Dear Author » Silhouette-Desire

REVIEW: Paper Marriage Proposition by Red Garnier

Jane — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:48:21 +0000

Dear Ms. Garnier:

You are really skilled at writing sexual tension and emotional agnst. One of the things I remember about your single title contemporary, The Satin Sash, was the high level of emotion and the gripping chemistry that permeated many of the scenes. Every encounter between the characters is highly charged. The problem, though, is two fold. First, the emotions don’t always seem to match the setting and second, the plot arcs seem to have gaps.

Bethany Lewis married a monster. She wised up and divorced him but it cost him her son. Hector Halifax engineered evidence to prove that Bethany was an unfit mother. Left without a dime and unable to see her son, Bethany seeks out Landon Gage who suffered his own tragic loss at the hands of Hector Halifax. She proposes that he marry her, support her in her custody fight and in return, she will give him a black book that contains the names of the people Halifax has bought.

Interestingly, the revenge theme is turned on its head at the beginning. Landon professes that he is uninterested in revenge and turns Bethany away.

"It has been six years. I have put the past behind me, where it belongs. I'm not consumed by rage anymore when for years all I thought of was murder. Do not provoke me, or I may just take it out on you."

Instead of a man pursuing revenge, Landon has suppressed his anger and hatred and essentially every other emotion. He’s been in emotional stasis since his tragedy six years prior. Beth’s pleas for help, her encouragement of his pursuit of revenge, brings him alive again, much to the delight of his two brothers. The concept of the story was fine. It was in the execution where I felt [ ]

For instance, when Beth and Landon discuss the prenup with Landon’s lawyer present, Landon’s demand for fidelity is met, not with just instant agreement, but a rush of sexual reaction:

Faithful to Landon Gage?

Something effervescent slid through her veins, and an awful burn arrowed down her breasts to the warmed, aching place between her thighs. She felt branded, taken in a way that didn’t demand their clothes to be off, as Landon’s eyes sucked her into their depths and filled her body with a horrible ache.

Time and place, Beth, was all I could think at various moments throughout the book. I think, partly, the problem rested on the fact that Beth is trying to regain custody of her child whom she professes to love a great deal and would do anything to win back. I don’t mean to suggest that Beth couldn’t be physically attracted to Landon but did the intense sexual reaction she was having during the prenuptial discussion that was, in some ways, insulting toward her, make sense? Certainly Beth tried to acknowledge that this was inappropriate:

More silence. His face was as unreadable as a wall as he steepled his fingers before him. "All I demand, Beth, is your fidelity. If you want to sleep with someone-’you'll sleep with me."

Oh, God, when Landon spoke that last, her skin went hot. He made it sound like a promise, a decree.

And though romance and sex were the last things on her mind right now, his ill-concealed interest stirred her interest and made her aware of how beautifully virile he was.

Clearly romance and sex weren’t the last things on her mind and this discussion was about custody, money, and divorce. I suppose what I am to take away from this that their attraction to each other was so strong that it takes precedence over the mundane, but it just made my “inappropriate” button go off in my head. I was further confused by Beth’s seeming nonchalance at signing away any future rights to a child born of any union between herself and Landon given that he was able to make her think of sex even at the most inappropriate times.

I was also frustrated by Bethany’s lack of spine. Sometimes she would be undefeatable (stalking Landon to the point of harassment) and then she would show signs of wimpiness at important moments which would require constant reassurance by Landon.

The romantic arc is also fueled by misunderstandings which were caused by Bethany’s actions, actions that I found unreasonable. I read these portions of the book internally yelling at Bethany to stop, just stop. The characters, their motivations, their emotional and sexual attraction never fully meshed for me. I often felt as if I was being jerked around like a muppet.

For it’s flaws though, the story is full of emotion and refreshing twists. Landon refers to Bethany as his war buddy in this pitched battle against her ex husband. The two of them draw strength from their revenge plans and use it, at times, to hide behind when their emotions for each other scare them. Your prose, your phrases, are intriguing:

Kissing Landon’s lips like her life depended on it. Kissing him not subtly, but hard and fast and desperately.

It irked him immeasurably, her desperation, and he wasn’t certain why. Perhaps because he knew desperation. What shallow company it was, what a lousy counselor it became.

