Love Romance Passion » Secretary or Assistant http://www.loveromancepassion.com Because Books Don't Fall Asleep Afterwards! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Review: Hidden Summit by Robyn Carr http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-hidden-summit-by-robyn-carr/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-hidden-summit-by-robyn-carr/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:36:48 +0000 Lynn Reynolds http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=13722

Reviewed by Lynn Reynolds

This is book 17 of the “Virgin River” series.

Brie Valenzuela used to be an Assistant District Attorney. We find her in a coffee shop waiting to meet a witness. She is doing this as a favor for a good friend. Conner Danson is that witness. Brie starts off giving him a couple of warnings. One of which is about not “hooking up”. Now when have our heroes ever listened to that little bit of information?

Leslie Petruso steps into the bar where Conner is seen having a meal. She’s there to meet Paul Haggerty about a possible job. She’s been hurt and is looking to make a fresh start in a new town. What better place to start over than in Virgin River.

Robyn, good writer that she is, has both Leslie and Conner working for the same company. What better way to get to know each other and disregard Brie’s advice. There’s an instant connection but because of a little misunderstanding, on Conner’s part, he stays away from Leslie. Now how long do you think that will last?

Leslie’s ex, Greg, has a habit of showing up. He’s definitely a strange character. In my mind he’s a narcissist. I say she’s better off without him but you will have to read the story and see if you agree with me. Since starting over in Virgin River, Leslie has learned to hold her own. She deserves better.

Oh, Robyn is good about having Greg keep coming back into the picture. He reminds me of a “running gag” in a movie. He’s definitely the comic relief of the piece. You have to commiserate with Leslie at ever having been married to that guy. He’s so self- absorbed! You have to wonder if he walks around with a mirror in his pocket. I would definitely love to know how Robyn created this character. He’s most certainly one of a kind.

Conner has found a way to get on Leslie’s good side. As you read, he asks her out and you definitely will not want to miss it. I wouldn’t mind someone doing that for me. Robyn always has her characters do things that are totally plausible. I applaud her for her creativity.

Robyn doesn’t make this story just about Conner and Leslie. We get to see brother and sister, Brie and Jack, interact with each other. You can tell that they love each other. We also get to see the love Conner has for his sister, Katie. Leslie also has a great relationship with her parents.

I have to say that Leslie offended me a little. Her parents are in their sixties but Leslie gives me the impression that they are one step away from a nursing home. But once you meet them that is the furthest thing from the truth. Robyn shows us that you’re never too old to have a great time with your significant other.

What I love about Robyn’s Virgin River series is that she makes it a very comfortable community. It sounds like a place where I would love to live. It is a community where everyone takes care of each other. Even if it’s a place you wouldn’t want to live in, you would certainly want to at least visit.

When I got to the ¾ mark in the book, Robyn puts in a little surprise. She gives us some suspense that you don’t see coming. She has definitely piqued my interest at this point. I definitely have to continue reading so that I can see how everything plays out.

Robyn has a great addition to her “Virgin River” series. Her characters build over the time of the story. She shows us that community is important and they will be there to stand behind you when things get tough. It’s a good feeling book and one that you will want to read again and again. It also prepares you for her next book that is coming out in March of this year.

Rating: ★★★★½

Buy: Hidden Summit (Virgin River)

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Heroine: 21 year old Alex Hill works as an interpreter. Between 17 and 21 she lived in a convent after her parents died because the mother superior was related to her (aunt). She has an irrational dislike (fear) of elevators.

Hero: Playboy Max Goodwin is a mining magnate in his mid 30s. He needs an interpreter for several weeks while he woos a new Japanese client. When they first meet he’s unimpressed but after a makeover this confirmed bachelor wants her in his bed.

Sour Grapes: Max demands Alex get a makeover to make her presentable for being around the events he’s meeting his client in to which she accepts with a lot of grace (though she quibbles over who will pay for the makeover) considering how insulting he was. Then immediately following her makeover he makes a scene with a comment demanding to know what had been done to her in a makeover. Now she was too pretty? WTF, jerk.

