Review: Vanishing Act

Vanishing Act by A.M. Madden
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 21%.

So, I requested this book thinking it was J.M. Madden - my bad!

Landon Price is a famous actor, he runs away to Hawaii to recharge where he meets a beautiful South African girl, who has no idea who he is! They bond over her dog, which keeps running away and who can blame him with a name like Marshmallow and then proceed to fall instantly in love.

This was just too NA/YA cliched for me, nothing seemed to be happening and I couldn't see the chemistry, it was more like they were the first person of the opposite sex that each other had seen and so it was insta-lurve.

I tried to get into this book three times but finally gave up when a sandy beach and a large gin and tonic didn't help. Recommended for the younger and less cynical.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.



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Review: Boy Toy: A Romantically Challenged Novel

Boy Toy: A Romantically Challenged Novel by Beth Orsoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

What do you do if you are about to turn 40, you're divorced, no boyfriend and your biological clock is chiming? Go on a weekend break to Napa with your BFF and snag the cute 20 something bartender that's what, if your name is Sabrina Mayerson.

This was a great lighthearted beach read for me (late Autumn holiday), watching Sabrina juggle her inhouse legal job for a San Francisco tech firm with her budding relationship with Andrew, said 28 year old boy toy and her desire for a baby was funny and poignant.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Ash and Quill

Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Noooooooooo, I thought this was a trilogy right up until I read the words to be continued ...!

Warning, spoilers ahead for the first and second books.

At the end of the second book the team have rescued Thomas and Morgan has freed herself from the Iron Tower. The Archivist has destroyed the Black Archives and killed Wolfe's mother, the Obscurist Magna, in the process. The Welsh army had taken over Oxford and was well on its way to taking over London. Jess and the rest of the group are in London and Jess' father plans to rob St Paul's Serapeum of its rare and valuable books before it is sacked by the Welsh, aided by a group of Burners. But Jess' father's 'plans' are spoilt by the Burners who double-cross him and force Morgan to send them all to Philadelphia, the heart of the Burner rebellion.

The city of Philadelphia has been under siege by the High Garda for 100 years, the Archivist feeling starving them out is better than creating martyrs by annihilating the compound.

Our heroes are treated as the enemy by the Burners and their enigmatic leader at first until Thomas' ability to build a printing press is explained, but as Thomas and jess build the press things are hotting up and the team plots their escape whilst Morgan learns of the downside to her powers.

The escape from Philadelphia and the subsequent adventures are too full of spoilers, just be warned there's the full range of human emotions at play here.

How long until book four?

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Review: Paper and Fire

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a classic second book in a series, it moves the plot along nicely but definitely feels like a filler (in a good way?).

Warning, this contains massive spoilers for the end of the first book if you haven't read that yet ...

At the end of the first book Jess and the remainder of his class have passed their postulate tests but Morgan has been taken into the Iron Tower by the Obscurists and Thomas has been taken by the Artifex, believed dead, for designing and building a printing press. Jess is being forced to spy on his friends by the Artifex. The remaining students have all been offered positions in the Library, but Jess is only offered a one year contract as a private in the High Garda instead of the scholarship position he rightly deserved.

At the start of this book Jess discovers that Thomas may not be dead, that the Artifex may have moved him to wherever Wolfe was taken when he was a prisoner. This book is about discovering where Thomas is being kept prisoner, making new allies, finding traitors in their midst and getting Morgan out of the Iron Tower. Their journeys lead them far from Alexandria and lead them to uncover the depths of the deception being played on the people by successive Archivists with the aid of the Artifexes.

One of the strengths of this series is that each of the characters is identifiable in their own right, this isn't Jess and his band of assistants, every character brings special skills and knowledge to the table. A picky person might argue that it is too much of a coincidence that all these special people made it into the one class of apostates, but I think the fact that they were the best of the best from across the world, tested for their academic and fighting abilities and honed through their teaching by Wolfe shows that the entire class, even those that failed, were special snowflakes.

I couldn't bear to stop reading so I am already halfway through the third book, but a natural break occurred so I took the opportunity to dash off a review, onwards readers!

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Review: Just One Last Night...

Just One Last Night... by Amy Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've read this before, I know it but I can't find a review, so here goes again.

Although this was written in 2011 it 'feels' much older, like 1990s. Dr Grace Perry is a senior doctor, after the tragic death of her sister and husband she is suddenly, at nearly 40 years old, looking after her teenage niece Natasha and nephew Benji. In order to take advantage of her large family she is moving back to Melbourne, Australia (from Brisbane) and is interviewing for the Head of Emergency Medicine at Melbourne Ventral Hospital. Arriving at her interview, flustered after a fight with her niece and the flight from Brisbane, she is horrified to find one of the other candidates for the position is her first love, Dr Brent Cartwright. 20 years ago Grace made the decision to leave Brent, despite being desperately in love, because she wanted a career and he, as the product of the child welfare system, desperately wanted a wife, family, dog and white picket fence. To make matters worse, Brent has been acting Head of Emergency Medicine for several months - so basically he's a shoe-in.

As I said earlier, this reads like a standard category romance of the 1990s (even though it was published in 2011), the women are allowed to have careers but actually turn out to be failures at pretty much everything. Grace can't get through to Tasha and can't stop Benji having nightmares, heck she can't even get him onto a football team until Brent steps in and offers to let him join the team he coaches. She goes from interviewing for the Head of Emergency Medicine to working part-time family-friendly hours reporting to Brent. Brent on the other hand, despite being twice-divorced, is a paragon: brilliant doctor; good with children; patient; yadda yadda yadda. Oh, and nothing naked happens until very late in the book, and only once Grace has admitted to herself that she is a failure and made a wrong decision (and is probably responsible for global warming come to think about it).

If you can overlook the slightly anti-feminist message then this is a sweet second-chance romance.

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Review: Ink and Bone

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How did it take me so long to read this book?

It's 2025, the Great Library of Alexandria never fell and instead it and its agents rule the written word. Jess and h S family are book smugglers, selling real books to the highest bidder, a job that requires stealth and cunning to deliver contraband under the noses of the English Garda.

When he is 16 years old Jess' father informs him that he will never be ruthless enough to take over the business because he values books more than his own life, instead he has bought him an opportunity to join the library by taking the entrance exams in London.

Soon Jess is on his way to Alexandria with a group of similar postulates to undergo a series of tests to determine who is worthy to join the Library, whether as garda, scholar, obscurist or other.

Imagine a world where: automata guard various daughter libraries across the world; where everyone is given a personal journal at birth, which is then returned to the Library at death; where Burners rebel for the freedom to keep their own thoughts private from the Library; where people can download books into 'blanks' to read and the wealthy can own a library of blanks; where the Library is omnipotent and resistant to change.

I love a good fantasy series, I grew up on David Eddings and Robert Jordan and this reminded me of why I love them so much; the group of characters, the misfits, the rebellion. So glad I already have the next two books ready to read.

Bonus? It's only 99p on Kindle at the moment.

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Review: Any Way You Slice It

Any Way You Slice It by Kristine Carlson Asselin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This slightly missed the mark for me.

Penelope Spauldings' family run a pizza restaurant, the best pizza restaurant in her small town, called the Slice. She feels weighed down by her father's ambitions, which are for her to go to culinary school and then help him set up a pizza empire, heck she already works 30 hours a week at the restaurant as well as go to school. Her only me time is when she skates at the local rink in free skate time, but her father would kill her if she ever played hockey.

