Category: Romance

Review: The Saint

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tl;dr: and in the beginning, there were Søren and Nora; and it was good

The Story:

Generally, when I begin a book, I don’t want to know anything about it, especially if it’s a book by an author that I enjoy. I already know that, no matter what the subject or plot, I’ll probably like it, and I like to go into a book or movie as completely untarnished by blurbs and descriptions as much as possible. But when I began this book, I immediately had to find out a crucial plot element of the story: the fate of Søren. The opening chapters quickly lead me to believe something terrible had happened to the beloved priest, and I had to know–for good, or for ill–if he was alive or dead.

I’ll let you decide whether or not you want to solve that mystery before you press on, there are several Goodreads questions and answers on the page for this book that come right out and spoil that little mystery for you. With it out of the way, I was able to stop stressing and enjoy the rest of the book. Which was glorious.

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Review: The Love Potion

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tl;dr: chemist accidentally drugs her childhood nemesis with a love potion, sexy hijinks ensue

The Story:

Nothing makes me happier than a completely ridiculous but fun storyline in a romance novel, and this book delivers. The book opens on Sylvie Fontaine, a chemist for a pharmaceutical company, who believes she may have developed the world’s first love-inducing drug (not just lust, it also creates emotional bonds). She’s testing on rats, but she thinks it is ready for human testing, and has created some love potion-laced jelly beans with her enzymes, hoping to lure her employer in because she’s tired of slacker jerks. Luc LeDeux, her childhood mortal enemy and now a roguish lawyer, waltzes into her lab and demands that she test some water samples that he believes implicate a giant oil company of toxic dumping. Her enzyme-filled jelly beans are sitting right there on the table, and wouldn’t you know who has a sweet tooth when her back is turned?

This sets up the rest of the novel, where Sylvie and Luc attempt to fight off their growing attraction to each other, which only grows stronger as they get to know each other better, beyond the misconceptions they’ve had of each other. The reason that they disliked each other so much makes sense–Sylvie thought that he an obnoxious and arrogant womanizer, and Luc thought that Sylvie looked down on him for being poor and dirty as a kid. Over time, they both realize that they were wrong; eventually, they give in to the desire between them.

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Review: Family Jewels

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tl;dr: could not get invested into this sorta-forbidden, sorta-office romance

The Story:

Context is key in romance. I learned this from Emily Nagoski, whose book Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life was eye-opening in not only a personal relationships sort of way, but also in the way that helps me explain why a romance novel works or doesn’t work for me. As far as romance novels go, the reader needs to have a sense of who the characters are, because most of the plot is driven by the emotional response to what is happening between the two characters. In Family Jewels, I couldn’t get enough of a sense of either character, and how they related to each other, in order to care about their romance.

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Review: The Mistress

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tl;dr: amazing from start to finish

The Story:

I almost hate to review books that I loved. I feel like I can’t say anything besides some unintelligible squawks, babbling nonsensically about how much I loved this book and about how everyone needs to read it. I’ve been hooked on this series from about the second chapter of The Siren, and I keep proselytizing my love for it, and I’m sad to say, have gotten very few takers. (You’re all on notice.) I can’t even begin to describe my love for the characters, their arcs, their well-being. It’s a world that I under no circumstances would want to be in the middle of, but I’m enthralled by.

The Mistress picks up immediately after The Prince, where Wes, Søren, and Kingsley are all looking for Nora, who has been captured by someone, someone that Kingsley has just recently figured out has been playing mind games with them all summer. The chapters go between the three of them, plus Nora, Søren’s niece Laila, and Grace, who we met briefly in The Siren.

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Review: Master Professor

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tl;dr: fascinating setting for drawn out forbidden romantic tension

THE STORY:

There was already plenty of buzz about this book by the time I got my hands on it. And for good reason. The premise is titillating and unique, and has a forbidden romance that promises lots of sexytimes. Andie Lincoln has decided to get submissive training at an exclusive BDSM school, which is so exclusive that there are only ten spots for students. Her Hollywood boyfriend had to pull strings to get her in. Of course, her professor is sexy as all get out and things heat up between them fast.

Under his tutelage, she begins to learn a lot about herself and what she actually wants. Her initial questions are answered (yes, being a submissive works for her, really really works), and she begins to question whether or not her Hollywood boyfriend is really the man for her, after all.