I will keep reading your work and someday, it will all come together for me. C+

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: The Secret Child & The Cowboy CEO by Janice Maynard

Jane — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:12:28 +0000

Dear Ms. Maynard:

In the pantheon of overused tropes, the secret baby one is probably my least favorite. I wonder if my sensitivity to this has grown since I’ve been a parent myself or whether repeated exposure to this theme has just plain tired me out. But it isn’t just the secret baby trope that set off my bells in this book, it was the heroine who had no self respect and the asshole hero. It was a triumvirate of fail for me.

Here’s the plot: Bryn Matthews grew up with Mac Sinclair and his four sons. She fell in love with Trent but after being rejected by him at 18 she turned to the youngest son, Jesse. Bryn got pregnant and Jesse claimed the baby wasn’t his. The entire Sinclair clan turned their collective backs away from her and she was thrown out of the family. Six years later, Bryn returns to the Sinclair ranch after the death of Jesse at the request of Mac who needs nursing services. Bryn also returns to claim her son’s share of the Sinclair inheritance. Trent is at the ranch, taking a break from making his billions; and he is going to make damn sure that Bryn doesn’t take advantage of Mac while Mac is ill. And Trent is going to try to restrain himself from Bryn’s obvious sexuality.

So the plot isn’t that horrible. It’s the execution of the plot that is horrible. Bryn keeps throwing herself at Trent again and again who keeps telling her how much she disgusts him.

He gazed at her bleakly. "The damned thing is, Bryn, it worked. I wanted you so much, I was sick with it. And if you had left Jesse alone, you and I might have ended up together. But you made that impossible. And then you tried to make Jesse take responsibility for another guy's kid. You disgust me."

But Trent’s disgust for Bryn doesn’t stop him from saying that they can put things behind them so the two of them can have sex. (Trent already believes she is a slut anyway, right?) Bryn is so weak that she can’t say no to him even after he tells her that she disgusts him. Disgusts him. That’s really strong.

Bryn doesn’t really inspire any warm feelings herself. She leaves her five year old son to go to take care of Mac and hopefully change his feelings toward her and her son so that her son can get a share of the Sinclair millions. On the one hand, that’s great and on the other, she has so little thought of her son other than a nightly phone call that I found her care for her child to be fairly superficial. Her thoughts of her son come to mind only when it is convenient to move the story along. Further, she finds out that her son might not be part of the Sinclair family and decides to keep that information to herself.

She spends an inordinate amount of time internally reviewing all of the sins of Jesse (and they were multitudinous but enough already).

I struggled to find anything likeable about any of the characters. There is Mac, the patriarch who is 99% sure that his son was likely lying about Bryn despite having almost raised Bryn himself, particularly when he knew how troubled Jesse was. No one thought to get a DNA test and Bryn didn’t demand one. Trent was led around by his penis. Only one chapter separates the “you disgust me” from “I’m trying to put the past behind me so we can sex each other up.”

Fortunately, Bryn’s innocence is cemented in Trent’s mind when they finally do have sex because her passage is so tight. Surely she couldn’t have been the slut that his brother made her out to be. Oh, the old tight passage. The revirginization.

Bryn was almost a virgin-if there was such a thing. Her body hadn't accepted his willingly. She'd been fully aroused, no doubt about that. But he'd had a difficult time penetrating her incredibly tight passage.

Which must mean she had gone without sex for a very long time. And that picture sure as hell didn't jive with Jesse's description of Bryn as a seducer and a promiscuous teen.

Through rediscovering her re-virginity, thankfully, Trent decides that Bryn is a Madonna ill used by the family. It’s kind of amazing that Trent was a successful businessman since he was able to bring 2 and 2 together to get 25. Let’s see, Bryn still could have been a slut as a teen and not have had sex for five years because she was too busy being a single parent. Her frigging tight passage (if you even believe that old yarn) could have been created post slut time period. But even so, she’s had a melon pass through her old tight passage. Sigh. Whatever.

The writing style and prose was decent enough but the asshole to doormat ratio is high and for me, unbearable. D.

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Bedding the Secret Heiress by Emilie Rose

Jayne — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:30:30 +0000

Dear Ms. Rose,

It was actually part of the excerpt for the next book in the “Hightower Affairs” series which got me to get this one as well. If possible, I like to start at the beginning and that seems to be with this memorably Harlequin-esque title “Bedding the Secret Heiress.”

