by mvbookreviewer

Review: Moonrise by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookmoonrise
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Signet
Hero: James McKinley
Heroine: Annie Sutherland
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: July 1, 1996
Started On: December 18, 2011
Finished On: December 20, 2011

Moonrise is going to end up being one of those novels that is going to be hard for me to rate. Not because it wasn’t engrossing enough but rather because I felt that a vital aspect of the story was missing in action even when the story ended. I wanted so much more for both James and Annie who seemed to go through so much in the span of just a couple of days. And although the mystery and suspense potion of the novel was superbly done as always, the romance aspect of the novel seemed to suffer making this novel not as enjoyable as it would have been otherwise.

27 year old Annie Sutherland is a woman who has led a sheltered life, a woman who has been manipulated endlessly by her father without even her being aware of the fact. With the sudden death of her father Annie withdraws into herself in grief until a missing picture from her father’s living room causes her to question how her father had actually died. Her quest to find the truth brings her to the doorstep of her father’s protégé James McKinley, a man whom she remembers as being part pf her life since Annie was 7 years old.

The James that she encounters is such a different version from the man that haunts her memories. The James that she finds in a remote cabin in an island off of Mexico has an aura of dangerousness that makes her nervous, but not enough to make her back down from her quest to find what it is that had killed her father. Though James would rather kill Annie than tell her the truth, something deep inside of him stalls at the thought of putting his hands around her neck and squeezing the life out of her. And James knows deep inside that his reluctance to end her life is reason enough to send her packing.

With killers turning up every step of the way, James and Annie travel from Mexico to the US and then to Ireland to find the truth. In the process both Annie and James are forced to remember their shared past and a fragile connection that had gone beyond anything they have encountered before or ever since, a passion and attraction that still seems to linger on stronger than ever. And when the truth does come out at the very end, it is a surprising one that proves Anne Stuart’s mastery when it comes to weaving tales of mystery and suspense.

James turned out to be a yummy hero of the dangerous type. He is a lethal killing machine, someone whose soul cries out to wash away all the blood that he has shed in the name of justice and a country he believed in. His tormented soul is one that comes across vividly, his one weakness being the attraction that burns deep inside of him to possess Annie Sutherland, the one woman who had remained forbidden to him from such a long time back. James is well versed in the art of deception, as good as the man who taught and mentored him, the man whose daughter trusts him with her life; a mission that James knows is a foolhardy one even long before killers start turning up at his doorstep.

Annie proved to be a difficult heroine to place. She has been brought up all her life thinking her father to be totally someone else from the man he actually was, a man who had molded and mapped out her life for her from childhood until his death. The fact that her father turned out to be the total antithesis of what she believed him to be is what makes her change her attitude and outlook towards everything that happens afterwards, her courage and wits the only two things that keeps her going even when James makes no secret of what he wants to do to her.

Though there was this sweet bit of shared history and passion between James and Annie, I felt that they had both outgrown who they were back then and had turned into much harder versions of themselves to be really able to love and accept each other as they were. James tries his hardest to keep Annie at bay, he fights constantly with his feelings that should have made his capitulation that much sweeter. And though as mouth-wateringly sexy as James was, their encounters barely hinted at the deeper emotions between them, that just sort of left me feeling empty deep inside.

Somehow I kept up my hope and belief that towards the end, I would see one thing, no matter how insignificant from James that would signal that he feels a gut wrenching love for the woman for whom he kills and taints his hands with more blood even when his heart and soul yearns for sweeter and softer things in life that he knows aren’t meant for him. But alas, the story ends on an empty note, and though a shared happily ever after is an implied one, I just did not feel the love that should have been there between two characters who held me riveted throughout their story.

Recommended for hard-core fans of Anne Stuart. 

Favorite Quotes

She felt hot, strong, alive against him, and he found he had this crazy urge to move his mouth down to the side of her neck, to press it against her, to taste her skin. He wanted to feel her breasts, wanted to pull her T-shirt up and feel her hot skin against his. Damn, he wanted her.

She expected annoyance, tolerance, perhaps even a distant amusement. She hadn’t expected his reaction.
His arms closed around her like a vice, pulling her tightly up against him. And she didn’t have time to kiss him—the touch of her mouth against his seemed to ignite a firestorm. She could feel him through every inch of her body, the lean, deceptively strong body beneath the suit, the heat and lure of muscle and sinew, the sheer intensity of him. She felt as if she were being absorbed into a maelstrom, and all she could do was hold onto him as he kissed her, he kissed her, using his tongue, kissing her with a thoroughness she’d never experienced.

He kissed the salty tears from her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. And then he kissed her mouth, slowly at first, tasting her pain and despair. Tasting her desire.
He didn’t know whether he turned her in his arms, or whether she shifted herself. He only knew she was astride him, facing him, her long legs wrapped around his hips, and the kissing had gone long past comfort.

