Entries Tagged 'Africa' ↓

Review: SEALed with a Ring by Mary Margret Daughtridge

Mary Margret Daughtridge comes out with another fantastic SEAL story. It’s got everything! A smart savvy heiress heroine to a car empire in desperate need of a name-only husband and a hero with partial amnesia, headaches, scarring, charisma, good looks, and skilled in bed! Yum. Yum. Yum. See, I told you it had everything. Wow!

Davy Graziano is a Navy Seal corpsman. The quote at the beginning of the novel gives real insight to Davy as a hero. He figures he will die in service for the Teams and when he doesn’t he’s adrift. It doesn’t help that his mother passed away shortly after visiting him in the hospital. The situation makes him feel that his mother traded her life for his with God and he doesn’t know what to do with his second chance at life. He wants to continue being a Navy Seal but a head wound resulted in brain trauma. He’s forgetful of things he knows he knows and it’s frustrating to no end.

One thing he forgets is JJ Caruthers. Twice. Poor schmuck. Jane Jessup however is very relieved. The more she learns about Navy Seals and Davy in particular the more she sees them and him as the perfect solution to her husbandless problem. JJ contracts Davy into being her husband in an effort to get one over her grandfather who is trying to manipulate her to his liking. Davy won’t take her original offer and renegotiates the terms to his liking but as the marriage unfolds Davy just wants his life back! What’s JJ to do? I’ll tell you… she’s going to save her hero.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Buy: SEALed with a Ring

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Review: Taken by the Highest Bidder by Jane Porter (no spoilers)

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By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer

This one had a few twists and turns I didn't see coming, and it was more believable. The background of the leading characters unfolds throughout the book, and some of it you don't find out until mid-point.

Samantha van Bergen is in a disastrous marriage, mothering a step-daughter that she dearly loves. This little girl is bright and precocious, and knows more than anyone realizes she does. Her mother died, and Samantha had been her nanny.

The book begins with a bang. Samantha's husband, Johann, is a compulsive gambler, who has gambled away a family fortune. He loses it all to Cristiano. And come to find out, he has tossed in Samantha to sweeten the pot, but only after he offers his daughter first (nice guy, right?!) but Cristiano rejects this.

Of course, Cristiano has fallen in love with Samantha at first sight. He knows that the little girl will come with her stepmother.

The question is why is he going to this trouble? And what other unfoldments might we find along the way that unlock the puzzle?

Sam takes Gabriella and goes to England from Monte Carlo. When she is there, we learn more about her early life. She is definitely worthy of the best.

Lucky for her, Cristiano agrees with this. He wants to settle a fortune on her in a pre-nup, but she isn't interested in his money. They marry without a pre-nup, and when a divorce seems imminent, he wants her to use an attorney to guarantee her rights.

Instead, she decides to fight her fears, and she is successful.

She is a plucky heroine and you root for her when she comes out on top. There's very little fighting or whining; there is a strong, wealthy and scarred hero.

I give it a 3. Have you read it?

If you'd like to submit a review on a novel you've read, check out LRP's guidelines for submission.

Taken by the Highest Bidder by Jane Porter 2005 Pa

Taken by the Highest Bidder by Jane Porter 2005 Pa

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Taken by the Highest Bidder by Jane Porter 2005

Taken by the Highest Bidder by Jane Porter 2005

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Originally posted 2008-08-26 05:44:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Review: Traded to the Sheikh by Emma Darcy

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Sheikh Zageo bin Sultan Al Farrahn is an honest man. He knows it's time to leave behind his fascination with other cultures and their women; especially as he is disenchanted with his latest mistress, Veronique, the very unique supermodel. He wants to be with someone who wants to be with him and not what he can provide. As an honest man, he despises criminals, crooks, and trespassers, which is why he's sneering down at the spineless Frenchman offering up a woman on his boat to be his sex slave in exchange for freedom. Zageo bets that there isn't a girl at all, but much to his surprise there is and she's every bit as beautiful as the Frenchman said.

Emily Ross was making her escape. She was going to get away from Jacques and his dirty drug-running business. She had no idea what she was signing up for when she traded her skills as a sailor for free passage to Zanzibar. Just as she escapes the mango swamp she is caught by some burly guards and dragged in front of a dangerous and powerful looking man. Is he a Sheikh or a Sultan? His title claims both, but Emily has more pressing worries. How will she get out of this mess so she can meet up with her sister Hannah? Truth is, she can't, not unless Zageo says she can.

When she finds out that her sister didn't make the destination point, Emily goes a little crazy. The only help she can think of is Zageo, but how to get him to agree? Emily decides she must play the part he thought she was and proposes a trade. She will be his lover if he will help get her sister and nieces to safety. Zageo is tremendously annoyed and offended by the proposal she offers him and decides to punish her by accepting it. What Emily doesn't know was that Zageo had made arrangements to help her sister and her sister's family the moment they came back from the meeting place. Her trade was for naught and by accepting Zageo has found out to his bitterness that he would have rather won her than have a bed slave.

My favorite part in the novel is at the end so be prepared for a spoiler if you keep reading.

Zageo takes Emily to Cape Point which offers a view of Cape Hope which is where two oceans meet. Emily makes a point of how there's no sign of the meeting, no crashing of waves, no turbulence. Zageo affirms this and tells her they are like two oceans that meld together, their cultures may be different but harmony is natural and finishes with "Are you brave enough to merge your life with mine, Emily?"

