Tag: 2012 Reading Romance Challenge

A Wild Night’s Bride

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews

A nobleman wakes up with a hangover and a naked actress in the King’s bed. It should be the punchline to a very bad joke. Or at least a very bawdy one.

Instead, it’s the opening scene of A Wild Night’s Bride by Victoria Vane. And neither the nobleman nor the actress is very pleased about the situation. Especially since said nobleman, Sir Edward Chambers, sticks his still rather drunken foot in his mouth by calling the naked woman in his arms the wrong name when he wakes up.

No woman wants to be mistaken for anyone else in those circumstances–no matter how gifted a lover the man might have been the night before!

And just how did they find themselves in the King’s bedchamber? That’s the story! How did they get there, and why? And even more importantly, what happens after?

(The story takes place in England in 1783, so they wake up in Westminster Palace, and definitely the King’s bedchamber. Or one of them. It’s part of the fun.)

The heroine of this historical romp, for that is what it is, is Phoebe Scott. Unlike most historical heroines, particularly those of the English variety, Phoebe is not a lady, nor does she have any designs to be. Not unless she is playing one onstage. Phoebe is an aspiring Covent Garden actress.

Phoebe’s problem is that she wants to do her acting on the stage, and not on her back. But in order to get ahead, she needs a rich patron. And the only way to acquire a patron is to put out. Meanwhile, she ekes out a meager living as a wardrober for the actresses who are willing to entertain protectors.

The night that Phoebe decides she has to give in and play the strumpet onstage as well as offstage is the night that Sir Edward Chambers returns to London after three years of sobriety. Also three years of celibacy. Three years since his wife died and he holed himself up at his country estate to manage his affairs and raise his daughter.

It was inevitable (at least for the story) that Edward and Phoebe collide. Phoebe is a good girl who sees no way to become an actress except to be bad. And Edward has been a hermit for three years, and he has become a responsible man, after too many years as a rake and a scoundrel.

His friend DeVere still mostly hasn’t grown up yet.

When Phoebe comes to a house party looking for a patron, she thinks she is seeking DeVere. He’s rich and infamous, but she’s never met him. What she finds, is Edward Chambers. Ned has just enough darkness in him to be dangerously tempting. But Phoebe needs the patronage that DeVere can provide. Ned never pretends that he isn’t going back to his estate.

And DeVere finds it amusing to manipulate his friend and the actress. His friend Ned because he can’t believe the man he used to know could possibly return to a quiet life in the country, and the actress because he sees her as a pawn.

So a drunken bet leads the actress and the nobleman to a night in the King’s bed. But by that point, it’s a pretty open question about who is manipulating whom–and towards what end?

DeVere might even (perish the thought) be doing something good for his best friend.

Escape Rating B: A Wild Night’s Bride is a hot, steamy romp that leads to a happy ending by fairly circuitous means. This is one to read just for the fun of it. With bon bons. And a fan.

And I hope DeVere gets what’s coming to him in the next book in The Devil DeVere series (it is named for him, after all!). Watching some woman take him down a peg (or ten) is going to be well worth reading.

For more of my thoughts on this book, click through to Book Lovers Inc.

 

Demonically Tempted

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Demonically Tempted is the second book in Stacey Kennedy’s intensely amazing paranormal romance/urban fantasy Frostbite series. The events in Demonically Tempted directly follow those in the first book, Supernaturally Kissed. You should read Supernaturally Kissed before Demonically Tempted. All the 5 star reviews of Supernaturally Kissed were dead-on, it’s fantastic. And so is Demonically Tempted. You’ll be tempted to stay up late to finish it!

Right where Kissed left off, Tess Jennings sees ghosts, especially her ghost-lover, Kipp McGowan, a cop who is determined to continuing serving with the Memphis Police Department, even as a ghost.

But Tess is the only one who can see him. And Tess’ ability to communicate with ghosts is very useful to the cold-case squad. So many cold-cases involve old homicides, and so many victims, well, have the kind of unfinished business that results in ghosts. Ghosts that Tess can help.

