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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December 13th, 2009 — 4 Stars, A-C, Book Review, Children, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, Estranged, Kidnapping, Mistaken Identity, Poor Eyesight, Secret Agent, Secret Baby, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America, Widow or Widower

Remember when I ran into Roxanne St. Claire at the bookstore? I asked her what her favorite books were that she wrote and Hunt Her Down was one of them. I was not disappointed in fact my socks were knocked off! I think I may just have to get back into reading lots and lots of romantic suspense because of this novel.
There’s this sexy shed scene where Dan masturbates that really did it. The scene is so hot you boil reading the pages. See, Dan has bad night vision and thought the heroine couldn’t see him. They were locked inside the shed (were they used to make love a lot when they knew each other years ago) by the bad guys and while they were waiting to be rescued they had a little trip down memory lane.
As Roxanne St. Claire said on twitter:
You know, every hero has to have a flaw.
To which I said:
I'd take that flaw in a few more heroes haha
I so would! Whew!
Maggie Varcek believes in signs from the universe or at least her Baba (grandmother). When a fortune cookie fortune accurately acknowledges her pregnancy, Maggie is ecstatic and determined to go to the baby’s father to tell him the news. She knew he’d take care of her and they’d figure out what to do (e.g. how to get away and stay safe.) On that fateful night however, Maggie does not get the chance because Michael Scott dies when the FBI and DEA rush in to haul Ramon and Alonso Jimenez off to prison.
Flash forward a decade later. Ramon is released and back on the streets. Dan Gallagher, formerly Michael Scott, undercover Bullet Catcher, knows his ex-lover Maggie might be in danger if Ramon figured out she was the leak. His plans to protect her go awry when he finds out they had a kid. Now he’s racing to solve a case of missing millions, 100 million to be precise, and the mysteries of the heart, specifically his own.
Sizzling, suspenseful, and superb. As I said before, I think I may just have to get back into reading lots and lots of romantic suspense because of this novel. Can’t wait to read Make Her Pay
!
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Hunt Her Down (Bullet Catchers)
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