Gage Faulkner is the enemy-’her half brother’s spy. At least that’s what newly discovered Hightower heiress Lauren Lynch keeps telling herself. Despite the thrill this pilot feels at the rich, gorgeous businessman’s sudden interest, she knows what he’s really after: proving she’s a fortune hunter.

Gage’s mind tells him Lauren is hiding something. His body tells him he wants her anyway. And her body-well, it tells him the feeling is mutual. The Hightowers want him to prove she’s a gold digger, but the pain in her eyes is real. The truth is crucial, and he’ll do anything to uncover it-’even seduce her.

I’ve had a lot of luck with the Desire line. It’s kind of “Presents Lite.” Filthy rich men who aren’t quite the assholes that are so common as in that line while the heroines seem to have more strength in their spines. Well, I got the heroine I wanted but the hero….

I like the fact that Lauren is a pilot and a self made woman who wants nothing to do with the family she never even knew she had. Her stray cat mother strayed quite a lot in her loveless marriage but Lauren feels no need to pretend to love this woman she didn’t know was her mother until Lauren’s eighteenth birthday. Lauren’s practical side appeals to me and I love that she’s determined not to let her half-siblings get to her. Half-brother Trent is a real piece of work and I hope Lauren makes him grovel through fire, manure and rotten garbage at some point real soon. I have a feeling she can and will.

Gage turns out to be the sand in my vaseline. Sure, he’s long time friends with Trent and doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to the Hightowers who were kind to him when he was a poor student. So I can excuse his initial boorish, highhanded treatment of Lauren. But his continued preemptory demands on her time – despite anything that she might be obligated to do for him as one of her brother’s clients – got to be too much. His interrogating questions were nothing short of rude and my temper would have snapped with him long before Lauren’s did. There’s helping a friend and there’s being a boor. Gage crossed the line early in the book for me.

But the thing that I find impossible to forgive in him is the point at which his opinion of Lauren changed. If he had shown an inkling of believing her and in her before he was presented with incontrovertible proof of her integrity, were I Lauren I could have eventually forgiven him – after I watched him grovel for a good, long time. But no, he had to see written proof of her innocence of all the nasty things Trent was accusing her of and only then did Gage start to eat humble pie. God forbid he should ever doubt Lauren on anything again. He might go beyond hateful comments and chilling demeanor.

This is a relatively short book and the focus stays fixed on Gage and Lauren for most of it. Though Lauren works well for me, I’m afraid Gage needed a wallop to the head. C

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

REVIEW: His High-Stakes Holiday Seduction by Emilie Rose

Jayne — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:00:48 +0000

Dear Ms. Rose,

As I mentioned in my review of “Bedding the Secret Heiress,” it was the excerpt for this book which got me to get both of them. After my disappointment with “Heiress” I seriously debated whether or not to just call it a day with this series since Trent Hightower hadn’t impressed me as being anyone more than a grade A asshole. Yet the part of me that wanted to see if he could be redeemed took over my fingers and pulled “His High-Stakes Holiday Seduction” up on the ol’ Sony. And let me say I’m glad I did try it.

Paige McCauley is stunned to see Trent Hightower pass her by as if they’d never shared a regretful evening a year ago during the last convention he’d attended at the Las Vegas hotel where she works. Determined to recall herself to his memory and make him remember her from now on, she hauls ass after him. It’s funny but for a second, she’d almost think they’d never met. The chemistry that had been so lacking last year is sizzling now.

Trent Hightower knows immediately that his twin brother Brent must have picked up the lovely young woman the year before. But since Brent is now reconciled with his wife, and his wife could bring the family business to its knees with a messy divorce settlement, Trent sighs and begins damage control.

He’s got to get to know Paige in order to discover how he can best manipulate her and clear her out of the way before Brent and his wife arrive in Vegas at the end of the week. Problem is, Trent and Paige are both discovering how hot they are together…and both might be wishing for more.

Initially I still wasn’t that impressed with business mogul Trent. He’s a control freak who feels compelled to clean up after his brother’s messes. Then I remembered how hard Trent had worked to build the family fortunes back up from what his gambling father had done to them. I still wanted him to let Brent sink or swim – and was glad to see he finally came to this conclusion as well – but he had a lifetime of “fixing things” to overcome.

