If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. It's free and a great way to keep up to date. Thanks for visiting!

Duty and Desire takes places during the majority of the silent period. It is the second book in the Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy Gentleman Trilogy. The first is An Assembly Such as This which ended in London at the beginning to the silent period of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Darcy is in quite a pickle. He’s managed to successfully divert his friend from near disaster, but his mind won’t stop resting on the delights of Elizabeth Bennet. Thinking Pemberley will help orient his mind, Darcy finishes his business in London and hies home. There he meets his sister, Georgiana much changed from her misfortunes of last summer. Bright sunny and remarkably mature, Darcy can hardly believe his eyes. He’s worried that one wrong move on his part will ruin all of Georgiana’s progress.

Christmas comes to Pemberley and Darcy is caught more than once daydreaming about Elizabeth’s fine eyes. He knows he must do something about his wandering imagination and fast. Determined to erase her presence from his thoughts, Darcy decides to enter into the hunt for a wife. Leaving his sister in the care of family and his best friend Dy, Darcy goes to a reunion house party of old Cambridge and Oxford mates.

There he meets his cousin’s fiancee and is at once charmed and disturbed by her flirtation. He finds solace in the dark beauty that is his host’s half-sister. As his thoughts war between Sylvanie and Elizabeth, both gray eye beauties, a dark nearly Gothic mystery begins to unfold. His host is in dire need of funds, a piglet is slaughtered and made to look like a human baby, personal affects are stolen, and more. Fletcher, Darcy’s valet, is the only one he can trust to help unwind the threads of this coil.

I guessed immediately who was behind everything, but had not guessed at the second mystery that was present in the writing. It took me by surprise at the end during the revelation. In hind-sight I can see the clues that I could not before. A masterful tale, if a little drawn out. Would have preferred more Bingley in this part of the story, as it was there was very little. I suspect Dy and/or Colonel Fitzwilliam love romantically the sixteen year old Georgiana. My suspicions will have to wait until the next and final chapter of Mr. Fitzwilliam, Darcy Gentleman Trilogy.

Review: 3 Stars

Buy: Duty and Desire

This is a fabulous contemporary update of the Christmas Carol. Matthew McConaughey is Connor Mead. Connor is the new Mr. Scrooge, except he’s gorgeous, charming, and wealthy. So what’s wrong with the guy? Connor is a miser, just like Scrooge. How? Unlike Scrooge, Connor withholds love/feelings instead of money/possessions. Just like Scrooge, Connor gets visited by 3 ghosts and is forced to learn just what kind of man he really is.

The first ghost is the Ghost of Girlfriend Past. She is a 16 year old girl to whom Connor lost his virginity. Played by Emma Stone, she’s hardly recognizable in braces, frizzy red hair in pigtails and a crazy outfit. If it wasn’t for Stone’s distinctive voice I wouldn’t have been able to place her at all from her role in House Bunny.

Noureen DeWulf plays Melanie, the Ghost of Girlfriend Present. As Connor Mead’s overworked secretary she is the most consistent woman in his life. Melanie’s job includes scheduling everything from photo shoots to play dates. She draws the line at breaking up with his women (a firm believer in karma). DeWulf is fantastic and a sheer joy to watch on screen.

Nadja, Ghost of Girlfriend Future, is played by Emily Foxler. Beautiful and ethereal she leads Connor through the life he can expect if he doesn’t change his ways. Silent like the angel of death from Christmas Carol, she is nevertheless affective in communicating to the audience.

Daniel Sunjata is the wedding beefcake brought in to sex up Jenny Perotti’s love life. It bugged me the whole movie how gorgeous he was and how familiar his face and unable to place him. Ladies before you go to IMDB.com he’s James Holt from the Devil Wears Prada. He plays a sincere, sweet, and intelligent man, luckily for him when Jenny and Connor reunite he is not left out in the cold.

Jenny Perotti, played by Jennifer Garner, is the love of Connor Mead’s life. We watch them as youngsters, as teenagers, as just starting out in life adults and as established adults. Jenny is the girl next door, the one right under your nose. She’s been hurt by Connor in the past. If only being around him didn’t make her feel for him all over again she could move on with her life… will Connor learn his mistakes and if he does can he get her to believe in him again?

