Review: Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt

 Their lives were perfect . . .

Lady Hero Batten, the beautiful sister of the Duke of Wakefield, has everything a woman could want, including the perfect fiancé. True, the Marquis of Mandeville is a trifle dull and has no sense of humor, but that doesn't bother Hero. Until she meets his notorious brother . . .


Until they met each other.

Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is far from perfect - and he likes it that way. How he spends his days is a mystery, but all of London knows he engages in the worst sorts of drunken revelry at night. Hero takes an instant dislike to him, and Griffin thinks that Hero, with her charities and faultless manners, is much too impeccable for society, let alone his brother. Yet their near-constant battle of wits soon sparks desire - desire that causes their carefully constructed worlds to come tumbling down. As Hero's wedding nears, and Griffin's enemies lay plans to end their dreams forever, can two imperfect people find perfect true love?

Ms. Hoyt is on my automatic buy list, and Notorious Pleasures may just be my favorite of her books thus far.  Of course there's sexual tension: 

"Damn you."

Her vision was blurred, so she didn't see his movement, but she was suddenly across the carriage, half sprawled on his lap.

"I dare," he muttered, "because I'm selfish and black-hearted and vain.  I dare because you are what you are and I am what I am.  I dare because I cannot otherwise.  I've lived too long without bread or wine, crawling desperate in a lonely, barren desert, and you, my darling Lady Perfect, are manna sent directly from heaven above."

His lips were on hers, urgent and hot. Oh, Lord, she had not known how much she missed his kisses!  His mouth tasted of need too long suppressed, but where he might've been rough with her, he was instead gentle.
Very gentle.

...

His big hands were on her breasts, and he pinched both her nipples at once.  She bit her lip at the pleasure-pain, a tear slipping down one cheek.  This was real.  This was something outside of everyday bland interactions and rote conversation.  His mouth was on hers, open and wild, and  his hips were thrusting, moving his cock in her hand in an animal rhythm.  He squeezed her poor engorged nipples again, pulling at them at the same time.  And she felt.

She felt alive.

And a little bit of humor: 

He shook his head. "This isn't a whim."

"Then why didn't you ask me before you bedded me?"

He stared at her, tempted to answer that he'd been thinking with the smaller of his two heads before he'd bedded her, thank you very much.

But at the heart of the matter is the fact that Ms. Hoyt's writing is impossible (for me) to put down.  That's one of the main problems:  I read her books too damn fast.  Each page adds more sexual tension, more intrigue, more drama, more romance, and the hero and heroine become people I feel I know -- even better, I want to know them.  I'm a spectator to their little moments and I want more of them. 

And I cannot express how giddy I am at the thought of Silence's book [Scandalous Desires, November 2011].

Cover Love

TWICE TEMPTED

Serena Donovan left London six years ago, her heart broken and her reputation ruined by devilishly handsome Jonathan Dane. Now, with her family's future in peril, she reluctantly agrees to return to England and assume her late twin's identity. The price? Marry a man she doesn't love and spend the rest of her days living a lie.

Jonathan Dane, Earl of Stratford, has become an incorrigible rake, drinking, gambling-and trying to forget Serena Donovan. Yet the moment he's introduced to the prim and proper "Meg", he recognizes the sensual young woman who captured his heart. Haunted by his past mistakes, he refuses to lose Serena again. But convincing her to trust him is no easy task. Claiming his lost love means exposing the truth and destroying the life Serena has sacrificed everything to rebuild. With the future of all the Donovans at stake, and their undying passion capable of triggering yet another scandal, how much will Jonathan and Serena risk for a chance at true love?

Tell Me a Story...

Ms. Lila Dare leapt onto my TBR list last spring (May was the month for writers named "Dare").  I'm not certain where I saw the cover for Tressed to Kill, but once I read the back cover blurb and saw "Southern" and "beauty shop," I knew this book was for me.  Having read the second in the series, Polished Off, I'm so glad I took the chance!  

I'm extremely excited to have her visit and tell a little bit about...

The Books at Lila’s House

Somehow it seemed appropriate, when writing for a blog called “My House of Books” to take stock of the books lying around my house and share my findings with you.  In the interest of full disclosure, I will point out that my husband and daughters are all voracious readers with tastes that differ greatly from mine, so be prepared for a wide range of titles!

Bookshelves line every wall in our basement and that’s where we corral most of our probably 2,000+ books.  (If that number shocks you, talk to my hubby who is incapable of demoting a book to giveaway or donation once it has been blessed with a slot on our shelves.)  I confess to occasionally sneaking down to the basement with a box when my hubby’s away and extracting such up-to-date titles as Cobol for Dummies and foisting them on Goodwill.  Tom’s tastes run mostly to non-fiction, including political biographies, everything ever written about the Civil War, U.S. history, world wars and sources of conflict, and enough chess books to start his own chess book lending library.  When I look at his books, I feel inadequately educated.  He’s currently reading the Robin Olds biography, Fighter Pilot.

Several shelves in the basement and most horizontal surfaces in the main living areas are covered with my daughters’ books which they seem constitutionally incapable of putting away.  Of course, this strange malady also affects their clothes, their homework, their art supplies and shoes, so I guess I’m not surprised.  Daughter #1 (thirteen years old) loves fantasy and horses, so she owns all the Harry Potter books, the Warrior series (cat clans, for those of you who don’t know), the Hunger Games books, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, the Inheritance Cycle (dragons) . . . you get the picture.  She knows when the next installment of all her favorite series is coming out and rushes to the local bookshop on the day, gift card in hand.  (Somehow, she always has a bookstore gift card to spend.)  She is currently reading Horses for Dummies.  Really.  Oh, and To Kill a Mockingbird, under duress for school.  Since it has no dragon, talking cats, or magic of any kind and takes place in a boring-as-dirt town with bland characters and no justice, she doesn’t much like it.  (She wrote that last sentence.)

