Tag Archive | amazon

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Ian Westmoreland owns a casino and Brooke is a FBI agent. The two dated seriously years ago, but then Brooke broke Ian’s trust (in his opinion). Breaking up with him years ago broke her heart but she could not stop loving him. Brooke did not know if the same could be said about Ian.

Now she is on an unofficial assignment at his casino. She knows her heart is in a precarious situation because her body will give in to the urges by being in close proximity of her one true love.

On the other hand, Ian wants to believe that the years of pent up attraction can be sated if they get each other out of their system one last time. (How many romance novels have I read where the man “thinks” it is just a matter of getting the woman out of his system? But I digress…)

This might be one of my favorite stories because Ian’s personality reminds me of my husband (tough exterior but a softie on the inside). Plus, this is one of the more believable romances that Ms Jackson has written. I don’t believe in love at first sight or even love-after-two-weeks. Those make for entertaining afternoon or evening reading, but no time during my reading do I think “Hmmm that could happen and create a lasting relationship.” In this case, Ian and Brooke have years of history and their story is picking up in the middle of that. Ian has to deal with his trust issues and realize everything is no so black-and-white. Trusting Brooke means really treating her as his equal and trusting her judgment to have his best interest in mind and heart.

I loved the characters and loved the story line. There was a little bit of drama, suspense, but a lot of romance!

Brenda Jackson is one of my go-to authors when I want consistency in the story with characters that I can tolerate.

Go to Amazon and buy Ian’s Ultimate Gamble (Silhouette Desire)

Yes I am giving you a command. That’s how much I love this book!

And if you want to double your pleasure reading, you can buy Promises of Seduction: The Durango Affair\Ian’s Ultimate Gamble (Arabesque) which has another one of Brenda Jackson’s Westmoreland novels.

Secrets? Yes. Seductive? Not sure about that

Mar12

Seductive Secrets (Secret Lives Series) by Colleen Connally

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

In this romance story, Alyce is trying to find evidence to prove that her father was murdered instead of committing suicide after killing a fellow officer. If (and it is a big IF) she is able to exonerate him from this, it will also prove that her father was not guilty of espionage and treason. Julian is the grandson of Alyce’s guardian. Julian’s brother is also the man that Alyce’s father allegedly killed.

Of course, Alyce’s investigation put her life in danger. With the physical connection that she shares with Julian, he does not want her put her life at risk. He wants her to trust him while he carries out the investigation. I love stories with strong willed women and the men that try to rein them in.

While Julian is trying to keep her from the investigation, her good friend Charles is trying to help her on her fact-finding mission. When there was an introduction of what seemed to be to leading man, I thought this was going to be a love triangle. I hate to love triangles! Fortunately for me, this story has only two people in love: Alyce and Julian.

The story was so complicated, but in a good way. There were so many different people involved red herrings as it were. When the true villain is exposed, it was totally unexpected.

I like it when I’m not able to determine who did what and why. This means to me that the author has woven a complex story that keeps me engaged to the very end. Bravo. I admit that three quarters of the way through, I had to reread parts of the book to keep the story straight. Like I said, there were so many different people that I was getting confused about who was who and what role they played.

Half of the way through the book Julian and Alyce profess their love for each other. That, too, was unexpected. When I read the proclamations of love, I check how far along I am in the story. I know that will give me an indication of how soon the whole book and all of its questions would wrap up. Declaration of love halfway through the story? That does not bode well for the additional trials that the couple has to face before they get a happy ending.

In summary, this book is worth reading because it kept me hooked to the very end. I had the happy ever after ending that satisfied me as well. Additionally, there are some interesting subplots that also add to the story.

Click Seductive Secrets (Secret Lives Series) to buy on Amazon

Italian Stolen Bride review

Mar4

The Italian’s Stolen Bride (Harlequin Presents)

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The story begins with a deathbed confession from Luc’s brother revealing secret family sins. Being from the old country, Maurizio thought his son Luc was better off without Skye and needed to marry someone who was better suited. He used his money and power, while enlisting the help of his other son Roberto, to effectively separate Luc and Skye.