Tess gets a job offer from the Memphis P.D. Which she really has no choice about taking. Her old job isn’t there anymore. She spent too much time working with the cops on Kipp’s case. She got fired.

But working with Kipp’s old squad is okay. They accept her and Kipp as a team. But, there’s a problem. The supernatural community is not so accepting. Kipp is a ghost. His issues are resolved. He should cross over. And he isn’t, hasn’t, won’t. Because of Tess.

Tess’ powers are untrained. She started seeing ghosts when she was seventeen, after a very near-death experience. The Police Department has brought in a medium, someone who has more experience working cases, to work with her. Dane Wolfe says he can train her, but something about Dane gives her the heebie-jeebies, even more than the ghosts.

And something is seriously up with the ghost community. There are lots of ghost coming to see her. Deliberately. There is a dark spirit terrorizing them. Tess didn’t even know the ghosts were organized, and now they’re passing the word around about her. They want her to actually “Ghostbust” a bad spirit for them. What’s up with that?

So the quiet life Tess had at the beginning of Supernaturally Kissed is toast. Instead, she’s a police consultant with a ghost-lover and a real would-be Ghostbuster for the good ghosts on the ghostly side of Memphis–something she didn’t know existed. And she feels guilty for keeping Kipp from crossing over. Because she loves him more than she’s ever loved any man, and it’s going to rip her apart when he leaves. Which is what is supposed to happen.

And she’s in the middle of her first real case, which is nothing like it appears to be. And might be part of the whole supernatural Ghostbusting-thing.

Maybe Tess should ask for her quiet life back?

Escape Rating A: This just keeps getting better. And darker and deeper. The urban fantasy mix-in of the cop shop is marvelous–all of Kipp’s squad trying to get used to Tess, and knowing that he’s there watching, but they can’t see him. Some of them answer the question they know he’s just asked, even though they can’t hear it. Now that’s teamwork!

There’s angst here, too. Tess and Kipp know this can’t last forever, and there are definitely problems. Their relationship is hot, but, their ability to physically interact is seriously limited. And they definitely love each other. They want to do what is best for each other, but don’t know what that is, since they have no clue what comes next. What happens to ghost, after?

Demonically Tempted ends on a scrape-your-jaw-off-the-floor cliffhanger. I wanted to reach through my iPad and shake the next book out of Ms. Kennedy right then and there. (This feature needs to be added to future iPads)

The cover reveal for Mystically Bound is tomorrow.

Supernaturally Kissed

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Tess Jennings sees dead people. Ghosts. And they’re usually pretty clueless. No “Ghostbusting” required. Mostly they’re lost and confused and they need Tess to deliver a final message to somebody, or close out some unfinished business for them, or maybe just tell them they’re dead. Then they move on.

They aren’t supposed to spend an entire evening whispering dirty nothings into her ear. Not in a voice so sexy it ought still be doing phone sex, whether the operator is dead or alive.

But when Kipp McGowen, starts coming on to Tess in Supernaturally Kissed, the first book of Stacey Kennedy’s Frostbite series, he’s a ghost. The most deliciously handsome and mentally together ghost that Tess Jennings has ever seen. But definitely a ghost.

Kipp is a cop with the Memphis Police Department. And he needs Tess to help him solve one final case before he can “move on”, or whatever it is that ghosts do. He needs Tess to deliver all the information he has on the case that got him killed.

What’s weird about that case is that Kipp was working a cold case. It shouldn’t have gotten anyone excited enough to gun down a cop. But it sure seems like whoever murdered Hannah Reid five years ago must have gotten nervous about a cop asking questions about the old case. Even if the cop in question doesn’t know which rock he overturned that uncovered his killer.

Kipp didn’t see his murderer. It isn’t that easy. He wants Tess to go to the police station and talk to his partner.

Tess is NOT THRILLED. She knows what’s going to happen. The cops are going to be certain she’s a fake. Or crazy. Or both. She’ll be exposing her gift (or her curse, it’s all in the definition) and nothing good will come of it. At least not for her.

