Showing posts with label Connected Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Connected Series. Show all posts
November 22, 2008
8:00 AM |
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Back Cover:
Diana Clare has had enough of London – the balls, the rakes you can never trust… Now, having returned home in disgrace, she is trying to forget what drove her from the ton.
But rake and gambler Brett Farnham, Earl of Coltonby, seems intent on making Diana remember exactly what it was like to be whirled around the ballroom and seduced by the glint in your partner’s eye...
But Brett has ‘mistress’ rather than ‘marriage’ in mind, and Diana is not sure her reputation can stand up to another scandal...
After a disastrous engagement and the death of her fiancé, Diana Clare leaves London to settle in Northumberland with her brother. She has learned her lesson about men who are only after her money and decides to live according to her rules of propriety. She is determined to behave and dress like a spinster so she won't attract rakes to ruin her. But a chance meeting with Brett Farnham, Lord Coltonby, endangers her determination since he represents a temptation able to make her forsake her own rules.
Lovely is the first word that came to mind after finishing Michelle Styles' A QUESTION OF IMPROPRIETY. With it I reconnected with the genuine Regency historical romance, complete with the society gossips, the secretive seduction and wooing, the misinterpreted intentions and the budding feelings of love.
At first I almost started to dislike Brett with his slick and manipulating ways and his intention of using Diana to get what he wanted from her brother. But just in time Michelle Styles made him realize his feelings for Diana, turning him into a romantic hero worth liking and admiring. He developed from a man with a rake's reputation into a man with honorable intentions not allowing Diana to have anything but genuine passion and love.
While reading the first chapters you know there is more to Diana than is being disclosed and throughout the book I was curious as to what her secrets were and when she would let down her guard and give in to Brett's persistent but patient seduction. She grew within the story from a rigid young woman, living by rules of propriety she laid upon herself, to a woman who realizes she can enjoy life and love without being afraid of impropriety.
Because the book is centered on Brett and Diana and their story, most of the supporting characters don't play big parts in it. The more important ones are Simon, Diana's brother, and his son. They are crucial in the character-development of both Brett and Diana. The other secondary characters are neighbors and servants who mainly stay in the background, providing occasional insight mainly into Diana’s character.
Michelle Styles has an amazingly complaisant writing style that enables you to really get to know the characters and sympathize with them.
Both Diana and Brett are characters who evolve during the story when little by little their personalities and backgrounds are revealed.
From the start the dialogues between Diana and Brett are sharp, quick-witted and filled with underlying attraction. Since the story really concentrates on their feelings and the developing relationship there were a lot of these wonderful dialogues.
I used to enjoy historical romances like these but have been sidetracked by intricate and intense historical, contemporary and paranormal romances. Reading this book I remembered what true Regency is all about and I enjoyed it immensely. With Michelle Styles’ keen eye for historical details like clothing and food and her knowledge of subjects typical to the time-period, like horses and engines, she took me on a journey back in time to the 19th century.
The book is character-driven rather than action-driven and because of Michelle Styles' talent to portray realistic and three-dimensional characters the romance is so touching and well-written that I didn't miss the action or intensity I usually look for in my reads.
I will most definitely be looking out for Simon's story, coming next year. I'm curious to know what is behind his brooding exterior and his attitude towards his son.
For me this book was refreshingly original with its gradual build-up of romance and characters. It can be classified under the classical regency that any historical romance lover will enjoy and appreciate.
February 10, 2008
11:44 PM |
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A Woman With a Plan
For most people, being held at gunpoint by inept bank robbers disguised as Yoda and SpongeBob SquarePants would make for a bad day. For local librarian Turner Hastings, it's an opportunity. Using the distraction to pull a little heist of her own, she dives into a new life... on the run.
A Cop on a Mission
FBI Special Agent John MacKinnon always gets his man... or woman. After watching Turner Hastings dump the contents of a safety deposit box into her purse on a surveillance tape, he knows this case won’t be run of the mill. What he doesn't expect is how the cell phone contact between him and his bounty is about to blur the line between professional ambition and personal desire. When bullets from a hired hitman start flying in Turner's direction, giving weight to her claims of injustice, John is willing to cross any line to save her life...even if it means losing his own.
