Tag Archive | a to z challenge

H is for Harlequin Holiday #a2zchallenge #ABCofRomance @AprilA2Z

Harlequin Holiday Collection: Four Classic Seasonal Novellas: And a Dead Guy in a Pear Tree\Seduced by the Season\Evidence of Desire\Season of Wonder ♥♥♥

Synopsis

Four seasonal novellas

And a Dead Guy in a Pear Tree- Holly owns a bed and breakfast. She finds a dead guy in the Christmas tree she bought. Zach is a reporter. She needs to keep him from finding out about the dead guy because that could mean bad publicity for her inn.

Seduced by the season – Sophie is a waitress in Dublin. Clint is a FBI agent investigating an international art theft ring.

Evidence of Desire – Olivia is a scientist working at a crime lab and unfortunately for her, she has a stalker. Jacob works at the same lab and is attracted to her but does not want to act on it because he thinks she is too young.

Season of Wonder – Allison is a divorcee with a daughter suffering from health problems. She is disillusioned when it comes to love because she had a nasty divorce. David is a childhood friend who is happy Allison is back in his life.

Opinion

As most novellas are, these were short on length and substance. Fluff romances. All but Season of Wonder had elements of suspense. I think that Season of Wonder seemed like a Christian romance and out of place after reading the first three.

In “And a Dead Guy in a Pear Tree”, Holly’s grandparents brought a lot of humor to the story which made it the most interesting of the lot.

“Seduced by the season” is an insta-romance story because they fell in love so quickly.

“Evidence of Desire” had the most suspense, but Jacob was too weird to me. I do not understand how Olivia was attracted to him.

Should you buy? I suggest buying if it is on sale. It is light romance. None of the stories are particularly outstanding. All are short stories to pass the time. The characters are not so annoying that I have any strong feelings one way or the other.

Book Details from Goodreads
Kindle Edition, 485 pages
Published (first published January 1st 2011)
Available on Amazon

G is for Going #atozchallenge #ABCofRomance @AprilA2Z

Apr8

Going Down (Holding Out For a Hero Book 1) ♥♥

Synopsis
Eleanor (Ellie) is from Chicago but is hiding in Oregon from her drug trafficking ex-boyfriend and the dirty cop making threats against her life.

Tyson is the sheriff in the small town in Oregon where Eleanor ends up staying. He is attracted to her but is suspicious because her story does not add it.

Opinion
The story was okay. The trope girl-on-run-falls-for-law-enforcement was overdone. Maybe I am jaded because I read a lot of books, but there was nothing new.

Tyson is so intrigued by her secrets that he cannot keep his hands out of her pants…

This turns to love a few days later.

It is funny to me that in these types of books, the policeman is so sure of his judgement of the heroine’s character. The girl is acting suspiciously and her story seems like she invented on the spot.

Dude, you are blinded by lust.

Another thing, I did not like Tyson. He was supposed to be the law-abiding man who could get kinky with his lady. I do not mind kink, but something about his character put me off, like he was too grimy for my taste. I actually read the book twice because I was trying to identify what exactly it was that I did not like about him. Logically, it would seem that I should have liked him especially when he said stuff like:

“I can go from vanilla to red velvet in under ten seconds.” -Tyson

Maybe it was the insta-love. After 1 day, he is already taking her to meet his family?

Should you buy? If you can get it on sale, it is not terribly bad. It is a time filler but do not expect too much in relationship development. If you like the girl-on-run-falls-for-law-enforcement trope, then this will appeal to you. The love scenes were (to borrow Tyson’s expression) more red velvet than vanilla. That might appeal to you.

Book details from Goodreads
Kindle Edition, 105 pages
Published July 20th 2010 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (first published July 17th 2010)
Series Holding Out for A Hero #1

Available on Amazon

F is for Fall #atozchallenge #ABCofRomance @AprilA2Z

Apr7

Fall Hard: Navy SEAL contemporary romance (SEALs Undone series Book 2) ♥♥♥

Synopsis

Jared is a Navy SEAL and Cassie is a divorcee living next door. They are good friends that like hanging out with each other.

“She was in a man-free period in her life and happy for it.”

After a while, Cassie began to see things with Jared differently.

“She’d started to want him to play with her.”

Jared wants her too, but thinks that his secret might turn her off. **NO SPOILERS**

Opinion

This seems like your typical friendship turn lover scenario. Jared’s secret put an interesting twist to the whole story. I had to read the sentence twice. Trust me that his secret was unexpected to say the least.

At any rate, his secret does not mean the end of the relationship. This was a good thing in my opinion because Jared was a sweet guy. Cassie deserved some happiness as well.

This is a short novella, so there was not much character development or fluff to the story.

As with all books with SEALs as main characters, there was a lot of profanity.

Also, the loves scenes were very detailed.

Should you buy? Yes. I say read for Jared’s secret alone! I do not know why this fascinated me so much but it did. Plus I have a soft spot for SEAL romances. The story is short enough that you will finish in an hour or two.

Book details from Goodreads
90 pages
Published December 26th 2014 (first published December 23rd 2014)
series SEALs Undone #2

Available on Amazon

B is for Baby #AtoZChallenge #ABCofRomance

Apr2

Baby Bonanza (Silhouette Desire) ♥♥

Synopsis

Nick, a cruise ship owner and playboy billionaire, cannot stand a liar. That is what he thinks Jenna did to him and he will not forgive her for it.

“I’m not a lonely rich boy looking for love.”

Jenna sees the circumstances differently. While heartbroken, she had cut her losses. Until she found herself taking care of the result of her lovefest with Nick: TWINS. She came to ask for child support, but as usual, Nick does things his way.

Opinion

This is the standard Harlequin romance: playboy, commitment phobia billionaire, unplanned pregnancy, reluctant dad. And a woman in love with a man who does not trust her.

I did not like Nick. He was a self-righteous jerk for most of the book. He has women throwing themselves at him and he pretends that the only reason he flirts back with all of them is to prevent embarrassing them. I do not buy it. He is setting up his booty call girl of the week.

Plus he was overbearing. When he decides he wants something, he will not stop until he gets it. Jenna is in his crosshairs and he wants her. Objectify much?

“She was trouble. He knew it. Felt it. And couldn’t stop himself from wanting. From having.” – Nick

“We both feel it. We both want this. Why deny ourselves?” – Nick

When he decided that he wanted Jenna, she was caught up in the romance of it all that she decided to deal with the consequences later.

Bad idea Jenna. But sometimes a person gets steamrolled into poor decision making.

About half way through the book, she finally grew a backbone. You go girl!

… but that did not last long.

“Why does it have to be you who touches my heart?” – Jenna

Yes it all works out in the end. In real life, he would have sent the child support checks and continued his playboy lifestyle. The END.

Should you buy? I am undecided. If you love Harlequin, then you will probably enjoy since the writing style is typical Harlequin. I think I got the book because the cover looked so comical. I did not even read the blurb. I knew there would be at least one billionaire and two babies.

Book details from Goodreads
Paperback, Silhouette Desire #1893, 184 pages
Published September 2008 by Silhouette (first published October 1st 2007)
Original title Baby Bonanza
Available on Amazon