Penelope used to be best friends with Jake, until 'the incident' when they were eight years old, now they never speak and Jake is most definitely a bad boy(view spoiler)[ goodness only knows why, this must be a very sheltered community (hide spoiler)]. One day whilst skating alone Penelope in knocked into the side of the rink by Jake to stop her from running over a small child, he then goads her into trying to score a goal and invites her to play for his ice-hockey team, the Rink Rats.

Meantime, Penelope's dad has got them a slot on a reality TV show called Local Flavor which specialises in filming small local outlets and allowing viewers to tweet live comments on the show.

Add in the Varsity hockey team led by (boo hiss) Warren, Jake's arch nemesis and you have a whole cocktail of teen angst reminiscent of a classic John Hughes movie. Only it never quite happens. The emphasis is strongly on the hockey, but even then we don't really get many matches, its mainly training. The reality TV section is a bit of a on-hit wonder, even Penelope's confrontation with her father over playing hockey is fairly short and muted.

Perhaps my complaints are because I'm an adult woman reading a YA book and maybe a 14 year old would find this entirely the right length and level of detail.

Anyway, this was a sweet YA sports romance.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Here Comes The Groom

Here Comes The Groom by Karina Bliss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As you can see from the cover of the kindle edition this is a re-release of an old M&B novel. I thought it weathered quite well, but then I'm on holiday and everything reads better on the beach, right?

So Jocelyn (Jo) Swann is getting drunk in a hotel, trying to get laid, when her best friend Dan Jansen v-blocks her. Little does he know that she is trying to have one last fling before surgery the next morning. She even tries it on with Dan, only to be thoroughly rejected.

12 months later and Dan is a broken man. His NZ-SAS team were ambushed and two of his best friends died whilst he was off the mission due to toothache! He can't stop blaming himself for his friends' deaths and can barely talk to his friend Lee's widow Claire and her son. He and Jo made a pact, signed on a beer mat, that if they were still single at 33 they would get married, in an attempt to live life big Dan is determined to do just that, even if Jo doesn't want to.

The past 12 months have been hard for Jo, coping after her surgery, running a failing local newspaper AND trying to look after her grandmother who has dementia. The last thing she needs is her best friend playing a practical joke on the town and sending everyone wedding invitations!

This was funny, Dan is planning the whole wedding despite all of Jo's best efforts to thwart him yet underlying his actions is a desperation. At the same time his own parents are having a marital crisis and his father has moved into Dan's house.

I actually read this after I read the first book and I think I bought both thinking of the author Karina Halle, maybe having read the second book I was more inclined to like this as I saw Merry and Ross and heard of Viv and Charlie?

Anyway, it made a nice change of pace for the man to be forcing the woman up the aisle, even if when it was first published it might have seemed a real gender-bender, now it was just a fun romance.



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Review: Hello Forever

Hello Forever by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Absolutely devoured these two books!

Axel and Henry Caxton 'Cax' Williams met at church retreats when they were eight years old and became best friends. Eight years later their first make-out session was interrupted by the pastor who called their parents. Axel's mother thought it was hysterical, Cax's father was incandescent and Axel never saw or heard from him again.

Six years later and Axel has been offered a job in sports marketing at Barmuth University in Henning, Massachusetts. He is on the fence because it is a small college and a long way from home, he watches a home match on YouTube and randomly spots Cax in the crowd, suddenly the job offer seems tempting. As an aside, Axel rents an apartment from Josh and Caleb who have moved to Henning so that Josh can attend college.

Cax is a Phd student at Barmuth, he returned home to Henning in order to try to shield his three younger brothers from their corrosive and sometimes violent father. Cax's father loathes the fact that Cax is gay and has made it a condition of Cax seeing his brothers that he not bring any of 'that stuff' around the boys. Unfortunately, Cax's father is employed by Barmuth College so in effect it means he can't date or even go to gay bars for fear someone will mention it to his dad. For four years he and his best friend Amy have been 'dating' in order to hide the truth from his dad.

This is a story of how true love can conquer all, how self-sacrifice and perseverance can bring their own rewards and how people should just let people be with who they want. You'll cry for Cax, you'll cheer for Axel, you'll boo at Cax's dad and you'll smile at seeing Josh and Caleb again.

Another winner.

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Review: Goodbye Paradise

Goodbye Paradise by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Joshua has always been different, and in a cult that's not a good thing. Being gay is definitely not a good thing. Being in love with your childhood best friend? Can't get any worse. As Josh reaches the age of 20 he realises there is no place for him in the community where polygamy is accepted, there are men with four or five wives and no-one is going to make room at the table for him, even if he wanted a bride.

When a gun goes missing and Josh was responsible for doing the inventory he knows the time has come, but before he leaves his best friend Caleb says he will come after Josh. This is Josh and Caleb's story. It's about learning to live in a society which has very different rules and morals from the one you grew up in. It's about finding acceptance and new family with people who love you. It's about finally being yourself.

Set in the same world as Keepsake, this is a charming, uplifting story of how love triumphs over all.

Another winner from Sarina Bowen, halfway through the second book in the series.

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Review: Tempting Harriet

Tempting Harriet by Mary Balogh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Six years ago Harriet Pope was a penniless nobody, companion to a lady, when Lord Archibald Vinney caught her eye; unfortunately all he offered her was a position as his mistress, which she declined. Now she is the widowed Lady Harriet Wingham and quite, quite wealthy after her older husband died of a heart condition. After living quietly in Bath both before, during and after her marriage, Lady Wingham has been persuaded to come to London for the season, and perhaps find a new father for her daughter Susan.

Six years ago the Duke of Tenby, formerly Lord Archibald 'Archie' Vinney propositioned a beautiful young woman, he had intended to return and offer her marriage when his grandfather's death called him back home. Although he would never admit it, he has never forgotten Harriet and now, as his family expects him to marry and produce an heir within the year, he thinks of her more often.

Harriet and Archie meet totally unexpectedly at a ball and both are struck anew by the same feelings. But even as a Lady, Harriet is still beneath Archie's station and his family, particularly his strict grandmother, would never countenance such a match. Following their meeting, each re-examines their feelings and choices six years ago, Archie decides that he hasn't been in 'lust' for six years, he has been in love and the reason he hasn't proposed marriage in all that time is because no-one compares to Harriet. This time he is going to do what he should have done six years ago and propose marriage. Harriet had a good, loving, kind marriage to Godfrey and she feels great affection for him, but he never made her feel the way Archie does and she decides that as a widow she has certain freedoms that a young unmarried woman does not, if Archie asks again she will agree to becoming his mistress.

What follows is a comedy of errors as Archie and Harriet embark on a clandestine affair which neither of them really wants whilst Harriet is courted by any number of eligible suitors and Archie is boxed into proposing for an eligible young woman by his grandmother. Only the influence of a meddling octogenarian could possibly help these tow ninnies.

This was originally published in 1994 and has been skilfully (I think) brought up to date, there is one sticky point with an issue of consent, I have no idea how the original went (it may have been exactly the same) but I got the feeling that there had been some fairly clever tap dancing done to retain the scene but make it millennial-appropriate. I've just read some older reviews and I'm none the wiser!

Anyway, it was okay, I enjoyed watching the two of them entering into a relationship they don't really want and then dealing with their disappointment/ feelings when they get exactly what they allegedly wanted.

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Review: Eternal

Eternal by Cecy Robson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Landon Summers is an uber-rich guy, feeling sorry for himself because his wife cheated on him with her manager. She was a pole-dancer and he thought he could save her from her terrible family life instead the victim became the abuser. Reluctantly he agrees to go to a friend's New Years Eve party for one drink to please his irritating sister Trinity.

