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I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not a fan of the love triangle for many reasons. The first and foremost reason is because I feel it’s just a ploy by an author to fuel the angst and drama of a mediocre story. Haymore proves me wrong. She does not do this. The love triangle is a valid part of the plot and wholly integral with the storyline. She approaches the love triangle in a very unique manner. I don’t want to spoil anyone, because it’s so different than anything I’ve encountered before in my readings.

Another reason I have trouble with the love triangle situation is the waffling. I simply don’t get it. I’m told this is because I haven’t been in one and until I have triangles are hard to appreciate or sympathize with. If you’re like me you probably think it’s very black and white and very little gray. In my head, I know it’s gray. I know that it is possible to love two people at once, but the Grinch side of me feels that if you can’t make a choice between them then you don’t love either one enough and should let both go. Haymore made me feel the conflict that Sophie, who is in the middle, goes through. I appreciate her position and I sympathize with her, something that is way out of the norm with me.

I have a feeling that a second read through will make it a better read, because I know where it’s going. I was looking at all the wrong things in the book the first time and therefore was anxious and worried about how the plot was developing, certain that Haymore was going to bungle it. I just couldn’t see how it was going to work out.

Haymore surprised me, the ending surprised me, and that says something. It made me reevaluate the whole book and all my complaints and worries held no weight.

A fan of the love triangle will be placing this novel on their favorite shelf. Someone who like me, needs a little persuasion about the loving the love triangle can read this and appreciate it. Who knows, it may hook you so completely you can’t wait to grab a hold of another love triangle!

A brief summary:
Sophie loved Garrett since she was 16 years old and was devastated when he didn’t return home from Water-Loo. Tristan is her best friend and together over many years they healed from their mutual loss. One night after their marriage Garrett returns. Everything as they knew it is changed from property to titles, from money to marriages–Haymore explores Regency law and Regency hearts.

Rating: 3.5-4 Stars

Buy: A Hint of Wicked

Walk in the Clouds is one of the sweetest love stories I have ever seen on the silver screen. I’ve fallen in love with the cast and characters as surely as I have fallen in love with Pride and Prejudice. The grandfather (Anthony Quinn) is by far my favorite; he’s got eyes in the back of his head. The man turns up every time poor Paul (Keanu Reeves) tries to run off and follow the plan he and Victoria (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) hatched before arriving to her family’s vineyard. Who doesn’t love Anthony Quinn? Really? I want him to adopt me so I can be his granddaughter.

Walk in the Clouds is the name of the vineyard the Aragóns have cultivated and inhabited for generations. They are a proud set of Mexican descendants who have recipes that were in their family cookbook before Americans created their Constitution. Something Papa Aragón loves to rub Paul Sutton’s face in. Papa doesn’t believe this drifter is or could ever be the right man for his daughter, Victoria and tries to scare him off.

Leaving is exactly what Paul needs to do. His plans were to help Victoria by posing as her husband. They met on the train, and then on the bus, and then alongside the road to her family’s home. She tells Paul that her father is going to kill her – and he just might, for Victoria has a secret… she’s pregnant and the father deserted her when he found out.

The unfolding of love and devotion throughout Walk in the Clouds between the gorgeous Victoria and honest Paul will pull at your heartstrings. There are some decidedly sensual moments throughout the movie – when Victoria teaches Paul how to fan the grapes and when they’re both covered in grape juice from the harvest. Whew! If you have never seen Walk in the Clouds – you must! If you have reestablish your connection with this tremendously wonderful tale set around the end of World War Two.

Rating: 5 Stars

Originally posted 2009-01-10 05:09:49. Republished by Old Post Promoter

What makes a perfect hero? Is it his dashing good looks, his heroic deeds, or his charm? Third in the series Lessons in Love by Suzanne Enoch, England’s Perfect Hero, delves into the challenge of defining a hero.

Lucinda and her two best friends, Georgiana and Evelyn, create three separate lists on how to be a gentleman of high caliber. Each one is highly personal and defines what each girl feels about herself and what she looks for in a mate. On Lucinda’s list there are four items she wishes to teach a certain dashing gentleman, also known as Lord Geoffrey Newcombe, about being a gentleman.

Only her lessons are getting the attention of a different man; another soldier and nobleman whose past is a mystery and whose character is mysterious. Robert Carroway, brother to Dare, Georgiana’s husband. All she knows about Robert is this: he was at Waterloo, he came home from war injured, his experiences in war have made him withdrawn and edgy, and her father doesn’t like him.

