Fallen Angel – Mona Ingram

Laura, addicted to prescription drugs, is in rehab. After weeks of therapy, she gets a job at a local hotel and winery. Bradley is there helping as well. He has his own problems. Once a fighter pilot, he suffered the loss of his voice because of a trauma related to a friendly fire accident. The attraction between them is palpable. Since he lost his voice, Bradley communicates with Laura using his cell phone to type messages to her.

In a nutshell, Fallen Angel follows two previously broken individuals who pick up the pieces of their lives and find love. The ending was satisfactory but unexpected.

I have found that Mona Ingram’s style lacks a little something for me. After reading her books, I was not filled with feelings of disgust as though I wasted my time. But I was not gushing about how sweet the romance was either.

The lack of emotional reaction on my part made me try to figure out why. What I can determine is that Mona Ingram gives a lot of detail to paint a picture for her reader. She gives the facts. She spends a great deal of time creating the scene but less time on the emotions feelings, and points of view of her main characters. I liked the plot, I was not drawn into the characters as real people. Their personalities remained 2-dimensional for me.
This is not to discourage anyone from reading this book. I think that her writing style does not enthuse me as it might for someone else.

Four Weddings and a Fiasco – the series

Sep15

Four Weddings and a Fiasco Boxed Set (Books 1-3) ♥♥♥

This compilation of books focuses on the people who work at Rose Chalet, a wedding venue.

The Wedding Gift (Four Weddings and Fiasco Series, Book 1) (Four Weddings and a Fiasco): Julie and Andrew ♥♥♥

Julie used to have her own restaurant until critic Andrew called her food boring. Now she is working as a caterer for Rose Chalet. She was trying so hard to cook the food people wanted to eat, that she lost focus of enjoying the art of cooking. Andrew helped her find that and discover love too.

The Wedding Dance (Four Weddings and a Fiasco, Book 2): Phoebe and Patrick ♥♥♥

Phoebe is the florist for Rose Chalet and is willing to live without love because she saw the pain her mother would feel after a breakup. In a twist to the usual romance, Patrick wants a commitment and Phoebe has commitment phobia. While he is thinking long term relationship, she is thinking about having a one-night-stand.

The Wedding Song (Four Weddings and a Fiasco, Book 3): Tyce and Whitney ♥♥

Tyce was a sweet musician who needs love to spark his creativity. Five years ago, he fell for Whitney and has not been right ever since. Now that he has her again, he needs to convince her that they belong together.

My thoughts:

For Julie and Andrew, I can see them being kindred spirits since they were both passionate about cooking.
I do not know how Phoebe and Patrick’s relationship is going to work. They did not discuss any of the particulars. Like, where are they going to live? Their story ended seemingly on this note: We are in love and everything will work out. I am not too optimistic.
I think that Tyce and Whitney’s relationship will work out. He loved her for 5 years or I should say that he waited for her for 5 years. But part of me is thinking: What if he loved the idea of her and the reality is different from what he expected? If that happens, then their relationship will fail too.

Out of all the books, I liked The Wedding Gift (Julie and Andrew) the most and The Wedding Song ( Tyce and Whitney) the least. Julie was spunky and a good balance for Andrew. He saw her potential and pushed her until it was realized. However, I was annoyed with Whitney’s duty to her family as a way of denying herself what she wanted. Maybe I am selfish, but in my opinion, her family was sucking her dry with no regard for her feelings. She should have put her foot down long ago.

As you can tell, I obsess over story lines. I need for the author to create an air tight plot line with engaging characters so that I get the feeling the romance is long lasting and not a temporary.

Side note rant about this series: I wish the author would have used the epilogue to wrap up the story of the main characters instead of using it to plug the next book in the series. I think most people who read the series get to know the characters in supporting roles are interested in knowing their story too. Readers do not need an “intro” at the end of the main character’s book. For a series about a wedding venue, none of the characters actually got married yet.

There are more books to this series, but I have not yet decided if I am going to read them yet. Trust me when I say, if I do read them, you will read the review on this blog 🙂

Check it out yourself and buy Four Weddings and a Fiasco Boxed Set (Books 1-3) on Amazon

Gigolos get lonely too

Sep5

Darius: Lord of Pleasures (Lonely Lords) ♥♥♥

Darius is, for lack of a better term, a gigolo/male prostitute. As the impoverished second son, he cannot afford to have many morals, especially since the bills will not pay themselves. Vivian’s husband goes to Darius with a proposition: get his wife pregnant so there is an heir to carry on his life when he dies. Darius thought about turning down the offer, but the amount of money was too much to resist. Prepared not to like Vivian, he was in for a surprise. Suddenly his job as a stud got a lot more interesting.

