ALL NIGHT WITH THE COWBOY by Soraya Lane

Publisher:      St Martins

Published:      May 29, 2018

ISBN:      978-1250131034

Genre:     Contemporary Romance

Format:     E-book from publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

THREE HEARTS

Tanner Ford was the high school bad boy—smoking, riding his motorcycle and stirring up trouble when the mood hit.  And while he was a hard riding and successful bull rider, he loved something – or rather someone – more than the thrill ride. 

Good girl Lauren Lewis won his heart in high school and no one has come close to what he had with her.  Lauren loved Tanner with all her heart but she had goals, serious career goals.  And her parents played on those goals to pull her and Tanner apart.  One day she just ended it.  Without a word, she broke things off and broke Tanner’s heart.  Her action left Tanner somewhat bitter and he was determined to hate her with a passion. 

And then the inconceivable happened.  A bull didn’t just throw Tanner.  He went after Tanner, almost killing him.  Now, on the road to recovery, he needs not just a good physical therapist, he needs the best because he plans to get back on a bull as soon as he can.  His sister, Mia, finds the best of the best for him.  But the best of the best happens to be on her way to Fiji for a well deserved vacation.  It just so happens the best of the best is none other than the woman Tanner hates beyond words…and who is also the only woman he’s ever loved.  If he wants the best chance of recovery he needs to go to romantic Fiji…alone with the woman who got away. 

I’m not sure how the title ALL NIGHT WITH THE COWBOY played into Soraya Lane’s latest River Ranch story, but I have to say there were a few nights I was up all night reading Tanner and Lauren’s story.  While the trip to Fiji and the events there didn’t seem all the plausible to me, I did enjoy the background on bull riding.  And Lauren is a pretty terrific character.  She’s smart, determined, independent and compassionate.  She’s someone you’d like as a friend. 

I read the book during a particularly hectic time at my day job and while I couldn’t take the time to go to Fiji myself, doing is vicariously with Tanner and Lauren made for a fun read.  ALL NIGHT WITH THE COWBOY is definitely a “get away from it all” read.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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TEMPATING TEXAS by Kimberly Raye

Publisher:     St. Martin’s Press

Published:    November 1, 2016

ISBN:        978-1250063977

Genre:       Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy

Format:     Print

Obtained via:  Publisher  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

FOUR-1/2 HEARTS

Caught in the middle of the decades old Tucker / Sawyer divide veterinarian Jenna Tucker isn’t one to just give up and sulk. When she loses a plumb spot in the local vet practice due to no other reason than her being a Tucker she picks herself and sets about establishing her own equine center.  With her sisters Callie and Brandy married to the men of their dreams…who just happen to be Sawyers, Jenna is the only one still living at the family home. It wasn’t the happies of homes after their parents died.  Their grandfather, James Harlin, wasn’t the most loving of men.  More interested in his moonshine he gave them a roof over their head and that was that.  Now, with him gone and a new business on her horizon Jenna is determined to change her image and wild child ways.  To do that she’s stopped her one night stands with the “bad boys” and gone on date after date with your basic “nice” guys.  They do nothing for her.  That’s okay because she doesn’t, after all, really want a beau.  And the last person she wants to be falling for is one of the dreaded Sawyers.

Hunter DeMassi is a Sawyer by way of his mother’s people.  Like Jenna he is trying to leave his bad boy image behind.  His parents never let him forget that he wasn’t the favorite, that it was his brother who was their shining star.  Even running for and winning the election for Sheriff three times he still doesn’t measure up to what his parents want.  They still see him as the rodeo bum who just was never going to measure up.  And really, the last person he needs in his life is Jenna Tucker – a wild child, Tucker. 

But sometimes our hearts don’t quite listen to our heads, even when our heads tell us it’s lust, not love.