I predict Ghosts of Girlfriends past becoming a favorite among many. It certainly is one of mine!

Rating: 4 Stars

By: Zarabeth, guest reviewer

The Traitor’s Wife is very much a crossroads between genres book. There are a ton of romantic elements, but on the whole I would not label this strictly as a romance. It’s very long and often difficult to read because everybody’s name is one of six names. This can’t be helped because it’s historically accurate. Like how everybody is named Jason and Brittany everybody was named Edward and Isabella etc. This book is very well researched with only a few things fibbed. On the whole it is a very convoluted story, but one if you can get into one you will enjoy. The following includes lots of spoilers:

It’s about King Edward the Second, his lifetime mostly with some overlap of his father and his son. His cousin, Eleanor, is his heroine. She marries Hugh, who is under her rank. It is supposedly a good match. They’re 12 and have many kids. During her marriage to Hugh she ends up being one of Queen Isabella’s ladies in waiting.

The king and Eleanor’s husband become very good friends (as in a sexual relationship). When it reaches the Queen’s ear she takes it out on Eleanor. The king and Hugh petty much run the country. During this time good things happen to Eleanor’s family and bad things happen to everyone else not her family. There are lots of traitors, rebellions, and beheadings. Then Hugh and the king and the other’s die as traitors…

Mortimer, the guy leading the rebellion, somehow managed to start a sexual affair with Isabella. The queen loves him and gives him whatever he wants and he manipulates her. She thinks it’s love but it is not. Edward’s son the new king, but Isabella and Mortimer are acting regents. They run everything and at first Edward the Third doesn’t care. Eventually he does care and there’s another uprising and in it they kill Mortimer.

Meanwhile now that Hugh is dead Eleanor falls in love and gets married to someone else… After Edward the Third is on the throne some random guy tries to claim Eleanor as his own and files a petition with the king for her to be his wife. Apparently, they had sex five years ago when she was drunk and he comes forward because in the new regime all her lands have come back to her. That makes her very very rich… and explains his sudden interest.

As you can see lots of things are going on in Traitor’s Wife, you’ll be kept on your toes.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Buy: The Traitor’s Wife

The second Georgette Heyer novel that I read was a lot easier to get through. It helped that there was few if any references to my lord or my lady in the narrative. The diction used is as exacting and up there as Devil’s Cub. This novel was longer but I read it in less time devouring it with enthusiasm. I do have one question, when did the term Tom, Dick, and Harry first get used? Heyer used it in the novel and I thought it was a modern term not one that dated back to the Regency period.

In a single sentence Friday’s Child is a fantastic tale of a poor besotted girl and a rich spoiled Viscount. Lord Anthony Sherington, Sherry to his friends, is in a pickle. He has a few years left on his trust until he can access his money in full. Worse, both of the two uncles managing his estate are not doing so in his best interest; one is negligent and the other is pulling money aside to feather his cap. Sherry has gambling debts to pay and refuses to get another loan from loan sharks. His idea is to marry.

Of course Sherry goes after the Incomparable Beauty of the season, a girl from his past that he has known all his life who also happens to be an heiress. Sherry is just one of the men that float around the Incomparable, others vying for her affections include a Duke, a nasty man who disguises his true face underneath a mask of charm, and a volatile soul who also happens to be Sherry’s friend George. (George for his part loves Isabella, the Incomparable Beauty and tries his hardest to gain her affections throughout the book.)

When the Incomparable turns him down flat, Sherry in a fit of pique vows to marry the first girl he sees. That girl is the penniless Miss Hero Wantage. Hero has also known Sherry all her life and when she was younger she used to follow Sherry around and be his fetch and go girl. They marry in London through a special license with Sherry’s friends as witnesses. Sherry nicknames Hero and everyone starts to call her Kitten by this point.

Well Kitten gets into scrape after scrape not meaning to do so but unable to stop herself. She doesn’t know the rules of society having been bred as the poor relation in her cousin’s home with the idea she would become a governess. All of Sherry’s friends are sympathetic and watch out for her the best they can – Sherry too when he pays attention. Unfortunately for Kitten one scrape gets to be one too many and Sherry explodes causing her to run away. Will spoiled Sherry realize his mistake? Will he realize he loves having her in his life? Will he find her? Will his friends help him or Kitten, whom they adore?