Review: The constant switching in thoughts from one paragraph to the next. It was a mental tennis match. The switches were too obvious and too immediate, sharing what one thinks or the other thinks about a situation instead of letting the narrative progress. It was distracting and ruined the reading experience of interpreting information. This book is an example why for so long getting into the hero’s head wasn’t on the table or until the end of the book for his “Oh crap - I’ve got to grovel now or lose her forever!” moment. The dialogue between them was so full of cheese that I rolled my eyes until I got dizzy.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Buy: The Billionaire Boss's Innocent Bride (Harlequin Presents Extra)

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Before you start: Have you read Jane Eyre? Did you like it? Well The Forbidden Wife followed Jane Eyre to a Tee, which is great if you love Jane Eyre (which I do) but awful if you’re looking for new surprises (I was and there wasn’t any).

Heroine: 18 year old Ashley Jones is an orphan who grew up in the foster care system. She’s got lots of debt and so desires jobs that include room and board. She’s pretty perceptive and has a lot of insights on people’s behavior because of her upbringing. Working as Jack’s live-in assistant at Blackwood Manor is her ticket for something better, even if it’s located out in the middle of nowhere on the moors.

Hero: 30 something Jack Marchant is working on a novel about his experiences in the military where something bad happened (but is never explained). He suffers a lot from bad dreams which might be indicative of PTSD (but again never specifically stated). He wants Ashley, his little oddball, something fierce, but the trick is making her realize she wants him and can have him.

Wife in the Attic: Or in this case the cruel wife in a coma. She tricked Jack into marriage with a fake pregnancy, which he honored even after finding out because he didn’t want her to swindle him out of money for a marriage that was only 3 months old and also because his pride demanded he make it work anyway.

Review: I wanted Forbidden Wife to do more. If it explored more emotional depth out of Ashley and Jack it could have been a solid update on Jane Eyre. I found this review of the story hilarious because it really tells it like it is.

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Buy: The Forbidden Wife (Harlequin Presents)

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Genre: Contemporary, Category

Summary: NYC radiologist Dan Davenport moves to small town Forever, Texas to fulfill his dead brother’s promise to become the town doctor. There he meets single mother Tina Blayne who’s working at becoming an accountant and winds up as his secretary/office administrator. They think they have each other pegged, but do they?

Review: I’m not a big fan of doctor plots so that really affected my reading of the story. I also didn’t like how the single mother has a sick child in the story just because the hero’s a doctor. Too cliché and rarely do I like the sickness trope that brings the main couple together because one takes care of the other (or in this case the kid.) I also felt Dan’s inner angst about his brother and why he was in Forever was a little convoluted and cookie cutter.

What I did like was all the people in the small town coming together to help get his home ready before he arrived (though you’d think they would’ve done this before he got there – except the point was to show him small town hospitality) and Dan’s thoughts where he wondered if they were helping because they thought to barter their help as handymen for his medical services. Too funny!

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Buy: The Doctor's Forever Family (Harlequin American Romance), The Doctor's Forever Family (UK)

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To borrow a phrase from Nancy, you will be absolutely thrillified with Grace Coopersmith’s new novel! I was. It was the perfect flirty, happy, sweet, and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Grace Coopersmith is a pen name for Marta Acosta and Nancy’s Theory of Style is a spinoff of the Casa Dracula novels. I probably wouldn’t have noticed that if I hadn’t been in contact with Marta and read the connection from another review. That just shows how seamless the storytelling is on the author’s part. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

Nancy Carrington-Chambers’ perfect life with her perfect husband, perfect house, perfect job, and perfect friends is really not as perfect as it seems. Three years after her wedding, the house, her husband, and all the rest of the trappings in her life are driving Nancy’s insane—she has to take a break and get out. She moves back into her classy San Francisco apartment with plans to refocus on her business, Froth, an event planning company, and reconnect with friends.

The first is easy to do as soon as Derek Cathcart comes on the scene. He is Nancy’s new British and very gay assistant. He’s well dressed, well mannered, and slightly sarcastic, with beautiful features and smirking eyes. Everything her husband is not. In fact, you could say he’s perfect. If only he wasn’t gay!