Paige is also a fixer/mediator which makes sense given her position as the middle child among a family of five daughters. I was leery of her determination to have a hot fling with Trent but also somewhat cheering her on mainly because it stood for her overcoming her own reticence and taking charge of her sexuality.

But what really makes this book for me is 1) that Trent decided on his own, before hearing anything from his brother about what actually happened the year before, that he loves Paige and is willing to try to overcome what he feels are his weaknesses in order to win her and 2) that Paige gains enough confidence in herself, before Trent makes any declaration to her, to face her past, come to terms with it and then move on. Neither requires assurances from anyone else about past purity, worthiness or maturity. They’ve dealt with their family issues and seem ready to move forward with their own relationship – quick though it developed.

I still think most of the rest of the Hightower clan are jerks, users and useless rich people but Trent was redeemed and I think him worthy of the heroine you created. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Harlequin Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

REVIEW: Transformed into the Frenchman’s Mistress by Barbara Dunlop

Jayne — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Dear Ms. Dunlop,

A friend of mine married her Frenchman so when I see books with French heroes, I check them out. Since I’ve found that the Desire line tends towards less assholic heroes, I decided to give “Transformed into the Frenchman’s Mistress” a shot.

If there was anything Charlotte Hudson had learned in her twenty-five years, it was how to be proper. So how had the ambassador’s granddaughter ended up on a wild movie assignment, ensconced in a centuries-old ProvenÃ§al castle with notorious French playboy Alec Montcalm? While her relatives from Hudson Pictures were busy filming at Chateau Montcalm, the real drama was going on behind the antique wooden doors–beneath satin sheets. Charlotte knew their crazy, scandalous secret liaison wouldn’t last. And then she discovered she was pregnant….

This is a hard book for me to grade. There are some things about it I loved and other things that drove me nuts.

Charlotte actually has a backbone and is fairly intelligent. When she arrives at the Montcalm chateau to ask her school pal Raine Montcalm
if her family can rent it for a movie location and finds she’ll have to deal with Alec, with whom she has a slight history, instead, she shifts gears quickly and comes up with a plan of attack. What she agrees to do to get the shoot, isn’t something sleazy. No, all Alec negotiates with her – and I loved the fact that they negotiate instead of Alec going all demanding about it – is that she’ll stay there during the shoot and keep an eye on the production staff.

Alec does have his eye on Charlotte and wants to finish their earlier, unfinished business from three years ago. But he takes his time, is gracious and charming and well mannered about it. Early in the book when Charlotte throws his “playboy” ways in his face, he defends himself by pointing out that a lot of what he does is for the Montcalm business, he doesn’t poach other men’s women and why shouldn’t he enjoy taking out lovely women if they want to be taken out by him? He even dislikes his assistant’s idea that he be seen with Charlotte to deflect attention from the female star of the movie. Hey, I like this guy.

When he and Charlotte start their physical relationship, Alec is determined that she enjoy it, he doesn’t force anything, he’s delighted when she refuses to let him pay for everything during their worldwind – okay more Europewind – buying sprees and together the two are having a great time. Wonderful.

Then they head back to the south of France and things head south with them. Charlotte’s Hollywood mogul family – all from whom she’s estranged though, like a child with her face pressed against the glass of the candy shop, she clearly longs to be a part of it – has arrived and the book turns into an info dump of the previous couple in the series plus a preview of the upcoming attractions. There’s just enough of these other people taking up breathing air to annoy me without enough explanation to make me care at all about what might happen to them.

And – the moment I’d been dreading – Charlotte finally realizes she’s knocked up. Oh noes, she can’t tell Alec! Oh dears, she’ll head off on her own – no worries as she does have money of her own – and have the child by herself. “But you can’t,” Raine and Charlotte’s sister-in-law rightly tell her. So she tells Alec and basically gets called a money grubbing bitch slut by this man who up until now had been charm itself. Talk about a personality 180.

Except that Charlotte’s estranged brother finally acts like a brother and slugs Alec. At which point Alec tells Jake about how Charlotte feels like the redheaded stepchild of the Hudson family which leads to a too sudden reunion between Jake and Charlotte which didn’t satisfy me at all after 22 years of her family’s neglect. Then Alec sees the light because Jake informs him about the family money so – gosh! Charlotte can’t be one of those women who only wants him for his cashola – it must be twue love.