Luci is the office manager for a law firm in Charlotte. Frankly in the opening chapters she comes across as a complete doormat: trying to look after her mother who is a junkie living on the streets; working all hours of the day and night; no social life; dressing like a nun; so-called friends who treat her like dirt and abandon her at the slightest provocation. However, later in the book these seem to have changed slightly as all the lawyers in the law firm apparently want to date her. Luci's 'friend' Blythe also drags her along to the same New Years Eve party to meet football players. Among all the cheerleaders and football players Luci and Landon meet and make a connection. Which leads to two nights of non-stop sex, because that's the sort of thing that a woman who's been compared to a nun does, right?

After their two nighter Luci and Landon part, only to find a few weeks later that Landon has taken a position at Luci's law firm as a pro-bono lawyer. How to cope when your two-nighter becomes a colleague? But then as they move past that hurdle there is the difference in their situations: Landon is the son of a fabulously wealthy couple, he drives a Maserati and has a house on the beach. Luci's mother is a homeless junkie. Not exactly the same social circles.

In the opening chapters a lot of the writing was very florid and pretentious, typical NA/YA complete with the obligatory smirking. I give you an example:

The best I can do is not faint from the ungodly amount of allure spilling from his essence.

I was close to DNFing the book but I decided to persevere a bit longer and behold, it calmed down.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this novel but I think the characters suffered from being inconsistent. Luci went from being a drab, workaholic doormat to a sexy siren adored by her colleagues. Landon went from being a self-pitying, self-absorbed, crass man to being a kind, sharing, philanthropical lawyer whose only aim was to help the helpless. Its almost as if the two-nighter and the rest of the novel were from different stories.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: In Too Deep

In Too Deep by Kimberly Kincaid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the series but I found it quite easy to read as a stand-alone.

Luke Slater is a rookie fire-fighter on Engine 17 in the city of Remington. On the side he is also studying to be a paramedic.

Quinn is the second seat in the Remington ambulance attached to Engine 17, when her partner Parker injures his hand and is off duty for a while Luke is rostered as temporary replacement. On pretty much their first call they are kidnapped by members of the Viper gang and forced to look after one of their gang who has been shot by members of a rival gang. Quinn and Luke are eventually released but the leader of the Vipers, Ice, threatens to come after them and their friends and family if they breathe a word of what happened and who they saw.

This is kind of a mash up between romantic –suspense and a flat-out sexy firefighter romance and it didn’t really work that well for me. There was quite a good plot but I did feel at one point that Ice brought everything on himself, if he had just walked away and not tried to frighten Quinn and Luke then things wouldn’t have spiralled. Similarly, although Quinn hid it well she definitely had TSTL tendencies which, given her EMT training appeared rather stupid.

Also, is it the adrenaline? Why do two people who have lusted after each other from afar but remained professional because there is too much at stake suddenly throw caution to the winds when their lives are threatened? Halfway through this tense, gripping thriller we stop for copious amounts of sex over and over again, I get that Quinn and Luke aren’t the detectives and can’t do the investigation themselves but it does seem odd.

Just to pile on the woe, Luke and Quinn both have shitty childhoods and angst-ridden back stories which I don’t think were necessary for the plot. Given the other stuff that was going on I think it could have been dispensed with frankly. Yet Luke apparently is zen enough to help Quinn get over the trauma of being kidnapped and threatened at gun-point 0 he knows just what she needs, yes of course, sex Is always the cure, right?

My only other criticism is that I found the other characters to be fairly indistinguishable. I couldn’t tell if they were cops, detectives or firefighters, grunt or superior officer they were just a morass of names.

I would still give one of this author’s books a try, she wrote some gripping thriller type stuff and maybe it was just the balance in this particular book that I found to be wrong.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Bountiful

Bountiful by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

Sarina Bowen knocks it out of the park again in this novel where the Brooklyn Bruisers and True North series collide.

Two years ago Zara had a chip on her shoulder after Griffin did the whole "It's not you it's me" speech and then started dating Audrey. She ended up having a short-lived fling with a guy who was holidaying in Vermont with his mates called Dave. Zara didn't want to know who Dave was, what he did for a living or his life story, even though they were together fora few weeks. Dave (or more properly David Beringer of the Brooklyn Bruisers) liked it that way, Zara had no idea who he was and seemed to just like him for being himself.

Unfortunately, after Dave leaves, Zara discovers that she is pregnant and has no way of contacting Dave from Brooklyn. Two years later Zara no longer serves behind the bar at the Mountain Goat, instead she and Audrey run a coffee shop and she has a little girl called Nicole with auburn hair just like her daddy.

David has never forgotten Zara and when he gets the chance to organise the team's summer break he immediately chooses Vermont - imagine his surprise when he finds Zara and she announces he left more than just his expensive watch behind.

I love a good secret baby trope, especially when the man doesn't think he is cut out to be a father and this one doesn't disappoint. Dave came across as a genuine good guy with family issues who nevertheless was pretty much All In with Zara from day one, he obviously had a nurturing spirit and took care of his younger sister Bess and his team-mates.

I loved every part of this, the sumptuous Vermont scenery, the cutsey town, the farm to table attitude of the community, the delectable Dave, sassy Zara and cute-as-a-button Nicole.

But I am really intrigued to find out what is going on with Benito (Zara's twin), I hope/ suspect that he is the subject of Sarina's next book but I can't tell if we have seen his potential love interest.

Easy to read as a stand-alone.

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Review: Closer to You

Closer to You by Jill Sanders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The three McGowan brothers, Tyler, Trent and Trey inherited equal shares in their father's business, McGowan Enterprises in Haven, Montana. Tyler, as the oldest was named head of the company and with reluctance he returned home from the city.

Kristen Howell works for JB Holdings and she has been sent to Montana by her boss to persuade the McGowan brothers to sell their company to JB Holdings. A city girl with Gucci luggage and Jimmy Choo shoes, she is like a fish out of water in small town Montana. But there is an attraction between her and Tyler which only grows as her boss insists she stays in Haven until she gets the brothers to sign, even if it means digging up dirt.

There's bad blood between the McGowan brothers and their Uncle Carl, between the McGowan brothers and their secretary Rea's son Brian and between McGowan Enterprises and the protesters who have set up camp protesting the oil fields and the oil pipelines owned by McGowan Enterprises.

Writing this review there are a lot of things going on in this book: the mystery of why JB Holdings wants to buy McGowan Enterprises so desperately; the mystery of who is behind the sabotage on site; the mystery of who trashes Kristen's room at the hotel; the mystery behind the unpaid invoices; even the mystery of who is behind the kidnapping. And yet, the overwhelming impression I was left with was of a book which sagged in the middle with scene after scene of fairly greige sex, I just skipped pages and pages of same-same looking for a story. In fact I don't believe that some of these plots were ever tied up properly, as if the author just threw them in for a bit of mystery but couldn't be bothered to make up a real motive. Frankly the 'baddies' were such cardboard cutouts that I couldn't really tell them apart.

I felt that this book suffered from a genre crisis, it had too many plots for a small town romance but not enough plot development for a mystery romance.

Overall, it was okay, I didn't hate it and I would probably read Trent and Tyler's books (I expect Trent will have been in love with Addy, one of the protesters, since they were at school) but it didn't make me want to go and look up Jill Sanders' previous books.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Vampire Fight Club

Vampire Fight Club by Larissa Ione
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Apparently I read this as part of the Supernatural anthology, I didn't instantly recall it, benefits of a shocking memory, so I enjoyed reading it again.