Reconnecting with old friends is harder, nobody returns her calls and they all give her the brush off. What’s going on? With old friends swiftly disappearing – Bailey, her husband’s friend, makes a flattering overture.

Then Birdie, her cousin, foists her young daughter, Eugenia on Nancy without so much as a by your leave. The girl is a mess and not at all fashion forward. What’s Nancy supposed to do with a kid? Especially with the Barbary Coast Historical Museum fundraiser right around the corner!

I was sucked into the delightmare that was Nancy’s life. I finished it in record time and loved it. I can’t wait to dive into the Casa Dracula novels.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Buy: Nancy's Theory of Style

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bookreview1

Have you ever picked up a novel and about halfway through feel like there's something you should know about it because it seems familiar? I thought I was going insane! I couldn't remember the book, but I remembered the characters. I was certain I hadn't read it before but how could I explain my knowledge of the main characters and the two of the side characters? Thank heavens I finally figured it out! Lady Sophia's Lover is the second of the Bow Street Trilogy. The first is Someone to Watch Over Me. Where I recognized the characters was from the third Worth Any Price which follows the brother of the heroine in LSL. Nothing like solving a mystery to start off my day!

Sophia Sydney is out for revenge. She wants to destroy the man who sent her brother off to his death. Sophia is certain of her facts and equally certain of Sir Ross Cannon's cruelty and guilt. It seems fortuitous when an ad to be his secretary appears in the papers. Taking it as a sign, Sophia appears in Cannon's offices on Bow Street determined not to take no for an answer.

Ross is completely stunned by Sophia. Her very presence shatters his carefully constructed walls. He tries to regulate her into a housekeeping position instead of the secretary position. Her argument that he didn't specify gender completely flummoxes him and before he knows it, Sophia is both his secretary and his housekeeper.

Sophia is equally dazzled. The fat, old, wig wearing man she expected is not there. The man she sees is not the man she pictured. Ross is distinguished, virile, and devastating. While Sophia is trying to gather evidence against Ross and his runners, she finds herself hopelessly drawn to him. Will love win out over vengeance?

Rating: 4 Stars

Buy: Lady Sophia's Lover

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bookreview1

I have wanted to read this book for a while. I can't tell you how happy I am that I finally did read this book! As I closed the book, I was gushing. There were so many aspects of this story that I liked, it's hard to find any to point out as negatives, but there are two side plot arcs that could have been left well enough alone and the story would have been tighter focused and undiminished.

As both arcs together make the bigger blackmail arc in the story, I'll just detail them really quickly. One was the woman who slept with Anna's late husband, and wanted that information hidden. The other was the lover of the woman who wanted his pockets lined. Of the two, the male lover blackmail arc was completely superfluous and unnecessary.

What I liked:

  • Anna working as Edward's secretary.
  • Edward's internal monologues.
  • Anna masquerading herself and claiming Edward at a "luxury" brothel.
  • Edward's proposals.
  • The sex. Hot stuff, I tell you.

Anna is a respectable widow. Her late husband a complete scoundrel and adulterer. She can't have kids, or so she thinks (as is the way with most romance novels - the heroes just have mightier seed - it's a fact!).

Edward's late wife died in childbirth. He found out after he married her just how much he disgusted her. He won't make that mistake twice. He's currently wooing a baron of an old family line for his daughter, and reassuring himself more than once that the daughter wants to be wed to him. This side arc makes sense for the time period, but it was just another unneeded obstacle in the story.

Meanwhile, Anna has gone to work for him. From the moment he meets her officially, he can't take his mind off of Anna. She's invaded his senses so much, he runs to London to seek release in a high end brothel so he won't ruin her respectability. Little does he know... evil grin.

In parting I want to add just how much I loved the wren and raven symbolism and it's correlation to the fairytale posted at the beginning of every chapter.

Review: 4 Stars

Buy: The Raven Prince

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Corporate Seduction is a highly erotic interracial romance set in the workplace with a white male boss and a black female secretary.

Winston Biggers is a jerk. He’s rude, mean, unfeeling and Maybelline, his secretary, is certain he’s keeping her from advancing. He won’t even give her a raise after all she’s put up with over the years. To cover the gap in her salary, May takes a second job at the Oh Club, a exclusive club that caters to a BDSM clientele, as a Dominatrix.

