October 28th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Australia/New Zealand, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Executive, M-O, Secretary, Virgin Heroine
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: 3.5 Stars
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September 28th, 2009 — 3 Stars, Arabia/Middle East, Blackmail, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Interracial, J-L, Kings, Princes, Sheiks, Chiefs, Mistress or Courtesan, Science, Sheik/Desert
This was a pretty decent read. One of those books you read once and don't plan to revisit. There were some obvious contrite plot mechanisms and I felt the hero wasn't really a flesh and blood character, but one pulled out from a standard issue mold. I did enjoy the heroine for the most part. I solved the so-called mysterious aspect to the story the moment the 'bad guy' character was introduced so I didn't really have anything to pull me through the story.
Prince Vereham al a'Karim bin Hakar is a mouthful, but that is the hero's name. Vere (as it is mercifully reduced to) lost his mother and father very young, not at the same time, but fairly soon after one another. The death that caused his young teenage psyche the most harm was the lost of his mother. He saw how his father behaved and knew how he personally felt and swore never to love or open his heart again because it hurt too much.
A chance encounter with a beautiful brunette (not Vere's preferred type) and passion sparks. Vere keeps putting barriers up and as many as possible. Most can't withstand a single drafty breeze before toppling over. The one that sticks the longest is his desire to see Samantha McLellan as the 'bad guy' in league with a nearby ruler to try to discredit the validity of his country's claim on a water source. He blackmail's Sam to be his public mistress in order to undermine any claims she could possibly make. Will Sam hold with such nonsense or will she allow passion to burn out all her qualms?
Rating: 3
Originally posted 2009-01-29 05:07:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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