Tag Archive | romance

The main characters are Alex and Connor. Connor has a cash flow problem and a trust find that he can only access if he gets married. Alex is unwed, pregnant and almost homeless without many viable options. They meet when she faints on the street. There is so much attraction that they are drawn to each other. Considering the attraction between them Connor devises a plan to get to his trust fund money with Alex as his wife. This option was not on the table as it were until his grandmother suggested it.

Alex is understandably wary. Her baby’s father did a disappearing act and she does not have any family. But when she thinks about the fact that she does not have any options, this actually seems like a decent alternative.

As one would imagine, living together puts both of them on an emotional roller coaster of enjoying what they have with each other and realizing that their time together is probably temporary.

Hired By The Cowboy (Harlequin Romance) is a cute story. The characters are very likable. Alex has her insecurities and Connor does too. You can understand why they react the way that they do. Despite their problems they have a happy sweet ending. The author did a good job in explaining their background so you as the reader will be rooting for their success in life and love.

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.

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.

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.