I found this book very charming. I guess I was just in the mood for it. Sergei comes off as ridiculously appealing, despite his flaws. This is one of I found this book very charming. I guess I was just in the mood for it. Sergei comes off as ridiculously appealing, despite his flaws. This is one of those times that I can totally understand why the heroine has a hard time resisting the hero. He's got the powerful, billionaire who happens to be drop-dead gorgeous and has the sexy vibe down big time. And add on him being identifiably Russian.... He really is a sex bomb.
I really liked Alissa. She's a very sweet person. She does stand up for herself, but she's also a giving, caring person. I wanted her to get her sexy Russian billionaire, and he shows that he deserves her, which is even better.
The love scenes were sizzling, and the chemistry between Alissa and Sergei is off the charts. This is one of the books where the author just hits all the right notes for me. While I can't get over how evil Alissa's sister is, at least it doesn't wreck Alissa and Sergei's happy ending. And it was great to see Sergei's babuskha Yelena as well. Before, she was his only weakness and he adores her and would do anything for her. Now Alissa and their family adds a deeper dimension to Sergei's life. This reader loves to see a hard hero fall from an arrow through the heart.
Books like this are why I love Harlequin Presents. A quick, delicious helping of fairy tale romance. This is what Lynne Graham does best.
I have to give this one a high rating because I can't say that there was anything wrong with this book for me. Plus, I loved that I got to practice my Russian.
If I was to list the Grande Old Dames of Historical Romance, I'd definitely have LaVyrle Spencer on my list. It's a shame that she has retired from wrIf I was to list the Grande Old Dames of Historical Romance, I'd definitely have LaVyrle Spencer on my list. It's a shame that she has retired from writing, but at least she leaves a legacy behind in her excellent books she has written.
The Endearment is one of her books I managed to overlook for some reason. Initially, I thought it was one of the many that I read growing up, and forgot the details about. But I'm pretty sure I haven't read this before. I will admit that I made a note to reread (or perhaps read for the first time) it when I saw that it was listed on the All About Romance Virgin Hero List, which is a theme I can't resist. Of course, I tend to obtain copies of books, and they languish in my tbr pile until I get the urge to read (or have the time to read). I pulled this one out of the pile and added it to my PRIMAVERA challenge, and that is why I have read this book and I am reviewing it now. After that lengthy segueway, I will actually write my thoughts on this book.
As far as frontier romance, you cannot go wrong here. In this book, Karl Lindstrom is an earnest, decent, hardworking Swede who has come to Minnesota to set up his own homestead. In the two years since he arrived, he has ached with loneliness (since he left his big family behind in Sweden and is unmarried), with only his goat Nanna and his team of Percheron horses, Bill and Belle, to keep him company (in the most innocent of ways, mind you). He decided to seek a mail order bride, and ends up corresponding with Anna Reardon, who tells him a never-ending stream of big fat ones that make her seem like the ideal bride candidate. He sends her money to come out to Minnesota from Boston to marry him and be his wife.
When Anna arrives, Karl is struck by her beauty, even if she is thin and much younger than she said (he wanted an older bride-twenty-five, and she's seventeen). It turns out she didn't come alone. She brought her thirteen-year-old brother James with her. Karl isn't very happy about that. He's worried about having another mouth to feed and not having time alone with his new bride. He agrees to marry her, but tells her ‘no more lies.’ Anna means it when she says she won’t lie to him, but there’s still a big whopper between them that she can’t put into words. He’ll find out the hard way. And until then, she can only hope for the best between them.
At first, Karl seems like the perfect hero. However, he’s rather rigid about his moral view of the world, and has trouble forgiving. My sympathies shifted as I read this story. At first, I was annoyed that Anna and her brother were pulling a whole bunch of fast ones on Karl. Then, I realized that the lies that Anna and James told were a matter of survival. Lying is wrong, but it’s a lot easier not to lie when you always have food on the table, have a loving family, and security in the world. Anna and James have never had any of those. And Anna’s chance at being Karl’s bride is the closest both of them will come.
That’s Ms. Spenser’s talent. To tell a story where there are many sides, and much growing for the characters to do. As I read this story, I hoped that Karl could get past the huge lie that Anna told, and understand why she did it. I wanted the burgeoning love between them to be enough to make their marriage bond unbreakable.
