Entries Tagged 'Divorced' ↓
March 14th, 2010 — 2.5 Stars, Blind, Book Review, Business, Category, Children, Contemporary, Divorced, G-I, Housekeeper/Maid, Marriage of Convenience, Older Woman/Younger Man, Secretary, Tycoon, United States of America, Virgin Heroine
Philomena Peabody made a promise to her mother. She took care of her three younger sisters and when the last one got married, her youth had slipped away. Now at 27, Phil has a lot of thinking to do.
Penn Wilderman is in a custody battle with his ex-wife for Robbie, their adopted son, his nephew. In the midst of all this he’s recovering from snow blindness. (Hurray for an original blindness idea!) When he hears Phil for the first time he thinks she sounds like someone’s mother.
This makes him think she’s much older than him. She’s actually about 10 to 12 years younger (something that gets confused later when he asks his family servant what people would think of him marrying her.) Phil tries to correct him a few times, especially when he calls her “sweet little old lady.” Every time though, he always cuts in and ignores her protests.
Penn convinces Phil first to move into his mansion to help him watch over Robbie, then later to a marriage of convenience in order to help him win at the custody hearing. The plan however nearly backfires on him… because it wasn’t for Robbie’s sake Penn wanted Phil. It was for his own.
It was pretty insulting at the end when he sees her (for the second time, because he couldn’t place her the first time) and tells her he thought he was going crazy imagining himself in love with an old woman. Talk about double standards.
The writing is pretty confusing in parts and some things aren’t as well explained as they could be. Which is too bad because another category romance of hers I really really like and doesn’t have this problem.
The ending resolution could have been dragged out a little. Phil was clever when she ran – she went to work first and deleted her employment history so he couldn’t track her down. He was clever and got to her quickly. Phil begs his forgiveness when he shows up and it’s all HEA in two seconds.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Buy: If Love Be Blind
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February 24th, 2010 — 3 Stars, Contemporary, Divorced, Guest Reviews, M-O, Secret Agent, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
The Marriage Game by Fern Michaels is a light summer read.
I figured by the description it would have some humor, and it does.
Samantha Rainford returns from her honeymoon to find she has been served divorce papers. She is both shocked and heart broken. She is going to be paid off with a check for $5000. When she visits the attorney, she learns there are three other wives before her who have all been treated the same way. She determines that she will not get mad, she will get even. She enlists the aid of the other wives to extract their revenge.
Meantime, she and a girlfriend attend an FBI training school -- seriously, how remotely possible is that! where they both flunk out. But they've learned a thing or two.
Then they are recruited for a secret ops camp deep in the mountains of NC. How Samantha gets the better of her recruiter is one of the funnier portions of the book. The only way the two of them will join is if the other wives come along too.
The cast of characters in the mountain includes the head trainer who is endangered by his past if he comes off the mountain (Pappy), and the cook (who turns out to be his father), a dog that is part wolf (Alpha), and the other teams that are being trained.
This section of the book is interesting as the characters are developed. The better part of a year is spent on the mountain. Samantha passes with flying colors, but Pappy doesn't want her to have the life that he has had. He is in love with her, though she doesn't know it. And he doesn't know she was ever Mrs. Rainford.
How she and the other women -- they find he has a number of other ex-wives that they find out about, and that might not be all, who are also included in this -- exact their revenge is a cute part of the story. And how it interweaves with Pappy's story is believable.
I give it a 3.
I've never read any of her books before, but judging from this, I will see if I enjoy the others as much.
With all that FBI and special agent secret op going on The Marriage Game sounds like a cross with Miss Congeniality. What do you think?
Buy: The Marriage Game
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Originally posted 2008-08-11 05:26:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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February 7th, 2010 — 3 Stars, A-C, Book Review, Business, Contemporary, Cursed Lead, Divorced, United States of America
Jennifer Crusie is a staple of contemporary romance. As such I felt the need to expand my acquaintance with her. Before this, I had only read Bet Me. So you see, I really needed to fix this oversight. I got Manhunting from the library and breezed through it in just a few short days.