I really wanted to like this book. I really started out liking this book when it centered on a smart heroine and a charming hero but the herd of Hudsons, the incompletely dealt with family issues and Alec’s frankly slightly frightening 0-> 180 trip to bastard and back changed my view. C+

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

REVIEW: The Tycoon’s Secret by Kasey Michaels

Jayne — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:46 +0000

Dear Ms. Michaels,

I was tempted to go back and read this part of the “Gifts from a Billionaire” series after loving Leslie LaFoy’s “The Money Man’s Seduction.”
It’s fast, it’s funny and, though I wish some aspects of the book had been explored in greater depth, so far I’m 2 for 2 in liking this series.

Sam Balfour has watched his billionaire Uncle Ned give away money for years now. Each year Uncle Ned searches the Internet and media for people who seem to be doing good in the world then he gifts them with an anonymous check for $50,000 and then watches what they do with the money. If they take the money and run, as do most of the recipients, then that’s all. If they use the gift to continue to help others, then they receive a further check at the end of that year for a tax free $1,000,000.

Sam dislikes the whole procedure, not because he’s pissed that family money is flying the coop, but because over the years fewer and fewer recipients do the right thing which depresses his Uncle – though it doesn’t dissuade Ned from continuing to do it. And despite confidentiality clauses, word is getting out about what’s going on making it even harder to find suitable recipients.

This year, they’re 3/18 and Sam decides to increase his arguments to stop the whole thing. Only Uncle Ned is having none of it. He’s got one more person to gift and a surprise for Sam. Uncle Ned might be getting older but he’s still got what it takes to get his nephew to do what he wants and what Uncle Ned wants is for Sam to hand over the last money himself. No arguments, no fussing, no wiggling out of it.

And so the last gift is to go to Paige Halliday of Halliday’s Hollidays – a design business run by Paige. Sam is immediately attracted to this female dynamo and makes plans to seduce her if she’s willing. But, when he chose Paige, did Uncle Ned have something different in mind besides looking for a do-gooder? And will Sam and Paige play along with his holiday schemes?

Pros: The book is funny, has well drawn characters, and for the most part those characters know what’s going on. Paige is quite aware that Sam is trying to seduce her and when she succumbs to seduction, it’s with her eyes open and knowing full well what she’s doing. They enjoy their physical relationship with no strings attached and when things get emotionally deeper, they’re ready to trust each other. While the progression of the romance is quick, you include some references to long phone calls and having them get to know each other.

Cons: Both Paige and Sam have some issues from their childhoods. While I like that you don’t have them wallow around in these issues, pouring angst and ashes over their own heads for endless pages, I don’t like that the issues aren’t really addressed much either. I know that seems contradictory but since these issues are supposed to affect how Sam views the money give away and be such a large part of what Paige does with her money gift, I would like for them to have been explored in just a little more depth.

Still, this is a book I enjoyed overall and seems to be a nice wrap up to the series. Now I plan to go back and check out the other two books – yeah for ebooks still being available at the eharlequin site! B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

REVIEW: Friday Night Mistress by Jan Colley

Jane — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:00:14 +0000

Dear Ms. Colley:

I’ve been meaning to write you for some time to tell you how much I enjoyed your book. In fact, I thought I had written you a letter until I did a search for it the other day and realized how delinquent I had been.

Jordan Lake has a secret lover, Nick Thorne; one she meets every friday night. The two act as if their weekly meetings are purely physical but they both secretly worry that the other is tiring of the situation and the relationship. They both long for something more but are afraid to broach the issue for fear that even the Friday night meetings will come to an end. Their fear and uncertainty of each other’s true feelings make every move subject to deep introspection and often erroneous assumptions.

Jordan and Nick are Juliet and Romeo. Their families have been fueding for at least a generation and the last fracas has resulted in Nick’s father suing Jordan’s for libel and slander in a highly embarassing and explosive trial. By day, Jordan and Nick cannot appear together nor show each other the slightest sign of affection or the press attention would be overwhelming not to mention the implications it might have for the trial.

Nick’s brothers think it would be clever if Nick seduced the Lake daughter. She’s hot, after all, and it shouldn’t be much of a hardship. This seeds an idea in Nick’s head that maybe he can have more than just Friday night.

