Pearl's World of Romance - Reviews with a Passion: Bellagio Trilogy

Showing posts with label Bellagio Trilogy. Show all posts

August 22, 2008

Footloose - Leanne Banks

10:28 PM |

Back Cover:
Think working for a leading international shoe company sounds like a dream job? Not if you're Amelia Parker, an overworked, downtrodden temp working for Bellagio, Inc.'s grand dame, Lillian Bellagio. But things are looking up for Amelia. She's just been given the assignment of accompanying Ms. Bellagio to her estate in the Keys. Trading pumps for flip-flops and a cell phone for a conch shell—could be worse, right?

Especially when life on the island includes her very own mystery man—one Jack "The Shark" O'Connell, dashing venture capitalist. He dares Amelia to use this time to do something wild: drink a hurricane, go skinny-dipping...have an affair with a dangerously attractive man. Now Amelia will have to decide whether to step into that glass slipper.

They meet on the Keys where Jack O'Connell is combining a vacation with business he wants to conduct with the grand dame of Bellagio Inc., Lillian Bellagio. Amelia Parker has temporarily been sent to the Keys as Lillian's personal assistant. She uses this assignment to get over the breakup with her fiancé.
Amelia has always accommodated her ex in everything: school, career, behavior, and appearance. She constantly put his wishes first but when he breaks up with her for the second time in a few weeks and tells her he has fallen in love with someone else, something inside her breaks and she's determined to never fall in love again.
But what starts as a holiday fling, soon becomes more and they realize that they have feelings for each other that go much deeper than some holiday affair.

Jack is a self-made man. He has worked himself up to the man he is now, driven to escape his sad and difficult childhood. He yearns for a sense of belonging, even if he has a hard time acknowledging this desire.
His connection to the Bellagio family is a surprising one and one I didn't see coming until it was revealed in the plotline.

Professionally Amelia can plan and organize everything and anyone without batting an eye but arranging her own personal life proves to be more of a challenge to her. After Will she has trouble finding her own individuality and making her own choices again.

Jack challenges and inspires Amelia to come out of her comfort zone and do things she normally wouldn't. I loved the chemistry between Jack and Amelia. They were perfect together. They both start a little on the negative side because Jack is using Amelia for information on Bellagio. Jack's motives for chatting up to Amelia aren’t quite without ulterior (business) motives when he finds out she works for Bellagio. And Amelia is a little bit too hung up on her ex. But throughout the story they redeemed themselves magnificently. They both grew emotionally during the book.

The dynamics were a bit different than I’m used in the romance novels I read. For a change it was Jack who is first to realize that his feelings for Amelia were more than some vacation fling. Usually it's the heroine who is aware of this first and tries to make more of the relationship but Amelia was determined at first to see Jack as her guilty pleasure to get over Will and nothing more than a passionate past-time during her stay on the Keys. Even when they continue their affair at home she wants to keep it under wraps and doesn’t want other people, especially her colleagues at Bellagio, to know they are an item.

The supporting cast is a mix of previous main couples and recurring secondary characters from the two previous books in the trilogy. But a few new secondary characters also make an appearance. I liked Amelia's mother and sisters and there's a scene concerning Amelia's sister's bachelorette party that's really hilarious.
There are slightly bigger secondary roles for Marc Waterson (hero book 1) and Brooke Tarantino (the runaway bride from book 1). We get acquainted with Brooke again and she is still the quintessential spoiled, selfish and irresponsible brat. She is used to getting what she wants and attracts trouble like a magnet.

I'm sad that the trilogy has ended because I enjoyed the Bellagio books and would have been happy to see more stories in this setting.
But I'll have to make do with Leanne Banks' other books, which will hopefully provide as delightful reading as these ones did.
I can't decide which book I liked better, this one or book 2. They were both wonderful reads with many laughs but also heart in the throat-moments. Each couple and their story is unique and a combination of fun and emotions. This book was a bit more sensual than the previous two. I think this was because of Jack's character. He was a different hero than Walker and definitely different from Marc. He was more spontaneous and less inhibited. He really brought out Amelia's sensual side too.

I haven't read much contemporary romance but I know Leanne Banks is going to be one of my favorites. Every book has its own vibe and feel. The connecting factor is the Bellagio shoe company. In this trilogy she combines fun, emotions and every-day situations into fast-paced and enjoyable books.

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Labels: Bellagio Trilogy, Contemporary Romance, great reads, HQN Books, Leanne Banks, reviews | 0 comments |

August 19, 2008

Underfoot - Leanne Banks

11:02 PM |

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Back Cover:
Bellagio, Inc. public relations genius Trina Roberts had been a bad, bad girl when she'd gone to bed with a recently jilted groom and wound up pregnant. She knew Walker Gordon wasn't looking for forever—at least not with her. So when he took a job overseas, she sort of neglected to tell him about the baby on the way.
Well, now he's back... and he's just figured out the truth.

Walker had been reeling from a very public breakup when Trina had offered solace he couldn't deny. He'd never expected the result would make him somebody's daddy! Trina claimed not to need anything from him, but he was determined that his child have a father; he just didn't know if it should be him. Because a father's shoes...well, those he wasn't sure he could fill.

This book starts where book 1 ended: Walker Gordon being dumped at the altar. Walker was about to marry Brooke Tarantino; great-niece of the owners of Bellagio and Bellagio designed her wedding shoes. At the last minute Brooke decides to do the runaway bride-act and literally left the groom standing at the altar.