Sigh... so sweet. Perfect ending!

Rating: 4.5 I wish it had been longer.

Originally posted 2009-01-16 05:06:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Review: The Frenchman’s Marriage Demand by Chantelle Shaw

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FYI: This is basically a rant review with spoilers.

Freya Addison once loved Zac Deverell with all her heart, but Zac was a billionaire playboy used to getting what he wanted when he wanted. After pursuing Freya, enticing her to first work as a stewardess on his yacht then seducing her into his bedroom he is both amused and bemused by how innocent she turned out to be. He persuades her to become his mistress and the little fool agrees. He breaks her heart three months later when she tells him that she's pregnant, by hotly denying it, calling her a two-timing gold digging whore and throwing her out of his penthouse.

Two years later Freya gets into a car wreck and her daughter Aimee is supposed to be in the care of Freya's grandmother. The grandmother is a heartless woman who only tolerated Freya in her life because of what the neighbors and little old bitties she hung out with would think. Freya's mother ran off years ago and hasn't been seen since and doesn't make an appearance in the book. The grandmother decides she's going on her world cruise, manages to find Zac Deverell at his London offices in the midst of a press conference and passes the baby along causing a scandal.

Zac is furious with Freya and the grandmother thinking they cooked this up on purpose. He doesn't blame the two year old baby and tries to temper his voice when he storms Freya's hospital room. He frogmarches Freya to do what he wants; which is to take her and Aimee to Monaco and getting a paternity test done so he can once and for all prove Freya the tramp that she is. Zac is highhanded, arrogant to the extreme, belligerent, and mean spirited. He takes great pleasure pursuing Freya for his pleasure while calling her names. Freya has no pride or self confidence and can't seem to ignore the passion he stirs in her blood. They have several intimate encounters, many leading to full blown sex.

When the child ends up being his he gives a two second apology and gets Freya to agree to marry him. We're about two thirds of the way through by now. This book is not that long... but of course he changes in the last like 3 pages, while appearing to exhibit no real changes.

From his side that we never see:

Doctors told him long ago he had 50% chance of holding the same gene. The disease wiped out his twin sisters before they were a year old. He vows never to have kids and gets a vasectomy.  Then he finds out he's a daddy - is terrified but happy because his daughter hasn't shown signs of the disease his parents carried genes for. Goes to doctors and finds out there's a reliable test now to see if he carries the gene.

Meanwhile he wants to have sex with Freya all the time because he can't formulate his feelings and decides to show her by aggressively pursuing sex off and on (which she interprets as he wants me and now he doesn't all the while thinking in abject despair  how is this ever going to work? and he's always intentionally hurtful and terse in his comments.)

Now we're at the end and he still hasn't got the results yet, but he suddenly can't go through with the wedding he insisted on. She thinks its because he doesn't want her and wants the woman who came up to her at a party and claimed to be his lover. Woman also said that whenever Zac told Freya he was working he was really with her playing.

When he hotly denies that Freya is all heartbroken AGAIN and tells him if he can't go through with until he tells her something she says she knows what it is and understands that he doesn't love her.

To which he then asks if she's an idiot (ok not really but still) and proceeds to finally open up and explain about the gene that he potentially was carrying and why he had a vasectomy in the first place yadda yadda and that he on some level knew he loved her which is why he was so furious when he thought she'd cheated on him two years ago with the street artist.

Kiss. Sex. Wedding. Epilogue. HEA.

I mean really what is this garbage? Don't read this.

Rating: 1 Star and only because sometimes the sex was decent.

Originally posted 2009-01-14 05:21:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Review: The Perfect Wife by Victoria Alexander

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The Perfect Wife by Victoria Alexander follows not one but three couples on their journey to love. Luckily two are more peripheral and have overall less air time in the novel. The main couple is Sabrina Winfield and Nicholas, Earl of Wyldewood. The other couples are Sabrina and Nicholas’ offspring from their first marriage, and Sabrina’s friend with Nicholas’ sister.

Sabrina has for the last ten years a life of total propriety. She has been prim, poised, controlled, tame, and dull. She misses the adventure from her past—the intrigue, the thrill, and the illicit nature of her work. She could command the loyalty of men, change fortunes, and guide her own affairs. With her young daughter about to wed, Sabrina yearns keenly to let loose and be free of society’s demands. When she hears about her late husband’s last gamble and subsequent winnings, Sabrina ransacks her London home.

Having found the French letter with instructions to legendary gold buried in Egypt, Sabrina packs and sets off to reclaim herself and to change her fortune. Unfortunately, her daughter’s finance’s father seems to think it’s his business to keep her out of trouble. The annoying Earl of Wyldewood, a politician with a streak of rakish charm a mile long, is determined to unearth Sabrina’s secrets. She is terrified of revealing them, for her past could land her in prison. Under the guise of helping his son, Nicholas is following Sabrina to Egypt with the intention to protect her. However, if he were honest with himself, he would have followed her anyway for underneath her prim exterior, Nicholas suspects that Sabrina may just be the perfect wife.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Buy: The Perfect Wife

Originally posted 2008-12-08 07:47:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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