"Does it bother you," he asked roughly, "this secret of ours? This thing between us?"

Jordan was past reason. She wanted much more of "this thing" between them, and she wanted it now. She stared at him, pushing back into his body, squeezing her thighs together to trap him.

With an effort almost too much to bear, she forced her mouth to open, to speak. "I know the score, Nick," she told him tightly. "I’m playing the game."

Sex.

Simple. Sensational. Secret.

It was what she wanted. What she lived for. Her Friday afternoon delight

Nick begins to change his behavior; giving Jordan jewelry; pushing to see her more often; coming to her home. Jordan becomes confused with each deviation from their previous agreement. Particularly when Nick begins to show signs of jealousy which Jordan had never seen before:

"I didn’t realize that giving me a gift branded me as your exclusive property."

"It doesn’t, but your Friday afternoons are mine, not bloody Jason Cook’s."

As they begin to see each other outside of the bedroom, Jordan and Nick both realize that they don’t know much about each other. But each new kernel of knowledge about the others insecurity, their generosity and spirit fuels the physical attraction and deepens the emotional attachment.

Nick toes that careful line between uber alpha male and asshole. When he is assholic, it is generally because he is jealous or feels threatened. Although at one point in the story he is super hurtful toward Jordan and he probably doesn’t govel enough to make up for it.

Jordan has her own issues. Jordan’s public persona is one of a frivolous heiress with many affairs. She’s done little to tamp this down, preferring to play into the publicity rather than try to turn her image around. It’s no wonder that people assume certain things about her and it’s a little disingenuous of her to be hurt when others don’t look past the image she’s cultivated. She could have been more assertive, but she does tell Nick off when he needs a verbal slap in the face.

There are so many standard tropes in Friday Night Mistress: the interfering parents, the big betrayal, the misunderstanding, and even a secret baby. Despite that, or maybe even because of it, I totally enjoyed the love story of Jordan and Nick and their attempts to navigate the once solely physical attraction as it deepened into something more meaningful. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Harlequin Lightning Reviews

Jane — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:00:21 +0000

One Night with His Virgin Mistress by Sara Craven. 19 year old heroine bedsits a flat while trying to write a historical adventure romance (reads like a classic bodice ripper btw). Hero is a quazillionaire who foregoes his fortune to work as a troubleshooting engineer. The two end up living together because she was conned into bedsitting and hero takes pity on the forlorn chickie. Standard HP angst drama with a bit of a twist because what ended up being the basis of the Big Misunderstanding was not what I had expected. A couple of things to note, however, is that the heroine does read older than 19 but the age of the heroine was frequently noted to be 19 no matter how I tried to push that from my mind. The core of her emotional trauma is that men she liked didn’t like her because she wasn’t sexually experienced enough and so she tries to get the quazillionaire hero to divest her of her virginity. In this, I thought the storyline was a bit. . . offputting. I am not entirely sure why making the heroine 19 instead of say, 23, wouldn’t have made more sense. C+

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon, Harlequin, or Powells or ebook format.

Greek Tycoon, Waitress Wife by Julia James – I kind of liked this one. The heroine is waitressing part time in London (small town girl in the big bad city). The hero is a bored tycoon who dumps his date at an art soiree because said date bores him. Classy guy, no? In any event, he passes the waitress heroine on the street, offers to drive her home, and then basically invites her to be his bed buddy for an undisclosed period of time. The heroine enters this dreamlike luxury cocoon where she is lavished with physical attention and monetary gifts. Tycoon hero is surprised at how much he enjoys spending time with this gorgeous girl. She’s compliant and enjoys the smallest pleasures. The fantasy tour of sexual pleasure and champagne, though, is brought to a halt when heroine wakes from her fuegue state to find out that the hero thinks she’s a down market bimbo and uses her in a crass way to get back at his mother. We have a pretty good Overbearing HP Asshole Hero (hereinafter OHPAH) to Doormat Ratio but the heroine is kind of a faux doormat. I found the twist at the end to be sweet comeuppance. B-

This book can be purchased in mass market from Harlequin or Powells or ebook format.