When town librarian Turner Hastings, the person most unlikely to commit a crime, turns a bank robbery into her own heist in the name of personal revenge, the chase to capture her ends up being as unconventional and surprising as the act of the heist itself. Special Agent John MacKinnon, the FBI agent in charge of the case, finds himself capturing a lot more than he bargained for and Turner in the end doesn't mind being captured by this intriguing agent at all.
Both John and Turner are characters you can easily identify yourself with, their feelings are normal and everyday feelings and their motivations are ones that aren't that far-fetched although they find themselves in less everyday situations, thrown in an unusual and extreme setting. Their sanity and logic are a big contrast with the almost over the top stupidity and insanity of secondary characters of the bank robbers Fish and Nald.
But still as normal as John and Turner might be they are not average characters. They both have something special that comes to life in their interactions. John doesn't seem very alpha male but when he talks to Turner or is with her he has something utterly appealing.
Turner is a woman with a mission, a mission to right a wrongdoing committed a long time ago. She's waited for the perfect moment to execute her revenge and nothing is going to stand in her way. She has her hang-ups and complexes but with John she forgets all about them and relaxes into a heroine who's focused and determined but sometimes also very headstrong.
Under the pseudonym of Julia Harper, historical romance writer Elizabeth Hoyt has gone in a very different direction and I found it a refreshing and witty one although I also must be honest and say I liked her historicals more.
In this book humor has the upper hand, sarcastic humor, laugh-out-loud humor, witty bantering, slapstick humor. You name it and this book has it, especially in the first half where the focus is almost purely on the plot and less on the romance/relationship between John and Turner. The love story gradually picks up though, evolving more after the first real contact between hero and heroine, be it on the phone. After that the perspective alternates between, Turner on the run and John chasing her down, the emotional interactions between John and Turner on the phone and later in the flesh and the slapstick, almost absurd scenes of the fleeing bank robbers.
I found it difficult to classify this book into one particular genre. There was a bit of suspense, a bit of action, a bit of comedy, a bit of romance and a bit of drama. This is definitely a contemporary with many layers to it.
I was able to discern to different parts in the book, the first half being witty, funny and hilarious, focusing more on the robbery and the chase. The second part being more emotional and intense, focusing more on the relationship between Turner and John. But you are able to see the slow build up in the first half towards the second half. It starts out seeming a funny story about a robbery but underneath you know there's something more waiting to come out.
There's something very down-to-earth and straightforward to this book that appeals to me despite it not being extremely intense or mind-blowing. I can't pinpoint exactly why but it somehow got to me on a whole other level than other contemporary novels I've read. I do think the small twists in the plot, the witty bantering, the unusual characters, both primary and secondary certainly contributed to this feeling.
I enjoyed Ms Harper’s first contemporary romance even though it wasn't the emotional rollercoaster I prefer my romances to be.
She was able to turn an average small-town robbery into a story of revenge, justice and companionship, spiked with romance, wit and a main couple who both give as good as they get. She has this cunning talent of getting away with bringing together plots, characters and emotions that seem irreconcilable, in a very easy and believable way.
Quote:
There was something essentially erotic about his need to pursue. To capture and reveal her. He was the predator, and she was his wily, seductive prey.
December 11, 2007
9:41 PM |
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Peril
Lyra Collins has made a life for herself in a sleepy artists' community in Arizona . Having escaped from a cult five years ago, she keeps a low profile, making a living as an artist. But when a mysterious man with a dark, dangerous look appears on her doorstep, she knows it's time to run again.
Passion
Former cop Dare Lancaster didn't mean to lead a bunch of fanatical cult members straight to Lyra's door. But now that he's gotten her into this mess, he's determined to get her out. The frantic heat their bodies generate whenever they're together makes him want to save her.