He slid his arm under her waist, hauled her up, and entered her that way, sliding in deep, so deep, and her guttural cry was a heartbreaking pleasure.
He couldn’t stop. She wouldn’t let him. She twisted her head around and kissed him, and he wanted to keep on and on, to fill her mouth, her body, her soul with him. To have her take everything and then want more.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shadows At Sunset by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookshadowsatsunset
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: MIRA
Hero: Zachariah Redemption Coltrane
Heroine: Jilly Meyer
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: November 12, 2008
Started On: December 17, 2011
Finished On: December 18, 2011

There is one thing you can always count on when you pick up an Anne Stuart. The fact that she draws you in to a web of deceit, lies, desire, explosive passion and an ending that would shake you to the very core when you are done is the very reason I keep coming back for her books even with a ton of reading material to choose from. And Shadows at Sunset proved to be just that sort of read, a story that I completely lost myself in as Anne Stuart wove her brand of magic with Coltrane and Jilly and the rich cast of side characters that makes up this whole story.

Zachariah Redemption Coltrane is a man who is steadfast in his belief and his mission to exact revenge on the man who killed his mother. His sketchy memories about his mother and the only happiness he had ever known while growing up which had been with her is reason enough for him to bring the man responsible down to his knees, stripping him of the very things that he holds near and dear in life.

But Coltrane’s plans for vengeance starts to falter when he meets his enemy’s daughter Jilly Meyer, who lives in and guards the crumbling famous La Casa de Sombras – House of Shadows, one of the most interesting houses in Hollywood that is shrouded in scandal. Jilly is the only one who stands up to her father for the sake of her brother and adopted sister whom she loves with all her heart. Her one attempt at marriage had failed miserably, rendering her to be doubly wary of men who hides their true nature behind their good looks and veneer of charm.

When Coltrane pushes his way into her life, Jilly knows that in Coltrane lies a man who has his own agenda, a man who is ruthless enough to not care even if he leaves a wave of destruction behind him once his plan kicks into gear. But her fascination for all that is Coltrane and how he makes her feel, those tendrils of elemental desire that shocks her to her very core makes her distrust him more than anything else. But Coltrane is not a man to be denied, not when he has set his sights on claiming her, planning all the while to leave her behind, just a casualty of the war he plans to wage.

Shadows at Sunset is such an engrossing tale that is a mix of suspense, romance and  two ghostly beings whose love for one another even crosses on beyond their deaths, lingering on til eternity. The adopted daughter of the Meyer family who makes for such an endearing character on her own, the tender and heartwarming second chance at love that she finds was one of the best aspects of the story. Equally enticing was the game of cat and mouse that Coltrane and Jilly play with each other, their emotions and feelings towards each other as fierce as the need for vengeance and revenge that courses through Coltrane.

Highly intriguing and explosively good, Shadows at Sunset makes for an amazing read, highly recommended from the sunny side of life!

Favorite Quotes

He tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her toward him in the darkness. He knew exactly how she’d respond, her other hand coming up to push him away, her hand touching the bare, hot skin of his chest so that she drew back in surprise, long enough for him to wrap her tightly against his chest, trapping her hand between them. He knew she’d try to jerk her head away when he slid his hand into her hair and tilted her face back for his kiss. And he knew she’d open her mouth for him.
What he hadn’t guessed was what it would feel like. […]
He hadn’t known a mouth could feel like that. That a woman, an argumentative, reluctant woman could feel so hot in his arms, so incredibly right that his monumental self control could start to slip.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Book Depository

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley

Format: E-booksweetdreams
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Colorado Mountain, Book 2
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Tatum Jackson
Heroine: Lauren Grahame
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: April 23, 2011
Started On: December 21, 2011
Finished On: December 23, 2011

I have never been so grateful for a book being so lengthy. Almost 700+ pages of pure magic is what Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley is all about, and Kristen managed to satisfy all my cravings within these pages, delivering one of the best contemporary romances that I have read to-date.

42 year old Lauren Grahame is on a venture to find Nowheresville, the one place where she can fade away into the background, work at a job that she doesn’t hate and just settle in with the fact that her quest to find that something special in her life had failed miserably. Four and a half months on the road and Lauren ends up in Carnal, a small town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Securing the job of a waitress at the biker bar known as Bubba’s, Lauren is all set on her quest when she runs into the too sexy for his own good, the tattooed biker and part owner of Bubba’s, Tatum Jackson.

44 year old Tate is a bounty hunter, one who has a pretty eventful past that leaps from one corner or the other as the story proceeds. He is larger than life, has got a ton of attitude, is taciturn, totally alpha, a bit of a jerk at times, possessive enough to make butter melt, and through all that Kristen cleverly draws out the man who made my heart go aflutter every.single.time. His attraction to Lauren is one that he doesn’t need and want, he has too much shit going on in his life to really have any time left over to pursue that possessive streak that hits him when he eyes Lauren at his bar.