In short I find Heyer’s Regency set tales quite unique – we should start a Heyer Book Club! She after all has written over fifty novels, it could be fun!

Rating: 4 Stars

Originally posted 2008-09-08 05:07:11. Republished by Old Post Promoter

The movie: BBC 2008 v. staring Gemma Arterton, Eddie Redmayne, and Hans Matheson

I read this book in eighth grade at the urging of my English teacher who thought I would enjoy this book above all others he had offered up for students to read and on which to do a report. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Tess of D’Ubervilles was my first DNF (did not finish) ever. I learned how to speed read with this book. I learned out to read the bare minimum and still understand what was going on in the book.

I suppose it is meant to be one of the greatest love stories ever written but even watching the movie, a much condensed version, acted wonderfully makes me want to find the eight hundred plus page book and hurl it at a wall.

There is so much sadness in this story. Lots of spoilers; in fact I tell the whole story below:

Mr. D’Uberfield finds out he and his family are of noble blood and when things go badly on the farm sends Tess to speak with their rich relatives. Alec D’Ubervilles immediately lusts after her and offers her a position in his family’s home. At first opportunity he rapes her. Tess runs back home, pregnant from the event. The baby dies.

Tess goes off again to work as a dairy maid. There she meets Angel Clare and falls in love. He does too. They marry. He finds out about Alec and the baby and leaves her. For a year perhaps two I’m not quite sure but he stays away in South America.

Meanwhile Alec finds Tess again and pursues her like a dog after a bone. Tess writes to Angel begging his forgiveness and his help. Angel never got the letters but after surviving yellow fever goes back to England determined to find Tess. He searches and searches and follows Tess’ trail until finally he finds her as mistress/wife to the object of her downfall.

Tess tells Angel to go away and never return because she’s already dead. Brokenhearted all over again Tess turns and goes upstairs where after a confrontation with Alec she kills him with a bread knife. From there she runs to Angel’s side and tells him she’s murdered the man that has ruined her/them and now that she has can he forgive her and take her back. They run off together, find an empty home and for the first time he makes love to Tess.

When they are found by a servant they run off again. They stop at Stone Henge. Tess talks about dying. Tess begs him to take care of her family and marry her younger sister. He begs her not to ask this of him. They fall asleep.

Upon waking they are surrounded by law enforcement agents. There is no escape. The story ends Angel and her younger sister wait outside the city where the bell tolls Tess’ execution.

Book: 1 Stars because the story is completely terrible and angst driven. There’s no happiness to be found not even in Tess and Angel’s stolen moments.

Buy Book: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Buy Audio Version: Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Mini-Series: 4 Stars… the acting, scenery, and script are all perfectly executed. Gemma makes a lovely Tess, you really feel for her. Eddie is perfect as Angel, beautiful, sweet, kind, loving. Alec could not have been betters played by anyone. Hans does a phenomenal job. He’s easy to despise; playing the entitled gentleman who thinks little beyond his own pleasures so adeptly.

Buy Mini-Series: Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Desperate Duchesses is not one of Eloisa James’ best. I could barely focus in the beginning on all the name dropping and afterwards I was more inclined to think poorly despite all the book’s promising potential. The writing style was overly choppy and scenes jumped very helter-skelter throughout making the book a chore instead of fun to read. It is very clear that this is not a stand alone book. There are two love stories that make up this novel the main one of Lady Roberta St. Giles and Damon Reeve, the Earl of Gryffyn, and very clearly Lord Beaumont and his wife Jemma as they dance around each other. I confess I could not finish this book to find out if they got together or not due to lack of interest. A despicable man named the Duke of Villiers and Damon’s son Teddy are also entwined through chess matches, lust at first sight, wetted beds, and picnics.

Roberta was a laughing stock. The Rambler’s Magazine portrays her as a deformed mono-brow sickly girl next to her father the Mad Marquess, who is on his knees with his arms raised high pleading with God for a match for his daughter. Roberta of course is far from deformed, ugly, or possessing any disfigurement, but she can’t escape the reputation that clings to her when she’s around her father or his poetry. She’s had it, she has. Roberta will marry a sensible man, one who won’t make a fool of himself or spout poetry. The Duke of Villiers is just the right man, but he was notorious for not caring about scandal and sleeping with most of the women in the ton. She would have to trick him into the parson’s mousetrap.