Robert Carroway for his part has lived in a personal hell for three years. The darkness threatens to claim him, chew him up and spit him out. If only it would kill him so he didn’t have to live in silent agony about what had been done to him. The only ray of pure sunlight in his whole existence is Lucinda whose cheery disposition and sweet nature draw him like a moth to the flame. If helping her snare the husband of her dreams could also pull him from the darkness he would do it, or so he told himself. What he really wanted was to be the husband of her dreams.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-08-27 05:01:49. Republished by Old Post Promoter

• Butterfly, Moth Insect, Butterfly Animals Collectibles

J.C Roat and Rick Bremseth, both former SEALs who helped with the research for SEALed with a Promise, might tease Daughtridge about writing mush, but it is mush I definitely like. SEALed is very hero-centric. I closed this book with an urge to call up my best friend to get her dad to find me my very own Do-Lord. In the immortal words of LolCat “I can haz SEAL?” or maybe it was cheezburger, I tend to forget. This book is definitely recommended for the Save the Contemporary project Dear Authors and Smart Bitches are hosting together.

Dry-witted Emmie was a blast. She was smart, intelligent, analytical, observant, goal oriented and true to character. A professor of ecology, Emmie is well read and knowledgeable in many areas. She’s the definition of an avid scholar. She dresses down to hide herself and makes it an art form to remain unnoticed, which is why it’s so disconcerting that Navy SEAL Caleb “Do-Lord” Delaude does. Emmie is here to support her best friend Pickett in her upcoming nuptials - she is not here looking for a brawny jock, especially the brawny jock who’s the best man.

Caleb Delaude is extremely smart. He’s down played his intelligence to fit in better amongst his peers. Able to retain facts after reading or glancing at print, he also has an uncanny ability to see things others can’t. He’s great at picturing layouts from a map, knowing where to place people in any situation and sometimes he gets strange moments of déjà vu where the present and near-future collide. Caleb finds himself fiercely attracted to Emmie and before he knows it he’s worming his way into her life… but only because he needs her connections for a revenge plot… right? Strange how the operative changes all because of a slip of a thing!

Rating: 4-4.5 Stars

Buy: SEALed with a Promise

Filed under cursed lead because of Do-Lord’s visions.

• Navy Seal Romance Audio Books
• Navy Seal Romance Books

Today’s guest post is by Mary Margret Daughtridge, author of the SEALed with a Promise.

I like men. I couldn’t live without the friendship and support of women, but I thoroughly enjoy the company of men. I think that’s why I write hero-centered romances.

Men are not the same as women except with the… you know and not…the other. They really are different. In fact, since they have a chromosome women don’t, I read an argument once that men and women can be considered different species. Their humanity offers them the same challenges, but their experiences are sometimes poles apart.

I don’t like to lump people, even as broad a category as men, with generalizations, since one can always think of an exception. But liking men as I do, and enjoying to challenge of writing a man’s point of view, there are a few things I’ve noticed.

Men, more than women, engage in purposeful behavior. I know, I know-women do too. But men  are much more likely to be single-minded in their goals than women, and the clearer the purpose, the better they like it.

It’s the reason some men don’t know what a woman who kept house and looked after three children “did” all day. It’s the reason they want to bang their heads when a woman has  been gone for hours and says she was “shopping.” Men are perfectly capable of spending hours in a store, but when they do it’s because they know they’re looking for a pair of deck shoes, a tractor, a rotary saw, a forty-inch bat. Now pay attention: that’s what they are looking for even if they already have ten of the above, or don’t intend to buy for the next eighteen years!

I understood question of purpose when I overheard two men discussing a movie romance they had been coerced into watching. I had watched the same movie and not liked it much, so I was very curious to hear their opinion. They were talking about the hero who was just plain rude, in a pig-headed macho way, to the heroine the first time they met. All romance fans will recognize a stock “alpha” hero.

The guys were laughing at him. They thought he was an idiot. Because he was rude? No. Because he was pig-headed? No. Because he was macho? No.

Because they assumed his purpose in speaking was to get the heroine to go to bed with him, and he was stupid if he thought that had a prayer of working. In short they assumed his behavior was purpose-motivated rather than emotion-motivated.

And that brings me to my second observation. Men really are thinking about sex all the time. I have a hard time imagining how they get anything done, that being the case, but I know it’s true.

Women of course are not thinking about sex all the time-only some of the time. Most of the time, they’re thinking in terms of permanence, meaning they are aware that they are, or are not, looking for permanence, and they are evaluating his fitness for the long haul.

One of the things I like best about the romance genre is that the writer has the freedom to switch points of view between hero and heroine. Since my biggest interest is to explore relationships, I often use point of view shifts to reveal the humor of men’s and women’s different agendas.

Now, I don’t write comedy or even light romance. But even in the juiciest, most emotional stories there’s room for humor and what could be funnier than watching men and women mix themselves up?

Caleb, my hero of SEALed with a Promise is super-smart and wily. There’s a little well-controlled bad boy in any SEAL. In Caleb, there’s a lot. He has realized Emmie can help him attain his goal of getting close to a powerful senator. Being seen with her will probably be sufficient, but being a man, hey why not add sex too? I mean, why not? He’s not going to hurt her, in fact, he’ll make sure it’s good for her. And he’ll be doing her a favor. Any woman who dresses the way Emmie does can’t be getting much.