Lauren and Tate’s attraction, their relationship and how it proceeds to the happily ever after is a heart-warming and emotion wrenching one at best. Lauren the woman who has been betrayed so badly by her ex-husband and the people she had considered to be her friends has certainly done a number on her self-confidence. But slowly and surely with Tate’s powerful brand of seduction which at times might be found crude by certain readers (which I disagree 100% and certainly had my juices flowing all the time) made for one of the most interesting aspects of the novel. The growth of both Lauren and Tate’s characters throughout the story, how their love for each other makes them better people all around, and how their love is an all encompassing one was just beautiful, no two ways about it.

I was a bit disappointed at first with the fact that the story is told from Lauren’s point of view in first person. I wanted to learn first hand what was going through the mind of  Mr. Hotness himself and I thought that Kristen would not be able to pull his character off as I wanted it to with the story being told in the first person. But boy, was I proved deliciously wrong time and yet again as Kristen pulls off Tate’s character so fabulously that I seriously could not have asked for more! And I seriously mean it!

Lauren’s character is a fantastic one. I fell in love with her right from the very start. The way she is ready to embrace what life has to offer, the way she puts her heart and emotions on the line, taking a chance with the one man who seems to be all sorts of wrong for someone like her, but proves to be the right man in ALL the ways, Lauren’s character is one that I wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The secondary cast of characters is what makes Sweet Dreams such a perfect story. The characters whose lives that Kristen brings so vividly to life through Lauren’s eyes, the way they all embrace Lauren and her special brand of charm is what makes this story just so very special. The bit on the serial killer and the mystery behind the gruesome killings just proved to be the icing on the cake, and as I said before, I cannot pin-point at even one teeny tiny bit of the story and say that I wish it had turned out differently.

I am so thankful at the moment to all my Goodreads friends and their reviews on this fabulous book, and especially to Kim for loaning a copy of the book to me. I was all apprehensive about starting a book so well received by all the readers, sometimes high expectations can make a story not work for you.

Sweet Dreams is an outstanding read, I would recommend for EVERY SINGLE ONE of you who loves romances. Tate’s character alone is reason enough to buy this book, the way he calls Lauren “Babe” rendering the term as my word of the month. I found myself drooling all over the book because Tate’s character demands nothing less, that beautiful male specimen that just made everything female inside of me rejoice in the fact that I adore romances! And you’ve got to love a hero who isn’t afraid to be ALL that he is with the woman he loves, his no holds barred passion that just lights up the pages throughout the story. I just want to say to Kristen Ashley, thank you for giving me Tate! He is a character that would live inside of me for the rest of my life.

If you are waiting around because Kristen is a new author, don’t. Just buy yourself a copy and indulge. This lengthy read will leave you completely satisfied, purring like a cat who got all her milk and then some; that is what a perfectly done romance does to you!

Favorite Quotes

Tate’s kiss…
There was no describing it.
It didn’t start slow, it started hard and wet and so demanding I had no choice but to give back what I got. And I did. Our tongues sparred then our teeth bit at each other’s lips and our heads twisted this way and that, all of it a mindless, sexy dance that was all-consuming. There was nothing but his mouth and my mouth, what they were doing and what they were making me feel. Nothing. Not in the whole universe.

We were both quiet a long time and I was about to fall back asleep in the curve of his arm with his warm body at my back when he called my name.
“Laurie?”
“Yes,” I muttered, my voice sleepy.
“I was pissed last night.”
“I know.”
“You look good.”
“Sorry?”
“No way you can look like all the rest.”
My eyes shot open.
His arm curled me deeper into his body and I felt his face burrow into my hair.
“You’d always shine through,” he muttered and now he sounded sleepy but I was again wide awake. “Somethin’ special,” he finished.

He grabbed my calves and yanked them apart, then pushed them up so my knees were bent. He put a knee to the bed and moved forward, releasing one of my calves, his hand wrapped around his cock and I felt his weight begin to hit me.
“You come with me inside you, Ace,” he gritted and then he was inside me, filling me, beautiful.
At the feel of him, so hard, making me so full, my back left the bed again. “Tate.”
He moved, driving deep, fast, hard. Our mouths attached, our tongues clashed. His hand went between us and he touched me and that was it. It hit me like a rocket and I combusted, my world exploding, taking me with it and I loved every nanosecond.

“The first time I met you, you told me you grew up here, I’d call you a liar,” Tate informed me.
I tipped my head to the side and asked, “Really?”
“Really.”
“Why?”
“High-class,” he replied.
“Sorry?”
“You looked high-class,” he semi-repeated.
“I’m not,” I stated.
“No, Ace, you’re not. You’re a different kind of class.”
“Farmer class.”
“Pure class.”

After more of his sweet torture, I called, “Tate, honey?”
“Yeah, baby,” he answered.
“Am I under your skin?” I whispered as my hips moved with his hand.
He replied instantly, “Oh yeah.” His thumb tweaked my clit harder, my hips jerked and a low mew slid out of my throat as the fingers of one of my hands slid into his hair and the other arm held on tighter. “Fuck yeah,” he growled and his lips left my ear, his mouth found mine and he kissed me, wet and deep.