Nate Sabine is a vampire who runs a supernatural nightclub called Thirst and an underground supernatural fight club called Gladius. He works for a demon called Fade. When a shifter dies in the ring during one of the fights Nate orders him taken outside, in case he is mated and his mate comes looking for him. Instead he is found and taken to Underworld General Hospital, where one of the nurses, Vladlena Paskelkov, recognises him as her brother Vaughn. Vaughn is not quite dead and manages to cough out a few words before he dies which leads Lena and the doctors at UG to believe that there is an underground fight club connected to Thirst. Lena applies for a job as medic in the nightclub and immediately runs into Nate. Lena has a fatalistic streak since she has turned 24 years old and never shifted, she knows she probably only has weeks to live before her inability to shift kills her.

It has been a while since I read any of the Dominica books and I was worrried that I might not remember the characters but Larissa Ione writes such memorable characters that the doctors of UG were instantly recognisable, even if I didn't recall this particular novella. She certainly packed a whole lot of plot into just 93 pages: there's the romance between Nate and Lena; Nate's backstory about becoming a vampire and meeting Fade; Lena's family history; Lena's inability to shift, it's all there and nothing feels rushed (except maybe the big showdown).

Overall, Ana cation-packed supernatural novella that could be read as a stand alone intro to the Demonica series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Love in the Drop Zone

Love in the Drop Zone by M. L. Buchman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Good sized novella about Cindy Sue Chavez, female Delta operative undergoing her one month retraining after a mission under the extremely critical eye of Master Sergeant JD Ramirez.

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Review: Welcome at Henderson's Ranch

Welcome at Henderson's Ranch by M.L. Buchman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colleen McMurphy (or Kurva Baisotei as it says on her birth certificate) is a journalist and she has been sent to write a review of a holiday at Henderson's Ranch (run by Mark Henderson, his Dad Mac and his wife Emily from The Night Stalkers). Just back from yet another ghastly visit to see her parents in Japan she welcomes the peace of the ranch and especially one mysterious cowboy.

I was less than enthused by Mac's story but I really liked this, slow and soft and peaceful it unfurled gently.

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Review: An Unexpected Guest

An Unexpected Guest by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no idea why I didn't read this when it was published in the December 2016 newsletter, but there you go.

This is a short snippet of where Elena takes Raphael to a Guild Hunter's party for the first time, despite its length it definitely conveys the anxiety of introducing your boyfriend to your group of friends for the first time.

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Review: This Time Is Different

This Time Is Different by Mae Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well I can't say I'm ecstatic about this the way some other people are but I did like it. It featured nice people acting like grown-ups, people with adult children, good jobs and good hearts.

Thomas Popov is a widower with three adult children, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Methodist hospital in Memphis and now that his children have all left home he's starting back on a career track that will probably see him moving from city to city. In his wisdom he thinks getting together a hospital softball team would generate some team spirit in the management team. Instead one of his colleagues swipes his face with a bat whilst warming up and socks him in the jaw.

Amy Forsythe is an orthodontist in partnership with her best friend Diana who is a dentist. Although not strictly her role, she agrees to see Thomas while her business partner attends her daughter's dress rehearsal, after all that's what the two of them agreed - kids come first. Amy is divorced with a son about to go to college.

Under the influence of the pain-killers Amy gives him Thomas declares his undying love for "Doctor Dentist Angel", something his skanky colleague films and then shows to anyone and everyone he can, but although his tongue may have been loosened by the pain-killers Thomas does feel a connection to Amy and they embark on a series of dates, but Thomas is still in love with his wife and Amy has no desire to ever get married again. Can there be a future for them?

I think that all the hype about this book is because Thomas is 53 years old, I mean that's positively decrepit in the Romanceland, and also there's very little angst. Sure there are ex-husbands and moody teenagers who don't want their Mum dating again and moody twenty-somethings who don't want their Dad getting taken in by a gold-digger or trying to replace their Mum. But all of these things are dealt with appropriately and in a mature fashion. It's like a breath of fresh air. Thomas also has a line of cheesy Dad jokes and a wicked streak of innuendo - I just loved the banter between Amy and Thomas about the wine she buys from the supermarket - so true to life.

So, if all the current romances with their 20-something characters who are either gazillionaires or terribly tortured (or both) are starting to get on your very last nerve this could be the one for you.

Off to see what other goodness Mae Wood has written ...

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Review: Hamilton's Battalion: A Trio of Romances

Hamilton's Battalion: A Trio of Romances by Courtney Milan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trio of novellas set during the American War of Independence. I have a feeling that when I get around to reading the historical notes on these novellas they will turn out not to be as far-fetched as I currently suspect.

The Promised Land by Rose Lerner
Rachel left her arranged marriage, her interfering mother-in-law and her husband to join the American rebels fight the British. For three years her husband has thought she was dead and she has dressed as a man, calling herself Ezra. Full of ideals about an America where race, religion and sex do not act as a barrier she intends to write her memoirs after the war and go on tour telling people that a Jewish woman fought alongside christian men to free America. And then she sees her husband, Nathaniel, walking through the camp as bold as brass. Convinced he is a spy for the British she denounces him to her superior officers.

Nathaniel has mourned his wife for the past three years. Although it was a marriage of convenience, Rachel needed money for her mother's medical fees, Nathaniel truly loved his wife and had hoped that she might come to love him.

As the rebels beseige Yorktown can two estranged lovers be frank enough about their feelings and needs to start over, or are the scars too deep?

Rose Lerner writes unusual historical romances, often from the point of view of the working classes or people outside the mainstream such as gypsies, this is no exception. An exploration of how to reconcile religious beliefs with emotions and patriotism, of listening to yourself and to others, of what it meant to be a Jew in the 1700s in America, of what it meant to be a Jewish woman, of gender and identity.

I liked this, I liked the romance, that neither Rachel nor Nathaniel was entirely right or wrong, that they made as many mistakes as each other, that the emotions felt 'real'. But I didn't feel emotionally engaged, this was more historical than romance.

Three stars.

The Pursuit Of ... by Courtney Milan
An unlikely romance between a rich, white British officer and a poor black free man fighting for the American army. After saving the life of Henry Latham, a loquacious British officer, John Hunter is surprised when Henry hunts him out to offer his thanks, even more surprised when Henry agrees to accompany him on his 500 mile trek across America to reunite with his sister and her husband.

As the two men walk across America Henry waxes lyrically about anything and everything, particularly cheese, and somehow the two men fall in love.

This is funny and touching and engaging, a wonderful romance about hope and idealism. I thought that John was unbelievably well-spoken and educated for a poor black man of that time, but it's not an era I'm familiar with and it was a riveting read.

Four stars.

That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole
I haven't really started this one - review to come

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Bachelor Contract

The Bachelor Contract by Rachel Van Dyken
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 51%.

Okay, my bad, I've realised that I don't get on with Rachel Van Dyken's novels so it's on me for requesting a book by her. The trouble is she changes genre and the 'look' of her books so I don't instantly recall that I don't like her writing and then it's too late.

Anyway, I liked the look of the cover and the blurb sounded good so I requested an ARC.

All that aside, or taking that into account, this was just one big hot mess for me. Brant and Nikki were married, they were young and poor and they married in the face of his wealthy family's disapproval. They were blissfully happy until she lost their baby, he wasn't there to support her (because he too was devastated) and then something happened (I'm pretty sure I know what happened but it is clearly something the reader is supposed to discover slowly).

In the present Nikki is practically blind and she is a masseur in a very up-market resort which Brant's family has just acquired. Brant is blackmailed into taking his aunt's place to spend a week at the resort reviewing the staff and facilities. Ever since whatever happened, Brant has been a broken man, spending his days drunk and whoring around he is full of hate and self-loathing. At first he thinks he is hallucinating about Nikki, Nikki's boss tells him the masseur is deaf and he tells Nikki that her client is dumb (or vice versa) so it takes them both a while to realise that it is each other.

