Tag Archive | love story

Inconvenient duchess came at the right time

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.

Greek mythology love story new millenium style

Dec26

Aphrodite’s Kiss (Protectors (Superhero Series))

This book is a modern-day version of Greek mythology meets the X-Men. There are people with special powers and mortals. A person who is considered a halfling is a person with a parent with superpowers and the other mortal. Once they reach the age of 25 they have a decision to make. They have to decide whether they want to embrace their powers or to become fully mortal.

So in the story, Zoe is almost at her 25th birthday and she’s trying to make a decision whether she wants to become mortal and reject her powers or whether she wants to embrace her powers. In order to embrace her powers she has to tell her mother about them. Which is made a little bit more difficult because her mother rejected her father when she found out about his powers years ago.

So while she has this inner struggle going on, she meets Taylor. She’s always stayed away from guys but for some reason Taylor and her have an instant attraction. Her mortal friend Deena tells her that she should pursue the relationship with Taylor even if it is just a fling.

One of her powers is hypersensitivity. She can barely eat food because of all of the sensations that she has in her mouth from eating them. So she’s trying to figure out how is she going to deal with a physical relationship with a guy having this hypersensitivity. Deena tells her that she should see this as an opportunity to enjoy her life, while her brother (who is very overprotective) tries to tell her not to pursue it at all. Zoe ends up pursuing the relationship. Yay.

The characters were very sweet. Taylor was hilarious and Zoe was conflicted but she had good reason. Taylor is looking for a girl that is without drama without excitement. At first Zoe seems that way. He falls hard and then he finds out the truth. But just like Zoe, having to embrace her powers, he embraces his love for her. I won’t give away too much of the story but it has a lot of different twists. It’s very interesting how Zoe comes into her own to embrace her powers. I like the dynamic between her mom and her and her mortal friends.

It makes for a very interesting story. Zoe was the type of person who seem to stand out, never really fitting in with the group. So it is good that she is able to find friends that support her and care for her. Since I have expounded numerous times how much I like happy endings and I like Aphrodite’s Kiss (Protectors (Superhero Series)) , it had a happy ending.

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.

Its cold outside and she is conflicted inside

Dec20

The Book Of Love (Baby Its Cold Out)

Lila is the manager of a book store that is located in a building that was bought by developer Grayson. All the legal notifications regarding the necessity to relocate the store were sent to her parents since their names are the listed as the owners. Throughout the book, there was a lot of misdirected anger at Grayson from Lila who she decided was foreclosing on her parents’ (mostly her father) legacy. If anything, it was her mother’s fault. But I won’t even get into that.

First of all, my impression of this books has a lot to do with my stance on Christian or religious contemporary fiction. It is my personal opinion that when romance novel authors try to make them “Christian” they should at least say somewhere in the blurb about the book. Reading a romance novel and having “God” references liberally throughout makes it a Christian contemporary. Not knowing that from the beginning because makes me feel as if I’m being preached to. I am not saying that I have anything against books with a religious slant, but at least I can set my expectations based on that.

Lila is trying to be a “good” Christian and has made a vow that she would not indulge in premarital coitus. But that was before there were lighting sparks between her and Grayson. So now she’s relapsing but she’s so conflicted the whole time. It got kind of annoying to me because the story had a Debbie-downer feel every time Lila focused on her guilt. And that took some of the fun out the reading the back and forth banter between them. I knew that they would end up in bed and the next day she was going to be regretting her lack of self-control.

To top it off, Lila has the thought that maybe she shouldn’t get with Grayson because he’s not a Christian. Then he agrees to go to church with her just because if that is what she likes, he will go along with it. I really don’t like that. I don’t think anyone should convert or change religion or become more religious because of girl or boyfriend. The person is just going through the motions and it may or may not last. I don’t know if in the long run Grayson would become a Christian, but there needs to be more of a basis than “I’m doing it for my girlfriend”.

Another point with which I take issue is Lila’s hot and cold attitude with Grayson. She seemed almost to the point of bi-polar to me. One minute she is flirting, ready to jump his bones, and the next minute she is telling him to get out of her house and she is not speaking to him. He had a lot of patience to deal with her. I would have told her “Crazy girl, get your store off my premises before I have forcibly vacated and get out of my life. Period.”

In closing, in The Book Of Love (Baby Its Cold Out) I liked the male character Grayson but the female Lila was super annoying. Some readers might find it humorous.
And to the author, let me know what to expect. If you are going to use the character’s religious relationship as part of the storyline, give readers a heads up and note Christian contemporary genre.

Already Home is more of a lust story

Oct29

Already Home (Sons of Chance) is a very short story about Hutch and Trina. They had a crush on each other for years but did not act on it. They are two very busy people who seem to want to make the relationship work, but in the end I do not know if they would really make it. I think my hesitant attitude is because there is not much character development in this story. I am okay with short love stories, but there has to be something substantial there in lieu of the chapters of history and build up. That was something this story did not have. There is definitely potential, but it was not as strong as I think it could have been. Since this a Harlequin Blaze story, there is a little heat but it is not as steamy as some other books that I have read.

The ending did not give me the “happy ever after” feeling. I felt it was a hookup between friends who found each other mutually attractive. And that cause the story to lose some of its romance for me.

Since Already Home (Sons of Chance) was free at the time I purchased it, I cannot complain too much. Plus it was mildly entertaining. It is worth a couple of dollars, you want to buy it. Just realize that this story is realistic with a dose of cautious optimism.