I stopped looking around when I heard a soft “mew” and I looked toward Tate to see he was crouched. He straightened and turned to me.
I froze and stared.
Tatum Jackson, ex-pro football player, ex-cop, now bartender/bounty hunter, tall, beautiful and more man than I’d ever experienced in my life was standing on the edge of his kitchen holding a cat.
And it wasn’t just any cat and he wasn’t just holding it. He was cradling it. 

His forehead dropped to touch mine. “I’m gonna piss you off ‘cause I can be a dick. That’s who I am. And you’re gonna piss me off ‘cause, babe, you got attitude. That’s who you are. And that’s who we’re comin’ out to be together. And I’m all right with that because, with what I had before, even when you’re a bitch, I like it. But when you’re not, it’s a sweetness the like I’ve never tasted.”

His hand slid up my back and his fingers sifted into my hair to cup the back of my head.
“Kiss me, baby.”
I used the moonlight on the angles of his face to aim and found his mouth. The minute my lips hit his, he rolled partially into me, forcing me to my back in the bed, and my mouth opened as did his. My tongue slid inside, he growled against it and when I absorbed that in my mouth, a small moan escaped my throat. His head slanted one way, mine tilted the other and my kiss turned into a kiss.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Tangled Lies by Anne Stuart

Format: E-booktangledlies
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Intrigue, #5
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Ben O’Hanlon
Heroine: Rachel Chandler
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: March 15, 1994
Started On: December 11, 2011
Finished On: December 12, 2011

So my Anne Stuart reading binge continued, this time with a Harlequin Intrigue that was published in 1994. Tangled Lies though an earlier story by the author was nevertheless a great one that compelled me to keep on reading, to find out the truth behind the tangled web of lies and deceit that is spun throughout the story, something Anne Stuart is so very good at.

Rachel Chandler makes her way to a little island in Hawaii to meet her brother Emmett Chandler after being estranged from him for 15 long years. Emmette disappears in the late 1960’s when Rachel was just around 12 years old. The news that Emmette has surfaced again in the island propels Rachel to face her fear of flying to meet her brother, to ease that loneliness that has always been a part of her ever since he went missing.

When Rachel meets the man who is playing the role of the 40 year old Emmett Chandler, there is a spark of awareness that shoots right through her, though she quickly tamps it down as part of the joy of being with her brother once again. The Emmett that she discovers is unlike the gentle and kind brother that she knew, this man being an all around tougher and harder version that makes Rachel want to hug him close and ease and soothe his wounds.

Ben O’Hanlon has his own reasons for agreeing to the scheme of pretending to be Emmette Chandler, one he would never divulge to Rachel no matter how tempting she might be. From the first moment that Rachel invades his personal space, its a losing battle that Ben fights with his baser emotions and the possessiveness that takes a hold of him. Though he would like nothing better than to feel nothing towards the woman who shares the ramshackle cabin with him, there is no denying the fact that sparks fly whenever they are together and that the sexual tension could be cut through with a knife.

Rachel is torn apart at the very thought that she has “feelings” towards her older brother. She goes through so much emotional agony because of the fact and when the truth comes to light, all bets are off as Rachel is devastated with anger and the sting of betrayal that courses through her. But once again, the strength of her feelings towards Ben dictates that she give in, that they both give in to the heady desire that escalates out of control with each encounter.

I loved Tangled Lies though there was a bit of an icky factor with Rachel lusting after her “brother” even though the reader knows that he is not her brother in reality. The angst and the tension that is part of this novel was well done and I loved the explosive culmination of their desire for one another.

Ben is a man who is hellbent on vengeance not to be deterred by the pretty haunting eyes of Rachel who occupies every thought that races through his mind. That subtle jasmine scent that clings to the air whenever she is around practically drives him nuts, and even that bitter and cynical heart of his is no match when it comes to Rachel’s soothing touch that sets all his senses afire. Ben fights his feelings until the very last minute, once again Anne Stuart giving her readers a taste of the ruthless alpha heroes that she creates exceptionally well.

Rachel is a bit naive when the story starts, but she is in no means a pushover when it comes to those whom she loves. She is tenacious, loyal and stubborn when it comes to love, all required when you fall hopelessly in love with a man of Ben’s caliber.

Recommended for fans of Anne Stuart and fans of ruthless heroes!

Favorite Quotes

His head moved down, his mouth taking hers in a kiss that held the passion of a thousand years as his body molded against her trembling frame. His lips were hard and hungry as he fought against her resistance, and he pulled his head away for a moment, looking down into her desperate eyes with no pity at all. “Open your mouth, Rachel,” he said.
And closing her eyes, she did, sliding her helpless arms around his body, pulling him closer against her yearning form. Just once, she told herself. Just this once. And she gave herself up to the searching demand of his kiss.

