Tag Archive | novella

Synopsis:
In the prologue, Fergus does his best to convince Susanna that she should not marry Jason Mountjoy. He says the man is no good, without scruples, and is only after her money. Fergus is not successful and she Jason him anyway.

Three years later, Susanna is no longer the naïve miss with notions of romance. However, she is grateful to be a widow instead of suffering in a marriage to a man who was every bit the scum that Fergus described and more. From her life’s lesson, she does not want to get married again.

Fergus has invited her to his home now that he is the Laird of Kilmun to visit his home in the Highlands. He does not tell her, but he invited her for a purpose: make her his wife. He still harbored some guild for not being able to persuade her not to marry Jason. Plus he was in love with her. Fergus thought it would be easy, but quickly realized he had a challenge in trying to romance wary Susanna.

Opinion:
There was not a lot of character development. The story relies heavily on the fact that the characters have a past. The whole story is Fergus trying to convince Susanna to take a chance on him. Overall, An Invitation to Pleasure was a cute, short story. I put this in the category of a light reading when waiting at the doctor’s office or before going to bed. I would not describe it as “Scandalous” because it did not have too graphic love scenes.

Stranded in a snowstorm together means he’s the love of your life

Jan15

Spellbound & Seduced (A Sinful Regency Christmas) – ♥♥♥

Set in the Scottish Highlands, Lawrence traveled there to become the new laird. A curse was placed on her family hundreds of years before that doomed the husbands of the daughters in family to death a year after marriage. It was love at first sight, but Jura was determined not to fall in love. However, something about Lawrence made her very curious. The inclement weather meant he was stranded at her house for several days. That gave them plenty of time to explore these feelings that had for one another.

This is one of those books that, besides the love scenes, it does not make sense why they fall in love with each other. Love at first sight is supposed to be the explanation. But for me, always trying to find the logical in any situation, I am left confused. Did I miss something? Why did they fall in love?

You are probably surprised at this revelation. Considering the fact that I love to read romance novels, you probably thought I was a great romantic at heart who believed that people can know with a touch or glance that it is true love. In truth, I like love stories but I need some conflict or something that reveals the type of person the main character is. That creates a believable story of why the other person fell in love with them.

Back to Jura and Lawrence’s story…Despite the fact that I do not think they knew each other well enough for protestations of love, I did think it was sweet how they did it. They communicated their feelings plainly and that helped ensure there was no misunderstandings.

Overall, Spellbound & Seduced (A Sinful Regency Christmas) was a short book to read with a cute story. You could finish it in under an hour.

Click any of the links to buy Spellbound & Seduced (A Sinful Regency Christmas) on Amazon

Books that make me say “Meh”

Jun25

There have been several books that I gave 2 hearts because of a variety of reasons. I did not want to spend a whole blog post on each review because I did not want to seem as if no book could satisfy my standards.
In this post, I will start with an extremely short synopsis of each book and then give the reasons why I did not give it a higher rating.

MINE FOR TONIGHT: Book One – The Billionaire’s Obsession)

Synopsis: Hero has been following heroine because he is obsessed with her. When she is without a place to stay, he convinces her to stay at his lavish apartment. Granted without his offer, she would have been on the suffering, on the street, with no place to go. But I still think that it is sad that she has absolutely no friends that she has to accept an offer from a veritable stranger. In any case, she accept and soon they give in to attraction. Cue the love scene.

My issues with this story: (1) The Hero seems to be a little creepy to me and his following his love interest is perilously similar to stalking (2) I did not like the way the book ended. If you write a novella, I do not like for the story to end abruptly as if the book is missing another chapter. The author should have made it clear in the synopsis that this is nothing more than just a prologue to the main story. I hope that the whole series is not like this book. It peeves me to no end when an author takes what could be a full length novel and divides the chapters into 3 or 4 novellas and calls it a series. It appears to me as a way to get more money and I do not like those type of marketing tactics. Plus, they did not have such a great attraction that I feel motivated to buy the second book.

Date with Destiny (A Billionaire Romance)

Synopsis: Heroine works for an escort service, but she is not any good at it so she is about to be fired. The Hero needs a date fast and she is the only escort available. During said date, it becomes apparent that she will be sleeping with him despite her protestations that she is not like that.**eyes rolling **

My issues with this story: (1) It was cheesy. It was a quick “Pretty Woman” if the man decided to date escort/prostitute after one date (2) What idiot man would introduce his daughter to his night escort? Really? I was really annoyed by that. Given that their relationship was supposed to be devoid of emotion, he should not have involved his child in the mix. (3) This girl worked for an escort service that was obviously providing more than just a female companion for events on date night. Where is the romance in Hero’s offer for her to be his girlfriend? Seems to me that he was trying to get his milk for free, as it were. With an ending like that, considering the fact that they really do not know each other besides the physical compatibility, she better save her money since it is highly likely that he will dump her in the future.

Granted I might be judging these stories too harshly in your opinion. I challenge you to read any of them and let me know what you think.
Agree or Disagree?

Forevermore is so cute

May30

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥♥

In this novella, Cameron sets his sights on Clarice when he met her while visiting for his cousin’s wedding. He was a man who knew what he wanted and was confident that he would succeed. Clarice was a widow who did not have good experiences with men. In short, even though she was attracted to Cameron, she did not think she was worthy of his intentions.

Cameron was a man with little time before he had to return home, so he had to make the most of every opportunity to show Clarice how he felt. It was love at first sight. All perceived barriers would not prevent him from having the woman with whom he fell in love.

I loved the story. Clarice was full of reasons why it would not work. Cameron shot holes through everyone. I particularly liked how it ended. Yes it is a given that it is a happy ever after ending, but Cameron’s finesse was top-notch. I loved his attitude. Even though this is a novella, I thought the characters had enough depth for the story.

It is rare that I rate a novella so highly, but I loved everything about this book. Buy this book!!!! You will not be disappointed.

You can buy Forevermore: A Jewel Trilogy Novella on Amazon by clicking any of the links in this post

The lure of love

May20

The Lure of Love by Mona Ingram ♥♥♥

This story is about three friends and their individual love stories. I am not usually a fan of multiple love stories in one book but since these all happened concurrently it was okay with me. The setting for this story takes place at a fishing lodge in British Columbia.

Couple number one Craig and Jamie
Craig is a widower and documentary film director. Jamie is the owner of the lodge where Craig has come to visit to possibly film a documentary.

Couple number two Billy and Brooke
Billy is a baseball player with a reputation for being a ladies man. Brooke works at the lodge as sort of a office manager.

Couple number three Matt and Leeza
Matt is married and a real estate agent who won a trip to the fishing lodge. Lisa is the chef for the lodge.

The author did a good job of keeping their stories individualized, but intertwining them enough to create a cohesive story. As a novella, the book moves fast. That being said, each of the three couples have connections which is the reason for sharing very intimate personal baggage (and there was a lot of emotional baggage with these three couples) very quickly. The more that they share about each other provides the rationale for why they fall in love with each other so quickly. In some of Mona Ingram’s other books, I have found the stories to be lacking some feeling. However in this book, I think the characters’ story really comes out in a way that conveys the emotional situation of each person.

As a side note: I feel that I have to say something about the fact that Matt is married in the beginning of the story. His marriage is only a technicality and as you read the story you understand.

Overall, The Lure of Love was a sweet book and an enjoyable read. I finished it in a couple hours and was satisfied with the outcomes of each couple.