Damon is also a notorious rakehell and while he and Villiers share that reputation they are as night and day. Damon possesses an honorable streak and finds himself drawn to Roberta when she comes to his sister’s home in an effort to be brought out properly into society. The more she spurns him the more he desires her. Some of the sultriest scenes are stolen moments where he convinces her to show him what she knows of kissing. But even as they exchange kisses, Roberta stands steadfast in her self-declared love of Villiers and desire to marry him. There had to be some way to win her heart, to prove to her that Villiers was the wrong rakehell and he was the right one.

Rating: 2 Stars

Buy; Desperate Duchesses

Originally posted 2008-12-01 13:52:11. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Wolf at the Door is one of those stories that starts with a pebble falling off the side of a mountain and ends in an avalanche. The pebble is the little white lie Millicent Hyde tells her stepsister about being engaged. The snow drift starts when Sherry asks Captain Alec Wolferton if it is true, that he is engaged to Millicent. The avalanche is when Alec agrees in warm rich tones, that yes, he is Millicent’s fiancé.

Poor Millicent Hyde is in a pickle now. Always impulsive, she has been known to make one bad decision after the next – from running off with a poof who leaves her at the altar to telling the truth and creating scandal. Disowned by her father at her stepmother’s whim, it’s all she can do to watch the perfect Miss Sherry flutter her lashes and glide across the ballroom. Her own mouth gets her in trouble again and the noble Captain Alec Wolferton was just trying to help. Now his reputation is tangled with hers and Millicent is terrified the truth will come out and she’ll never reconcile with her father because of it.

For his part, Captain Alec Wolferton is quite pleased with this fake engagement. He’s on a mission for the London War Office to expose Sherry Hyde’s fiancé a corrupt and evil man. Colin Rafferty is also the man responsible for wounding Alec during the Crimean War leaving him scarred for life and doomed to endure forever constant throbbing headaches. It’s a personal vendetta for Alec to ruin Colin Rafferty as he had been ruined and not even the pretty, delectable Miss Millicent Hyde will get in his way.

The bedroom scenes are very steamy and enjoyable.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-11-28 11:08:05. Republished by Old Post Promoter

• Snow White Figurines Contemporary 1968-Now Disneyana Collectibles

What would constitute an offer you can’t refuse?

Is it money, glory and fame, mercy for a loved one, promises of everlasting passion…

For Lauren (whose gone by Lola since she was little) it’s the first and she has to give up the last to get it. Mrs. Tennant, her boyfriend’s mother, corners her at work and offers an outrageous sum of money for Lola to break up with her son. Naturally, Lola is hurt, furious, and promptly refuses. She loves Dougie with all her heart! They’ve made plans to be together forever! Mrs. Tennant, cool as a cucumber, sits patiently while Lola rants and raves and promises to tell Dougie everything. It becomes clear she’s not getting through to Dougie’s mum, and so Lola hops out of the car and takes the bus home.

Rattled and in need of comfort she calls her friend, who offers some practical advice for a teen. This is advice Lola doesn’t want to hear and tries to call Dougie up at his hotel where he’s staying while sorting out his housing for university that year. The woman behind the desk says he’s gone out with a guy and two girls confirming the friend’s words from before. Still Lola is determined to wait until she sees Dougie again to do anything rash. She loves him, they can get through this… but then Lola runs into her Dad upstairs and everything changes in an instant. Lola must do the impossible and give up the love of her young life to accomplish it.

Ten years later, Lola runs into Doug and his family again through some bizarre happenstance. Doug is shocked and angry; immediately distancing himself from Lola. When he finds out about the money shortly thereafter he’s beyond angry. Lola in his eyes is scum. All Lola wants is to win him back… if only she could tell him why, but her sense of honor refuses to allow her this easy escape. She made a promise and she’s going to keep it, even if it means losing Doug all over again.

I found Lola at 27 to still retain most of the naive 17 year old girl she’d been. She should have been more grownup I felt. I know it wouldn’t be the same book if she’d come right out and told Doug why she took the money, but this was a point of contention for me. She stalks him too, not in the ‘I’m outside your window watching you shower type‘ of stalking, but in the ‘whenever I found out where you are or will be going I try to be there too‘ way. The older Doug showed no signs of weakening his resolve to ignore/hate Lola until the very end of the book, making the reunion a bit too hasty for me. It wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped.