I’ve been enjoying Kimberly Raye’s Rebel Moonshine series starting with Texas Thunder followed by Red Hot Texas Nights.  While the first two books were entertaining with some totally fun characters, in book three, TEMPTING TEXAS Raye outdoes herself.  She tells a good story, but in this one the author’s innate sense of humor and flair for comedy while giving readers a toe curling romance comes through.  The transition from humor to romance is smooth and adds so much to the story. 

Raye also does a fabulous job taking the reader into the parallels between Jenna and Hunter’s lives and how they each, in their own way and at the same time, together come to terms with their pasts. 

I did have one small problem with the book and it could have been because it was an ARC.  Towards the end of the book there were a few chapters with a Kim Bowman.  They didn’t seem to have any relationship to the rest of the book and those few chapters, when they appeared, jarred me out of the story.  If it was meant as a lead in to book 4 it didn’t work for me.  Each time she showed up I wondered if maybe the publisher had somehow gotten two books mixed up with each other. 

Each book in the series is a stand alone and you do not have to have read one to enjoy the others.  TEMPTING TEXAS is, as I said, the best and you do not want to miss it.     

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

UNDERTOW by Cherry Adair

Publisher: St. Martins
Date published: December 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-0312371920
Romantic Suspense
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained by Library


Youngest Cutter brother, Zane, is determined to win this year’s bet with his brothers to bring in the largest sunken ship salvage. With his top mechanic ill and fading fast, he hopes the next best person will keep his boat, The Decrepit, afloat. If his mechanic’s daughter, Teal, can’t do it, no one can. And the best thing about Teal—he’s not remotely attracted to her.

Along with a carefree attitude toward life, Zane has never met a woman he didn’t like or, that liked him just fine back. Teal wants nothing to do with him, his boat and his latest salvage project. Not until she hears that it was her dying father who recommended her.

Teal’s life hasn’t exactly been sunshine and roses. In fact, it’s been pretty difficult. Her father never married her mother, a drug addict who spent every dime on her next fix. There was one man in her past she never forgot, not from her first visit to Cutter Cay as a child and when she marries, she is pretty certain Denny is a close replica of Zane. She quickly learns he was not. When a life changing moment opens her eyes to what she needs to do, Teal changes her life and the trip to Cutter Cay is part of that package. She would do anything to gain her father’s love. Anything. Including setting out to sea with the man she never quite got over.

While the pair start off with nothing more between them than the fact that Zane needs Teal in his engine room and Teal needs to find a way to make her father love her, it isn’t long before the attraction between them grows. But others want the treasure below Zane’s ship and they will stop at nothing to gain it.

UNDERTOW is a fantastic trip back to the original Cherry Adair books I read such as OUT OF SIGHT and the other Wright/T-FLAC stories. Action, adventure, characters you get to know really well and like a whole bunch, guys you want to take home and to bed (and not necessarily in that order) and a great love story.

I loved the diving sequences and had some great chuckles with Teal’s view of her engine room. Sailing with them would have been a hoot. I never really got why Zane needed a mechanic he wasn’t attracted to although he does tell us often enough. There were times I felt the story was rushed—that a thread was dealt with as expeditiously as possible and we moved on to the next one. I didn’t see that in Ms. Adair’s earlier books and in some ways this shift jarred me out of the book. Despite their small part in the story I wanted to know just what happened to the little old ladies. And perhaps a bit more about the red headed siren on the Sea Witch that dogs the Cutter brothers.

The story could have ended just fine after the horrific storm and the last fifty pages or so which began with a plane crash seemed rushed and convoluted. The story would have read better if we weren’t rushed into those scenes and maybe an incident or two popped up earlier on. Despite that, as I said, UNDERTOW is fabulous, vintage Adair and not to be missed I’m looking forward to RIPTIDE and the next Cutter brother’s story.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

SIZZLING SIXTEEN by Janet Evanovich

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date published: June 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7393-7772-7
Romantic Comedy
Hardcover
Reviewed by Tammy
Obtained via library


Janet Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum caper, SIZZLING SIXTEEN, fails to produce the hoped for heat.