Ben scooped her up in his arms, holding her high against his chest as he carried her back into the cottage, past the shrouded, familiar shapes of the furniture into the night-dark bedroom. They were alone now for the first time. There was no Emmett, no Harris, no lies or masquerade or motives or revenge. There was just Ben and Rachel, together in the darkness.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Abe Books

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Beneath the Surface by M.J. Fredrick

Format: E-bookbeneaththesurface
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd.
Hero: Adrian Reeves
Heroine: Mallory Reeves
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 1, 2009
Started On: December 15, 2011
Finished On: December 16, 2011

Beneath the Surface by M.J. Fredrick published in 2009 is trademark M.J. Fredrick. I say this because she presents the reader this time with the unique profession of underwater archaeology, pits a hero and heroine who have been married for 8 long years together once again, delivering that emotional whirlpool that I just flat-out love about her novels.

Mallory Reeves comes bearing her divorce papers to get her husband Dr. Adrian Reeves, an underwater archaeologist to sign them, freeing the way for her to get hitched to the man who is willing to give her everything that Adrian had been unable to. Driven by a restless need to prove his worth to the archaeological community and also to prove to his wife that his suspicions regarding the last expedition aren’t unfounded at all, needless to say Adrian is a man who is determined that this time he would not be thwarted in his efforts.

Seeing Mallory, the one woman who had always got him come bearing the papers that would officially separate them as husband and wife pains Adrian more than he is willing to show. But his love for the woman who had shared his life for 8 years, being his equal in everything that they had done together is one that wants her to be happy, even if its not a life that he is part of.

Mallory is not at all prepared for the rush of emotions that lays siege on her when she comes face to face with the one man who always makes her senses go haywire. Handsome and charming with his Scottish burr that always melts her on the inside, Mallory is more than surprised with the strong feelings of melancholy that hits her making her face just how much of her life she is willing to change to accommodate the lifestyle of the man that she is going to marry. Just one dive to see what Adrian is up to makes Mallory yearn to work beside her husband once again, and maybe just maybe, find a way to heal the wounds that have festered for 3 long years during their separation.

Filled with surprising twists and turns and an attraction hot enough to warm you up even at the deepest depths of the ocean, M.J. Fredrick cleverly weaves a story of second chances along with just enough bits and pieces about underwater archaeology and excavation with a creepy villain at the edge to really pump up one’s adrenaline.

Adrian and Mallory are both equally endearing characters, that just makes you fall for them as you discover their pasts entwined from the very beginning. The trials and tribulations they face together along the way just makes their love a that much stronger one, a love worth fighting for even when all odds are stacked against them. With a neat little epilogue tucked at the end, M.J. Fredrick continues to prove to her readers that when it comes to happily ever afters, she certainly is a master at delivering.

Favorite Quotes

She was as soft, as sexy as he remembered. Her taste hadn’t changed, her mouth moved beneath his the same way, as if those three years had never passed. He dipped his tongue into her mouth, and hers rose to meet him, glided along his, so right, so right.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: Cinderella and the Sheikh by Teresa Morgan

Format: E-bookcinderellaandthesheikh
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standlaone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Sheikh Rasyn ibn Bakr ibn Rahman al Jabar
Heroine: Libby Fay
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: April 6, 2011
Started On: December 14, 2011
Finished On: December 15, 2011

Sheikh Rasyn is the next in line to rule in Abbas, North Africa. His one goal is to let his uncle know that he is totally unsuitable to be the ruler of his country. Because his uncle refuses to pay heed to his pleas and bargains, Rasyn does the next best thing; find the most unsuitable woman to be the queen of his people and marry her.

Libby Fay works at the Hotel Scheherazade in Manhattan, New York. The very first moment Libby had laid eyes on Sheikh Rasyn had been a cosmic one, one that had been an uncomfortably humiliating experience as well. Though Rasyn’s dark good looks and the way his heavy lidded gaze continues to follow her across the room reduces Libby to a quivering bundle of nerves, she has no intention of being seduced and discarded by a rich playboy.

Libby is a woman who holds onto the dream of being united with a man who would give her a happily ever after like the one that had been her parents married life. It is with that thought at the back of her mind that Libby agrees to accompany the man who seduces her so effortlessly with his charm and with the way he makes her senses hum with just his mere presence.

But unknown to Libby, Rasyn continues with the charade that would give him exactly what he wants though sometimes the region around his heart pains at the thought of all the humiliation and pain that Libby is subjected to. As with most of the best laid plans, Rasyn’s plans also backfire on him, making him realize a little bit too late that somewhere in between playing the besotted fiance’ and husband, he had actually fallen for his wife.

I am not much of a fan of romances involving Sheikhs. Though when I first started reading category romances I indulged in them every now and then, overall I am not much of a fan girl of Arabic men who wear and flaunt their obvious wealth to the rest of the world. So because its being ages since I read a Sheikh romance, I decided to grab the review opportunity when presented by the author. And overall, I have to say I would consider this as a good read that compelled me to keep the pages turning, just to find out whether Rasyn had to grovel enough to win back the affections of Libby towards the end.

Libby is a sweetheart of a heroine. She is beautiful on the inside, and is a bit naive when it comes to the likes of men like Rasyn who have the whole world at their feet. Libby’s true nature is what draws everyone around her to come be a part of her world, no matter how much of a misfit she is at the beginning. To see Libby win over the affections of everyone against all odds was one of the best parts about this story.

