Tag Archive | romance novels

Passion not really to die for

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥

This book was a listed as a romantic suspense and the main characters are Tommy and Ellie.

Ellie owns a restaurant in a small town in east central Georgia. Her ex-boyfriend Tommy broke up with her when she would not commit to the relationship. While they are doing this awkward dance around each other, Ellie has a bigger problem. Her mother visits her and proceeds to blackmail her.

While Ellie is trying to figure out how she is going to run away before her mother tells her secret, her mother is killed. Ellie is a prime suspect. Ellie thinks that she can tell the police only partial facts that she thinks is relevant. Withholding information makes her look even more guilty. At this point, I realize what an idiot this girl is. And I keep reading. >>don’t ask me why<<

This book was annoying to me because Ellie kept holding secrets. There was no communication with Tommy because she was afraid of his reaction. I can understand not wanting to reveal a dirty, deep secret. But at some point, if you love someone enough, you have to be able to trust them enough to share the things that might tear you to apart. Let him decide.

Ellie did not have a passion to die for since she was willing to run instead of facing her demons with the man she suppose to have loved.
In my opinion, once she can confessed it all the love story/murder mystery got on track. Considering Ellie’s character annoyed me so much, I finally realized why I kept reading… so I would know what her secret was and who killed her mother. I cannot leave a mystery story without all ends neatly tied up.

Passion to Die For (Silhouette Romantic Suspense) is one of those books that I would suggest that you could read to fill the time, but if you had something else better to read then choose the other option.

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

Noble Birth – Brenda Novak

Jan1

Of Noble Birth

The main characters for this romance novel are Nathaniel and Alexandra.

Nathaniel was born with a disabled arm and almost died as a baby by his father’s hands. His mother died soon after giving birth to him and so the maid took him to raise as her own child. Needless to say, he has serious emotional issues. Alexandra starts the story as a seamstress escaping a physically abusive stepfather. Her mother died leaving her with an alcoholic stepfather who was a mean drunk.

The story was very convoluted to me. The synopsis that I read on Amazon did not fully prepare me for the emotional roller coaster that was their romance. Nathaniel kidnaps Alexandra because he thought she was his half-sister. When he finally he believes she is not his sister, you can cue the romance.

Every time I thought their problems were over, something else would happened to separate the couple. Nathaniel’s main nemesis is the father that will not claim him. Knowing that your father tried to kill you at birth will do that.

This romance in a nutshell:

Found love!

Torn apart!

Together again!

Torn apart!

Together again!

Book over. The end.

Because of the highs and lows of the book Of Noble Birth, it seemed longer than it was. Their love was tested so many times that it made me tired. At one point, I was like “Something else is happening. When is this book going to end?”

However, if you like long drawn out romance novels, then you will like this book. This is the type of book you choose when you have the entire day to read.

Bachelor Undone – a Kimani Romance

Jan1

Bachelor Undone (Kimani Romance)

I was looking for a Brenda Jackson book so that I could get my romance novel fix from an author who does a good job of presenting the characters in a somewhat believable way without making the story line too corny. Instead of a Westmoreland book, I chose a Kimani romance. Darcelle “Darcy” and York Ellis are the main characters. Darcy is a city planner that is taking a much needed vacation in Jamaica. York is a security consulting expert on the job working for a client shooting a film in Jamaica.

Not surprising, Darcy and York have history. Her best friend is married to one of his god-brothers.

After an unhappy first marriage, Darcy immersed herself in work. Now she is taking a vacation and looking for some fun. Her plan is to get her “groove back” and indulge in an island romance.

York is in Jamaica on business but gets sidetracked by the fact that Darcy is there. Darcy is looking for some excitement, but York seems to take issue with the attention other men are showing her. This is humorous for the reader but confusing for York since he is supposed to the ultimate bachelor that will never succumb to tying the knot. While York sorts out his feelings for Darcy, she is trying to figure out what it is about him that makes her always want to be contrary. She has to ask herself if a relationship with York really be that bad. Even if they don’t have romantic liaison, what is preventing them from being friends? When they stop being argumentative with one another, they realize that they actually like each other and have a lot of similar traits.

Bachelor Undone (Kimani Romance) is fun. I like that it is not really a love-at-first-sight novel. Since the characters have history, it allows them to draw from previous experiences to help them to understand their attraction and develop their romantic relationship. Both characters are feisty and opinionated in their own right, which makes for a lively story. If you like any of Brenda Jackson’s other novels, I recommend you read this one also.

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.