Trenton’s favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back to her usual hi-jinks when her boss and weasel-like cousin, Vinnie, is kidnapped and held ransom for a ridiculous sum after he runs up a debt he can’t pay back to the wrong people and it is up to Steph, Lula and Connie to save the day.

Ms. Evanovich had the opportunity to redeem her title as queen of romantic comedy with her latest Stephanie Plum caper SIZZLING SIXTEEN after ho hum reviews for her latest Plum books, but sadly failed to produce. The title in no way represented what was inside the jacket. This book simply fizzled. There were a few places here and there that produced a chuckle such as Stephanie and Lula meeting Mr. Jingles and Vinnie leading the hobbits to save the day. But with a title like SIZZLING SIXTEEN, this reader expected there to be a little heat between the pages, hopefully of the Ranger/Steph variety (or even of the Morelli/Steph variety if we have to endure it yet again), but alas, that was not to be. Stephanie and Morelli are still very much unsure of where they want their relationship to go, if anywhere other than bed, and Stephanie is still afraid to take the leap with Ranger. As Stephanie is still as immature and bungling as she was in the first books, it is no surprise that Ranger, who is now a successful businessman, is wary of offering too much to the constantly confused Stephanie.

Now this reader understands that Ms. Evanovich is afraid to give her fans what they want in a Steph/Ranger pairing for fear that she will have written herself into a corner. Note to Janet: you don’t have to have Stephanie settle down and become domesticated with anyone in the course of one book. Why can’t Stephanie try to make it work with Ranger for a while and continue her silly capers while maturing as a person for a change? Why she left Ranger’s employ and went back to working full-time for Vinnie made absolutely no sense. She had a steady paycheck, benefits, a job that allowed her to still do some bounty hunting and an opportunity for maturity and decided to leave that and go back to an unsteady paycheck, complete lack of health benefits and a relationship that wasn’t working?? There is a difference between zany and stupid. With this latest misadventure, Stephanie has moved into the land of stupid. Perhaps if Ms. Evanovich wasn’t spreading herself so thin with her between the numbers books and other lesser selling books and spent more time trying to fix the Plum series, she could still steer this train back on the tracks and bring back lost readers. If however, she stays on her present course and delivers yet another short and painful trip into idiocy for the Peter Pan of bounty hunting, this reader fears that it may mark the demise of Ms. Evanovich’s remaining loyal fan base.

Still, if you have never picked up a Stephanie Plum book before and decided to dive in with SIZZLING SIXTEEN, you will probably find it amusing and a fun read. Sadly, for those of us who have read all sixteen books in the Plum series, SIZZLING SIXTEEN simply fizzled.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

THE CHRISTMAS SECRET by Donna Van Liere

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date published: October 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-055836-9
Women’s fiction
Hardback
Reviewed by Pam
Obtained from publisher for review

THE CHRISTMAS SECRET is a slightly mixed up tale, of a solo mother struggling to hold her life together and the people who come into her life. Her ex-husband tries to make her life as hard as possible along with a boss without a heart. As Christmas approaches, Christine’s life seems set to change, after she helps a woman who collapses outside her house. There are so many people who pass her way after the incident; it became hard to keep up with them all.

Her children, Zach and Haley have begun to realize Christmas may not be too good this year. Haley becomes clingy and Zach makes a friend at the care centre, while his mother works. Christine’s customers become friends and when her car breaks down, it’s fixed and the presents stolen seem to have come back. Marshall and Jason his grandson have a separate tale woven in too, along with those working in the store making it a story overload to this reader.

The story is told from so many points of view I became very confused at times, as to whose tale I was reading. There were a few too many characters, some odd some normal, it became hard to sort out their roles when Christine and her children began as the main ones.