Marriage Manhatten Style by Barbara Dunlop. I’ve liked Dunlop’s writing in the past and the voice here is the same, engaging and competent. I hated the execution. The heroine realizes her marriage is in trouble because quazillionaire husband spends so much time working and the heroine doesn’t really do anything at all. But she wants a baby desparately and so does her husband. They can’t have sex unless her body temperature is just right but whatever they are doing isn’t working. At one point the heroine is confronted with the fact that the reason her life is so dissatisfying is that it is totally built around her husband’s life. Her social circle is her husband’s. Her topics of conversations are all around her husband. In a moment of self revelation, the heroine decides to get a job. But this moment, which should have been the turning point in the heroine’s character arc, is actually just a distraction. She never gets a job because the marriage will be saved by a baby! Oye. D

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon, Harlequin or Powells or ebook format.

Ms Match by Jo Leigh. I didn’t think I would like this. The hero was this super gorgeous guy who liked shallow, super gorgeous women. The heroine wasn’t pretty like her sister or anyone else in her family but the hero cozies up to her because he thinks it will get him in bed with her sister. The story arc was how the hero learned the pretty is only skin deep and that his life was empty because he had filled it with such shallow pursuits and the heroine had to get over her insecurity about not being the pretty one. I found the characterization of the heroine’s family to be a bit of a caricature. I really like Jo Leigh as an author. One of my favorites is an old release of hers called Arm Candy (which was originally recommended to me by Robin). This actually reminded me a bit of a Crusie like category romance without strong humor overtones. B

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon, Harlequin or Powells or ebook format.

Harlequin Features New Podcast

Ned — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:59:50 +0000

If you have ever wanted to get in the mind of an editor the new podcast from Harlequin may be your ticket. Harlequin plans on producing 20-minute “Meet the Editor” podcasts. The first podcast is with Melissa Jeglinski who is the senior editor for Silhouette Desire, and Diana Ventimiglia, associate editor for Silhouette Desire and Silhouette Romantic Suspense. A new podcast will be released every two weeks.

You can access the podcast through Harlequin, Itunes or other podcasters.

Via Fox Business

REVIEW: For Blackmail…or Pleasure by Robyn Grady

Jane — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:53:49 +0000

Dear Ms. Grady:

I thought that I had read you before and that you were jmc’s secret pleasure which was why I bought this one. Unfortunately, this was a case of mixed up names. I was thinking of Robyn Donald but must have fixated on Robyn, forgetting the last name. It’s not the first time, I’ve gotten authors’ names mixed up and it won’t be the last.

Donna Wilks is a psychologist who does work for the criminal justice in Sydney including giving profiles of accused individuals. She is appointed by the courts to be an impartial party.

Tate Bridges, Australian broadcasting mogul, is thrilled when Donna is assigned to his recently arrested brother’s case. He comes to a fundraising party to seduce Donna into giving his brother a favorable report. Bridges is not shy about the fact that he’ll use whatever power and influence he has to game the system.

Donna and Tate were engaged five years ago but Donna broke it off after realizing that she would always come second to Tate’s business ambitions. Tate begins by blackmailing Donna into giving a positive report. He bought a story of an unhappy former client of Donna’s and airing it could potentially harm her career. If she goes along and gives his brother a positive report, he’ll kill the story.

Now, my eyebrows raised a bit here because this implies that no one else in Sydney has any investigatory chops and that Tate’s media empire is the only one that could possibly publish this story. Not knowing Australian law, I went with it (along with other things) but I know if this was set in the US, the details of the law, reporting, and so forth would have bugged the ever loving crap out of me.

Apparently the former sexxoring was so good that even though Tate is blackmailing her, or attempting to, Donna is seduced by Tate’s purported charm. And it really must be some charm because the possibility of someone ruining one’s career never seems very sexy to me. Donna’s vaunted ethics also takes a slide when she agrees to go off on a weekend holiday with Tate and Tate’s brother so that Donna can get a good assessment of the brother’s behavior.

I thought the way that readers are treated to a series of scenes in which Tate’s brother could get all angry but remains calm and unruffled including getting something spilled on his shirt, his car getting scratched up, all in the space of a couple pages to show that he’s not a ‘roid rager was kind of an example of the contrived quality of the whole book.

I didn’t believe that Donna was a psychologist. She evinced no ability to analyze her own relationship with Tate let alone provide an impartial and unbaised report to the court about Tate’s brother. Donna had no backbone. Tate had no moral fiber. In all, the main characters weren’t appealing and their lack of appeal made me wonder what each saw in the other. C-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in mass market or ebook format.