Kate Svenson is a brilliant business woman in financial planning. She thrives on helping small businesses create and execute business plans that stabilize and expand their business. It’s been years since she’s worked on small scale though. Working for her dad, Kate does work for big business now and making oodles of money. She should be on top of her game, but three broken engagements in three years point to something wrong under the surface.
Her friend Jesse Rogers, a woman who Kate helped a long time ago with her cake decorating business, sets Kate down to do what Kate does best—make a plan! Not just any plan, but the plan that will help Kate find her perfect man and take a vacation while she’s at it. Her qualities are good on paper but the men she meets are anything but perfect. In fact her experiences at the Cabins make quite a joke.
Jake Templeton is the landscape manager and silent partner at the Cabins. His brother Will runs it and is the face. Will, like the rest of the family (which never makes an appearance), is tired of Jake’s lazy lay about ways. He wants Jake to take more interest in the hotel but Jake is determined to stay an ex tax attorney and not indulge in a single ambition. One failed marriage has cured him of what ambition he had.
Jake and Kate are thrown together a lot. Kate is certain he’s not her Mr. Perfect. Jake’s certain Kate is just like his ex-wife. They’re both about to find out how wrong they are…
Kate and Jake are kind of flat characters for me. They read like any other contemporary romance novel leads. Nothing in particular set them apart for me. The whole novel was like eating candy. It was good while you read it but ultimately lacking in nutrition.
Rating: 3 Stars
Buy: Manhunting
or Buy: Manhunting (Audiobook)
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January 11th, 2010 — 3 Stars, Africa, Baroness or Viscountess, Category, Children, Contemporary, Divorced, Gambling, Great Britain, Guest Reviews, P-R, Racing, Scarred Hero, Virgin Heroine
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?
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Originally posted 2008-08-26 05:44:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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December 30th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Architect, Children, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Cooking, Divorced, Lawyer, Love Triangle, Mistress or Courtesan, Movie Reviews, United States of America
It’s Complicated is bust your gut funny. I laughed the whole way through. Of all the older couple romantic comedies (Last Chance Harvey
, Something's Gotta Give
, and As Good As It Gets
) this was my definite favorite. It’s a fast upbeat comedy about post-divorce.
It’s been ten years since Jane (Meryl Streep) divorced two-timing Jake (Alec Baldwin), who is now married to his mistress Agness. One weekend, while celebrating their son’s graduation, Jane and Jake share an evening together and hook up. Suddenly, Jane is the other woman and it’s good. She’s not trying to figure life out anymore. Instead she’s living it and it makes her happier, more vibrant, and risk-taking. One of those risks she takes is Adam (Steve Martin), the architect designing her kitchen. It’s as things come together and start to unravel she realizes that the whole situation is complicated. Very complicated.
Streep, Baldwin, and Martin are the core to this movie and play off each other with the deftness and ease that could only come with experience. The comedic timing is so perfect you will find yourself obnoxiously laughing in the middle of the theater. Luckily, everyone is laughing together with you so it won't matter. It’s really very cute.
Streep made Jane relatable (even to the 20 something crowd). She was neurotic, natural, and charming. You will root for her. Baldwin played Jake flawlessly. Truly a great performance. You loved him even when he was so bad (it’s good.) I had reservations about Steve Martin (never been a fan of his work) but I was happily surprised and enchanted. Martin plays his part with empathy and sensitivity.
John Krasinski, who plays Harley, the fiancé of one of the daughters, is a riot and a half. Oh my gosh was he fabulous. Krasinski stole every scenes he was in.
The supporting friendships for Jane played by Rita Wilson, Mary Kay Place, and Alexandra Wentworth were lovely. I want friends like them. Definitely a perk of the film is watching the three of them and Streep interact and act together.
If you’re looking to feel good, laugh until you hurt, and get a happy ending watch this film!
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: It's Complicated
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December 27th, 2009 — 2 Stars, A-C, Blackmail, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Cooking, Divorced, Friends, Marriage of Convenience, Mexico, Pregnant, Tycoon, United States of America, Working with Land
The main plot line for Marrying King’s Millions is marriage of convenience, which winds up not being so very convenient. I found Travis King’s reasons for marrying a little strange, and stranger still to find out his brother did it and wound up finding his soul mate and having a little HEA. Seems way too neat, but then it is part of the Kings of California line and most lines will have interconnected stories with past lead cameos.