Prophecy
Neal Barker's grandfather was the first Prophet Jericho, and Neal now rules the Temple of Light commune unchecked. According to his visions, he and Lyra are destined to produce the new Messiah, so he will stop at nothing to make her his own. But soon Dare will discover just how far he'll go to protect Lyra-and never let her go.
When the cult she was trying to escape hunts her down and finds her. Lyra is afraid she will be dragged back to the hell on earth she was running from.
The leader of the cult has pronounced her the chosen one to give birth to the new Messiah and tough she managed to escape him and his followers, she wasn't able to stay hidden enough for them not to find her.
But fortunately the private investigator who found her, Dare Lancaster, proclaims himself her protector and with his help she manages to escape a faith she fears like nothing else. In the process of running they find it unable to run from the feelings and attraction between them...
After reading this book I had an ambivalent feeling. It was good and I liked it but it wasn't mind-blowing.
I loved the action and the love scenes but it was the character development that I found a bit lacking. The romance between Dare and Lyra starts of gradually but at some point it picks up speed and in my opinion things go to fast from that moment on. Considering Lyra's past I couldn't get a grip on the way her feelings for Dare all of a sudden were as deeply as described. It went from being afraid of being intimate with a man to having no limits whatsoever almost overnight. And this was something that didn't go well with me.
But still I liked the book.
The love scenes were beautiful and sensual, intense and very explicit but not distasteful.
The suspense was exciting in a nicely paced and action-filled plot. Cheyenne McCray has a vivid and flowing writing style and does a great job of accurately describing the ways of the cult and the anxiety Lyra feels being hunted down by them.
The main characters are very compelling, despite the little discrepancies concerning the development of their relationship. Dare is a true former cop, rough and rugged. Guilt ridden because of his past and because he's the one who led the cult to Lyra.
Lyra is brave and strong, not willing to be used by Neal, the cult leader. Neal is a seriously depraved man. There were scenes with him that really gave me chills. McCray did an excellent job of penning down evil in its truest form. Nick, Dare's partner, is an intriguing character and I'm very curious to read his story. There certainly much more than meets the eye with him. His story will be part of a new series by McCray (release TBA).
In conclusion although I enjoyed myself with this book and I loved the plot and the action, I must say I liked McCray's paranormal Magic-series better.
September 14, 2007
6:27 PM |
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She didn’t know what she wanted until he made her beg for it…
Morgan O’Malley has seen a lot of kinky things as the hostess of a cable sex talk show. But she’s never met a man like Jack Cole before. A self-proclaimed dominant, he’s as alpha as a male can get - and good for Morgan to have around when an obsessed stalker ratchets up his attempts to get to her.
Though Jack is a bodyguard, Morgan feels anything but safe in his presence. Because slowly and seductively, Jack is bringing her deepest fantasies to the surface. And when he bends her to his will, what’s more shocking than her surrender is how much she enjoys it - and starts to crave his masterful touch. A willing player in Jack’s games, Morgan knows that his motives aren’t pure, but she has no idea how personal they are…
“Have you ever wanted to put yourself in the hands of a man whose sole purpose is to give you pleasure?”
This first sentence of the book combined with the first sentence of the blurb on the back of wound my expectations up to a sensual high. This could only be good!
And believe me it was! It was good, compelling, tantalizing, breathtaking, intense and not to mention sizzling hot!
Jack is an ex-soldier turned bodyguard. The ultimate alpha male: arrogant, dominant, controlling, bossy and powerful. Plotting revenge and intending to use Morgan to do this, not knowing that things aren’t what they seem his feelings for Morgan really take him by surprise.
Morgan is a sassy, strong and brave talk-show host with secret sexual desires but fighting them and her natural self for the sake of propriety, because of her upbringing and her disappointing previous relationships.
But Jack slowly makes her accept her true self and her wishes to fulfill her needs and desires, every last secret one…
And despite her desires Morgan doesn’t give into Jack demands and commands without a fight. She no brainless twit just falling for the first man able to give her what she’s been longing for and she’s fiery enough to put up some defiance in dealing with uber-alpha Jack.
