I read this book in March 2007

A LOVE AS BRIGHT AS THE STARS AND ENDURING AS STONE...
Beautiful and bold home renovator Katie James is unlucky in love-so unlucky she’s been reduced to kissing a marble statue in the garden of her newly bought Victorian mansion. But her luck changes when the statue warms to life in her arms-and turns out to be a hunk straight out of any woman’s fantasy! Well, almost….Jorlan en Sarr hails from another planet and like all the other men Katie’s known , he comes with a lot of baggage. Before long, she is swept up in tumultuous passion that will either save this man she has come to love, or destroy him.

A CURSED WARRIOR WITH A LOVER’S MAGIC TOUCH…
Jorlan en Sarr, a mighty alien prince, is cursed by his half-brother to spend eternity as a marble statue, able to see, hear and feel everything around him, yet be unable to respond. His one chance for freedom is a spell that catapults him to Earth, where he spends one thousand years awaiting a woman’s kiss.
Entombed in his stony skin for centuries, Jorlan has been waiting for a maiden fair to break the spell. Yet this statuesque beauty with the will of an Amazon an d kisses like flame is a far cry from the obedient damsels of Imperia. And though Jorlan is tempted to abandon all for the sake of Katie, unless he can convince her to give him her heart in two week’s time, he’ll be turned back to stone. And she’ll be lost to him forever.

Embarking on a new author I find myself totally blown away! In the most positive way possible! Humor, sensuality, passion, the ultimate dominant alpha male, these are the ingredients for a great journey!
Delightful and witty are the first words that came to mind after reading the first two chapters.
I devoured this book, the plot involves not only a sort of time-travel but also “planet-travel” for Jorlan is an alien from the planet Imperia.
A planet where women are obedient, meek and compliant and there only purpose is to serve their men who are there to protect the women.
And now Jorlan finds himself on earth in the twenty-first century where women, and especially Katie James, are independent, self-sufficient and don’t need any man for protection.
This causes hilarious dialogues between them.
Especially the one where he demands that she sleep with him to end the curse for once and for all. This only happens when the woman who kissed him also declares her love for him. Jorlan is utterly convinced that one sensual bedding session is enough to make her fall in love with him.
I truly loved Jorlan as the ultimate alpha male with his conception of women being vulnerable, meek, submissive, needing protection all the time.
And Katie is great! A modern, independent young women who stands her ground but at the same time falls head over heels in love with this amazing alien creature.
Katie grew up with 4 older brothers and a very protective father and she’s fed up with overbearing men telling her what do to so she knows exactly how to deal with this dominant male.
His reaction to her ordering him around is priceless. How dare she -a weak female- order him –a mighty warrior and above all a man!- around.

Besides the love-story there is also the story the relationship between Jorlan, Percen and their mother and why his half-brother Percen cursed Jorlan into a statue. Their triangle is very complicated and difficult but strangely enough I could understand and sympathize with the reasons and motivations of Percen’s actions, however mean they were towards Jorlan.

Again I have found a treasure in this book. The reason for it was the feelings, motivations and actions being so pure, basic and “real”! No pretences, deceitfulness but everything direct and in the open, pure and raw. I noticed that I’m really starting to favor this kind of writing I really enjoy these books. This combined with fun and sensuality makes it a keeper for me and I really am looking forward to reading more by Ms Showalter’s hand.

Quotes:
When Katie sets a few rules he has to uphold if he wants her to allow him to come home with her, he first demands some adjustments of the rules and then says:
“If I break one of your rules, I will allow you to give me a severe tongue lashing all over my body.”

Ms Showalter also has a funny way of using food-metaphors, with a special preference for chocolate and icecream. I found at least 7 or 8 in the book but here the two I liked the most:
- She might as well have asked him if he wanted to finger paint her naked body with caramel-and-chocolate ice cream and lick it off
- Since he first appeared in her garden she had lusted after him like he was a piece of chocolate in a PMS survival kit