Travis King is a vineyard owner looking for an international distribution deal with Thomas Henry. His eligible bachelordom means Henry is pushing is “unsavory daughters” (we never meet them by the way) so in order to avoid these daughters Travis coerces Julie O’Hara, an unmarried childhood friend low on her luck into a marriage deal. He’ll give her money to start her bakery after one year of marriage.
Jean Claude Douchette, Julie’s sleazy immoral ex-husband turns out to be not so ex as she thought, Travis is certain she tricked him. He believes women in general are only after his money so while he’s disappointed he is not surprised. When he compromises her in public and pictures appear the next day even then he’s wondering if she did it on purpose. Nothing Julie says or does convinces him otherwise until she’s pregnant and then for inconsistency sake he suddenly believes her. Go figure.
Rating: 2 Stars
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October 17th, 2009 — 0.5 Stars, 1 Star, Book Review, Business, Divorced, Foster/Orphan, Historic America, M-O, Mistress or Courtesan, Older Woman/Younger Man, United States of America, Virgin Hero
When I was in the middle of Wild Oats by Pamela Morsi I had no strong feelings on it. It was neither good nor bad and looked to be shaping up to a solid two stars.
I did dislike all the words devoted to talk on disease. The hero was a mortician, but not inclined to it. He wanted to pass the business on to his partner. It was his partner that always talked about it – what happens to the ground with unsealed coffins, figuring out how people died based on his observations during the care of the body, etc. There was also a plague going through the territory and landed in the town. In the end it was entirely too much spent on sickness and death. Bah.
Then I began to notice after all the disease talk half of the pages were devoted to bringing together the hero’s horrible undeserving mother with his business partner. I began skipping those parts. She was completely irredeemable. The woman wanted nothing but to be crowned the biggest gossip in town. She started false rumors about the morality of the heroine until everyone in town thought her a common slut/whore. On top of that she was a smothering mother who whined and needled into getting more attention from her son and was not above guilt tripping the hero with the fact that she gave birth to him. Seriously, this lady was going to get a HEA? Double bah.
The hero and heroine when they got together were cute, but they can’t overcome the other aspects of the novel.
I finally gave up and put the book down when the preacher started to spread rumors about what he thought he saw at the heroine's house after a church service where he intended to and was on the verge of forcing heroine into a public confession of all her sinful immoral ways until more disease talk took over (both the novel and his sermon). Last and final bah + humbug!
Rating: 0.5-1 Star
Find and Buy More Pamela Morsi Books.
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July 6th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, Book Review, Category, Cowboy, Divorced, Historic America, J-L, Mistaken Identity, Ranching, Rape/Abuse, Snowed-in, Spinster, Survival, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Western, Working with Land
When wild woman, Mad Mag, came across a pair of boots underneath a layer of snow, she was determined to ignore the dumb sod and let him freeze to death. Stupidity was not something she or anyone could afford to accommodate in untamed Wyoming. Just as she was leaving, a familiar dog barked… Boots… which meant that the unconscious cowboy was Garret Daines.
Garret Daines was the first man to show her kindness, besides Ira, since she ran for her life fourteen years ago. Unfortunately that meant she had to save him. Mentally cursing the emergence of her conscious Maggie hauls Garret onto her sled and drags him two miles up the mountain to her little abode.
Safe inside and tucked under her sheets, Garret thinks he’s dreaming of an angel. Maggie, uncomfortable around people is not at all sure what’s going to happen when he wakes up. What’s a girl to do with a half dead man in the middle of a blizzard?