There were times in the beginning of the book I was hoping Lola would fall in love with the second love of her life… the next door neighbor Gabe. He showed signs of knowing how she thought, what motivated her, did things for her (like sit and watch awful chick flick movies) and keep her in the front of his thoughts. Lola was also devastated with the idea of never seeing him again when he after a girl in Australia (it ended poorly, he came right home). In the end he’s just a great male friend for Lola.

Overall I’d give it 3.5 to 4 stars.

I generally liked this novel. It revolves around how a marriage once destroyed by infidelity can be healed. I have pretty strong views on this subject so I’ll talk about what ruffled my feathers. I’m like Viola, the heroine, at the start of the novel, looking at things in black and white. The author didn’t persuade me to think in gray matter, too bad Viola did. Luckily in the end she got what she deserved – a loving, devoted, adoring husband – but you could have fooled me. I still thought the hero was shy of truly learning how to love at the end of the book. However, you can be the judge.

Viola is the sister of a Duke and at the age of nineteen she knew she was in love with Viscount John Hammond. She also knew that despite the circumstances of his situation, he loved her, not the money she brought with her. How naïve she had been. John knew nothing of love; he was all empty words and passion.

“When unaccompanied by his love, a man’s desire was like the wind. It had no substance, and it was impossible to hold onto.” – pg 186

Now eight going on nine years after their vows, John has come to the decision to get himself an heir. For that, he will need to woo his way back into his wife’s bed. This task would prove impossible until he changed. But can a man like John, change his spots?

In the last ten pages he did. Until then the brute refused to take blame for more than half the novel and managed to in nearly every conversation lay the whole troubled affair at Viola’s feet. This is much like what happens in the movie Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.

John broke his vows. Period. The end. Case closed. What kind of man has to hide his dirty deeds behind his innocent wife? In today’s world with all the diseases that can be caught, a man who cheats ought to be charged with attempted murder if he slips back into his wife’s bed (undetected or not) without first having himself checked out thoroughly.

Viola first turns John away from their marriage bed when she learns that he kept a mistress during the entire time he was courting her. All his words of love, adoration, devotion were lies. She might have forgiven him those if the other woman wasn’t involved. After all impoverished lords needed funds and heiresses to make them solvent – he could have learned to love her.

John waits a month and leaves Viola to live a separate life. There he has count them, five, mistresses in the space of the years prior to his most devout attempt at reconciling. He only does it because he needs a legitimate heir to the viscountcy. Viola is the only woman who can grant him this. So once again he plans to use false words to get her into bed and if that doesn’t work the law is on his side and he can force her there.

But in his own words the five mistresses were her own fault for being cold to him. Poor baby. Eventually he says he is sorry for his part in breaking their marriage by using his young nephew to be his buffer. I don’t think Viola had any part to breaking the marriage. Distraught as she was she stayed with him (granted making him take separate sleeping quarters and refusing to allow him to use passion against her to win his way back into her good graces) until he left.

Marriage vows are not a one way street. A man and his needs can be resolved with a hand not another woman or any of her body parts. Fidelity goes both ways. If he required it of her then it was not an unreasonable request for Viola to make of him. John said it was and refused to be sexually blackmailed. Well what the hell was he doing when he refused to promise fidelity but sexually blackmailing his wife?

Has anyone read this book? What do you think?

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-10-06 15:07:06. Republished by Old Post Promoter

• Nora Roberts Romance Audio Books
• Nora Roberts Romance Books

I have been reading The Price of Desire by Jo Goodman these last few days and at 200 pages in I knew it was going to be a disaster. This review contains a lot of spoilers so be warned. I think many readers will find it helpful to read the spoilers as the book is very dark and angsty when everything else about the book leads one to think it’s going to be a fun story. The back is titillating and gives no clue to what’s really inside the book. Real quick it goes something like this: Alastair has promised his sister Olivia to Griffin to pay off his gambling debts and both Olivia and Griffin take the biggest gamble on each other.