But Kipp is certain this is the only way he’ll get the resolution he needs to cross over. And Tess knows she won’t get him out of her life until he does. And dammit, she finds him amazingly, incredibly hot. Having him around, as a ghost, all the time, watching her, talking to her, in that sexy voice, describing all the things he’d do to her if he weren’t a ghost–she’ll combust.

She goes to the station. And it’s every bit as bad as she feared. Except that Kipp is there with her. Really with her. So it’s good. Even though it shouldn’t be. And that’s a problem.

Because he’s a ghost. And the longer he stays, the better they are together. The better they are together, the more difficult it will be when his case is finally resolved, whatever that’s going to take.

The more Tess works with Kipp and plays with Kipp, the more danger she is in. Working with the cops is dangerous enough, but the real danger, is to her heart. What happens if she falls in love with a ghost?

Escape Rating A: This is one of those times when the book is every bit as good as all the buzz you’ve heard. Everyone raved about Supernaturally Kissed and they were absolutely right. This story is a wow!

Tess is wounded and keeps to herself because she’s got a gift, or a curse. She can see ghosts, and she helps them cross over. Kipp is a ghost who needs her help. The only problem is that Kipp is her wildest dream of a man she would have wanted, if only he were alive!

Struggling with being a ghost, with needing to rely on others, and with the awareness that his time has already run out, makes Kipp into the man that Tess needs, except it’s already too late. Kipp’s a ghost. Resolving his last case is the loose end that keeps him from crossing over. When it’s done, he’ll be gone. But he’s a cop, and the case needs to be done so that Hannah Reid, the woman whose death he was investigating, has justice, and so that her murderer isn’t free.

It was never about Kipp. That’s what made him a good cop. That’s what makes him a good hero for this romance, in spite of being a ghost. Or maybe because he’s a ghost. A very hot ghost.

The Frostbite series continues with Demonically Tempted and the upcoming Mystically Bound (cover reveal tomorrow)

Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Two flavors that taste surprisingly good together: the manners of the Regency period, dipped into the darkness that comes after the complete collapse of civilization that results from an utterly devastating plague.  In other words, what happens to the upper crust of the ton in a dystopian world?

Unlike Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, K. Reed’s Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire is not playing for laughs. Someone has unleashed a plague on England, and the population has been reduced to a mere remnant of itself. Only the strong survive.

There are no zombies, no vampires, no ghouls. Well, not in the classic horror sense. There are only men and women who have survived a deadly disease that seems to have struck down eight or nine out of ten. Civilization has collapsed. Whole towns have ceased to exist. It’s as if the Black Death struck full force in 1804 instead of the 1400’s.

The English blame Napoleon. If the same thing happened in France, the French probably blame the English.

But Grayson Merrick, Baron of Harwich, doesn’t have time to worry about who the French think caused the plague. He’s much too busy holding his own lands. He kept his coastal fief of Harwich together, and relatively safe, when most of the lands around him descended into chaos. It’s required iron discipline, and a will of adamant, but two years later, he’s carved a safe zone for his people and is bringing more villages under his protection each month.

Relative safety means that he has time to worry about the future, the future of England. Rumor says that the Royals are all fled, or dead. That the government is gone. He heard one fairly credible rumor that some of the governmment officials were still alive in London, and he mounted a expedition to check it out. He found London a burned out wreck, and no government left. Almost no one left alive except the rats.

The heart of the Empire is dust and ashes.

As he returns to Harwich Grayson decided to take his foraging party, (for that is what they are, it is not possible to go out into the countryside without searching for supplies) to the house of his former commander.

His commander has died of the plague. Everyone in that house has died of the plague. Except for one beautiful woman. Who has survived, and like all survivors, is probably immune. But she is weak and will slow them down returning to Harwich.

Grayson has always told his men not to take survivors. They can’t save everyone. They don’t have enough supplies. This is a brutal necessity in a world gone mad. But he wants this woman. She is the only thing, the only person, he has asked for, for himself, in the time since the plague, since he began saving everyone else.

His men make space in the carriage they are using to haul supplies, and they bring her back to Harwich.

