FYI: This is basically a rant review with spoilers.

Freya Addison once loved Zac Deverell with all her heart, but Zac was a billionaire playboy used to getting what he wanted when he wanted. After pursuing Freya, enticing her to first work as a stewardess on his yacht then seducing her into his bedroom he is both amused and bemused by how innocent she turned out to be. He persuades her to become his mistress and the little fool agrees. He breaks her heart three months later when she tells him that she's pregnant, by hotly denying it, calling her a two-timing gold digging whore and throwing her out of his penthouse.

Two years later Freya gets into a car wreck and her daughter Aimee is supposed to be in the care of Freya's grandmother. The grandmother is a heartless woman who only tolerated Freya in her life because of what the neighbors and little old bitties she hung out with would think. Freya's mother ran off years ago and hasn't been seen since and doesn't make an appearance in the book. The grandmother decides she's going on her world cruise, manages to find Zac Deverell at his London offices in the midst of a press conference and passes the baby along causing a scandal.

Zac is furious with Freya and the grandmother thinking they cooked this up on purpose. He doesn't blame the two year old baby and tries to temper his voice when he storms Freya's hospital room. He frogmarches Freya to do what he wants; which is to take her and Aimee to Monaco and getting a paternity test done so he can once and for all prove Freya the tramp that she is. Zac is highhanded, arrogant to the extreme, belligerent, and mean spirited. He takes great pleasure pursuing Freya for his pleasure while calling her names. Freya has no pride or self confidence and can't seem to ignore the passion he stirs in her blood. They have several intimate encounters, many leading to full blown sex.

When the child ends up being his he gives a two second apology and gets Freya to agree to marry him. We're about two thirds of the way through by now. This book is not that long... but of course he changes in the last like 3 pages, while appearing to exhibit no real changes.

From his side that we never see:

Doctors told him long ago he had 50% chance of holding the same gene. The disease wiped out his twin sisters before they were a year old. He vows never to have kids and gets a vasectomy.  Then he finds out he's a daddy - is terrified but happy because his daughter hasn't shown signs of the disease his parents carried genes for. Goes to doctors and finds out there's a reliable test now to see if he carries the gene.

Meanwhile he wants to have sex with Freya all the time because he can't formulate his feelings and decides to show her by aggressively pursuing sex off and on (which she interprets as he wants me and now he doesn't all the while thinking in abject despair  how is this ever going to work? and he's always intentionally hurtful and terse in his comments.)

Now we're at the end and he still hasn't got the results yet, but he suddenly can't go through with the wedding he insisted on. She thinks its because he doesn't want her and wants the woman who came up to her at a party and claimed to be his lover. Woman also said that whenever Zac told Freya he was working he was really with her playing.

When he hotly denies that Freya is all heartbroken AGAIN and tells him if he can't go through with until he tells her something she says she knows what it is and understands that he doesn't love her.

To which he then asks if she's an idiot (ok not really but still) and proceeds to finally open up and explain about the gene that he potentially was carrying and why he had a vasectomy in the first place yadda yadda and that he on some level knew he loved her which is why he was so furious when he thought she'd cheated on him two years ago with the street artist.

Kiss. Sex. Wedding. Epilogue. HEA.

I mean really what is this garbage? Don't read this.

Rating: 1 Star and only because sometimes the sex was decent.

Originally posted 2009-01-14 05:21:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Tally’s Gift is the third novel in Quartzton Trilogy.

The last of the unhitched friends are thrown together when calamity strikes and the others are out of town. Playboy Brett Huntsman has broken nearly every limb in his body. The poor guy is strung up and unable to move. Tally Bennett comes to check up on him to ease his sister’s worries and this is the last place she wants to be, luckily it’s only for tonight.

Somehow they manage to have hot and sweaty sex on the bed, but that doesn’t mean Tally is interested in more. Tally Bennett, you see has been burned in the past. A man she thought was the love of her life threw her over for money and a stick figure blonde. Ever since then Tally has been good at keeping her distance whether she’s with a guy or not. Sweet Meadows keeps her busy and that’s good enough for her for now.

When circumstances make it impossible for Sophie to return to take care of her brother, Tally agrees to nurse him back to health. Brett, being male, milks it for all he’s worth and suddenly Tally and Brett are starting a six week no strings attached sex-fest. Of course it doesn’t stay that way soon feelings get involved and desires change.

Tally’s Gift in short is fun and sexy—though I’m not convinced sex that busted up is entirely feasible, but I’m willing to go along with it. This was my favorite novel in the set.

Rating: 3-3.5 Stars

Buy: Tally's Gift

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I am a big fan of Lisa Kleypas. I love her historicals. I heard about her contemporaries. I wanted to give them a try, but I was afraid I wouldn't love them as much as I do her historicals. Contemporary novels and I have had our fair share of issues in the past. So I waited, and waited, and waited, until I finally found it in the library. Then I snatched it so fast, it made the other patrons' heads spin.

I laughed, and chuckled, and giggled, out loud and in my head all the way through the book. Kleypas wrote a gem when she wrote Smooth Talking Stranger. I can't possibly say enough good things about this book. The dialogue was witty, the leads had phenomenal chemistry, the path from singledom to motherhood and coupledom was breathtaking and sweet.

When I finished the book, I closed with a blissful sigh and one thought running through my head... must own my very own copy. I wanted to sing praises about this book to the nearest person I could find -- and I did. It happened to be my mother. She's now borrowing it from the library.

I'm so thrilled to be converted to the dark side (contemporaries). I've put my name on the hold list for Blue-Eyed Devil. I just can't wait to read it. If it's half as good as Smooth Talking Stranger, it's going to be a toe-curling and very yummy read indeed.

The book pits a high society Texan playboy against a woman who has no use for his charm, wealth, or position other than forcing him to admit he's the father of her sister's new baby.

Rating: 5 Stars

Buy: Smooth Talking Stranger

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