Nikki goes around crying at the drop of a hat, Brant spends his days drinking whisky, they kiss and have sex and then leave each other, rinse and repeat. At over half way through there didn't seem to be any plot, there was no progression and I disliked both of them.

My apologies Rachel, I promise I won't request any more of your books.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: So Over You

So Over You by Kate Meader
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars!

OH, Kate Meader this book has catapulted you into the echelons of my favourite authors. Imagine, if you will one of Elle Kennedy or Sarina Bowen's hockey stories, add in one of Shelly Laurenston's grumpy Russian skaters - got the picture? That is this book for me. Absolutely cracktastic.

The series follows the three Chase sisters, each from different mothers, who inherit the Chicago Rebels Hockey team from their egotistical father. This book centres on Isobel, the second daughter. Isobel had been silver medal winning Olympic hockey player until she took a skate to the head in the 37th minute of the first game of the new National Women’s Hockey League and nearly died. Having spent her whole life to that point living and breathing hockey she was devastated but she is trying to make a name for herself as a hockey coach, although even when you part-own a hockey team that isn't always as easy as it sounds.

When she was 18 years old Isobel trained with a young Russian hockey played Vadim Petrov, he was her first but the night was ruined when her father caught them in bed and had him deported back to Russia. There was also a leetle problem, she didn't (ahem) feel the earth move that night. Now years later Vadim is a player for the Rebels, he has a knee injury and his nickname is 'The Czar of Pleasure'. Of course Isobel gets assigned as his personal coach to get him back to fitness!

When one of his teammates overhears Isobel telling one of her sisters about Vadim's less than stellar performance all those years ago he takes great delight in passing on the food news to Vadim. Now Vadim is determined to make up for his lack of prowess.

I had wanted to read this book ever since I read the teaser at the end of the last book. Can I just step aside and say, "well done, Kate Meader", sometimes when people tease the next book they give away all the dirt, sometimes they repeat everything in the next book, but Kate Meader showed us something that we didn't see in this book - but it was described/ referred to at various points so the reader of this book didn't miss out. I like the way she did that.

Some people might not like Vadim's heavily accented Russian, some might think it's stereotyping. I just thought it was hysterical. I loved the way he called his sister's dog "little-dog-with-big-shits", I loved his interactions with Isobel and I just thought he was amazing. Maybe my new book boyfriend.

I see I've somehow missed out on the prequel novella so I'm off to track that down ...

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Nailed It

Nailed It by Cindi Madsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ivy Clarke has a secret, she slept with her best friend Savanna's brother Jackson a while back - seven days of wonderful carnality until she realised she as developing feelings and broke it off. Brutal words were said on both sides and now their legendary sniping at each other has taken a nasty turn.

Ivy's mother Cora was the poster-child for women who only feel completed by a man. Ivy's childhood was a revolving door of new step-dads and dubious father figures as her mother latched on to one man after another. Why get a job when a man can provide? All too soon Cora would fall out of love, or the man would, and Ivy and her mother would be back with Cora's best friend Dixie, until she had the audacity to fall in love with one of Ivy's mother's cast-offs. Ivy has learned from her mother's failures and her own experience that the Clarke women can't do love, can't do commitment, can't do relationships. If her best friend Savanna is a relationship guru, Ivy is an anti-relationship guru.

When Ivy drives past Dixie's old house, the most constant 'home' in her childhood, and sees it up for sale she is hit by a wave of nostalgia and, in a fit of enthusiasm fuelled by to much HGTV, persuades Dixie to let her 'flip' the house by renovating and splitting the profits. Unfortunately, DIY isn't quite as simple as they make it look on TV and soon the house is looking worse than ever. Savanna calls Jackson behind Ivy's back and suddenly Ivy and Jackson are working together renovating the house, arguing about tiles and paint colours and, Ivy at least, resisting the chemistry that sparks between them.

I do love TV renovation programmes and I love a woman who has hardened her heart against love with a hero who's not afraid to keep trying to make connection. For me this was light-hearted, flirty, DIY heaven. I haven't read what I assume is the previous book in this series and TBH I didn't warm to Savanna so I'm not devastated, you certainly don't need to have read her story to enjoy this one.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return fro an honest review.


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Review: The Irredeemable Billionaire

The Irredeemable Billionaire by Lexxie Couper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

This was just a charming romance that ticked all the boxes for me.

Grace Wilder is the widow of a firefighter, she is a paramedic and has a ten year old son. Perpetually stressed, perpetually overworked, perpetually late for work, taking her son to school etc etc.

Imagine her horror when, while running late taking her son to school, she opens the front door to see her arch-nemesis from when she was a child, Sebastian Hart, standing on her doorstep. To add insult to injury, instead of dying a slow, painful death alone and unloved the ghastly boy next door has morphed into a world-famous film director and a hunk to boot.

Sebastian Hart has been given community service instead of a prison sentence for an act of gross stupidity and self-indulgence. He has agreed to act as a Big Brother for his community service and Grace's best friend Shelli suggests that Cody Wilder would be an ideal candidate as he has an interest in film. She just fails to mention that Cody's mother used to be the girl next door that he teased mercilessly, Grace Ford. Sebastian has grown into a man used to doing whatever he wants and being allowed to do it, ever since he was a child when his mother indulged his every whim. The only person who ever called him on his behaviour was the chubby, brace-wearing short-sighted girl next door. Sebastian had every intention of paying lip service to his community service sentence, maybe making one star appearance and then delegating the tedium to a minion, but he is shocked that the girl who gave him hell and regularly kicked him in the shins for his bad behaviour has become this tired, defeated woman. Add in Grace's (male) next door neighbour who likes to drop round with a cup of coffee un-announced and Sebastian is suddenly determined to be Cody's BIg Brother for real.

This is part Cinderella, part Pretty Woman (which of course it is, since Pretty Woman is a retelling of Cinderella) but also just fun and delicious - I really think the Australian setting, with the accompanying fruity language, elevates this story above the standard billionaire romances. Add in cute-as-a-button Cody and I don't think even the grinchiest-Grinch would dislike this.

I don't recall reading any other books by Lexxie Couper but I will definitely look out for me if this is a sample.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Summer at Bluebell Bank

Summer at Bluebell Bank by Jen Mouat
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars

I see this is billed as a charming romance, I must have read a slightly different book to that reviewer!

Kate Vincent is living the dream in New York, a flashy job in advertising, a wealthy boyfriend and evenings filled with dinners with friends. Then an email arrives from her best friend Emily, a best friend she has neither seen or spoken to in years, begging her to come back to Scotland, back to Galloway and the house where they spent so much of their childhood, Bluebell Bank.

Emily Cotton and her large family were the mainstay of Kate’s life, the security and love for a young girl whose mother found comfort in the bottle and her unsuitable boyfriends. Emily and her brothers Dab, Alastair, Noah and Fergus together with their parents Jonathan and Melanie and their grandmother Lena looked after that sad, frightened little girl and nursed her broken heart when her first love, Luke, broke her heart into a million pieces.