Trina Roberts, who works in the PR department at Bellagio's, has had a crush on Walker but he was off-limits because he was engaged.
After an alcohol-induced one-night-stand between them on the night of the cancelled wedding, Walker goes to Europe to recover from the embarrassment and Trina finds out she's pregnant. She knows Walker never wanted to be a father so she keeps it from him.

Then Walker returns to secure the Bellagio-account for his advertising company and finds out he has a daughter. He accepts his financial responsibilities but he also offers Trina to help find a man for her who will also be a good dad to their daughter. He has more trouble executing this offer than he anticipated and they find out Walker is more daddy material than he would have thought.

I loved Trina in this book! She is a heroine who knows she can't change her situation so she makes the best of it. She was witty and independent. I loved the scenes with her and Maddie, her daughter.
Walker is caring, responsible and a goal getter. He was practically invisible in book 1 but really stepped up to the plate in his own.
The chemistry between them is tangible throughout the entire book and I loved the way they grew toward each other. They went from a one-night-stand to two people who genuinely cared for each other.

The people surrounding Walker and Trina were lovely secondary characters. They complemented both them and the storyline perfectly.
I loved Walker's uncle Harry and his brother BJ and the little storyline concerning BJ and his girlfriend. Trina's mother was a bit of an annoying character at first but she quickly redeems herself by doing something very unexpected and nice.
And I got to "see" how Jenny and Marc from book 1 were doing which was a nice extra treat.

I liked book 1 in this trilogy but I loved this one. Both the storyline and the characters suited my taste and spoke more to me than the previous book.
It was funny and fast-paced but still it followed a believable pace considering the storyline. I had laugh-out-loud moments, but there were also some scenes that had me teary-eyed. The end was great. It had the emotions I seek in romance novels so I was fully satisfied after turning the last page.

I love Leanne Banks' writing style. It's fluent and easy-to-read. She creates characters you can't but like and empathize with, characters that have their flaws like we all have. It was a very nice read and I'm diving right into the third and last book of this trilogy. In this book the heroine of that one is introduced as a secondary character and I like her already.

If you like contemporary stories with a hint of chick-lit, Leanne Banks is the author to have on your bookshelves. I know that when I need a light, fun and recognizable read, I can grab one of her books anytime.

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Labels: Bellagio Trilogy, Contemporary Romance, great reads, HQN Books, Leanne Banks, reviews | 0 comments |

August 10, 2008

Feet First - Leanne Banks

6:25 PM |

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Back cover:
Designing footwear is Jenny Prillaman's life, so getting the plum assignment to create a socialite's wedding shoes is a dream come true. Dealing with the heiress is another story. So is staying away from her dreamy new boss, a man too hot to deny for long, despite Jenny's best intentions of keeping her business away from his pleasure.

Making Bellagio, Inc. and international success is executive Mark Waterson's career ambition. But his life's desire is to find the right woman and settle down. Too bad Jenny would rather follow in his corporate footsteps than try on the glass slipper of a company wife.
At least Mark's got one thing going for him--the way to a woman's heart is through a really great pair of shoes!

Jenny Prillaman is the assistant for one of Bellagio's main shoe designers. She has a secret crush on Bellagio's Vice-President and dreams of being a real designer some day. When her boss is incapacitated by circumstances she gets her big break in designing wedding shoes for Atlanta's high society wedding of the year.

Bellagio's VP Marc Waterson is happy with his life but he does want to settle down with a wife and family. In order to find said wife he has drawn up a plan to find the perfect woman. He has a whole list of rules and requirements and Jenny certainly doesn't meet any of them.
But when Jenny and Marc are thrown together working on the big wedding, one thing leads to another. They decide to have a secret affair, but both didn't count on the affair growing into something much more than that.

Jenny and Marc are the proverbial opposites that attract.
Marc is orderly and has a plan of action for everything he does, both in business and in his personal life. He is the textbook control freak.
Jenny is the total opposite. Spontaneity rules her life and she doesn't plan. She goes through life winging it and taking it day by day.
But as different as they are, they both are attracted to the qualities in the other that they don't have.

Both Jenny and Marc are down-to-earth and lifelike characters. They have their flaws like everyone has and are very easy to identify with and relate to.
Jenny was like a fresh breeze throughout the book. She was funny, realistic, kind and compassionate. She lacks any presumptions or pretentions and I liked her best.
Marc annoyed me a bit in the beginning, for instance by constantly not remembering Jenny's name and calling her all kinds of variations to her name (Jenna, Ginger, Jerri, Jill, Gena). This was funny in an endearing way the first two times but after that it started to bother me. Fortunately it stopped after a few chapters.
And Marc's plan at the end to win Jenny's heart really salvaged his character and made up for the annoyance in the beginning.

The focus of the book was on Marc and Jenny. But there were some secondary characters that were fun to read. They supported both Marc and Jenny in their blossoming relationship but didn't poke their nose in everything.

This was an easy and light read. For me it was a nice change to some intense books I've been reading lately. It was fun and endearing with recognizable situations. Things that could happen to you and me and everyday issues we all deal with.

I did like the second half better than the first because that was where Marc stepped to the plate, let go of his find-the-perfect-wife plan and gave Jenny a real chance.
It's hard to describe why but the book didn't wow me. It's a nice book when you don't want some heavy reading and you’re in the mood for some relaxation. This was the right book to wind down with.
Nothing more and but certainly nothing less either because even if it's simple and not mind-blowing it's still a very well-developed and well-written story with believable contemporary characters whose flaws make them very likeable.

The perfect book when you want an uncomplicated and warm story to spend some pleasurable reading hours with.

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