Review: The Duke in My Bed by Amelia Grey

HERE COMES THE GROOM

As a notorious member of the Heirs’ Club, Bray Drakestone can’t resist a challenge from one of his well-heeled colleagues—especially when it involves money and horses. But the friendly wager takes an unexpected and deadly turn. Bray is forced to agree to marry one of his challenger’s five sisters—sight unseen. Now gamblers all over London are placing bets on whether Bray will actually go through with it…

THERE GOES THE BRIDE

Miss Louisa Prim, the eldest sister, doesn’t care a whit what the reckless rogue at the Heirs’ Club promised her brother—she has no intention of marrying the future Duke of Drakestone. Bray, however, sees her rejection as another challenge. He bets that the fiery Miss Prim will not only agree to marry him, she will propose to him! With four sisters behind her, Louisa knows she can’t lose. But why does her opponent have to be a divinely handsome scoundrel? And so sweetly, irresistibly seductive…

First, I love the cover.  All that purple!  Second, the exclusive I got at Heroes and Heartbreakers really sold me on this book.  I couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen next.

In The Duke in My Bed, Ms. Grey has taken a very prim young woman and a rakish man and changed their outlooks toward the other.  Their futures are entwined based upon a deathbed promise, one which Bray has no intention of keeping.  Louisa plans to live her life caring for her younger sisters, and as the blurb says, she isn't going to marry Bray, promise or not.  

Throughout the course of the narrative, we see their respective opinions change.  Louisa watches Bray with her sisters; Bray cannot stop thinking about Louisa.  Their involvement with each other begins with a promise yet morphs into so much more.  Their romance is a sweet one -- Louisa protests a bit too much at times -- but I thoroughly enjoyed watching them fall in love.

(A very special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Duke in My Bed.)

Review: Vixen in Velvet by Loretta Chase

From the Diary of Leonie Noirot: The perfect corset should invite its undoing . . .

Lethally charming Simon Blair, Marquess of Lisburne, has reluctantly returned to London for one reason only: a family obligation. Still, he might make time for the seduction of a certain redheaded dressmaker—but Leonie Noirot hasn't time for him. She's obsessed with transforming his cousin, the dowdy Lady Gladys, into a swan.

Leonie's skills can coax curves—and profits—from thin air, but his criminally handsome lordship is too busy trying to seduce her to appreciate her genius. He badly needs to learn a lesson, and the wager she provokes ought to teach him, once and for all.

A great plan, in theory—but Lisburne's become a serious distraction and Leonie's usual logic is in danger of slipping away as easily as a silk chemise. Could the Season's greatest transformation be her own?

The third Noirot sister, Leonie, is featured in Vixen in Velvet.  I do love this series by Ms. Chase.

Like the two previous books, this one has wit and charm, and I enjoyed the chase of Lisburne and Leonie's staunch refusals.  She prefers order and reason, and Lisburne -- and is bet -- is just the distraction she needs.

I may have to binge read the series before I pick up Book Four, Dukes Prefer Blondes. 

Eagerly Anticipating -- January 2015

     

Review: Merry Christmas, Baby by Jill Shalvis

SEASON'S KISSES . . .

Wild child Chloe Thompson can't believe how much things have changed. She still can't get enough of her sexy husband Sawyer, but he seems to prefer working to impending fatherhood. So tonight, a very pregnant Chloe is escaping her troubles at the town Christmas party.

Sheriff Sawyer Thompson hopes surprising Chloe at the party will give him a chance to set things right. But as the snow begins to fall and the wind rages, he wonders whether he can make it back in time. While mother nature conspires to keep Sawyer and Chloe apart, an unexpected arrival will require them to kiss and make up . . . and ring in the happiest holiday Lucky Harbor has ever seen.

The first three Lucky Harbor books (Simply Irresistible, The Sweetest Thing, and Head Over Heels) are my favorites of the entire series.   I was really excited to revisit Chloe and Sawyer just as their lives were about to change due to impending parenthood. 

I have 2 complaints: (1) it was too short.  Merry Christmas, Baby is a novella, yes, and I knew that when I started, but I still didn't want the book to be finished.  I wanted to spend more time with these core couples!  (2) I wanted to know the baby's name.  Not because it's really important; I just nosy that way!

Minor, minor quibbles in truth.  If you loved Lucky Harbor, Merry Christmas, Baby is a great addition to the series. 

(A very special thank you to Forever Romance, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Merry Christmas, Baby.)

