There’s something elementally vulnerable yet virile about a warrior in a kilt. He’s basically letting it all hang out there and fighting to the death with heavy, sharp weapons. At the least, he brings out the mother in many women; at the most, the lover in them. Mackay plays on this theme of vulnerability mixed…
It’s not often that authors try the old bait and switch in their books, but when they do, I get livid. First of all, I absolutely hate it when the blurb and the genre tell me one thing, but the book itself is not what is promised. It’s like finding Jane Eyre promoted as science…
Books, like relationships, can have deal breakers. Everything else might be fine, but one thing in particular just puts the brakes on. For Aching for Always, that deal breaker came in the first chapter when the heroine exchanged sex for money. Joss O’Malley may have been engaged to that man, Rogan Reynolds, and it may…
Lord of the Isles gets some points for trying – primarily because it tries nearly everything. The plot is all over the place, with time travel, feuding clans, vicious other woman, witch accusations, wounded people, crazy priests….and I’m sure I’m leaving some stuff out. (Fairies! I forgot fairies.) While the obvious downside is that the…
I have a select few books that I like to pull out frequently to reread during the Christmas season. The Best Gift will definitely join their ranks. Though one need not read If Only in My Dreams to follow the plot of this book, it would probably help enrich the experience as both books (written…
A writing professor once told me that dialogue isn’t conversation; it’s conversation’s greatest hits. I wish Heather Graham had taken this advice to heart, as her excessive dialogue and blocky writing style bogged down a book that had some potential. Melody Tarleton is driving home for Christmas during a snowstorm when a man suddenly appears…
Sapphire Dream is a time travel romance with an interesting, even (dare I say) believable premise. It’s a pleasant read, even if I occasionally found myself liking the idea of the book more than the actual book. Brenna Cameron travels to Scotland at the age of 25 to fulfill a long ago promise to her…
This book was an unusual choice for me. I don’t usually like paranormals, time travel romances, or medievals—and yet this book is all three. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Till There Was You by Lynn Kurland. Zachary Smith doesn’t want to do any more century-hopping, so when he stumbles back…
Too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. In late 2007, author Laurie Brown published a ghost story time-travel romance that felt fresh to me. Too bad that with What Would Jane Austen Do? she’s doing almost exactly the same thing again — only less skillfully. <a href="http://www.likesbooks.com/banmanpro/a.aspx?ZoneID=4&Task=Click&Mode=HTML&SiteID=1&PageID=33387 ” target=”_blank”> <img src="http://www.likesbooks.com/banmanpro/a.aspx?ZoneID=4&Task=Get&Mode=HTML&SiteID=1&PageID=33387…
Early in Julie Leto’s Phantom’s Touch I thought I was mistakenly reading an erotica novel, not a paranormal romance, for the hero and heroine barely said “Pleased to meet you,” before they were rolling around naked. I was not ready for their relationship to progress so far, so fast – it made me feel creepily…