Her name is Juliette, Lady Adair. They should have met in a ballroom. He should have been able to respectfully pay his addresses, before the world went mad.

That world is gone.

Instead, he installs her in his rooms, because they are the only place good enough for her. There are no proprieties any longer.

And the first thing she sees when she wakes up is Grayson whipping a man for being falling down drunk on sentry duty, and allowing bandits into the safe zone. The man chose the whipping, because it was a preferred punishment to being exiled. Exile is death in this terrible world.

And Juliette understands. Only the strong survive. She is one of the strong ones. She is a member of the British Government. The question is, whether or not she can trust Grayson with her secret.

And whether he can trust her with his.

Escape Rating A-: This is an a darkly fascinating alternate history. The reader does not know how the plague came about, because the characters don’t know. The world has gone mad. How do the strong survive? Who do you trust? Life still goes on, but what changes?

The description of this story was a post-apocalyptic Regency romance, and it kind of is, but more in an alternate history sense. Everyone remembers the mannered culture of the ton, but the sane people know it’s over.

There is a love story, and the lovers, Grayson and Juliette, both think about what things would have been like, if, but recognize that the world has shattered. They regret what they’ve lost, but mostly the people and how much easier life was. They are pragmatic. Very. And while it’s expected in the hero, it’s also excellent to have in a Regency heroine. A simpering miss would be dead. Literally.

Regarding the spying and skullduggery against the French, it’s absolutely fascinating that even with the plague, the enmity between France and England is eternal.

Alien Revealed

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

First contact. In the story of Alien Revealed, the sexy science fiction romance by Lilly Cain, that phrase about the protocols surrounding the first meeting between humans and aliens takes on some amazing new variations.

And I don’t think any of them are quite what Star Fleet might have had in mind. Although Jim Kirk probably did. 😉

But in this first contact story, the humans are the less scientifically developed race being contacted by the more scientifically advanced Inarrii. And the contact is accidental. As in collision.

Agent Alinna Gaerrii has been observing the human Starforce installation from her covert base on the moon. Some of that observation has included a bit of close-in flying in a stealth pod. That’s what got her in trouble. An unscheduled airjet swerved into the airspace over the base and collided with her pod. The resulting crash wasn’t pretty. The airjet’s passengers were killed, and Alinna’s pod, with all of its alien technology, hit the trees. Alinna survived, just barely, but it was exactly the kind of situation for which self-destruct signals were created.

The humans were not supposed to know that they were being observed, Not quite yet. Alinna was just about ready to return to the Confederacy Alliance base on Jupiter’s moon Europa to report that the humans would be excellent candidates to join the Alliance against the brutal Raveners. The diplomatic team would return to begin treaty negotiations.

Instead, Alinna, wounded and bleeding, was found by Starforce pilots investigating the crash site. Also found was a small piece of melted plastic, the last remains of her ship.

Starforce Major David Brown mistakenly identifies Alinna as the psychtech who was supposed to have been aboard that airjet. The one who was scheduled to evaluate his Special Forces team before their mission to Mars.

Alinna decides to go along with the mistaken identity, using her Inarrii abilities of reading emotions as a way of observing the humans up close. Even though she will break every protocol of observation that an Agent is supposed to maintain, she is certain the information will be worth it. Everything she’s seen of the humans shows that they are exactly the allies the Confederacy needs.

But David Brown is a shock. Because Alinna can reach him, mind-to-mind, as though he were another Inarrii. Which he manifestly is not.

That any human can achieve mind contact makes the humans even more valuable as potential allies than anyone could have guessed. They can be full partners.

But for Alinna, alone and isolated for far too long for one of her people, David is much more. The mind contact that he initiates in his dreams soothes her. Inarrii need touch almost as much as food and water; and Alinna has been alone for months.

When those dream-meetings, and dream-matings, move into the real they discover that they might have something worth changing their lives for … if they can get past their very big differences. And the people who are shooting at them.

Escape Rating B: As I said in my review of the second book in Cain’s Confederacy Treaty series, The Naked Truth, this science fiction romance leans a little more on the romance side of the equation than the science fiction side.