When Kate returns to Scotland she finds that things are very different now. Emily is divorced, depressed and has bought a barn which she intends to turn into a book shop, but has yet to do anything more that sit and read books in the cavernous space. Lena has Alzheimer’s and can’t be left unsupervised for long. Noah was expelled from school for crimes as yet unknown, Fergus is in Australia, Ally is in Edinburgh and Dan is married with a baby on the way. Everyone has secrets, explosive damaging secrets to reveal, things that have remained buried for years and they are festering, causing rifts between family and friends. And there is as much anger, betrayal, jealousy and sorrow as love mixed up in Kate’s feelings for the Cottons and their’s for her. The whole family seems to place such high expectations on Kate’s return, as if this woman with abandonment issues is more together than a close-knit family …

Then Luke returns to renovate his father’s old cottage and Kate must look deep into her heart and decide what she truly wants. Is it Ben her boyfriend, is it Dan, her best friend’s brother that she was in love with for most of her childhood, or is it Luke, her first love who broke her heart? But Kate can’t make her decisions until all the secrets have been revealed.

Half of me loved the way that so many of the secrets were teased and hinted at throughout the book, that delicious anticipation of when the truth will be revealed. The other half was exasperated, feeling that there was absolutely no need. I had similar feelings about Kate and Emily and Dan – all three of them at times were so selfish, so centred on their own feelings, their own desires, that they rode roughshod over other people. Frankly I had a hard time liking Kate.

I would most definitely classify this as women’s fiction, the real story is the friendship between Emily and Kate, how the secrets they have kept from each other may break the friendship that they are forging anew. How jealousy can lead to destructive behaviour and burying your head in the sand is never the answer.

I enjoyed this book but I didn’t like it. I didn’t feel it was uplifting, more cathartic.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Stuck with You: A fun, feisty romance

Stuck with You: A fun, feisty romance by Anna Premoli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars. Hmmm, a difficult book to rate.

I love Anna Premoli but her books, for me, have been very uneven. She is not a native English speaker and that comes across in her writing, she tends to use longer words than a native English-speaker would do.

This book is set in Milan, Italy. Lavinia is a people-pleaser, the antithesis of her older sister who has left home after an argument with their parents. Lavinia is in the final year of her economics degree (chosen by her father) when their professor announces that the final project will be a collaboration with students from the computer engineering department of a rival college. Already horrified by the news, Lavinia is dismayed when her 'partner' Sebastiano outright refuses to participate, claiming he doesn't need the extra credits.

Lavinia is a perpetual smiler, she likes chart music, social media, Apple products and romantic comedies. Sebastiano is a hard-core programmer, he scorns all the big name global IT brands, he enjoys LARPing and sci fi. But Lavinia is also persistent and she slowly wears Seb down by stalking him.

I liked this because it was different. Set in Italy, discussions of cryptocurrencies, realistic descriptions of kissing, it was all good. Then there would be the odd jarring note - for example not knowing what LOL stands for. Also, and perhaps because of the aforementioned non-native English speaker issue, Lavinia and Seb seemed very young, more like 16 or 17 than 21 and 22.

I enjoyed this but it wasn't my favourite book by the author.

I received a free copy of this book from the author via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Christmas Cowboy Hero

The Christmas Cowboy Hero by Donna Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Clayton East is a former Navy SEAL. He's returned to his parents' cattle farm in Clearview, Texas after his father had a stroke only to discover that their accountant has robbed them blind and absconded with the money. Added to which rustlers have stolen 100 head of cattle and a prize bull. After being involved in an ambush in which the rest of his SEAL team died Clayton has suffered PTSD, he also still feels guilt at the death of his twin brother Landon when they were children. If his father hadn't had the stroke he would never have come home.

Abby Harper is struggling to make ends meet bringing up her two teenage brothers after their father died and their mother walked out on them as soon as Abby graduated from school. The last thing she needs three weeks before Christmas is to have her brother Brice arrested for cattle rustling. Clayton was ready to throw the book at Brice, especially when he refuses to implicate the people he was working for, but after Abby offers to pay him back every red cent he is impressed despite himself and decides to let Brice work off the debt after school and at weekends. It wouldn't hurt that he would get to see the beautiful Abby at the same time.

Phew, this is a cowboy story that just happens to take place at the run up to Christmas rather than a full-on Christmas story. I liked the plot although I feel there were some massive clues to the identity of the cattle rustlers that Abby should have picked up on before and one of those involved appears to have got off scot-free (although maybe that will come out in the next book in the series?).

This was enjoyable, Clayton and Abby were a good couple with plenty of passion between them. I do have a slightly bad taste in my mouth that the only women portrayed in this book are either absolute saints (Abby and Clayton's mother), selfish (Abby's mother) or nasty employers (Gloria), why do so many romances have to categorise women as either good or bad? Why can't they be a bit more nuanced? Anyway, maybe I'm being a bit grumpy. Otherwise this had a bit of everything: kids, Christmas, horses, drama, cowboys, a Navy SEAL, a mystery you name it, it was there.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Marquess for Convenience

A Marquess for Convenience by Bianca Blythe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

Lady Madeline Mulbourne is living a secret life, while the ton think she is the epitome of a titled noblewoman she is secretly the author of a series of books on art published under her husband's name. Even after his death she continues to 'find' new works to publish. Despite being wealthy Madeline has also taken in upon herself to steal five priceless pieces of jewellery, parts of a set belonging to an impoverished Italian family, which were confiscated by Napoleon's army.

Lord Arthur Carmichael, Marquess of Bancroft, is a British spy who disguises his activity by acting like a pleasure-seeking rake. However, now the war is over his lifestyle may jeopardise his career ambitions, unless he can find a suitable wife to lend him respectability. In the meantime he has been tasked with catching the thief who has stolen jewellery from four high ranking French officials before it creates a rift in the newly formed peace between France and England.

Years ago Madeline and Arthur shared a passionate kiss but because of a misunderstanding he left London and she married Lord Mulbourne, will their old feelings complicate matters?

I received an early ARC of this book (bad me for taking so long to review it) and it is riddled with typos, I assume they have been corrected in the final version of the book.

This book, in my opinion, suffered from too much 'telling' and not enough 'showing'. We were 'told' about Madeline and Arthur's previous relationship, we were 'told' about Arthur's wild reputation, we were told about Madeline's first husband. It felt almost like an outline for a book waiting for someone to put in the passion and the characters. I didn't really feel any connection to either Madeline or Arthur, possibly because we didn't really get any real drama. Madeline gets arrested, Arthur runs to the rescue and 'boom' she's free. Something similar happens later in the book. It's sad because I think that Bianca Blythe had some unusual ideas but nothing got developed properly before it was bam, on to the next thing.

I see that this is the fifth book in a series, perhaps if I had read the previous four books I would have seen more of Madeline and Arthur and better understood what we were told but ddn't see in this book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: At the Heart of It

At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reality TV romances seem to be all the rage at the moment.

Kate Geary is a TV producer, she has pitched the idea of her idol, Dr Vivienne (Viv) Brandt, having a reality TV show in which she helps a different couple each week get over their relationship issues. Kate credits Viv with helping her to see her own relationship issues clearly and is fond of quoting Dr Brandt's wisdom.

Although studio management give the go-ahead for the show, they want to bring Viv's ex-husband 'Average Joe' to help the couples alongside Viv. Joe provided no-nonsense 'bloke-ish' advice as side bars in one of Viv's most successful books.

When the team meet Viv's ex-husband he turns out to be none other than Jonah Porter, the nerdy bookshop owner that Kate met at a B&B four weeks earlier. While Jonah and Viv's divorce was amicable he felt that he was unfairly portrayed as an unsophisticated, uneducated, blue-collar worker - a foil to Viv's intellectual sophistication. However, Kate persuades him that the show would give him the opportunity to show viewers the other side of him, 'the real him' and promises that the show would not try to make him look stupid. He also wants the money to help his sister who lost her leg in a car accident and is struggling to make ends meet at her Animal Shelter.