Now that Luc knows the truth, he is not going to let his second chance at happiness elude him. As for Skye, the victim and pawn in the disfunctional wealthy family’s manipulation, she wants nothing to do with Luc or his family. If it were not for her son, she could have probably made that happen. Since Luc has rights to Matteo as his father, she had to weigh what was best for her son, even if it means trying to fight the feelings of love for the man that hurt her 6 years ago.

I liked this story because it was about true love fighting against all odds to be together. The conflict in Luc’s family was so real. He was determined to be with the woman that he loved. Skye was not going to let her man give up his family for her without first trying to make peace.

The characters are working to resolve feelings of bitterness and mistrust in order to find true happiness.

To sum up Italian’s Stolen Bride, it is about family, acceptance, redemption, and love. Have I said how much I liked this story? Sigh…

Click The Italian’s Stolen Bride (Harlequin Presents) buy on Amazon

Speed dating works sometimes

Jan27

Speed Dating (Harlequin NASCAR) – Nancy Warren

Main characters Dylan Hargreave and Kendall meet under crazy circumstances. Dylan is a NASCAR driver with an ex-wife who thinks they are destined to be together. So when Dylan goes to her wedding, he knows that he had to bring a date and appear to be in love to prove to Ashlee the ex that he has moved on relationship wise.

Kendall is an actuary (sidenote: before reading this book I had no idea what an actuary was) having a pretty good life until her fiancé tells her that he cheated on her with a co-worker, the woman is pregnant, and they are breaking up. To make it worse, he tells her this on the night when she is supposed to be getting a prestigious Actuary of the Year award. Her life went from good to bad to worse in a matter of minutes. Since analyzing risk and weighing options is something that Kendall does for a living, she kind of flips out and decides not to play it safe. Making conservative choices seems to have brought misery to her life. It was during this mini breakdown that she met Dylan and decided to be his date to his ex-wife’s wedding. Throwing caution to the wind means her life will never be the same.

I can empathize with Kendall. I am not an extreme risk taker. That being said, I don’t know how I would react if everything that I thought to be true came crashing down around me in one swoop. I probably would have went cray cray too. The chemistry between Dylan and Kendall created a believable story. There are many different layers to the playboy Dylan that he keeps hidden from the public in order to market his image. And the more that Dylan and Kendall learn about each other, it brings them closer together.

I guess he can thank his crazy ex-wife for helping him find his true love.

Overall: Nice story!

Rating Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥♥

Click Speed Dating (Harlequin NASCAR) to buy from Amazon

I hate pranksters

Jan19

Naughty by Nature (The NAUGHTY AND NICE Series)

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥

In the book Naughty by Nature (The NAUGHTY AND NICE Series) Tessa is a prankster. Wolf is a billionaire and her unwitting victim. But some how they get together, fall in love, and have a happy ever after story.

I don’t like pranksters. Especially when they are screwing with people’s minds and think it’s funny.

To make matters worse, those stunts Tessa pulled were to get attention when people were ignoring her.

How immature is that?

She was very self-absorbed at times. It seemed incongruous with the way she treated Wolf’s ailing mother and the fact that she was a teacher. Not saying that self-absorbed people cannot be teachers, but the good teachers are usually more mature in their actions.

Although she had some redeeming characteristics, the pranking annoyed me to no end. I don’t even know why I read/talked this book.

Oh yeah. I read a couple books by the same author, and thought it cannot be too bad.

I was wrong. Tessa was ridiculously annoying. Wolf should have dropped prank girl for someone who was less attention hungry.

Maybe I am too hard on this book. Or maybe you love this author. Or you like pranksters. In any of those cases, you can buy this book on Amazon by clicking Naughty by Nature (The NAUGHTY AND NICE Series)

Let me know what you think…