However, maybe because Alien Revealed is the first book in the series (Undercover Alliance is third, and it’s due out in June) a lot of the science fiction worldbuilding takes place in Alien Revealed. Which I liked seeing.

Even if I think that the base security is weaker than it should be. But folks snuck into Stargate Command who shouldn’t have, too. I did love some of the fun touches, such as the bit about the folks who really, really wanted to meet an alien were nicknamed You-fo’s, derived from UFOs, and no one ever believed them. Until all of a sudden they were right.

Bad Girl Lessons

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Where does a good girl go, when she wants lessons in taking a walk on the wild side? She goes looking for a bad boy to give her Bad Girl Lessons.

It’s not just an idea, it’s the title of a fun, sexy romp by Seraphina Donovan.

Evangeline Harper has already picked out the bad boy she wants to be her teacher. It’s the bad boy she’s always wanted, Jackson Cope.

Jackson is the local heartthrob. Local football hero, and grown-up bad boy. Jackson’s always been her Evie’s friend, and nothing more. She might have always wanted more, but he’s always had prettier, skinnier girls available.

This time, Evie’s waiting on the dock outside his bar with an offer she’s hoping Jackson won’t refuse. She wants him to teach her to be a bad girl. And she doesn’t care what anyone thinks. She already knows she isn’t skinny enough for her mother, and she obviously wasn’t pretty enough for her fiancee.

He just left her at the altar while he ran off with her cousin. Evie is sitting on Jackson Cope’s dock in her wedding dress.

And Jackson Cope thinks that curvy, voluptuous Evie is the sexiest thing he’s ever seen. He always has. Always.

And the man who jilted her was his cousin Trevor. Whom Jackson hates with a passion. And it’s mutual.

Out there on that dock Jackson gives Evie a tiny taste of the pleasure she’s been missing. And then he lets her go to think about whether she really wants what she’s asked him for. Think about it with a clear head. Because he knows that once he finally gets the girl he’s wanted since he was fourteen, he’s never going to be able to let her go.

And he’s going to make sure she enjoys being a bad girl so much, that she forgets what it was like to ever be good.

There’s only a few problems with Jackson’s plan. After his cousin’s behavior, Evie can’t believe that any man would want her for keeps, let alone the town heartbreaker. She thinks Jackson is all about the fun.

And Trevor comes back for Evie, and not in a good way.

Escape Rating B+: This is one of those stories where you think you’re going to read just a little, and can’t stop until you’re done. If you’re looking for a story to sweep you away for an hour, this is a good one.

Evie is sweet and wounded, and the scene with her on the dock in her wedding dress is absolutely priceless. She’s hurt and angry and she wants to lash out and Jackson is her best friend and her deepest crush. She has absolutely nothing to lose at that point, so why not go for the one man she’s always secretly wanted? I really enjoyed watching Evie come into her own.

And Jackson? Every not-perfect princess wants to find a bad boy like Jackson who loves her just as she is. It was terrific to have a hero love a woman who was not a size 2 for a change.

Let’s just say that there is a romantic suspense element added when Trevor re-appears. And that Trevor gets everything that’s coming to him.

 

Satisfying the Curse

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Satisfying the Curse by Kelly Gendron is a romantic suspense story that starts out by having the hero drugged and tied to a hotel bed to service the heroine’s curse! The scene teases her limits, his libido and the reader’s expectations, but all in surprising, and ultimately satisfying, ways.

About that bondage scene…Juliana Pratt believes that she is cursed. She’s twenty-six, and has spent her entire over-educated life in environments where she keeps herself as far away from men as possible. Her father has her convinced that her mother was a wanton adulteress and that Juliana suffers the same curse. Juliana has never even let herself be tempted to give in.

But Daddy Dearest is facing murder charges, and Juliana is the only witness that can corroborate his alibi. So while he is in prison awaiting his trial, she is free. Well, sort of free. Daddy Dearest (AKA Warren Pritchard) is rich and influential. He’s committed a LOT of dirty deeds, but always managed to buy his way out, until this time. During Juliana’s limited bit of freedom, she is supposed to be doing the talk show circuit, playing up the dutiful daughter image and making sure that any jury is prejudiced in his favor before the trial starts. In return, he has promised to finally give Juliana some of her inheritance.