When a masked Winston wanders inside he’s immediately drawn to Mistress Mayai (pronounced "May I/Eye") as she reminds him of his secretary, a woman he’s been attracted to from the beginning of their working relationship, but was unable to do anything about do to company policy.

When they learn of their real identities the game changes. Win will get to be the Dom during the day at work and have May submit to him. At night, May will continue to be Dom. This setup lets them remain in lust with each other while also allowing them to take full control.

Winston and Maybelline are not perfect characters. They each do things that aren’t very likeable. For instance, Maybelline does something incredibly cruel and stupid in the beginning to Winston in retaliation to ill treatment. She sends his current girlfriend a very mushy note with an overly sentimental and romantic bouquet when he requested something very benign as he was leaning toward breaking up with the woman. I felt so bad for the soon-to-be-ex.  On the other hand, Winston is a true cad. He knows Maybelline deserves the raise she requested and to be promoted but he keeps her where she is because it suits him. It's hard to like a story when you don't like the main characters.

Some other things that bugged me – May never interacting with her grandmother for whom she was taking the moonlight job for and Princess/Mistress Payne the sadist side character.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Buy: Corporate Seduction

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Call Me Mrs. Miracle is a light-hearted Christmas romance that features a young boy, his aunt, the son and heir to a department franchise, and an angel.

Emily Merkle is the angel in this story. A mix-up in human resources spells her name Mrs. Miracle on her name tag. At first glance, Jake Finley, thinks she’s too old to work the crazy atmosphere of the toy department during the holiday season, but she soon proves him wrong and becomes the top sales associate with her grandmotherly ways.

She also has a habit of knowing what people are thinking about or are worried over. Some of the things she says are uncanny too. But she seems a good sort and is a huge help in large ways and small ways. Some might even call her the best matchmaker in New York City. You should read all her snappy little advice that headlines each chapter. It’s too cute.

Our hero, Jake, is much like his father. The two find Christmas to be a hard time of year as memories of a tragedy that took place one Christmas Eve are never too far behind. They have a yearly tradition of getting out of the snowy white wonderland of New York and heading down to the Caribbean where sunshine and sandy beaches deduce the yuletide presence that’s felt everywhere. Things seem gloomier than ever to Jake when a toy he predicts to be the season’s hit doesn’t seem to leave the shelves. A run to the local Starbucks and suddenly a bleak Christmas begins to look a little shinier.

Holly Larson was never more embarrassed than when she found herself unable to pay for her latte, but when a handsome man picks up her tab she can’t help but smile. Four run-ins over the course of twenty-four hours can’t be a coincidence. Can Holly take a risk on romance this year while struggling to give her nephew, Gabe, a Christmas to remember?

Start your holiday reading off on the right foot and keep an eye out for later this month when Mrs. Miracle airs on the Hallmark Channel.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Buy: Call Me Mrs. Miracle

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bookreview2

This romance takes place in New Zealand. Our young 20 year old heroine is striking out on her own in the Queen City far away from the one horse town she grew up in Manawatu. She’s looking for adventure and excitement and finds more than she bargains for in Stuart Newman.

Their first meeting is a chance encounter when he whips by her on the street drenching her in ice cold puddle water. In apology he takes her to his place to freshen up before dropping her home. Using information he learned that night about her he manages to place an ad in the paper and lures her to his office. She becomes his secretary despite the plethora of warnings about Stuart Newman.

Stuart Newman is drawn into a bet by his friend Paul to make Cindy fall head over heels in love with him within a month. He accepts. His only saving grace is that he warned Cindy twice in conversation about “his own personal interest and a bet” when it came to them. She was simply too naive to put two and two together.

Stuart is a hard man, jaded, cynical, and above all scornful of women, love, and finer emotions. He simple doesn’t believe in them. His issues arise from his mother and from one crash and burn relationship, the last time he’d ever open himself willingly to a woman.

It’s a jazzy little category. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The ending has a tangy bittersweet feel to it. I wish though that it had another ten pages to really tie it off. It felt a tad rushed, and a bit jerky, but oh well.

Rating: ★★★½☆

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