Rasyn on the other hand was a hero I didn’t love overly much. Maybe it had something to do with the way he treated Libby without any regards whatsoever for her feelings or maybe because I just felt that Libby gave in to his affections much more easily than he deserved after deceiving her so well and through. But, towards the end there is this bit with a lost shoe that just made a bit of the ice around my heart melt towards Rasyn and I guess that was a scene that just went to show how much he had changed on the inside where it matters when it comes to Libby and how he views the rest of the world.

This one’s for fans of Sheikh romances; Teresa Morgan’s fascination for the magic and love that is part of the Arabian folklore shines brightly throughout the story.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Score Sheet Review: Separation Anxiety by Cynthia Justlin

Format: E-bookseparationanxiety
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: The Remnants
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Jack Martello
Heroine: Rebecca Cooper
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 13, 2011
Started On: December 13, 2011
Finished On: December 14, 2011

CATEGORY SCORE GRADE
The hero 90 A
The heroine 90 A
Story line 90 A
Emotional Intensity 90 A
Story’s ability to suck me in 90 A
Heat & Sensuality
 90 A
Conflicts within the story 90 A
Writing Style 100 A
Quotable Factor 50 C
The Ending 90 A
Overall Grade 87 A

Score Sheet Summary

Separation Anxiety was a novella that sucked me in right from the very beginning. Though I had to revisit my copy of Her Own Best Enemy to remember who Rebecca was, I was immediately drawn into the way Rebecca was struggling from her past to do even the most simple things like diving off into the swimming pool.

For a woman who suffers from agoraphobia, it is her worst nightmare come true when an escaped convict takes her hostage in her own home, the utter lack of control on how the next few hours or days might pan out being the worst thing someone like Rebecca has to confront. I loved how Cynthia portrays Rebecca’s fears, her struggles and her many attempts at overcoming them which I know wouldn’t be an easy one.

In comes burnt-out hostage negotiator Jack Martello whose shared past with Rebecca makes the mission he embarks upon a doubly risky one. But the woman he encounters with fear radiating from every pore is one that clutches at his heart, the attraction that he had always felt for the first woman he had fallen for a part of him even now.

Cynthia makes their relationship work amidst moments filled with terror and the unknown and makes the passion that bursts forth between them something that they both hold onto even when things go from bad to worse.

It shows an author’s remarkable talent when she can make a novella of this length work for a situation such as the one she explores in this book, a fact that would always keep me coming back for more of her books in the future!

For fans of Cynthia Justlin and for those who loved Her Own Best Enemy and thought that Becca deserves her own happily ever after; Cynthia created this story just for you!

Favorite Quotes

“See how good it can be, Becs. I do this to you and you,” he reached up, captured her hand and drew it down to his erection, “you do this to me.”
She gasped and yanked her hand away. He chuckled. Scooping her hand back into his, he kissed her palm and placed it over his thudding heart.
“You do that to me too.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: Know Thine Enemy by Rosalie Stanton

Format: E-bookknowthineenemy
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing
Hero: Niles Arnold Ryker the Third
Heroine: Elizabeth Jane Bennett
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: November 3, 2011
Started On: December 12, 2011
Finished On: December 13, 2011

Rosalie Stanton is an author who definitely knows what she is doing when it comes to heroines of the kick-ass variety. And invigorating banter is always a part of her novels that makes them that much harder to put down. Whether it be vampires or just plain old human heroes and heroines that she writes about, Rosalie writes them with a passion that comes across when one reads her books.

Know Thine Enemy tells the story of a more than 100 year old vampire who finds the peace, solace and love that he has been searching for all his life when he meets the human demon hunter who entices him to get to know more of her even from their very first encounter.

Niles Arnold Ryker the Third (Ryker) knows a woman worth getting to know when he sees one. Tailing Elizabeth Jane Bennett (Izzie) and watching while she takes on vampires more than capable of sending her to a brutal death, the one thing that draws Ryker is the fact that Izzie is a hunter without a cause.

Izzie had embraced the world of hunting down vampires 6 years back when her life had taken a turn that would have killed her if it had been anyone other than Zack Wright she had tried to steal from. Driven by a need to exorcise the world from the undead that roams at night, Zack has made it his life’s mission and in turn trained and made it Izzie’s mission as well to hunt them. But even if Izzie is unwilling to say it out loud, somehow the empty existence of living from one hunt to the next makes for a lonely existence until Ryker steps into her life and makes her do things that she would never have done otherwise.

Before anything can happen between Ryker and Izzie, an enemy from Ryker’s past who is maniac enough to embrace becoming a creature of a race that he so despises just because it would bring him one step closer to getting the “justice” he feels that he rightfully deserves comes into Ryker’s life, putting both Izzie and Ryker in danger. The time spent in captivity is one that tests the endurance and strength of both Izzie and Ryker’s characters, both forced into submitting to the desire that is always a part of them when they are together.