Vivian’s marriage was one of convenience after her husband’s first wife died. He only married her as a protection for her. As her husband is old enough to be her grandfather, he is trying to look out for her the best way he knows how.

I was prepared not to like this book because the hero was a gigolo and his love interest was married. Prostitution as a story is not usually my preferred plot line. I kept an open mind, and actually, the story was not too bad. In time when heirs were required and there were no sperm banks, the women had to get impregnated the old fashioned way when their husbands were unable to perform the task.

Unlike other authors who have a formula so the reader knows what to expect, Grace Burrowes’ plots are so unpredictable that every book is like a different author’s work. In this book, she explores how the predicament affects each character. The reader has empathy for their seemingly impossible situation. I will not say how it ended, but I was satisfied with the turn of events.

I recommend reading Darius: Lord of Pleasures (Lonely Lords). It is long, so be prepared to spend the entire afternoon reading.

Steamy Short story

Aug15

Hot Spot ♥♥♥

Samatha (Sammy) and John reconnect with each other after 20 years at John’s family reunion. When they were teenagers, Sammy and John were attracted to each other. But she did not have any confidence of his intentions to stay around and so she married “the good son” his brother Pat.

Fast forward to the present. Sammy has been divorced from Pat (who remarried soon after the divorce). John sees his opportunity and he is determined to test their physical capability. He believes the spark is still there. He regrets not being dependable enough as a youngster to have a relationship with Sammy all those years ago.

Sammy loved John but could not trust him with her heart as a teen. She made a “playing it safe” decision then, but this time around, she has to decide if she can believe he will not run off. No longer immature teens, their decision to get together results in a short story that is one long love scene (with some dialogue interspersed throughout).

Overall, I like Hot Spot because I had no high expectations. I laughed at some parts because the whole family probably was wondering when they were going to finally hook up. They were not very subtle at times. I bet an onlooker could have felt the tension and thought, “Get a room already!”

Caveat: Hot Spot is not a PG romance. There are a lot of F-bombs. The love scenes in my opinion were tastefully done, but some might find it too explicit.

Click any of the links in this post to buy this book on Amazon.

Another fine Westmoreland romance!

Jul30

Canyon (The Westmorelands) – another Westmoreland romance!!! ♥♥♥♥

Canyon is an attorney that is determined to plead his case with his ex-girlfriend Keisha. She caught him in a compromising (very damning) situation with her best friend and was convinced that he was cheating on her. Canyon knows he was not cheating and he wants her to see reason.

Keisha knows what she saw and accepted her friend’s tearful apology. However, she will not tolerate being in love with a man who has been unfaithful. Her distrustful attitude towards men has a lot to do with the grudge she hold against her father for not acknowledging her when her mother told him about the pregnancy with Keisha. To her, it seems that men in her life continue to disappoint her.

Although Canyon would like to try to hate Keisha for not believing him, he cannot. He loved her then and still loves her. If only he could convince her to take him at his word. At some point in the story, I got the impression that he would probably still accept her even if she had those doubts about him. That is not the optimum way he wants the relationship to go, but he was borderline desperate to have her in his life. The attorney in him could not give up on the relationship without a giving closing arguments to wrap up his case.

All the while, Keisha is struggling with her own questions “What is truth?” “Could he be telling the truth?” “If he is, did she overreact?” “Could they have a future together anyway?”

I loved Canyon and tolerated Keisha. Canyon was an overall good guy. Keisha had so many trust issues that she was a little bitter. She is holding so many grudges that it colors her judgment. She made some bad decisions because of that but I am glad that she acknowledged her faults in the end.

Seriousness aside, there is also a lot of funny moments and conversation that add depth to the characters’ personality. The funniest part of this book to me was part where Canyon was trying to explain why following Keisha was not stalking. I was laughing out loud because he was bordering on creeper and trying to justify why it was a good idea. His brothers/cousins/friends were sure he was going to end up in jail. The only reason why I did not get annoyed (because I do not think any guy should force himself on a woman for the sake of a relationship) was that he prevented a crime from being committed and probably saved her life. But he was walking a fine line for a minute there.

I am not usually one to read so many books from the same series. Nevertheless, I have read many of the Westmoreland, Madaris, and Steele series books (15 so far) because Brenda Jackson rarely disappoints with the storyline. My favorite series is Westmoreland. The plots are variations on the same type of scenario but each has its own special twists that keep me entertained. I enjoy all of the books in this series, but I especially like it when the couple has history. The love-at-first-sight scenario can get played out. As in the case with Canyon (The Westmorelands), when the couple has history, one or both of the main characters have trust issues. Good thing there are enough Westmoreland family members around to talk logic and reason into them.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.