Both Morgan and Jack have complex layers to them which are peeled of by each other little by little revealing their true wishes and desires
They are characters you can’t but love.
And then there’s secondary character Deke…another ultimate alpha getting his own book with Decadent! I can’t wait to read his story.
He was as intriguing in this book being an important secondary character as Jack or Morgan. So him being the hero of a book promises good times…
The book explores the BDSM and D/s scene and Black does this masterfully, mixing this scene with suspense, eroticism and well-written characters into a blend that’s absolutely more than some sexscenes held together by a plot.
It’s filled with emotion, sensuality, thrilling suspense and interactions that shake you to the core.
It’s absolutely sinful to write erotic novels as good as this one. My senses suffered temporary overload , rumbled and tossed around not only by the erotic scenes but also by the characters and their development during the story. And she has a way of describing sexual acts, even ones you’re not really familiar or comfortable with, that leaves you stunned and breathles and wishing you had an huge A/C-unit to keep you from combusting into flames...or grabbing dear hubby and do some exploring myself...
The book gripped me from the very first sentence to the very last and never let me go, holding me tightly in its sensual and emotional grasp. From the cooling element needed with the eroctic scenes right up to the tissues I needed at the heartbreaking end of the book.
Quotes:
Jack was her mind’s nightmare – arrogant, demanding, difficult. But he was her psyche’s fantasy – hot, untamed, determined to have her and force her to experience every naughty fantasy her fevered mind had ever conjured up.
The wicked, burning pressure had Morgan pounding her fist on the table. Pleasure and pain. Forbidden and fabulous.
July 6, 2007
5:41 PM |
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Dear Friend,
You were right: desperation is a dangerous state of mind. It was desperation that drove me to London to salvage my family's reputation and finances in the first place. And it is desperation -- and perhaps a little desire -- that has gotten me into the situation I find myself in now.
You see, I've become ensnared in the investigation of a traitor by Lord Dewhurst -- the most insufferable, sinfully handsome man I've ever met. I know it is shocking, but in order to catch this spy and clear my name, I've no choice but to play the agent's bride. Now I'm desperate again to avoid his seductive words and searing looks. I pray that I can resist him, but I can make no promises. Oh, my dear friend, I know he and I are merely pretending to be wed, but the blush he can send all the way to my petticoats feels far too real!
Yours truly,
Charlotte
After reading about Freddie in “When Dashing met Danger” I was really wondering what twist Shana Galen was going to give his story. I sensed there was more to him than met the eye and turns out there certainly was.
Posing as a dandy with a funny sense for fashion with nothing on his mind but what to wear the next day, Freddie actually is not such a dandy but a cunning spy. And in this role he meets Charlotte, a smart and strong-willed American girl with a deep repulsion for everything English but also with the one thing Freddie has a weakness for: red hair.
They are forced into a scam marriage by circumstances and have to make the best of it.
Their interactions are sparkling and witty. They both give as good as they get and in the meanwhile grow to appreciate each other.
I really had a lot of fun reading this book. It was hilariously witty and I had several laugh-out-loud moments. The scene where Freddie and Charlotte have dinner together for the first time was incredibly funny. I kept seeing Charlotte poking at her food…But underneath all the fun I also enjoyed the growing love and feelings between Freddie and Charlotte and how they both tried to fight it but ultimately caved in.
I also liked that we got a glimpse of Alex and Lucia. They made nice secondary characters together with Freddie’s mother and Charlotte’s servant Addy.
If I compare these two connected books I must say I liked “When Dashing met Danger” better. I cannot pinpoint as to exactly why but that book had me going through more emotions than this one. But nevertheless I really enjoyed reading “Pride and Petticoats” because I love books that make me laugh.
Now I’ll be moving on to the Misadventures in Matrimony-series and I’m looking forward to it.
May 21, 2007
5:01 PM |
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Alec MacLean, a branded rakehell who scorns the ton for its snobbery and insincere ways, is in a damnable predicament. Having promised his dying grandfather to save the family fortune, Alec finds himself eloping with an avariciously accommodating society miss.