I loved the descriptions of the natural world, and the everyday life in the Minnesota wilderness. Karl was a tried and true woodsman, and a very skilled carpenter. There wasn’t a type of wood he didn’t know intimately. I learned about which wood makes the best type of furniture, what is suitable for building houses, or even making an axe handle. I loved his patience with greenhorns Anna and James. How he opened his house and his heart to them, and not without reservations or sacrifice. Even though Karl was a good man, he had his shares of flaws. That made him even the better as a hero, because he was accessible. And the joy was in seeing him come to realize that although Anna wasn’t quite the perfect wife he envisioned, she was the wife he treasured and loved, and she made his home truly a home. As for Anna, my heart went out to her and James for their troubled childhood, and for the sacrifice she made for her brother, that could have destroyed her future with Karl. She wanted to do the right thing, but always seemed to fall short. And it must have been tough being married to a ‘saint’ and failing to measure up to his perfect image of womanhood.
Karl and Anna have some first-married growing pains to get through, but love does conquer all, at least in the romantic world, which I am always happy about. With a little help along the way from sage friends like the priest who married them, and Kristen, the daughter of a Swedish family that establishes their homestead nearby. James is a great secondary character, an earnest young man who becomes like a son to Karl, and a loyal loving brother to his sister.
For me, The Endearment was a treasured reading experience. It warmed my heart, gave me a good story, and taught me a few lessons about forgiveness, understanding, and committing to what is important to you, even when it seems as though it isn’t exactly what you dreamed of. It can be even better in the end, because it’s real life, the best kind of dream come true.
The Desert Lord's Baby is the first book in the Throne of Judar series, although it's the second book I read. This book is one that sucks you right inThe Desert Lord's Baby is the first book in the Throne of Judar series, although it's the second book I read. This book is one that sucks you right in. The writing is so vivid and poignant. The characters are never lukewarm in their emotions. In fact the book seethes with violently intense emotions. Carmen and Farooq are a couple that never should have been parted from each other, but misunderstandings and fears crop up and come between them. I feel that if they had just made a commitment to each other early on instead of having what they called a three month affair, then there wouldn't have been that insecurity in their relationship, but what do I know?
After the rejection she faced with her parents and her first husband, Carmen doesn't have much reason to believe that she could be loved for her self. Yet paradoxically, she gives herself unselfishly and completely. This is clear from page one. Farooq is used to having his way and cannot believe that a woman would choose to leave him, not to mention a woman he was so deeply attracted to and in love with. He doesn't think to read between the lines when Carmen ends their affair with what has to be a pretty blatant lie if a person really thought about she said, knowing Carmen. But something causes him to track her down, and he finds out she's had his child. He falls instantly in love with their baby, and the scenes of the little cutie make it easy to accept this. Mennah is described as a miracle baby and she is in more ways than one. She brings this couple back together and gives them both peace that they were needing desperately.
Again I was captivated by the incredible emotional intensity of the storytelling, teamed with an exotic setting that I am a sucker for. Ms. Gates seems to have a definite appreciation for Arabic culture, and with her writing skills, the reader cannot help but be equally attracted to it. The love scenes are very steamy for a category romance but they belong in a story with such a fiery, intense relationship between two people. This one is a another recommended read for sheikh romance lovers. ...more
This book sparkled from the first sentence. Love the lead-in with introducing Sabine's character. I finished this book yesterday and I loved it. It waThis book sparkled from the first sentence. Love the lead-in with introducing Sabine's character. I finished this book yesterday and I loved it. It was dark in a way that the others weren't quite dark. The usurped kingdom of Rothkalina has some murky happenings under the helm of Omort the Deathless. I believe this is also due in part to the fact that the heroine is supposed to be evil in this story. I wouldn't exactly call her evil. I'd call her pragmatic. She's had a rough life that taught her to look out for Number One and her sister. She died several times, and faced enemies out for her blood innumerable times. She was raised in a environment where kindness was considered weakness, and where she always had to be on guard. In that context, she didn't come off as evil. But juxtaposed to virtuous King Rydstrom, she probably does seem amoral. I admired Sabine for her survivor traits and for being down to earth about who she was. She was a sensual being, she liked her gold, and she liked to dress dramatically. And she was do what was necessary and wouldn't hesitate in the doing of of it.
That is the great thing about this story. Rydstrom and Sabine are soulmates. They may not view life the same way, but I felt they were a great pair because their strengths complemented each other. And although Sabine is not exactly what Rydstrom thought he wanted in a queen, it turns out she is exactly what he needed, and vice versa.
I hesitate to call this story a redemption story, because I don't believe that Sabine is actually redeemed all that much. She does learn to let others into her heart and to allow herself to care, but she was never a person who killed for no reason or went out of her way to hurt others. Merely, she was a person who was hardened to others. And we see that she does grow in her ability to feel for others. It was nice to see her bond with the demon orphan Puck, despite the fact that she has no use for children, and her kind is raised to look down on demons. She will always be a bit of a wild card, who has moral flexibility, yet it is clear that she won't harm innocents, and is devoted to her King and would do anything for him. I truly believe she will be an excellent Queen for Rothkalina.