Daughter #2 (eleven years old) reads some of the above, plus Dave Barry’s and Carl Hiassen’s middle grade books, the Peter and the Starcatcher series, Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, and anything featuring a smart/sarcastic/rebellious middle schooler.   Hm . . . perhaps that’s because she is a smart, sarcastic, mildly rebellious middle schooler? 

I have books lining my office, many of which are writing craft books.  I also have a fair sprinkling of classics, left over from my days as a literature grad student (I haven’t read them in years but they make me look intelligent—in a pretentiously literary way) when people scan the shelves.  I have stacks of traditional mysteries, signed books by friends, essay collections (Anna Quindlen, David Sedaris, Nora Ephron, and others), and every Regency romance Georgette Heyer ever wrote.  My mom introduced me to Heyer in my teens and I’ve read them over and over since then; they’re my comfort reads.  

When I visit a friend’s house, almost the first thing I do is scan the bookshelves for titles.  What would I find on your shelves?

Review: Polished Off by Lila Dare

St. Elizabeth, Georgia, offers charm, Southern hospitality - and an occasional dollop of mayhem.  Now, hairdresser Grace Terhune has to save a beauty pageant that's fallen viceim to the ugliness of murder...

Little Miss Murderous

It's business as usual at Violetta's salon, until Audrey Faye sashays in looking for stylists for the Miss Magnolia Blossom pageant.  Grace jumps at the opportuinty, but on her first day she finds a theater full of anti-pageant protestors, angry mothers, frantic contestants, and an aloof Audrey.  Even Violetta's manicurist, Stella, is acting strangely. 

Then, during the talent portion, protestors storm the stage - and Audrey Faye is found dead, murdered with a nail file.  It turns out Audrey was having an affair with Stella's husband, which makes Stella a prime suspect.  Now, Grace and Violetta's beauticians must find the real murdered before Stella is polished off permanently...

Grace Terhune has stepped in it again, and by "it," I mean murder.  Or perhaps she just has an aura that attracts dead bodies.  I don't exactly know, but whatever it is, it makes Polished Off a quick and entertaining read. 

Ms. Dare has the ability to add a little bit of everything to this mystery: twists and turns, romance, suspense, as well as the commonality of Grace and the citizens of St. Elizabeth, Georgia.  This could be your town, your neighbors.  Then again, if the bodies began piling up in my town, I'd be inclined to move.  Grace, however, never thinks in those terms.  She wants to help Stella -- as she wanted to clear her mother's name in Tressed to Kill -- so she immediately goes to work.  And let me say that dead bodies do not impact Grace's ability to do good hair or be an amateur sleuth. 

Polished Off picks up immediately where Tressed to Kill ends, and Ms. Dare delivers another jam-packed ride.  I cannot wait to see what will happen to Grace next.

(A very special thank you to Berkley Prime Crime who provided me with an ARC of Polished Off.)

Review: Inside Out by Lauren Dane

The latest "sexy, pulse-pounding adventure"* (Jaci Burton) from the national bestselling author of Coming Undone.


In the wake of an attack that left her nearly dead, Ella Tipton has spent each day putting her life back together. She doesn't have any room for romance, but that doesn't mean she has to stop admiring the scenery.

Sexy security professional Andrew Copeland is no stranger to women, but he knows Ella is something different. Determined to get her to let him in, Andy does the one thing he can think of to get close: he offers her hands-on training in self-defense-and before long, all that skin on skin contact with have them both turning inside out.

While the Brown Sibling series is one of my favorites, Inside Out didn't thrill me like Laid Bare and Coming Undone. 

There's no doubt Ella Tipton and Andrew Copeland (aka Cope, Andy or Andrew, depending on who is speaking) have chemistry and are hot for one another.  I loved that Ella schooled their extended family on Andrew's virtues: his poetry, his art, and his woodworking skills.  I also loved seeing their courtship, the strengthening of their relationship, told via their notes and packages to one another. 

But it was the drama surrounding Erin's pregnancy and subsequent childbirth I kept tuning in for.  Also for Raven, though she affects other characters in such a way, be it positive or negative, I'm not sure why I like her so much. 

I am looking forward to Never Enough (September 2011), the next book in the series featuring the elusive Adrian Brown.

Eagerly Anticipating

Review: Seven Nights to Forever by Evangeline Collins

The author of Her Ladyship's Companion once again pushes the erotic boundaries of Regency romance.

Destitute after her father's death, Rose Marlowe has debts to settle and a younger brother to support. But she also possesses a matchless beauty-one that could command quite a price. Now, every month, Rose spends one week at a decadent London brothel, where she's become a sought-after prize.

Then one night she meets a wealthy merchant. Handsome, kind and compassionate, with a lonely soul that matches her own, James Archer is not her typical client. Falling in love with a client, never mind a married one, is unthinkable. Yet Rose can't help but lose herself as one night becomes seven-and seven nights leads to a chance at forever.

This is a love story, pure and simple.  Sure, the heroine is a courtesan, plying her skills to keep her younger brother in school, and the hero is in a loveless marriage with a shrew of a wife.  So there are some complications. 

Overlook those. 

Rose and James meet.  They spend some time together.  They start to think about one another in their moments apart.  They begin to need one another.  They each want the other.  Those complications I mentioned earlier crop up.  (You knew they would.)  But guess what?  Love totally wins!  And the journey Rose and James go on, both together and separately, is so passionate, so sweet, so amazing, their happily ever after makes the hell they go through worth it. 

(A very special thank you to Dear Author and Berkley for sponsoring the contest in which I won an ARC of Seven Nights to Forever.)