Know Thine Enemy is a story that tells the tale of a vampire’s quest to find redemption, acceptance and love, things he had resigned himself that he would never ever have in his life. It also tells the story of a woman who is more than a little bit lost in life, following the footsteps of a man whose need for vengeance and revenge is no part of who Izzie is. Izzie has led a tougher life than most, growing up with a father who had slowly grown insane as the years sped by. Escaping from him with her life intact had just been the beginning of a hard life and it is only under Ryker’s soothing touch that Izzie finds the strength to let go and believe for the very first time in her life.

Ryker’s brand of seduction is a lethal one that got my heart racing more than a time or two. His intensity and focus when it comes to Izzie, to the point that the rest of the world just melts away and ceases to exist, the way he whispers those tender nothings during those moments when physical and emotional intimacy seems to mix and blur around the edges, needless to say I loved his character and his brand of seduction. His tenderness and understanding nature is just exactly what someone like Izzie needs in order to believe that something better has come to her life and is there to stay as long as she wants and needs it to.

With a fitting end to the villain, no hanky panky forgiveness stuff here which I just loved, Know Thine Enemy is a great read, recommended for fans of Rosalie Stanton and fans of vampire romances.

Favorite Quotes

Intimacy with Wright had seemed necessary; an essential human experience she didn’t think she’d get anywhere else, at least not on her terms. Ryker changed everything.
Ryker, she wanted. Hell, a part of her needed him, and the rest of her just craved.

“You’re not dirty, or bad, or wrong, or anything that ass of a father told you,” he whispered, kissing the swell of her breast. “I honestly don’t know what you are.”
“Ryker, please.”
“Except mine.”

 

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Noble Romance

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: 10 Ways To Steal Your Lover by Dee Tenorio

Format: E-book10waystostealyourlover
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Short Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Love By Numbers, Book 1
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Kane Wilkensen
Heroine: Delilah Anne McGavin
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: December 14, 2011
Started On: December 16, 2011
Finished On: December 17, 2011

I am a sucker for Dee Tenorio’s books. Her books are filled to the brim with scorching heat, humor and a love that just sears right through you before you are done. So I found myself taking a little detour from my reading schedule as soon as Dee announced the availability of this book up on Amazon. And let me tell you, with that explosive Chapter 1 that just right about fried up half of my grey matter, 10 Ways to Steal Your Lover drew me in and refused to let its hold on me go, even long after I was done.

Kane Wilkensen has been lusting after and been in love with his best friend Craig’s fiance Delilah Anne McGavin for the past 3 years. Though Kane tries to distance himself from the temptation that is Delilah, their upcoming nuptials brings him back to Delilah, and by a twisted turn of events wakes up with Delilah in his arms, with his ring on her finger.

Though neither Delilah nor Kane remembers all the events that led both of them to wake up with Kane buried to the hilt depp inside of Delilah, both of them know that for the first time in their lives they have found the missing piece that just makes everything else around them fade away to insignificance. With more questions than answers and Kane’s undying resolve to show the woman he loves to distraction that he is the right husband for her, Kane and Delilah embark upon a mission to find the missing pieces and in the process finds that for both of them, there would never be any other.

If you are a fan of scorching sensuality and haven’t ever read a book by Dee Tenorio, you are seriously missing out on one of the best the genre has to offer. As I said earlier, from the eye opening and senses awakening first chapter itself, Dee had me glued to the pages to find out how Delilah and Kane would fare towards the end. Kane is such a delicious and devastating hero on the senses. He is the type of hero that I love, a bit broody with a quiet intensity that practically leaves me breathless. And when all that intensity is focused on bringing undying pleasure to the woman he loves – ladies, just be warned that you are going to need a long cold shower afterwards.

Delilah was such a lovely heroine. She grows up never finding where she fits in with a father whose whole life had been focused on serving the military with a rigid discipline to him that makes it hard for Delilah to measure up to his expectations. And with her fiance, Delilah had tried hard to fit into the mould that is expected of her, ignoring the messages that her body sends her whenever Kane is around, tempting her to just let go and embrace the one man who gets her as she is. I loved the way she blossomed under Kane’s love for her, and in the way she makes Kane see that he is wrong in trying to make the most important decision in her life for her, just because he loves her that much.

One of the most colorful characters in the novel turned out to be Delilah’s grandmother Rainbow, a character as colorful as her name, who kept reminding me of Mulan’s grandmother in the Disney cartoon. Now I am eagerly awaiting the release of the next set of books in the series, Craig’s book which is to come out in 2012.

For fans of contemporary romances with heat levels that is guaranteed to spike up your internal thermometer, Dee Tenorio’s 10 Ways To Steal Your Lover would be a treat for the senses. With a beautiful epilogue tucked in at the end, I loved everything about this novel and cannot recommend this highly enough!