But when Alec open the door of his coach, he finds the wrong woman -- prim do-gooder Julia Frant! Desperate, Alec strikes a bargain with the reformer; marry him that night and Julia can use part of his fortune for her charitable works. Julia agrees and takes on her biggest project ever -- reforming the wild-living rake who'd unknowingly won her heart long ago!
It took me a while, several chapters to be honest, to get into this book and I can’t quite pin-point why that was. The story was defenitely nice but still it didn’t grip me as some other books recently have done.
I was really at the verge of putting it down and picking another book to read and that would have been a first because I’ve never done that.. I always finish what I start!
But luckily I hung on and from chapter 6-7 I really got pulled into the story...
Maybe because the story really began to take form whereas it didn’t before.
Maybe because the interactions between hero and heroin began to sparkle and the witty dialogues started to kick in.
Maybe because the interesting secondary characters (Nick, Maddie, Edmund, Lucien) began to drop in now and then.
I find “The Abduction of Julia” a pleasurable, uncomplicated story with nice dialogues. I liked both hero and heroin, especially Julia because she’s so independent and determined to save the less fortunate ones in her world. She’s a heroin who’s very easy to sympathize with.
Alec is the dime-in-a-dozen Regency-rake, but nonetheless also a very aimable character in the book.
It's not a really good sign if (one of) the main characters are outranked by secondary characters and for me that was the case in this book.
In my book Alec was positively outranked by Nick Montrose, Earl of Bridgerton and his sinfully wicked cousin trying to trick the heritage right from under Alec. He’s the bad guy in this book but a bad guy you also admire and empathize with. So I’m very glad he has his own book: the third and last in this trilogy.
Can’t wait to get to that one because I really want to read what kind of hero he’ll be.
May 16, 2007
8:32 PM |
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Alex Scarston: Earl of Selbourne. Rake. Spy. With his efforts for England in the war against the French suspended, family obligations compel him to investigate the disappearance of Viscount Brigham's son. When the viscount's daughter becomes involved as well, Alex finds himself entangled in a venture that risks both heart and soul.
It's not that Lucia Dashing, youngest daughter of Lord Brigham, wants Alex to go away. She just wishes he weren't always so close – perhaps a few rooms, or streets, or continents between them would bank the heat of her attraction. But when her brother disappears and every clue indicates his safe recovery essential to the very sovereignty of England, she's no choice but to engage the earl in a battle risking her brother, her country, and her love.
I really liked this book. It took me a while to finish it but this had nothing to do with the book itself, it was due to lack of time to read.
After reading lots of paranormal/vampires in a row I really needed a good regency and I got that with this one.
It was original and unique.
The characters were well-developed and accessible .
Lucia is a heroin who actually touched my heart. She tries so hard to gain her family’s approval, especially her father’s and I was glad to see that she achieves in doing that without changing who she is.
She is feisty and spontaneous, to the point she sometimes gets carried away in her enthusiasm but it’s so endearing that I didn’t find it annoying.
Alex is the perfect rake who doesn’t know what hits him when he finds true and genuine love. I really loved reading how he was falling for Lucia but still was in so much denial. All the signs were there but he refused to acknowledge them and when he finally did, he did it well.
The plot is fast-paced and well written. The side characters are a great addition to the whole story, especially Freddy and Lucia’s mother with her obsession for everything Italian.
The love and sensuality between Lucia and Alex just comes of the pages en you can almost feel it developing and growing.
Again a book that stirred many emotions inside me and that’s always a good sign!
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Nice to meet you!
- Pearl
- Netherlands
- 39, married to my real life romance hero, addicted to TV shows, reading romance novels and Twitter. I'm a chronic (e)book hoarder and my absolute favorite genres within romance fiction are contemporary romance and romantic suspense, but I don't shy away from historical, paranormal or erotic romance either. Even the occasional (urban) fantasy romance, futuristic and sci fi romance may make it to my Mount TBR. This is my corner of the world wide web where I let you know what books I'm hoarding, reading and reviewing.
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