But this talk-show junket is Juliana’s first experience of life outside of all-girls schools and educational institutions. She’s finally experiencing real life, even if it is a real life punctuated by regular death threats and attempted kidnappings.

Somebody wants her dead, or at least beaten down. And Juliana knows it’s her father. He wants to make sure she corroborates his alibi.

Juliana has a bodyguard. And that’s where the real fun comes in. Her first bodyguard, Josie, introduces her to the fun of watching mixed martial arts. Watching the fighters wakes up Juliana’s curse of wantonness. or that’s what Juliana believes. Juliana asks her bodyguard, her best and only friend, to help her get one particular fighter at her mercy for one night, so she can lose her pesky virginity and satisfy her curse.

The plan works flawlessly. Except…once  she’s got the man tied up and practically begging, Juliana can’t follow through. And her inexperience reveals the fact that she’s a virgin, which leads to the next flaw, the fighter may have done a lot of ring bunnies in his time, but he doesn’t play with virgins. Ever.

Then there’s problem number three, and it’s a doozy. Juliana’s protection detail gets handed off the morning after the curse-removal disaster to a new bodyguard. And the fighter she tried to play bondage games with is her new babysitter. And her curse still wants him, really, really bad.

Too bad Agent T. Ryker still doesn’t do virgins. No matter how much they beg. Or how much he wants to.

That her father is going on trial for murdering his aunt, the woman who raised him? That’s just one more reason to guard his heart from the beautiful woman whose body he’s supposed to be protecting.

Escape Rating B+: The opening scene started out pretty darn funny. The bondage thing was just crazy. And hot. But then things took twists into a little more serious territory.

Juliana (she goes by Ana) thinks she’s cursed, because that’s how Daddy brainwashed her. Ryker thinks he’s tainted because of the circumstances of his birth. As a pair, they have a whole train-load of baggage to sort through, and they really have to work at it. Misunderstandings abound! Neither of them have ever trusted anyone, and it takes them a while to figure out it’s even possible.

The level of sexual torment on both sides is also very hot!

I did spend a chunk of this book wanting to beat Daddy Dearest with a baseball bat. If he has a redeeming characteristic, I didn’t see it. Unrelieved evil is fun to read every once in a while.

There was a very nice twist at the end that surprised the heck out of me. Excellent, excellent!

 

Invitation to Scandal

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews

It seemed as if every single person in the village of Deal and the surrounding County of Kent was participating in one scandal or another in Bronwen Evans’ latest historical romance, Invitation to Scandal. But that was what made this tale of smugging and spying so damnably much fun!

Heroes have been “over a barrel” before, usually financially, but this may be the first time a heroine has been trapped behind one before. At least when the trap is not initially a sexual one!

Rufus Knight finds Rheda Kerrich wedged between a barrel of brandy and a tree. Rheda can’t budge the barrel. Which is very clearly contraband, since it has no excise stamp.

Smuggling is a time-honored method of making a little extra money on the English coast when times are hard. The only problem with hard times is that they often occur during war. In this case, the Napoleonic Wars.

Rufus is an agent of the Crown. He is in Kent, in the neighborhood of Deal specifically, because a French spy has been using the local smuggling ring lead by “Dark Shadow” to get information to the French. Rufus thinks that the pretty wench behind the barrel can help him get to this smuggler, since he has her, well, over a barrel.

Rheda wants Rufus’ horse. Temporarily. And to get away from Rufus before he figures out who she really is. Although she may be running around the countryside dressed like a gypsy, Rheda is the older sister of the Baron de Winter. She’s gentry. Which means that Rufus’ attempt to seduce the information about Dark Shadow out of her could have permanent consequences of the marital variety, once he realizes that he nearly compromised a lady of the “quality”, albeit one with a tarnished reputation.