There were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in the Harlequin Historical, which surprised me. I’m not used to seeing them. The most notable was wreaked when the word reeked was appropriate. As for the story, got to say it was one of the best stuck and snowed-in I’ve ever read. Very fun, I laughed quite a bit in the beginning. The ending was sort of bland/typical, lacking the strength of the beginning and middle of the novel.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Mountain Wild
Buy on eHarlequin: Mountain Wild
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July 4th, 2009 — 1.5 Stars, Bodyguard, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Divorced, Entrepreneur, J-L, Older Woman/Younger Man, Pregnant, Secret Baby, United States of America
Part of the Famous Families line, A Weaver Wedding, is littered with names. Most likely they are characters of past and future novels all dealing with the Clay family. By the time you’re introduced to them all your head is spinning. It’s easier to keep the names down and the interaction between the leads up.
If you’re good with names and one time introductions this won’t be a problem, but I can’t follow that many characters. Well, that’s a lie, I could, but I don’t care to in a short novel. If I’m going to get lots of names dropped it better be in a long novel or series.
It was predictable, bubblegummy, and not overly compelling. It needed meat, sustenance, something to truly be endearing.
Besides the name dropping, I did not like how the hero and heroine got together in the beginning. Did she have to be drunk?
I understand it’s contemporary but I just don’t understand why drunkenness is needed to urge a modern woman into bed with a handsome man or why a suitably charming, upright, dependable hero would agree to sleeping with a drunk heroine when he’s so virtuous in character.
I figure if they were smart enough for condoms, she should be smart enough to avoid getting to the point of slurring drunkenness even if her brother stood her up on her birthday. He should have been more upright and not taken advantage. I don’t care that he’s wanted to act on his attraction to her for the past five or so years. I care that he looks out for her.
Which brings us to the ironic part of this review as the hero is the heroine’s bodyguard.
Review: 1.5 Stars
Buy: A Weaver Wedding
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April 27th, 2009 — 4.5 Stars, Book Review, Counts, Marquis, Viscounts, Divorced, Foster/Orphan, G-I, Great Britain, Handicap, Heiress, Native American, Queen or Princess, Regency, Scarred Hero, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Warrior, Widow or Widower
I took great pleasure in reading this novel. It wasn’t a typical romance though it held many of the typical pieces you would find in a romance. Atypical you ask? Yes! The heroine for instance was raised by the Dakota, or Native American Indians. She had to return to England to pursue the rest of her destiny and avenge her dead mother. The banter was particularly snappy between the leads. The sex too was pretty phenomenal on the scale of none to steamy. I read this in about a day and half; I would put it down and couldn’t wait to get back to it as soon as possible.
The cover on this novel is hysterical, at least my version which is pretty old. My sister-in-law picked it up thinking a boob was sticking out, flagrant nipples and all, but realized upon closer inspection that it was simply a circular diamond pin stuck to the front of the dress. To me the models look like they are wrapped up in a sleeping bag decorated in some ancient Regency pattern. For being raised by the Dakotas in America, she’s certainly pale, no sign of a tan at all – on the cover or in the book. I wonder why that is? Could it be because society would have been shocked down to their slippers and boots?
Christina Bennett is the crème de la crème. The moment her dainty foot hit the first ballroom, London society gasped and capitulated at her feet. She finds it silly and they call her Princess, even though her father has lost his kingdom, even though she’s never met her father in person. With pale white hair and the deepest sky blue eyes, Christina is a lioness. Her arrival to London was predicted by a shaman’s dream and her destiny was to seek out justice for the crimes against her and her mother.
Is it any wonder when she’s introduced to the Marquess of Lyonwood that she was shaken from her stupor? The man looked fierce and vulnerable at the same time. He held himself like a warrior and bore a warrior’s scar down his cheek. To Christina, he looked positively virile and masculine, a far cry of the fops and dandies she’d met again and again from ballroom to ballroom. He was like a lion too, lithe and predatory. When he pursues her, part of Christina wants to give in and part of her fears doing so because she could learn to love him… worse he could learn to love her and her stay with the English was only ever meant to be temporary.
With tempting kisses and secret trysts, Christina’s head swims with the heady sensations of newly experienced passion. She begs him to marry her in one unguarded moment and the scoundrel declines. Lyonwood sees her proposal as a sign of her scheming ways, not realizing that Christina’s eager passion is unrehearsed. He plans to seduce her not knowing that she’s virginal until it’s too late…
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Originally posted 2008-12-28 19:30:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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