Favorite Quotes

Delilah cried out, lifting her head. The only truth that mattered right now was how much she needed him. Powerful thighs flexed against her own as he began to move. He reached for her, pulling her up, against his chest, his hands clasping her breasts, mouth open on the back of her neck. He drew hard, pumping up into her relentlessly, meeting her rocking motion back to him. Her head fell back on his shoulder, her own hands latching over his. Their fingers wove together, their bodies moving as if they’d been lovers for years.
As if they’d been made for each other.

Usually, when he came in these dreams he woke up still thrusting into ruined sheets, his face pressed into a pillow.
This time, he was most assuredly still balls deep inside Delilah McGavin, his face pressed into the mass of silken black hair now that they’d fallen to their sides on a bed far too nice to be his. Like him, she was gasping, trying to catch her breath. She was also bonelessly limp, her sweat slick body slathered over his, their legs tangled, their sexes still throbbing against each other, fitted together like a lock and a key.
He finally moved, walking those few feet between them. Without hesitation, his hands slid around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Her hand slid up his arm all by itself, grasping the hard muscles there. The warmth that seemed a natural part of him spread into her. Smoothly, his mouth found hers, gently grazing her lips before settling more firmly. She moaned as he tasted her, coaxing her to open for him. When she did, her eyelids fluttered shut and the whole world utterly disappeared.

He finally pulled away, not letting her get further than a few inches, their hips still pressed tight, her gaze held willing captive by his. “It’s me,” he murmured. “And I’m telling you right now, Delilah Anne McGavin, if I have my way, it’s going to stay me for the rest of our lives. You’re mine now and I’m going to do everything in my power to prove it to you.”

“I’ve known since the first moment I saw you and every day after has only made me surer. I see who you are, right down to your soul. I know you’re the kind of woman who gives of herself, completely. I know the promises you make mean more to you than the cost. I know that family is the most important thing to you in the entire world. But most of all, I know that you feel exactly the same thing I do—we belong together, Del. You’re the piece of me that’s been missing all my life and I can tell just looking that I’m the same for you.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Fall of Maggie Brown by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookthefallofmaggiebrown
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Short Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Intrigue
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Ben Frazer
Heroine: Blanche Magnolia Brown
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January 1, 2000
Started On: December 11, 2011
Finished On: December 11, 2011

I mourn the fact that there are no authors like Anne Stuart out there with a vengeance. I sometimes get restless after reading romances featuring overly sweet heroes, not that they aren’t enticing in their own way. Maybe I am sadistic, but I love a bit of ruthlessness in my heroes and I won’t mind if someone presents me with a mountain of books featuring the said variety of heroes. So my restlessness had me doing a Google search to seek out those authors that have a similar writing style. But I should have known better since from the very start I have identified the fact that Anne Stuart simply put, is one of a kind. So there I was searching through her back list to find a book that would catch my fancy and I ended up reading not one, but two Anne Stuart books in one day!

28 year old Maggie Brown has always been the sensible and responsible older twin whilst her younger twin Stella had always been as flaky and outrageous as their mother. Maggie and her father had always looked out for the two women and with him passing away two years back, the sole responsibility of cleaning up after their messes falls on Maggie’s shoulders. So it is her mother Delia’s sort of death-bed wish that Stella be present when she passes away that has Maggie taking a leave of absence from her job at the bank and flying to Las Cruces, San Pablo, a tiny country somewhere between Spain and France. And there she meets Ben Frazer, the man who drives her completely nuts, the man who ruffles her calm unlike any other and also the man who her senses clamor to possess and be possessed by.

Ben has an agenda of his own when it comes to the plain Maggie Brown who somehow gets under his skin right from the very start. Ben plans on leading Maggie around on a wild goose chase around the rough terrain of San Pablo just to prick and poke into that overly proper exterior of hers. The lively sword play of words that takes place between Ben and Maggie right from the start is overly amusing and serves as foreplay to the very hot and well done scene of explosive passion that Ms. Stuart provides towards the end.

Ben might want to brush away how much Maggie actually makes him feel and Maggie at first brushes away those twinges that come with sexual desire as hunger pangs. But both Maggie and Ben know that between them lies a load of sexual tension that is just waiting to ignite, that is just waiting to take them both to new heights in the culmination of their mutual desire and wanting for one another. There is something to be said for well done sexual tension that is headier on the senses than the most well done erotica and time and yet again, Ms. Stuart proves her capability and mastery at providing readers with just that.

With bits and pieces of a villain who stalks them both and has a personal score to settle with Ben, this short novel provided me with just what I needed and wanted in my attempts to read a book with a hero who isn’t an overly sweet one right from the beginning.

Recommended for fans of Anne Stuart and fans of her heroes, this one’s deliciously and mouth wateringly good!

Favorite Quotes

He hooted with laughter. “I should have known. Do you have a calculator for a brain and an adding machine for a heart?”
“I don’t think you need to worry about my heart, Mr. Frazer. It’s not going to have anything to do with you.”
His slow, lazy smile was quite possibly his most potent weapon. She wanted to slap it off his face, and yet at the same time it stirred odd, unexpected feelings in the pit of her stomach.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Abe Books

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