About that horse. Rheda owns two Arabian mares, who are conveniently in season at the moment. Her dream is to breed cavalry horses for the Army, and use the sales to keep her brother’s estate afloat… something she’s been managing for the last several years while he grew up. Managing through slightly dubious means. She’s also been keeping the village from starving by those same means, with their help and connivance. The horse stud would have the virtue of being completely legal. But for the horse stud, she needs, well, a horse to provide the initial stud. And Rufus’ stallion has the perfect bloodlines.

Speaking of stallions, Rufus himself isn’t half-bad either. Not that Rheda has any actual experience, but she’s 25 years old, and she isn’t blind or stupid. Or dead. A woman would have to be dead not to notice the man’s appeal. Something Rufus is well-used to using to get information out of susceptible women.

But Rheda isn’t quite that gullible. She has too many secrets to keep. So she tries turning Rufus’ obvious desire for her back on him. Except she doesn’t have enough experience at the game to make that completely work, either.

Instead, they play a lot of very enjoyable cat and mouse games. Although it’s downright difficult to tell who is the cat and who is the mouse. That they are actually falling for each other is the biggest secret that they keep during their mutual pursuit. They both have very valid reasons for not trusting the other, or any emotions that might arise during their “game”.

Rufus is still in Kent to catch a French spy. Not just because he wants to stop the leakage of  vital intelligence, but because 12 years ago, his father was accused of being that spy. Rufus firmly believes that if he can find the real traitor, he can clear his father’s name. He needs that closure to end the cloud of scandal that his family has been living under since his father’s death.

Rheda is also living under a scandal. A couple of years ago, an Arabian Prince visited Kent. He gave her two Arabian mares in return for saving his sister’s life. But Society assumes that the horses were a gift for much different services rendered. Also, Rheda is a smuggler. If she is caught, the punishment will be severe.

Rufus needs to marry a lady of impeccable social standing to erase the stains on his family honor. The last thing he needs is to become fascinated with someone like Rheda. Especially since he has no idea whether or not she might lead him to the traitor.

And there is definitely a French spy out there. But it is a person that absolutely no one suspects. Someone who must be caught before everyone in Kent is ruined. Again.

Escape Rating B: The whole smuggling and spycatching storyline made this historical romance mostly fun. But there were definitely some serious aspects to it too.

Both Rufus and Rheda have serious trust issues to overcome, and for good reason. They’ve both been betrayed in the past by people they loved. Rheda doesn’t trust men, because of her father’s behavior. Rufus was involved with a woman when he was on a mission in Belgium, and she turned out to be an enemy agent who killed his friend and then stabbed him.

It’s a lot to overcome. But I might have enjoyed the story a bit more if they’d belabored this point maybe one round less. YMMV. It was still good.

About that spy. The identity of the spy was very well concealed until close to the end. Which was excellently done. The reasons for becoming a spy, etc. made perfect sense once you knew the identify. (Spoiler Alert) But the torture scene felt a bit over the top to this reader.

For more of my thoughts on Invitation to Scandal, take a look at Book Lovers Inc.

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance by Kay Dee Royal is the first book in her Lycan International Investigation Agency series. And it is definitely a series that I will want to investigate further!

The story begins on Olivia’s wildlife sanctuary in the U.P. (that’s the upper peninsula of Michigan) when the perimeter alarms go off one night. To Olivia, that means some predator is after the animals she is protecting until they can be released back into the wild.

Olivia has a “sixth sense” when it comes to animals, she can sense what they’re feeling. It’s beyond empathy, she truly connects with them, to the point that her sensitivity is considered a psychic ability.

So when she looks out her window and stares straight into the eyes of a huge black-and-silver wolf, and knows for certain that this predator is out there protecting her homestead from something else, she believes that instinct unquestioningly, even though she questions most of the other sensations she gets from the big beast. Because animals do NOT project those sorts of feelings towards humans. Not ever.

But her wolf isn’t just a wolf. The big male is a Lycan, a shapeshifter. Chance and his team of international investigators have chased a crazed Lycan named Smoke all the way from Europe to Olivia’s door. Where Chance has discovered after 300 plus years that the human woman is his primal-mate. A distraction that he absolutely did not need in the middle of the most critical hunt he has ever faced.