The characters meet, greet and pass on and they all have a story within the plot, which leaves Christine’s story hanging, then hooks into it again. Add in the next door neighbor the children decide is a bat lady who is out to harm them, an absent father who won’t support his kids along with the daily grind and you have a story about life, not one but many lives. Then there’s Tamara, she’s in need of a push in the right direction, as well as day old pastries and coffee.

If you like a slice of lives being lived with different characters popping in and out, you’ll enjoy this book.

If there is a reason for this story to be so oddball, you’ll need to read the book yourself and work it out.

THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF THIS BOOK. THIS IS AN OBJECTIVE UNBIASED REVIEW

SATISFACTION by Charlene Teglia

St. Martin's Press
March 2008
ISBN 978-0-312-36945-3

Trade Paperback
Contemporary Erotic Fiction




Rachel Law has no social life. She has been working too hard at achieving her professional goals. When friend and co-worker Sabrina Daniels shows her a brochure for The Capture Agency she can hardly believe such a dating agency exists. A company which vets, tests, and matches people who are interested in capture and bondage to like minded partners? And it says satisfaction guaranteed.

Office manager Emma Michaels overhears and is quick to add her interest in the service much to her two colleagues’ surprise. Her marriage has fallen apart; her husband sleeping with another woman. This sounds like just the way to take control of her personal life again and work at finding what she wants and needs.

Hard MatchOwner of the agency, Chase Hunter is less than pleased at an employee finding him a match through their system. Granted his profile, which was used strictly for software testing purposes, is the only one that corresponds with this client. Chase is ready to explain to the woman that there is no one currently in the database who would suit. One look at her and he changes his mind.

This one is a nice lead-in to the book, giving us a bit of background to the unique agency. The hero is just right in taste and intellect for Rachel. He surprises her from the first meeting and continues with an open reassuring attitude mixed with seductive stern play. While that is terribly important in the situation, he is also wonderful both in and out of the bedroom. It gives credibility to the romance.

The Perfect Stranger
Kane Woods is a big strong man who has had to keep careful control when making love to a woman. He has wished to be able to give free reign to his passions, at least once. It doesn’t take much to persuade him that it would be for the good of his career. The petite younger woman he is matched with gives him some pause. She looks delicate, has a naughty pirate fantasy she wants to experience and proves to be quite the firecracker. The man has a secret in a chest. Whatever will she think of it?

Kane and Sabrina make one smile. He quibbled over her lack of sturdy frame to take what he had in mind and fretted over their age difference. He also had outrageous speculations from off the cuff that amused. Readers will love his concern for his partner and his quick wit. Sabrina in turn was appealingly irrepressible as she steamrolled over his protestations and into his heart.

Ex Marks the Spot
When his wife leaves him without explanation or indication of what is wrong, Gage Michaels is shaken. Never having fallen out of love with his wife, and not wanting to imagine life without her he is intent on reconciliation. When he overhears her discussing their relationship and her declaration to use a fantasy dating service he is absolutely stunned. There must be a way to make her speak with him; give them a chance to work out their marriage. Inspiration strikes.

Emma and Gage’s story was a particularly rewarding read. It was, however, difficult to understand the heroine’s lack of reaction when she did discover her husband instead of a stranger. This couples’ exploration and recapturing of passion was wonderfully sexy and movingly portrayed, particularly because the seduction was interspersed with honest discussion. Layers of difficulty in personal insecurities and lack of communication gave their situation authenticity.

Ms. Teglia’s latest work shows some restraint…er, not that kind…well, yes there are scenes of….never mind about that. The rather quirky humor and extreme heat that readers associate with the author is a bit subdued in this book. Though the tales certainly capture and hold the reader’s attention, the stories don’t sound so much like capture nor are the scenes played out with these strong males as dominant as one might expect.
That said, these are three very different couples who find love from pursuit of partners compatible with them and their fantasies, thanks to The Capture Agency. The stories are charming and luxuriously sensual.

Reviewed by Lil