Kate and Jonah have a connection but it's difficult to maintain between all the stunts being pulled by Viv and the studio bosses and the desire to blindside people on TV to improve ratings. When Kate is told about a plan to blindside Jonah and sworn to secrecy her job and relationship are in conflict.

I really liked Jonah as a character, he was kind and caring, clever and funny and self-aware. I liked Kate, but not as much.

What I liked about this story was that I could see a lot of different ways that this story could have played out and I was kept guessing to the end, the chemistry between Kate and Jonah was palpable, you could feel the heat between them. I also liked the snippets of the filming with the various couples Jonah's down-to-earth take on things.

Another great funny romance from Tawna Fenske.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls by Donna Alward
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Bah humbug! While I love getting books before they are published in order to review them I H.A.T.E. reviewing Christmas books in September/ October, especially one after the other - note to self don't request them next time, d'oh!

I enjoy the Darling, VT novels so I was keen to read this novella set at Christmas, apparently loosely based around the film It's A Wonderful Life (which I have never seen) this concentrates on ex-soldier George who, until a year ago was a homeless man living on the streets (if that isn't an oxymoron). Anyway George is turning his life around but he still lives a very spartan life, almost like a monk, haunted by the death of his best friend Ian in the Middle East on a mission.

Amy is Ian's older sister, she has travelled to Darling, VT to see George and ask him to explain to Ian's family how he died, they don't want to blame, they just want closure.

Can George move past the memories of his friend's death and overcome his low self-esteem to find true friendship and love at Christmas?

This was a pleasant enough novella, slightly too saccharine for my tastes although kudos for not giving George and Amy a Hallmark "and everyone lived happy ever after, the end" ending.

Although it is set in Darling, VT it would be easy to read this novella as a stand-alone.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: 69 Million Things I Hate About You

69 Million Things I Hate About You by Kira Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

This reminded me of one of my favourite RomCom films, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Kiersten and Cole have been in a mild flirtation since she started work for the impossible billionaire - I LMAO when he made her lay out his underwear each day as well as his clothes to match his diary activities! But things really escalate when she and her two roommates win the lottery. Cole's last assistant quit when he asked her to rearrange her wedding day (the day before) because he needed her to attend a meeting with him. In order to avoid a similar situation Kiersten and Cole write some additional clauses into her employment contract which penalise her if she quits but penalise him if he fires her. Now that she has nothing to lose, Kiersten decides Cole should suffer for being such a terrible boss and thinks the best way to do that is to behave so badly that he has to fire her. So she behaves more and more outrageously every day. Unfortunately, the support staff use the group calendar to run a book on how long Cole will last before he fires her - and Cole finds out. Then there is a war between them as each one pulls more and more outrageous stunts.

It was silly and flirty and funny and I loved it.

Then the two of them got together and there seemed to be a lot of sex. It felt that two-thirds to three-quarters of the book had been the war between Cole and Kiersten so the author (maybe) felt that she needed to cram the obligatory four sex scenes per book into the final quarter - that's how it felt to me. Maybe I'm just getting old but I seem to raise this complaint nearly every time I review a book!

Anyway this is clearly the set up for a series, Cole is friends with a group of other billionaires who play poker together so I expect to see each of them fall in love in due course.

Overall, I enjoyed this war of the sexes and look forward to reading other books in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Forsaken by Night

Forsaken by Night by Larissa Ione
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked parts of this novella but frankly I think I like the 'clan' bits of this series best.

Lobo has been exiled from the Moonbound Clan of vampires and threatened with death, a vampire who can also shift into any creature (or human) of a similar size, from a coyote to a grizzly bear, he was accused of shape-shifting into another vampire in order to seduce the vampire's mate.

Lobo would have given up on life, without a clan he was vulnerable to humans who would want to make him a slave, if it hadn't been for the female wolf which he found badly injured over a decade ago. The two have become inseparable companions in the forest where they live until one day Tehya, the wolf, is badly injured by poachers and is likely to die. Lobo realises that the only way of saving his best friend's life is to carry her to the lair of the Moonbound Clan which has the nearest doctor, even if the way he gains entry could ultimately cost him his life.

What Lobo doesn't know is that Tehya is actually a vampire who accidentally shifted into a wolf and has no idea how to shift back. She has subconsciously been projecting her vampire self into Lobo's dreams, he assumes that Tehya must be the wolf familiar of a vampire, perhaps one enslaved by the humans.

I found the beginning with the lone vampire living in the woods with only his faithful wolf companion to be a bit slow, I felt I had read the same kind of set up in way too many PNR stories. I really enjoyed the bit where Lobo and Tehya interact with the Moonbound Clan, the politics, the changing alliances, the changes that Hunter has wrought in the clan since he became the leader. Loved it. Then there was the obligatory vampire sex which seemed to go on and on and on, in a novella the ratio of sex to plot needs careful consideration and I felt there was too much (only a personal view).

I liked the plot resolution and the hint of a cliffhanger (can't say more, cos spoilers), looking forward to the next in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Her Sexy Challenge

Her Sexy Challenge by Sarah Ballance
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 22%.

I like Sarah Ballance's romances so I was stoked to get approved for this ARC. Unfortunately, I just didn't get along with the hero and after he did something which crossed a line for me I gave up reading this book.

Caitlin Tyler has a number of phobias which (from the little I read) stem from the circumstances surrounding the horrific death of her parents. She lands her dream job but unfortunately getting there requires her to overcome one of her phobias - fear of crossing running water. On the day she tries, she freezes halfway and has to get rescued by the fire brigade, specifically Shane Hendricks. Strike #1, he assumes Caitlin is attempting suicide, although probably just attention seeking, and is less than sympathetic. Then a fire in the furnace in her book shop requires him to save her again. Again, his behaviour is less than professional. Strike #2, he is described as smirking waaaay too often.

Shane then decides that it is his duty to make Caitlin face her fears - he has no training in the correct way to help people who have been traumatised face their fears, oh no, he just decides to badger Caitlin into going on a non-date with him, promises that he won't force her to do anything she doesn't want to, then carries her onto the middle of a bridge over a river. I am in no way an expert (not even an amateur) at treating phobias but this was a total red flag incident for me. He had no idea whether she would completely freak out, have a panic attack (as she did on the bridge at the start of the book) or have hysterics. I found his whole attitude to be smug and arrogant and as he himself describes it 'low-key stalking'. So I have to say I didn't like this book and stopped reading at this point. I see that other people have reviewed this and found it hysterically funny - I don't see it myself.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Approximately Yours

Approximately Yours by Julie Hammerle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Danny lives in a town called North Pole. Unsurprisingly the town is an homage to all things Christmas, everything is Christmas themed and the town takes the annual gingerbread competition very seriously.

Danny had high hopes of playing professional basketball until showing off in front of a reporter he fell and broke his ankle. Now his big chance may have gone forever, his girlfriend has dumped him for the waterboy and he realises that he has no clue what he wants from life.

Holly's grandmother lived next door to Danny's family. Growing up Holly and her cousins used to visit North Pole every year at Christmas and Holly would enter the gingerbread competition, mainly because even back then she was in love with Danny. In those days Danny was less athletic and more nerdy.

After Holly's grandmother died the family have returned to North Pole one last time to pack up her house before putting it on the market. When Holly and her cousin Esmerelda (Elda for short) go into Santabucks for coffee they see Danny serving behind the counter. Holly is sad that her childhood crush doesn't even recognise and, just like every other guy she's ever met, he only seems to have eyes for her beautiful cousin. Whilst Elda might be every guy's wet dream, she is also a bit weird, fascinated by plumbing, and has difficulty talking to guys she likes. So a plot is born, Holly will help Elda when she goes on a date with Danny by telling her what to say (and what not to say). In Danny's defence, he is trying to avoid going out with another girl just like his ex, he is attracted to Holly but she seems to turn her nose up at him so he tries to do something different by dating Elda.