Especially since protecting his mate, the Alpha’s mate, distracts his entire team. Because Lycans, like wolves, mate for life — and follow their mates into death.

But that Smoke, they keep finding him, and he keeps eluding them. Almost as if he has a spy in their midst. Or a way of tracking their communications. Or a little bit of both.

Who is Smoke? Or who was Smoke?

Escape Rating B: This story had a lot of fun in it, but at the same time, there are some parts toward the end that are not for the faint of heart. Smoke is truly messed up, and bad stuff happens. I want to read his story, so I’m hoping that we’ll learn more about him in book 2.

Olivia and Chase are perfect for each other. They’ve both graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, and are not looking for a relationship. So when a relationship pretty much slams into them, they’re both surprised, and not necessarily open to the idea.

I want to know more about Olivia’s gift. She’s clearly had some training, but where? how? who? Is it accepted? Inquiring minds are very curious.

The Lycan International Investigations Agency has some neat background, too. They are super-secret and have some friends in very high places. I hope we learn more in later books.

For anyone who enjoys Kate Douglas’ Wolf Tales, I would definitely recommend Staring Into the Eyes of Chance. The Lycans remind me of the Chanku, just with more detectives.

 

An Heir of Deception

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Runaway brides, secret babies, family secrets, blackmail and alcoholism. Those elements would make for enough drama for one story all by themselves. However, in An Heir of Deception by Beverly Kendall all of that is just backstory to the actual novel. In this case, it’s the revelations and their aftermath that drive this story. And what a story it is!

Charlotte Rutherford abandoned Alex Hastings at the altar five years ago, and ran away to America. Not because she didn’t love him. But because she loved him too much to expose him to the social censure that would result if the secret of her parentage was revealed.

Now she’s back. She received a letter that her twin sister is deathly ill. The letter was fake, but the damage is already done. Charlotte is back in England, with her four-year-old son Nicholas. Alex’s son.

Her return sets a chain of events into motion that no force on earth could stop. Alex, heir to the Duke of Hastings, moves his considerable powers to claim his son. But instead of a custody battle, he chooses to falsify their marriage, re-claiming Charlotte as well. Even as he tries to pretend to himself that he has “recovered” from his love for her, just as he “recovered” from the alcoholism he sank into after she left him. Knowing full well that the drink still tempts him every day. And so does Charlotte.

Meanwhile, Charlotte still has a devastating family secret yet to be revealed. And the blackmailer that drove her from England the first time is still out there. As she and Alex begin to build a new relationship, built partly on their old passion, and partly on their shared love for their son, they still face demons of jealousy, anger and betrayal. Until the blackmailer is finally revealed.

Escape Rating A-: I stayed up late to finish this one, because I had to find out who the blackmailer was. And I’m not going to spoil it because I was very surprised at the person’s identity. I will say this, the blackmail is not about some minor, or even major, peccadillo of Charlotte’s, this is a “skeleton in the family closet” type of secret, not about some sin she committed.

The story, ultimately is about trust. Charlotte didn’t trust Alex to stand by her if he knew, not because he might think less of her, but because society’s censure would ultimately wear him down, and he would resent her in the long run. She might have been right. What she was, certainly, was young and unsure of herself. She did think she was saving everyone, and she did not find out she was pregnant until after she reached America. By then, returning seemed out of the question. And probably was. It would have added more fuel to the already scandalous fire.

The number of relationships in this story built on rather shaky trust foundations is actually scandalously high. The shifting of those bonds, seeing them re-build between Alex and Charlotte, build between Alex and his son Nicholas, finally form between Alex and his own parents, and yet fall surprisingly in other quarters, is what deepens this story.

An Heir of Deception is book 3 in Ms. Kendall’s series, The Elusive Lords. I am now sorely tempted to go back and read the other Lords’ stories; Sinful Surrender (book 1), A Taste of Desire (book 2) and All’s Fair in Love & Seduction (this mid-series novella is currently free at Amazon, B&N and ARe). If they are anything like Heir, they must be delicious.