I picked this novel up because I heard good things about it especially concerning the plump heroine, Angie Kane. Her exact size is never mentioned and her weight is mentioned obliquely a lot. The hero sees her as curvaceous. She eats a full plate of food in comparison to her sister who’ll eat a third of a plate with leftovers remaining. She’s not fashion forward, but she has a knack for interior design. Her major relationship before the hero was with a guy who went to college and cheated on her there.

The hero, Chris Montgomery, is a blushing Green Beret. That seems a little farfetched to me. Isn’t part of military training learning to take ribbing and cracks without flinching, let alone blushing?

For those who don’t know a Green Beret is a member of the US Special Forces…

tasked with five primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, and counter-terrorism Wikipedia

After nearly being gutted in action, Chris returns to Lambert Falls and starts renovating his grandfather’s house. He meets Angie almost immediately and is determined to pursue her and gets her sister and uncle on his side.

The novel is unconventional because it takes place over an extended period of time due to Chris going away to Colorado to train new recruits. He loves doing it and he feels he has to because the person who asked for his consultation is the man who saved his life. It creates some unnecessary conflict in my opinion.

Hand to God, this book was full of that one singular phrase. At least once per page, sometimes more, Hand to God. You could find it both in dialogue and in narration. It got very old very quickly. It was a three word filler stuck into the writing whenever there was a question about forgetting the characters were from small town, southern USA.

Rating: 2 Stars

Buy: Falling In Love

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Cross-dressing and false identities comprise Jacobin de Chastelux life since her uncle tried to use her as his marker in a bet with Lord Storrington. Now she’s a cook in the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and is quite happy. She is saving her money to open her own pastry shop as soon as she can. But then the unthinkable happens! Her dish is accused of poisoning a man the next day when leftovers were purchased. And not just any man—oh no, the man is her hated uncle.

Lord Storrington does not know who Jacob Leon is, but knows that this chef could be the very thing he needs to lure Lord Candover back to the tables. Anthony is determined to ruin Candover for having an affair with his mother that led to her death. He thought he had the man three months ago when his niece eloped with the man’s pastry chef but somehow the bastard managed to get a hold of twenty thousand pounds.

This story was deliciously fun. When Anthony first feels attraction to the heroine she is disguised as a man and his mental Olympics is hilarious. I really enjoyed the mystery to the tale behind Candover’s poisoning and watching Anthony and ‘Jane’ figure it out. I also loved Jane’s lesson of French pet names. How weird they were! Also I had fun reading her reaction to the verbal slip Anthony says right after ‘finding out’ she was a virgin. She starts throwing things and cursing him in French.

Rating: 4 Stars

Buy: Never Resist Temptation