Before I learned more about the characters past I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. At 200 pages in they’ve shared one kiss. Overall it’s been very slow reading as the heroine is very withdrawn and so is the hero. While at 200 pages in it’s no longer at the painful level to read and be witness to their story it certainly is not as engaging as it could be and there’s already been a settling of a 1000 pound debt (mainly the brother handing Olivia over to the hero), attempted rape (by some drunk in the hell that came upon her room), a fire (that started during the attempted rape- she gets him in the end by nearly strangling him to death with a towel), and confrontation with the delinquent brother (after he fails to get the funds to release her from the hero’s care). In any case, I can tell the hero cares somewhat, but the emotional exchange between the two is so dry that there’s hardly any connection.

At 350 pages in, they’ve exchanged bodily fluids and words of love and we come to learn a lot about Olivia and this is where it gets me. I’m sorry but I read romances to enjoy myself and get a few moments to escape reality. Nothing about Olivia’s past is enjoyable. Beyond the attempted rape scene from before we learn that Olivia was raped in her past. As if that weren’t bad enough her father ‘played’ with her when she was younger than six years old a ‘touching’ game. When the nanny brought this to the attention of Olivia’s stepmother, Olivia gets sent to a boarding school for young girls where priests tortured the girls as punishment for small infractions by sitting/standing on seatless chairs. Somehow her father reaches the school to continue his sick game and rapes his daughter all part of his and a few other men’s game and setup involving carriages and gifts. Olivia between ages 6-12 was used and it only stopped because she started her menstruation cycle. The following is in her own words…

“I was not his only little girl, I knew that. But I also knew I was his favorite… He gave me to them, Griffin. He sent me to them when it pleased him to do so. To sit at their table while they played cards, to deal for them as I’d been taught, perform on command, and later… as any one of them was struck by a fancy… I was a present on some occasions… his marker on others.”

Needless to say this book has a rating of 0.5 Stars. I don’t know anyone who’d willing read any further once they got to that revelation. As for me I closed the book and started writing this post. It was too much trauma, perversion, and sickness of the mind to deal with and I certainly didn’t want to keep thinking about it. Hopefully Olivia wins happiness in the end, the girl clearly deserves it, but I just didn’t want to dwell on the matter any more. I blame the publishers for letting a novel like this hit the shelves.

Originally posted 2008-10-03 06:48:19. Republished by Old Post Promoter

I’ve recently started and stopped a few novels. I just couldn’t get into them past a few chapters and it wasn’t because the story itself wasn’t good it just wasn’t the storyline I was in the mood for at the time. Luckily I came across Julia Quinn’s It’s in His Kiss, a delightful tale that was just what I was in the mood for. It’s in His Kiss is a Bridgerton Family novel. I would assume since all the Bridgerton children were named A-H and that one child is mentioned to still be unmarried, that Hyacinth’s story is number seven in the set. Just don’t quote me on it! Grin.

Hyacinth is delightfully outspoken young miss of age twenty-two. She is good friends with the Countess Danbury, an elderly lady known for her sharp tongue and exuberant use of her walking stick on unsuspecting shins. Hyacinth meets Lady D, as she is known, every Tuesday to read the racy and seriously over the top shenanigans of the Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron and other works by the same author.

Mr. Mozart would die in disgust all over again if he had to hear the latest in the annual Smythe-Smith Musical. Four girls, tone-deaf with sausages for fingers attempt to play classical music. In truth they mutilate it beyond words which provide Hyacinth and Gareth St. Clair much amusement as they discuss their bleeding ears. Gareth is Lady D’s grandson and it is no surprise that he runs into Hyacinth again and again – or is it?

Gareth has been avoiding his grandmother’s home every Tuesday since Hyacinth began making her appearance. He knows his grandmother wants to make Hyacinth her new granddaughter and that’s precisely why he stayed away. He only consorted with women of a certain reputation and not wholesome girls with marriage-minded mamas. And now that he’s conversed with her, Gareth can’t seem to stay away from Hyacinth.

Add in awful poetry meetings, a search for lost diamonds, and Gareth’s secret and it’s a party in the making! Hot, steamy, and full of titillating midnight adventures It’s in His Kiss will entertain you to the very end; a fabulous tale that can’t be missed!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-09-25 16:29:37. Republished by Old Post Promoter

• Mood Lamps Home Lighting

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.