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Review: A Bolt From The Blue

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tl; dr: sweet and sexy romance that I’d love to see expanded

The story:

Even as a person merely in my early thirties, I’ve been noticing more and more than I’m older than most of the people in the novels I read. For some reason, it seems to be accepted as fact that 20-somethings are the only type of people that have interesting things happen to them, particularly in romance novels. Is that because it’s too depressing to envision people in their 40s and 50s and still unattached? Rather than depressing, we should find it hopeful–it’s never too late to find love.

A Bolt from the Blue is a ‘second-chance’ romance, since it is the second ‘love of your life’ for Hope Elliot. (See, even less depressing! Two true loves in one lifetime!) After nearly a lifetime away from the city she grew up in, Hope has to return to settle her late parents’ estate and deal with the personality clash that happens to be her sister. Things heat up–literally–when lightning strikes the house and starts a small fire, causing some damage to the house’s outdated electrical system. Hope is evidently a brazen old broad, because she wastes no time seducing Mick, the master electrician recommended to her by the first response unit. They embark on a sordid affair, one that Hope makes no secret is limited-time-only, since she fully intends to return to her home in France.

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Review: Maybe This Love

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tl;dr: great story mired in awkward prose – less picky readers will love this

The story:

I hadn’t realized that hockey player romances were such a widespread phenomenon, but in the past few weeks, I’ve read 3 of them, all by different authors, and to varying degrees of enjoyment. I tend to compare most sports romance to Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her wonderful Chicago Stars series, which centers on a pro-football team and all the varying people involved in it. The thing that is particularly striking with that series is that the books don’t really need to be read in publication order. The stories stand on their own.

I think maybe that was the intention with this book too, but there were so many things I felt may have been cleared up in the previous books (which I did not read). This book uses a real hockey team (The Colorado Avalanche) but fails to ever mention which position Ben plays. (I think he might be captain, according to a brief mention of a C on his jersey. That means captain, right?) And much of the personality of the hero isn’t clearly established, leaving me to wonder if maybe his “playboy” persona is more clearly established in a previous book. He does get random calls from women on his phone a lot, but we don’t get a lot of evidence that he’s the womanizer the book claims that he is. (Particularly since they make a point to say he supports 3 children’s charities? Whaaaa…?)

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Review: Act Like It

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tl;dr: enemies-to-lovers trope perfected on a London stage

The story:

When you keep hearing good things about a book from many different places, it’s usually a good sign that the book is a winner. I first heard about this title from Sarah MacLean’s romance novel recommendations list, which I’ve been burned by. (Made for You by Lauren Layne was seriously awful.) But it kept coming up in discussions, and I knew it was an enemies-to-lovers romance which is one (of many) of my favorite tropes. And happily, it delivered everything I was hoping for.

Richard Troy and Lanie Graham are an unlikely pair, mostly because Richard has a giant self-important stick up his arse and Lanie is a nearly angelic. The Powers That Be are worried that Richard’s tantrums and general bad behavior are going to sink their entire production. (Oh, did I mention they are London theater actors? LOVE IT!) So, they lump him in with Lanie, hoping some of her cherubic identity will rub off. She doesn’t want to do it at first, but she grudgingly agrees, and then ends up having a grouchy man by her side at several charity functions that she devotes her free time to. Things start to change when Lanie gives Richard a few sharp words about not being a total prick when it comes to supporting a children’s charity, words that he evidently takes to heart.

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Review: The Prince

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tl;dr: soul-shattering bliss that’ll have you begging “merci”

The story:

The Prince picks up where The Angel left off, picking you back up before throwing you to the ground again. Repeatedly. I find it so difficult to review books that have given me so many Feels(tm) and wrecked me, but in a way that has me begging for more. (Tiffany Reisz is as sadistic as her priest.) So, I’ll try my best.

The narrative is split between two stories; Kingsley and Soren as an erotic sleuthing team going into the past of their childhood at St Ignatius, the Jesuit private school where they met, and Nora and Wesley in Kentucky, the land of horse-racing and money. What links the stories together is the underlying threat that was introduced in The Angel: the mysterious thief who stole Nora’s file from Kingsley’s office.

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Review: King’s Captive

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tl;dr: fast-paced sexy thriller that keeps you guessing

The story:

Some books, you need to just hold on to your hat and go in for the ride. This is such a book. Every twist and turn I kept chortling and saying “this is nuts!” but I couldn’t stop reading. I was 100% sucked in to this story, and devoured it with near obsession.

The story begins with our main character, having suffered a traumatic experience at her 18th birthday party, now the hostage of some shadowy figure who is apparently incredibly skilled at carving up animals for dinner. He stinks of sex appeal, and this woman is torn between a desire to keep her senses intact and to jump him. She keeps waffling about whether she’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, plotting her escape.

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