REVIEW: Fortune’s Forbidden Woman by Heidi Betts

Jane — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:40:54 +0000

Dear Ms. Betts:

I have been gaining newfound respect for category authors of late and when I saw that your book, Fortune’s Forbidden Woman, was selling like hotcakes I thought I better see what the fuss was about. After all, Keishon had very good luck with buying one of the e-Harlequin bestselling titles’ Billionaire’s Bidding by Barbara Dunlop. I had determined, prior to reading this book, that perhaps the cringe-worthy titles of the Harlequin/Silhouette Categories were the only thing that were bad about these books. Alas, Fortune’s Forbidden Women is one of those stereotypical romances that give fodder to its critics and provide no footing for its supporters. In fact, my head hurts from all the desk banging that went on during the reading of this book. (I had to give up throwing my e-reader around whenever I was unhappy with a book).

Maya Blackstone is a 25 year old virgin who has been dating a very nice young man for over a year. While she sometimes has some physical feelings toward Brad and actually leads him to believe that he is going to get lucky, she finds that she cannot bring herself to actually consummate their relationship. In fact, she becomes quite fearful and panicky when the two of them become close hinting at some type of terrible sexual experience in her early years.

Her stomach clenched, but not with desire. Nerves flared to life in her bloodstream, her muscles growing tense, her breathing growing labored as panic set in.

Since the origin of her sexual dysfunction is revealed in the first chapter, I don’t think it is much of a spoiler to talk about it here. After your lead up, what do I find to be the cause of her intimacy problems? Her fear? Her panic? Well, apparently, her stepbrother caught her in the arms of some teen punk and lashed out at her, calling her a slut. And this is the reason that she cannot be intimate with her boyfriend of over 1 year and why, at the age of 25, she is still a virgin.

"This is all your fault. You've ruined my chances of ever having a normal relationship with a man, ever sleeping with a man. You blamed a seventeen-year-old girl for being attacked by her boyfriend and called me a slut. You're the reason I can't have a normal relationship, and I hate you for that!–?

Seriously. The heroine sounds like she is still 17. Melodramatic and immature. Creed isn’t much better.

Creed Fortune has had the hots for his stepsister since before it was really age appropriate and he doesn’t believe it is appropriate now. So of course, he treats her like crap because he cannot give in to his FORBIDDEN feelings. You really made sure that I understood that he believed it was forbidden and because it was forbidden, he immediately goes over to Maya’s house and impales her with his FORBIDDEN stick which she completely welcomes despite her previous panic attacks at being intimate. And then he leaves her with this classic line:

"Why would I stay? Now that I've gotten you out of my system, I can leave you alone. Get on with my life.”

While ostensibly Maya is all hurt by Creed’s callous attitude, it doesn’t stop her from dropping her drawers whenever he snaps his fingers. Further, Maya doesn’t have decency to let Brad know that she is playing the bonefish grill with Creed, several times. In fact, Brad conveniently disappears for the remainder of the book until Maya, at the end, gives him his walking papers without telling him that she had been cheating on him non stop since the aborted attempt to make love.

She'd been dating Brad for nearly a year, growing closer by the week. She even thought they might have eventually ended up walking down the aisle. Even so, when it came to moving past first or second base, she'd kept him at arm's length.

But the minute Creed looked at her with so much as a hint of passion in his shadowy blue eyes, she'd fallen into bed with him faster than he could say "pretty please.–?

There is some character arc for Maya that doesn’t include being a sneak and a cheater and that is that she never felt comfortable being part of the Fortune family even though her mother was the love of papa Fortune’s life. The external plot force was that Maya’s mother disappeared 3 weeks before and hasn’t been seen since. I found this to be lacking in authenticity since Maya seemed fairly unconcerned about it.

Creed is given the main characteristics of the romance alpha male. He’s rich and full of angst over his FORBIDDEN love. And that was about it. His big character arc was getting over the idea that this love was FORBIDDEN because after all, as many characters tell him, the two have no BLOOD connection despite being raised as brother and sister and so this is no FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC.

All the previous couples in the series make an appearance in different stages of pregnancy because love is fertility, baby. I am sure that you are a better writer than what is in this book, but I could not find one positive to thing to say about it. D.

Best regards

Jane