A purist would find some of the happenings in this book somewhat objectionable. This story has a lot of bondage, control, and captive themes. The script get flipped around and the captive becomes the captor. I didn't have issues with the way things unfold because it was very true to the characters and the storyline. Although Rydstrom is a boy scout type hero, every person has their limits as to what they will take, and he is also a Rage Demon who has been under lots of stress for millenia. So it made sense that he would explode or implode at some point. And Sabine was following through to her nature as an extreme pragmatist of a morally flexible disposition. Considering what Sabine did to Rydstrom in the first part of the book, I felt that it was fair what Rydstrom did to Sabine when he got the opportunity. The term parity was used. I believe there was definitely parity in his treatment of her. The great thing is the huge lie that he told Sabine was actually laughed off by her and she was proud of him for doing it. It was an interesting moment to read, as I was expecting the stuff to hit the fan, but Sabine laughs and says that she is proud of him for doing what he did. So in the end, they were a very interesting couple with a unique dynamic between them for a romance.
I really liked how the relationship issues were resolved between Ryd and Sabine. He didn't feel that he could trust Sabine to stay with him, and he had to learn that she would stay with him out of choice, so he had to learn to trust her love for him. Sabine had to learn to do what she said she would instead of lying all the time, which she did. She had to learn to trust someone to take care of her, as she had always taken care of herself or her sister, and vice versa. And she had to learn to allow herself to be loved and to trust in that love. She wanted a strong man, but then she had to realize that a strong man would want to protect his woman. For a woman used to being in control, surrendering control must have been extremely difficult. I can understand having those issues, because I don't like depending on others or being under someone's control. So in that way I could identify with her, due to my own trust and control issues.
The world-building and fantasy elements in this story were excellent. It was exciting to keep reading and to see more of the Lore world that Cole has written. Fundamentally, this is a very steamy paranormal romance, but it is also just as good as fantasy on the sword and sorceror side, if the readers doesn't mind lots of steamy, descriptive sex scenes. The humor is also excellent, and I found myself laughing out loud many times. I really admire the way that Cole can combine humor and intensity in her books. She is the queen of great one liners. This along with the sexy men and their devotion to the women they love, is what keeps me coming back to her books, and the Immortals After Dark in particular. Not to mention the wonderful, mythical world she has created, using her imagination, and the old folklore and myths that I grew up reading. And I love that her heroines are strong and real-life, with their share of flaws and admirable traits.
It was great to get inside of the Demon King's head and to see his conflict with Cadeon from his viewpoint. To see what his struggle has been. And his loneliness waiting for his true female. You feel for him because all along, having a woman to love was probably just as important as regaining his throne, but he couldn't wear his heart on his sleeve since he was a King. Thus issues are deeper than it seemed on the outside. Yes, Ryd was upset that his kingdom was lost, but he also was upset with the way he felt that Cadeon was wasting his life. I was glad to see the brothers make up and come to an understanding of each other. Rydstrom turns out to be a three-dimensional character with a good and a bad side, and with scores of passion locked inside of his methodical demeanor. He is as intense as they came, and boy do I love the intense heroes. I loved his fixation on Sabine, although at times, it seemed quite out of control, but then Sabine was a pretty maddening heroine to deal with for a man/demon like Rydstrom. I was glad that in my opinion, he never truly hurt her or did anything beyond the pale, based on their unusual relationship.
It's also great to see appearances by other members of the Lore, such as Nix, who always has a rather pivotal role, Holly, fighting off some massive morning sickness, and a brief appearance by Regin. It's like seeing old friends again, and catching up. We also get to meet some new characters that I hope to see more of. I feel that there is much to be resolved between Sabine's sister Melanthe and Thronos, who is out for her blood. Future couple? I think yes. I am also intrigued by Lothaire, a Fallen vampire, who seems like he may not be as evil as one would think.