And of course, when the hero and heroine are together I love to confound their expectations. What he doesn’t know is that Emmie, child of missionaries, was made for him.

He’s a Bad Boy. She’s a Good Girl.

SEALed with a Promise is a hero-centered romance, meaning that the story is pushed by his goals, But she’s just as capable of pursuing her own agenda and just as smart. You can find out more about SEALed With a Promise and me at http://marymargretdaughtridge.com

What about you? Do you like a hero-centered romance, or do you prefer one that’s told mostly from the heroine’s point of view?

Mary Margaret Daughtridge is giving away one copy of SEALed With a Promise to a lucky commentor who responds to her question. You can also enter by asking her a question. Open to US and Canada readers only. Winner will be announced April 8th, 2009.

• Point Romance Books

I recently finished the audio book version of the Land of Falling Stars. This Civil War erotica loosely brings to mind Gone with the Wind with Rhett, Ashley, and Scarlett… only this time played out by Gavin, Jesse, and Sophia. Gavin and Ricochet were my two favorite characters. So scrumptious! (Gavin not the dog.) My least favorite was probably Sophia from the good guy team; she was so hot and cold and acted very childish on several occasions, which made it hard to like her. The story did include one of my favorite character flaws: blindness. Several yummy sex scenes occur throughout the blindness of Sophia.

Gavin returns to Arbor Rose with terrible, soul-wrenching news. He must deliver this news to his childhood love Sophia and he doesn’t know how he can do it. Haunted by what he’s done in the war, Gavin knows he faces censure at home not only because he chose to fight for the Yanks but also because he is Jesse’s murderer. It doesn’t matter if it was in the middle of battle and he didn’t know who he was aiming at – the outcome was the same. Jesse, Sophia’s fiancé, was dead by his hand.

Mistaking Gavin for another cruel heartless Yank, Sophia shoots him on sight only to learn it’s her childhood friend and protector come back from war. Horrified by what she’s done, Sophia races to his side and nurses him back to health. It’s been months and months since she’s heard from Jesse, and all the while she’s with Gavin she can’t help forgetting the perfect man her father found her for the scarred and imperfect flesh and blood man before her. Terribly confused by her attraction for Gavin, Sophia wavers and falls, then returns to teetering and vacillating and questioning with several relapses while trying to sort out her feelings for the man she was supposed to love and marry, and the man she can’t live without.

Rating: 3.0 Stars

Get the audio version here.

• Love Romance Audio Books

The Kingmaking is book one of the Pendragon Banner Trilogy by Hellen Hollick. In one sentence this book is about Arthur growing from boyhood to manhood, from untried to experienced, from soldier to king. He is shaped by his times, loving women and drink freely and openly. It gets him into trouble more than once - the most serious time exposing him to the clutches of the current king and his manipulating wife and daughter. Forced into marriage with Winifred, Arthur’s full of self-loathing and fury, because instead of being married to a woman he truly admires and respects (Gwenhwyfar) he’s stuck with a spoiled rotten manipulative whore. If only he had kept it in his pants!

Arthur must decide which is more important - his quest for kingship or the love of his life?

Winifred is determined to keep Arthur for herself now that Gwenhwyfar has brought him to her attention. She bears Arthur one sickly daughter who soon dies, and one son, which he begets with her during the voyage from his home in Less Britain back to the king’s court. Not very smart of him since he was planning to divorce her so he could marry in the Christian way his beloved Gwenhwyfar. (He married her by the Old Way before leaving Less Britain and doesn’t know it but impregnated her.)

You will find that Arthur is the reason behind most of his anger and regrets. He tends to get in his own way by being loose with morals and engaging with whomever strikes his fancy. He says he loves Gwenhwyfar, but his actions lead him to many beds of slave and servant girls. It’s not clear, but I am certain he also found himself in bed with more than one gentle female. Plainly put, he is used to pleasure and to not denying himself. However while we know many of his illicit trysts, most of the details are rendered vague or skipped over.

Luckily for Arthur he seems to straighten out once he’s gone through the divorce and married Gwenhwyfar. Of course he almost slips up during the last stages of her pregnancy but a quick spat settles it. Loving and marrying Gwenhwyfar soothes the spoiled and selfish side of Arthur, but his barriers have not yet fallen down. I expect we will find him (more) enamored and open with Gwenhwyfar in book two, the Pendragon’s Banner, which I’m greatly looking forward to reading.

Hollick’s trilogy promises to combine a legendary hero with political intrigue, historical research (and obvious fictional interpretations of it), romance, and a quest for ultimate power. Harry Potter for grownups. Now try to wrap your tongue around half of the names… haha.

Rating: 4-4.5 Stars