Tag Archive | book

Mail order millionaire – Carol Grace

Dec30

Mail-Order Millionaire

In the story, Max and Miranda meet because he calls a compliant for a package he ordered. There is instant attraction, but their romance had a hard time because of lack of communication. Plus Miranda has this need to be completely independent and she is not having much success. She moved from New York because of bad experiences, but I don’t think she gives herself enough credit for all that she has done. I think that she set her expectation level to high. Max has his own hang ups as well. For starters, his choice of job is not conducive to having a relationship. He knows this and blames his first marriage failure on that fact.

Technically, he does not have to work since he inherited money but he likes what he does. But now that he has met Miranda, he is rethinking his whole situation, knowing things will have to change if he is ever able to offer her anything.

This is not the best story I ever read, but it is not the worst either. In my opinion Miranda did not communicate her feelings enough. That is possiblely the only character flaw I saw. However, I can understand Miranda’s hesitation to engage in any physical relationship and fall in love Max since all she will be left with are memories after he is gone. Max has to make some decisions if he wants a relationship.

Overall, if you are looking for something to read, Mail-Order Millionaire is a nice book. It is entertaining, but the characters are probably not so memorable that you become emotionally involved with them.

Wicked women? Not really

Dec29

I think I helped get a book removed from Amazon.

There was this book called Wicked women’s ways by Kumari Davies. I download it because it was free for the day and I wanted to see who received the designation of “wicked woman”. The blurb sparked interest but once I started reading the book, I was not impressed.

This is a look at women in world history. I don’t know what the author’s methodology was in choosing women for this book. They are famous prostitutes, warriors, and some criminals but not at the level of being wicked as I would believe that to be.

For example the harlot named Rahab hid Israelite spies leading to Jericho’s defeat. I guess she is considered wicked because she was a prostitute? Joan of Arc was also mentioned in the context of being wicked. But considering the fact that she was pronounced innocent years after her death, does that negate the fact that she was executed?

There are plenty of other women throughout history that I would consider more wicked then the women listed in this book.

The book did talk about women that I previously did not even know existed, but very few did I think were worth calling wicked. If a man had done some of the same things, he would be called courageous or valiant.

With e-books, it can be easy for a reader to get scammed because all you have to go on is the blurb about the book and the reviews. If the book had stayed free or even been $.99, I might not have bothered. The book regular price was $2.99

The fact that the book was so expensive for such little quality, I had to say something.

I put a scathing review on Amazon’s website. I did not want to imagine that someone would waste their money.

Now the link to the book is gone.

All searches for that author do not bring up that book. I searched every possible combination of title/author and it is not there.

Hope the author learns from this. Publishing a book is not copying and pasting some words and uploading to Amazon website.

Put some thought into your writings and I will gladly pay and give good reviews 🙂

Inconvenient duchess came at the right time

Dec26


The Inconvenient Duchess
by Christine Merrill

In the prologue Marcus makes his mother a promise while she is on her dying bed. He promises to marry a girl who was coming because of a promise his mother made to her childhood friend. Marcus is a duke and needs to get married to produce an heir.

Miranda arrives at his door during a rainstorm. Soaked to the core, the Butler does not turn her away. While she is waiting, she meets a very charming man and is hopeful that he is the Duke. Only to find out later that he was St. John, the Duke’s brother and the Duke and St. John do not get along at all. Miranda is so naive that she does not discern the undercurrents of animosity between them. Marcus marries  Miranda to save her honor but he makes it plain that he does not really want to do so.

Marcus bad attitude come about because he is quite jaded with women. In the beginning it seemed that he was still grieving his first wife, but he was disgusted with her deception and thirst for position and wealth. With all his emotional baggage, he has a difficult time understanding how Miranda can be true loyal and seemingly innocent.

After a non-eventful wedding night Marcus goes on his fact-finding mission in London to determine his mother’s sins. He wants to understand what caused her to feel so guilty to make him promise to marry Miranda. And while the Duke is away, young brother is doing his best to charm the new bride Miranda. It was like leaving a lamb in the company of a hungry wolf. She is confused because she thinks he’s being overly kind to welcome her to the family. Considering she is an innocent, she is clueless to his real intentions. As the reader I could tell St. John was up to no good.