So when this book ended, I was sad. I wanted to read more, and experience more of this universe. But I enjoyed every moment of the reading. I hope that Cole continues to write these books long into the future, and I can't wait to see how the Ascension goes down, as we see the formidable Lore being paired up and forming the force for the good....more
I really enjoyed this book, more than I thought I would. Although Catherine was insecure, it was very believable why she had her insecurities. And altI really enjoyed this book, more than I thought I would. Although Catherine was insecure, it was very believable why she had her insecurities. And although Karim did marry her without telling her it was an arranged marriage, he had good reasons. I was glad that although Catherine did spend a short time being angry with him, she did try to put that behind her and make the most of her marriage because she did see that he had best intentions to be a good husband to her. ...more
This is one of my favorite old school Silhouette Intimate Moments. Megan meets and marries an attractive and dashing man on a romantic cruise, and theThis is one of my favorite old school Silhouette Intimate Moments. Megan meets and marries an attractive and dashing man on a romantic cruise, and they marry on the spur of the moment. They spent a few nights in connubial bliss, and when Megan waits for him to meet her on the dock at their return destination, he never shows up.
Megan is devastated, her ability to trust anyone lost forever. She withdraws back into her shell, and lives a half-life. Years later, the man she marries shows up again, but he looks completely different. His name is Taggart Welles, he's a spy, and he's being hunted. And the people after him will not hesitate to kill her as well, since she's his ex-wife. They go on the run to escape Taggart's foes.
This is romantic suspense done well, as the older SIMs were. You feel Megan's pain as she deals with the fact that she fell in love with a lie. She already had trust issues due to her mentally ill/alcoholic, and verbally abusive mother. Taking the cruise was a way for her to start a new life and to live it fully, only to realize that giving one's heart and being betrayed is a special kind of pain. Yet Taggart's feelings were real, but he couldn't stay with her, and thought she was better off without him. Taggart is a good guy, even though he left Megan in the lurch. You can't quite hate him because his motivations were sound, and he regrets the way he hurt Megan. This couple reconnect, but Megan doesn't expect anything lasting from seeing her ex-husband again. Not when she's not willing to give her heart away again.
I love the couple on the run theme, and this book is a stellar book in this genre. I'm really glad I got to read this one, and I was able to find a copy for my keeper shelf....more
Nigel is not really a good guy. He deceives Cassandra and takes advantage of her to get her to marry him. He spends the rest of the book proving that Nigel is not really a good guy. He deceives Cassandra and takes advantage of her to get her to marry him. He spends the rest of the book proving that he can be a good husband to her. It was a really good book. Great secondary romance involving Nigel's right-handman, who is quite intimidating....more
I started this book with a strong dislike for Fortitude Ware. He was a dissolute, playboy rake with two illegitimate children. He rubbed me the wrong I started this book with a strong dislike for Fortitude Ware. He was a dissolute, playboy rake with two illegitimate children. He rubbed me the wrong way. Also the Georgian setting is so in your face, bawdy and vulgar. The nobles pretty much do nothing but fight, fornicate, and drink. This is one of the first Georgians I read, so I had to get used to how relaxed things were compared to the more sedate and elegant Regency period, and the very proper Victorian period.
However, my feelings started to change with the strength of Jo Beverley's writing. I've found she's either an author you love or you don't. My first book by her, An Unwilling Bride, left me rather indifferent because I didn't really care for Lucian at all, and I found Beth rather cold and a bit unlikeable. This book didn't leave me indifferent but rather annoyed at how 'low down' Fort was. I couldn't understand why Elfred would have spent most of her life in love with him. But wanting the answer to this question kept me reading. Slowly Fort started to show some depth. Yes, the fact that he had two kids by two different women that he didn't even interact with (although he did support them) really left a bad taste in my mouth (deadbeat, apathetic fathers are a pet peeve of mine). But he did have some good sides. His loyalty to the crown, his love for his sister. Despite thinking Elfred was a fancy lady, he treated her kindly, although he was furious at her deception when he found out. Okay, I started to thaw towards him.
Elfred was an interesting character. She was very spoiled and willful. But she's a Malloren. They are a strong-willed, dramatic family. Her antics kept me reading as she went through all these changes to get her man, who is the enemy of her powerful brother the Duke of Rothgar.
The turning point in this book for me was the emotion that grew between Elf and Fort as he started to see her as a woman he could love, although he resisted at every turn. Fort didn't want to be in love, particularly with a woman who was in the family of his enemy, but his heart didn't listen to his mind. The climax left me breathless as Elfred follows Sting's sage advice: "If you love someone, set them free." I felt my heart breaking as she let him go, yet I was hoping that he would come back to her. Well this is a romance novel and I gave it five stars, so you can guess what happens, but Beverley sure does let the moment resonate and have you holding your breath waiting to see if Fort will come to his senses and follow his heart.
Again, this was not a book I thought I'd love when I started it. But it ended being a five star read for me in the end. It opened my mind to the possibilities of the Georgian period, which was one I wasn't overly fond of. I really need to get back to those Malloren....more
Danielle The Book Huntress
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