this story. The raw emotions and the psychology explored in the story was riveting but the continued rehashing of how wounded Ben’s pride was and how his ex-wife had done a number on him made the story a tad tiresome. Skipping chunks on inner monologues in the story made it all worthwhile!
Recommended for fans of Charlotte Lamb and her unusual stories. I am guessing, given the ratings for most of her books, she is either a hit or miss for readers!
Final Verdict: Secret Obsession is a fitting title for a story that explores a husband’s hidden infatuation with his wife, whom he pursues and wins over through the biggest gamble of his life!
Favorite Quotes
When she heard him come downstairs again she went out into the hall in a hurry. He was carrying his suitcase and she felt a pang of dismay as she realised he had meant it; he was really going. ‘Ben, listen… I can’t come now. How can I when they need me? But…’ she began, and he turned a grim face to her. ‘No buts, Nerissa. I meant what I said. I’m sick of this charade of a marriage. I can’t live with it any more.’ He was gone a moment later, the front door slamming behind him, and she stood rooted to the spot, white-faced and stunned. She heard the car start, the engine roar as he put his foot down on the accelerator, the sound of the wheels churning gravel as he set off along the drive. Ben had left her.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Paperwhite Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: Standalone Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Nikos Cozakis Heroine: Olympia Manoulis Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: January 01, 2000 Started On: September 02, 2022 Finished On: September 03, 2022
‘Are you insane?’ he questioned rawly. ‘You must be out of your mind to come to me like this! How could you think for one moment that I would marry an avaricious, brazen little tramp like you?’
The Cozakis Bride by Lynne Graham is one of those novels that swept me off my feet on a journey of angst, heat, and love of the kind that reaffirms my faith in my commitment to remain a romance reader for life. First published in 2000, Ms. Graham brings to readers the story of 29 year old Nikos Cozakis (Nik) and 27 year old Olympia Manoulis, whose entwined past ten years ago makes them the bitterest enemies.
If anyone had asked Olympia just an year ago if she would ever consider going back to Nik, the man who had left her heart and pride in tatters when she was just seventeen years old, quite naive and wholeheartedly in love with her fiance Nik, she would have probably told them to shoot themselves in the head. But circumstances force Olympia to do just that, where she is forced to “barter” herself in marriage in exchange for much needed medical treatment and security for her mother.
If Olympia resents Nik for what had happened a decade ago, Nik himself loathes the very existence of the woman who made a fool of himself and his family’s unsoiled reputation. The way Nik sees things, Olympia, his doe-eyed supposedly virginal bride-to-be had betrayed him in the worst way possible, and there is no way he was going to forgive or forget what happened, no matter how much he may lust after the woman he is going to be legally bound to as a husband.
Thus begins the battle of wills between Nik and Olympia being tied together in holy matrimony, each unwilling to look beyond the wounds that had scabbed over and never truly healed from that fateful night when everything had gone so horribly wrong. For Olympia, she had been judged and found guilty of a sin she had not committed, and for Nik it had been all too easy to believe what he was led to through machinations of those who had their own agenda.
What neither can deny is the flame that sizzles, burns, and roars to life whenever they are together, something that they are both helpless to turn away from. Nik may pretend that for him it is about getting what he wants out of Olympia, both in the short and long term. Olympia may likewise act as if the passion between them is inconsequential at best, but the truth is far from it.
I loved how The Cozakis Bride commandeered all my senses and did not let up from the minute I plunged into this heady tale. I adored the story for how it was chock-full of excitement from the get go, even when you are hyperventilating through scenes and wanting to slap some sense into Nik, and being gleeful about how all the feels knotted up my insides. There is nothing better that a romance reader can ask for than to be emotionally invested in a story, to feel as if you are going through train wreck, and yet still root for the main protagonists and their happily ever after.
There were times when Nik was unbelievably cruel in the story, times when I thought, boy, I hope this man has to grovel a lot to get the girl in the end. I must confess that I actually loved how cruel that Nik was at times because it showed the depth of his unresolved feelings towards the heroine. If Nik had not cared as much and if it was just his ego that had been bruised back then, the reactions from him would have been altogether very different. Nik made me fall in love with all that he is; from the sex-in-a-suit male specimen personified he is, to the ruthless side of him, and to the very vulnerable man that lies underneath all of that.
I loved Olympia for being feisty where needed, for being able to see how her naivety all those years back had played its role when those she had trusted had taken advantage of her, and for being self-aware and honest enough to face the ultimate truth when it came calling; that she loved Nik with everything she was and if she wanted a future that was worth living, it would have to be with Nik, and that fight she would for his love.
The fact that the story was told purely from the heroine’s perspective made it all that much better in my opinion. While Nik was quite the forceful character, seeing the shades of vulnerability on his part towards the end was enlightening and went a long way towards making this a well rounded romance.
Definitely recommend this gem to fans of Ms. Graham and fans of ruthless heroes with that core of vulnerability that we all love!
Final Verdict: The Queen of Harlequin romance seldom disappoints. Being older and better able to understand the complexities & nuances of human emotions makes this read all that more wonderful to the senses in every way that matters.
Favorite Quotes
‘You owe debts, and through me you will settle those debts.’ ‘What are you t-talking about?’ ‘What you did ten years ago cost your poor mother any hope of reconciliation with her father. What you did ten years ago savaged your grandfather. And what you did to me, you can find out the hard way,’ Nik concluded darkly. Stabbed to the heart by that reminder about her mother, Olympia dropped her head, tears springing to her eyes. ‘It wasn’t my fault…what happened…I was set up—’ ‘You’re embarrassing me,’ Nik slotted in with contempt. ‘Lies and fake shame are not going to protect you.’ ‘You’re scaring me…’ Olympia condemned tearfully. ‘You are really scaring me!’
‘Let the light of reality in here. Ten years back, while you played Miss Prim and Proper Prude and brandished your innocence at every opportunity, I was in absolute agony…in the grip of overpowering lust and unable to do anything about it!’ Nik’s lean, powerful face hardened. ‘Did that give you a kick, Olympia?’ ‘A…a kick?’ Eyes huge pools of enquiry, she stared back at him, struggling to absorb his assurance that he had found her sexually attractive in those days. That claim ran against everything she had ever believed, and she was paralysed by a sense of sheer disbelief. ‘You kept me in a constant state of arousal. I never slept after I was with you. My fantasies about what we were going to do when we got married even embarrassed me!’ Nik admitted grimly. ‘I wasn’t used to going without sex…it was torment; it was seriously painful.’
He came back to her with a driving kiss that consumed her. He was rough, and she had never known him rough before, and he excited her beyond belief. She was out of control, but so was he and she loved that. It answered the wildness leaping through her. He was hard and hot and full, and he sank into her tender welcoming flesh with a forceful maleness that made her sob out his name in ecstasy. Her back arched as the blinding excitement peaked on a shivering storming tide of mindless pleasure. In the aftermath, she opened her eyes and blinked. For a split-second, as Nik stared down at her, she saw a shell-shocked look in his stunning dark deepset eyes that could only have mirrored her own. Rolling off her without a word, he headed for the bathroom. She lay there immobile, struggling to breathe again, feeling ravished, feeling the sweet, heavy satiation of her own body with shattered recognition.
A Maldivian's Passion for Romance 