Just like in Cyrano de Bergerac, Elda and Danny are totally incompatible but Holly and Danny text each other constantly. Danny can't understand why the woman he chats to for hours at night about architecture and films and the gingerbread competition suddenly starts talking about plumbing and roadkill when they meet in person.

This was a sweet YA romance, the trouble is when you add the sweetness of Christmas in a Christmas-themed town it becomes almost too sweet. For those who know the plot of Cyrano there were few surprises and very little tension. Danny and Holly were so 'nice' that they didn't really have much character. I was more interested in Elda's obsession with plumbing.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bumped for release.

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Review: A Talent for Temptation

A Talent for Temptation by Sabrina Jeffries
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

I haven't read any of the previous books in this series and so I can confirm that this can definitely be read as a stand-alone novella but maybe the characters have been introduced in one of the earlier novels?

Anyway, Meriel Vyse is a widow and she works occasionally for her brother-in-law as a spy. She feels great gratitude towards him for saving her life and therefore feels unable to tell him she no longer wants to work for him. She is having a clandestine romance/ flirtation with Quinn Raines, the half-Spanish heir to Raines Bank but she knows they can never get married because she is so much beneath him and has so many secrets.

Quinn is desperately in love with Meriel but he fears he is too foreign, too staid and too common for a woman like her, she seems to crave a more flamboyant heroic figure like her brother-in-law. So Quinn plans a harmless attempted kidnapping (from which he will heroically rescue her), which goes spectacularly wrong and ends up with him being stabbed in the arm.

Set over the course of one night, this 100 page novella is an engaging romp where our hero and heroine find true love. I liked the writing and the characters, I most definitely wanted to know more about them and Meriel's brother-in-law Baron Fulkham. I will look out for more from this series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bumped for release.

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Review: Hot Pursuit

Hot Pursuit by Julie Ann Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

I haven't read the last few books in this series but I really enjoyed the books I had read so when I saw this available for review I was eager to see how the series had progressed.

Our BKI boys are in England, holed up in a cottage in Cornwall, and tensions are running high between Christian Watson, former British SAS soldier, and Emily Scott the team's office manager. But Christian has some murky secrets in his past and when they come back to haunt him the team is in trouble as both the press and enemies pursue him.

This story takes place over a few days, it's tight and tense with the team being pursued across South-West England whilst trying to discover the identity of the mysterious Spider. As always Julie Ann Walker writes a gripping thriller with gritty characters from tortured backgrounds - what you want from these kind of thriller romances.

However, being British I have to take umbrage at Christian's language. Julie Ann Walker appears to have looked up some British words and liberally sprinkled them throughout Christian's speech without regard for the regional provenance, historical usage, meaning or Christian's upbringing. So, for example, at one point they put a "dustbin" besides someone in case they are sick, a dustbin is something you keep outside which contains all your household rubbish - unless the guy is projectile vomiting a wastebin is more usual. Christian often uses the word "feckin" - that is used almost exclusively by the Irish (and sometimes the Scots), not English people. Christian talks about his mother cashing her government support checks at the pub, it should be her dole cheques (note the English spelling). Christian talks about going off in his "drawers", unless he's in a regency romance he should be talking about his pants or his Calvin Kleins. He also says he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea and give Emily "poppycock" about things, poppycock means rubbish, gibberish so the sentence doesn't make sense. None of this should make any difference for non-British readers but it was jarring to this reader when a former SAS soldier brought up in relativity poverty and in a rough area speaks like a little old lady from an historical romance!

Setting aside my linguistic issues, I enjoyed this book, it was fast-paced and the characters were engaging, although I didn't quite grasp how they discovered the identity of Spider - that seemed a little bit too convenient, although I may have to reread that bit to confirm.

As always the little hints as to the next character to star in their own book were intriguing.

I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bumped for release.

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Review: Bad Reputation

Bad Reputation by Nicole Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OMG, this is just a mash-up of all my favourite contemporary romance tropes.

Chase Barrett is known as the Bad Boy of Hockey, on and off the ice. His best friend is Cassie, Desrosiers she is a VP for a well-known tech company and the yin to Chase’s yang.

They have been best friends since college and also secretly in love with each other, but neither wants to ruin a great friendship by trying to make it anything more. So they are in and out of each other’s houses, cooking for each other at least once a week and visiting their parents back home together.

When Cassie is asked to give the Keynote speech for her company at the annual conference in Vegas she invites the party king along. After all if anyone knows how to party in Vegas it’s going to be Chase. But everyone knows that too much Tequila in Vegas can only lead one of two ways: marriage or tattoos (hint, no-one got a tattoo).

This had everything: bad boy with the good girl; friends to lovers; secretly in love with your BFF; married by mistake; drunk wedding in Vegas, American sports romance. You can’t help but enjoy it.

Someone else said this was quite tame for Nicole Edwards, this is the first book I have read by this author and whilst I would say there was a lot of sex it did seem a bit samey, almost like new scene "let's do it again". But it was still super fun and sexy.

Looking forward to more of this series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bumped for release.

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Review: Stand-In Wife: Special Forces #2

Stand-In Wife: Special Forces #2 by Karina Bliss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no idea when or where I got this book!

This was a quirky fun read about adult twins where the single carefree twin Viv impersonates her separated with two children sibling Meredith after Merry breaks her shin. What starts off as a simple misunderstanding by the ex-husband Charlie's step-brother Ross soon spirals out of control.

I liked it because it was set in New Zealand (a bit different), I didn't know they had the SAS in New Zealand, so that was a learning point. Viv and Ross have a palpable chemistry and I adored Merry's domineering daughter Tilly (nicknamed Atilla by her doting uncle because of her bossy tendencies).

I see that this is an old Mills and Boon which has been re-released with a sexy cover (not this one obviously), I think it has weathered quite well (or been updated well) as I couldn't spot any references that would date it.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and I will look out for the other books in the series as Ross' SAS team mates clearly also have their own stories.

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Review: Winter at West Sands Guest House

Winter at West Sands Guest House by Maggie Conway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just the thing to read when you are laid up in bed with a cold feeling sorry for yourself.

Eva Harris owns a small guest house in St Andrews, Scotland. She is a widow with a small son, Jamie and an unruly dog. Her beloved next door neighbours have moved to a smaller house and her new neighbour is a prickly single Englishman who rebuffs all of Eva's attempts to be neighbourly.

Ben Matthews has given up a life in the City earning megabucks to move to St Andrews where he has a job as a physics lecturer. He had planned to move with his girlfriend but at the last minute she decided a new glamorous job abroad was more interesting. Moving into a large family home that he had never even seen before seems like a huge mistake to Ben, he had visions of a family and a dog but instead he has a huge house that needs a lot of work and he is regretting his decision.

Despite his initial hostility, Eva and Ben soon become friends as their paths cross (often literally) often in such a small university town. First Eva is helping Ben to fix his central heating, then Ben is helping Jamie with his maths homework. But the past casts a long shadow and is Eva willing to risk her heart and put her trust in another man?

I liked this, it was heartwarming and gentle, I had house-envy for Eva and I'm madly jealous of her handyman skills, she and Ben were both such homebodies who wanted nothing more than family.

Thoroughly recommended second-chance romance, especially if you like small children and dogs!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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