Review: Sugar's Twice as Sweet by Marina Adair

He's trouble she doesn't need . . .

Thanks to a cheating fiancé, Josephina Harrington's perfect life just crashed and burned. Moving in with her overbearing parents is definitely not an option. No, she needs to prove she can make it on her own. And she will-by turning her great-aunt's old plantation house into a destination getaway. She's just not expecting her contractor to be so hands-on-and so totally irresistible.

. . . but everything she wants

Bad-boy golf champion Brett McGraw figured his hometown of Sugar, Georgia was the perfect place to lay low and get his life back up to par. The leggy blonde with a pint-sized pup is the kind of sweet 'n sassy trouble he never saw coming. She doesn't know a nut from a bolt and before long, he's renovating her house . . . as she steals his heart. Can he convince Josephina that his womanizing ways are in the past and he's ready for forever?

I'm a big fan of sports romances, so I was interested in a headstrong golfer sent home to cool off and hide out following an Internet scandal.  That Brett and Josephina knew each other as kids was a neat connection too.  Unfortunately, Sugar's Twice as Sweet started strong, but the story seemed to go on and on. 

Exactly how many bad things can happen to Joie in her quest to make her great-aunt's home a B&B?  (Hint:  a LOT!)  The elderly ladies had a weak excuse to make Joie's life in Sugar, Georgia miserable, and the fact that Brett's grandmother was one of those causing havoc put him squarely in the middle between family and a possible romance.  Not very sweet, Granny!

Sugar on Top (April 2015) features Glory and Cal, both introduced here.  I may decide to pay another visit to Sugar, Georgia to see if life there is any sweeter for a homegrown couple. 

 

(A very special thank you to Forever Romance, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Sugar's Twice as Sweet.)

The Last Cowboy in Texas by Katie Lane

 

THE LAST COWBOY IN TEXAS by Katie Lane

December 16, 2014

NO SAD SONGS HERE, DARLIN'

Country music princess Starlet Brubaker has a sweet tooth for moon pies and cowboys: both are yummy-and you can never have just one. Now Beckett Cates may not be a cowboy, but he certainly has the heart, soul-and body-to whet her appetite. He's a sexy ex-Marine with a touch hotter than the scorching Texas sun and arms strong enough to catch her when she lands into trouble.

Playing bodyguard to America's sweetheart isn't easy for Beckett. But falling for her sure is. Unfortunately, Starlet has a reputation for keeping a guy or two wrapped around her finger and Beckett refuses to be anybody's backup. So now it's up to Starlet to prove that she's put her cowboy-crazy days behind her. Otherwise, she'll be singing solo instead of living in harmony with the man who's loved her even before her fame and fortune.

Buy Links:

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About the Author:

Katie Lane is the USA Today bestselling author of the Deep in the Heart of Texas and Hunk for the Holiday series. Katie lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and when she isn't writing, enjoys reading, going to the gym, golfing, traveling, or just snuggling next to her high school sweetheart and cairn terrier Roo.

Learn more about Katie Lane at:
www.katielanebooks.com
Facebook.com/katielaneauthor
Twitter, @ktlane3

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Review: Broken Open by Lauren Dane

Beyond passion. And beyond their control…

Five years ago, Tuesday Eastwood's life collapsed and left her devastated. After an empty, nomadic existence, she's finally pieced her life back together in the small Oregon town of Hood River. Now Tuesday has everything sorted out. Just so long as men are kept for sex, and only sex….

Then she met him.

Musician and rancher Ezra Hurley isn't the man of Tuesday's dreams. He's a verboten fantasy—a man tortured by past addictions whose dark charisma and long, lean body promise delicious carnality. But this craving goes far beyond chemistry. It's primal. It's insatiable. And it won't be satisfied until they're both consumed, body and soul….

I knew Tuesday and Ezra would have off-the-charts chemistry, simply because that had been the case when they circled each other in The Best Kind of Trouble.  And I didn't disagree they would find their happy ending together, given they had both overcome serious heartaches in their respective pasts.  The main issue I had with Broken Open was the amount of outside interference that seems to propel the narrative.  Yes, Tuesday and Ezra get to know each other and ultimately fall in love, but Tuesday's former in-laws and her parents and his parents and his brothers and her best friend and the racist at the feed store are all involved in their path of romance.  It started to become too much, and I wondered where Tuesday and Ezra -- and their feelings -- were in all the external conflicts. 

I am looking forward to Back to You, the final book in the series.  Fingers crossed Kelly and Vaughn find a way to be together again.