I was wondering:

  • How far would St John really go?
  • When is Marcus getting home?
  • When will Miranda get a clue?

Marcus was in need of an honest woman who would live in harmony with her marriage vows. Miranda had a hard life through no fault of her own and she needed a chance to prove her worth. I got my happy ever after ending and Marcus and Miranda get what they need. St. John got some of what he deserves and a great dose of undeserved kindness.

The title The Inconvenient Duchess still puzzled me.  The only thing I can think of is that Miranda arrived at Marcus’s house at an inconvenient time I’m not sure what other title I could suggest, but the title does not really give any indication of the plot. Nevertheless I enjoyed the story. I was stressing a little bit because I wanted it to work out for Marcus and Miranda and knew that St. John was the main source of conflict.

Accidental countesses need love too

Dec25


The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1)

I started reading The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1) kind of late at night. And it was a work night no less. But the story sounded very interesting that I wanted to read just a little bit. Stephen has lost his memory and does not believe it when Emily tells him that they are married. Not only are they married but they are also the caretakers of two children which belonged to Emily’s brother.

During the course of the book Stephan is trying to understand what happened to him because he lost three months of his life after the attack that gave him amnesia. Stephan is investigating what happened to him and how did Emily’s brother die. Additionally there are some goods that were stolen and he’s trying to figure out what happened to that. Through it all, most importantly what does Emily really mean to him?

Emily blames Stephen for the fact that her brother was murdered. She accuses him of being at his house of his mistress instead of with her brother and that is the reason why her brother was attacked and killed.

At this point, I was thinking, “Yes Stephen, you have a good reason for being at your mistress’ house. Right?”

Meanwhile Emily is trying to have some pride about herself because she realizes how much she loves him but she doesn’t want to share his affections with a mistress. Add the fact that his family do not see her as worthy of being a countess contributes to her having lowered self-confidence in her ability to remain his wife.

At this point, I was frowning trying to figure out when are things going to start looking up for the couple. I want a happy love story.

This story was entertaining and I am glad that it all came together as Stephen was getting his memory back uncovering different pieces of the puzzle and putting them together. Stephen knew what he was doing when he married Emily. Once his memory came back, he remembered his reasons. I have not decided yet if I think they were good ones. Since they were married, they worked at it and made the best of it.

When you start reading it, you might not want to put it down. That is what happened to me . I would recommend reading this book on a weekend afternoon when you have plenty of time. Like I said, I was reading it on a work night and needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep at night. I could not sleep until I had my happy ever after ending.

All of that being said, the title of the book The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1) to me is a misnomer. I did not see how she was made a countess by accident. I know I stress too much over book titles, but it is what it is.

Romancing in the workplace is only for story books

Dec22

As the story starts, Violet is a secretary for attorney Blake. She likes her job but she does not appreciate his brusque treatment. He seems to save the especially unkind words for her and this is worsened when he found out she has a crush on him. Considering he has been treating her like crap, I cannot understand why she cares for  him.

In any case, she cannot take it anymore and ends up quitting her job and working for his enemy. He created a hostile work environment and, in my opinion, she could have sued him. We all know that would not have made a good love story, but I digress.

While in her new job she improves her wardrobe loses weight and begins to get her hair done. Since this is a small town Blake still sees her quite often. He gets a tinge of jealousy and make subtle hints for Violet to return to work for him.

The author description of Violet makes me think she was kind of homely and overweight. As a result Blake was not interested in her. But once she started exercising wearing make up and getting her hair done he took notice.

  • Does that make him shallow?
  • Or is it that she began to have more self-confidence she was ready to be in a relationship?

I have not figured out which is the case for this book. If you read it, let me know what you think.

Other than that, Boss Man had some surprises that thicken the story’s plot and made it very interesting. In the end Blake might technically be the boss but Violet has a lot to say too.