Five stars to SAY YES TO THE MARQUESS! This is Tessa Dare at her finest. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys smart, charming, exquisitelFive stars to SAY YES TO THE MARQUESS! This is Tessa Dare at her finest. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys smart, charming, exquisitely written historical romance.
Six years ago, Callie Wellman’s husband and her best friend were killed in a fiery crash, exposing an extra-marital affair that left their respective Six years ago, Callie Wellman’s husband and her best friend were killed in a fiery crash, exposing an extra-marital affair that left their respective spouses stunned by the unthinkable betrayal. Mired in mutual grief, Callie and Sam Edwards turned to one another in a single night of unplanned passion but by morning Sam had disappeared without a word. Callie moved on and with the help of therapy became a stronger person, returning to college and excelling in her chosen career – a career that has brought Callie (now using her maiden name of Henderson) to Anchor Island and a job interview with Sam. Will Sam remember her? Will he judge her on her merits or hold their spouses’ betrayal as well as that one night they shared against her? Callie desperately needs this job to take her career to the next level. Sam holds her future in his hands…in more ways than she can imagine.
Sam Edwards is counting the days until he’s able to leave Anchor Island. Tied to the island by the terms of his uncle’s will, he just wants to get the remodeling of his uncle’s inn completed, find a loophole in the will and get back to the mainland. He has no ties to the island, in fact, has made sure to not form any. Sam has become an expert at burying himself in his work, holding himself apart from the islanders, refusing to bring the ghosts of his past into the open and deal with them…until the day his past walks into his office and turns his well-ordered, sterile life upside down.
Terri Osburn’s Anchor Island has become one of my favorite fictional places to visit. She brings the slow-paced, laid-back island to life through the well-formed main characters and quirky old-timers who call the island home. Her stories are well-paced, heartwarming, often humorous and filled with the passion and pathos of real life. While I have enjoyed all four books in the series, More to Give edges out Meant to Be (Book #1) as my favorite. Callie and Sam have more than their spouses’ betrayal to overcome before they can claim a happy ending which makes that happy-ever-after all the more sweet when it finally occurs but it’s not a destination that they can reach on their own. They’re going to need a little help from their friends, including two irascible old men with a love of bickering over checkers, a gangly teenage boy who thinks he’s all that but blushes at the drop of a hat, our favorite couples from the first three books and, not to be forgotten, a fast-talking parrot with a gourmet cracker habit.
More to Give stands well on its own but, fair warning, once you meet the other residents of Anchor Island you’ll be buying their books faster than you can say, “Cecil wants a high-priced oval party cracker!”
Regan Walker has penned another fascinating story with fully developed characters, a richly detailed historical setting, pulse pounding action and deeRegan Walker has penned another fascinating story with fully developed characters, a richly detailed historical setting, pulse pounding action and deeply romantic emotion. The story flows smoothly, keeping the reader engaged from beginning to end. Walker has created main characters that are likable and realistic to their time and place then surrounded them with a supporting cast that only enriches the story. As with her other books, Walker's attention to historic detail draws the reader into the world in which her books are set, in this case, allowing us to immerse ourselves in medieval England and travel the tumultuous journey with her characters.
I highly recommend THE RED WOLF'S PRIZE. I'm delighted to learn that this is the first book in a series and look forward to meeting Regan Walker's next Medieval warrior! ...more
She's the woman who, as a young girl, watched her father kill her mother with a pair of scissors. He's a man who has never come to terms with his tortShe's the woman who, as a young girl, watched her father kill her mother with a pair of scissors. He's a man who has never come to terms with his tortured childhood. They used to be married, are now divorced and probably still love each other.
Elizabeth Banner, a brilliant geologist, has come back to Virtue Falls for the first time since her mother's murder 23 years earlier to continue her father's study of the geologically rich coastal area of Washington and to confront the man who brutally murdered her mother all those years ago. Her mother's body was never found and the adult Elizabeth wants answers to questions she seems unwilling to ask. Slowly losing his memories to Alzheimer's, her father has been released from prison and now resides in a Virtue Falls care facility yet Elizabeth continues to resist digging into her father's memories. What does she fear?
Nothing is going right for Garik Jacobsen. An FBI agent to his core, he's despondent over being suspended due to his actions on a recent case, bewildered by Elizabeth's departure from their marriage, and fearful of the man he believes he's becoming. He has nothing left to live for. With his favorite meal and his service revolver on the table before him, he's prepared for one final, irrevocable act.
Then an earthquake hits Virtue Falls. A tsunami soon follows. Garik rushes to Elizabeth's side. And when the earth gives up secrets that have been buried for 23 years, it will change them and the course of life in Virtue Falls forever. For as Elizabeth and Garik slowly come to realize after Elizabeth's mother's body is found; if what they and the courts believed to be true was false, if Charles Banner did not kill his wife, then who did? Does a killer walk among them? Will that person strike again? And most important, who will the next victim be?
As this is the first in Dodd's new series, it necessitates the introduction of a rather large cast of characters yet I never felt lost or confused. Rather, it was like moving to a new town and gradually getting to know its residents: the good, the bad, the quirky and the seriously demented. They are not just window dressing. Each person introduced has a role to play, a purpose, as the foundation is carefully constructed then, slowly, truths begin to be revealed, evil insidiously weaves its tentacles throughout the small town of Virtue Falls and, finally, the story races to its breathless, stunning conclusion. It's an incredible ride; one I'd happily take time and time again.
I've been reading Christina Dodd's books for more than 15 years and I have to say, I think this is her best writing yet. While not technically a romance, the story has a strong romantic thread at its core and should appeal to fans of both romantic suspense and straight suspense. It's tightly constructed, expertly plotted and filled with enough twists and turns to keep even the most astute mystery reader guessing until the very end. Dodd draws the reader into her web of suspense one silken strand at a time until you're so entangled in the story and the lives of its characters that you can't walk away. Nor do you want to.
Virtue Falls earns my highest recommendation.
~Posted at The Romance Dish 10 September 2014 Top Dish - 5 star review ...more
I started reading this swashbuckling, sea-faring historical romance last night and finished it with a satisfied sigh at 2:30 am. A bloodthirsty pirateI started reading this swashbuckling, sea-faring historical romance last night and finished it with a satisfied sigh at 2:30 am. A bloodthirsty pirate bent on revenge, sultry Caribbean nights, a brooding hero and the feisty heroine who turns his ship - and his life - upside down; this book has it all.
For Faith Clancy, Santa Fe represents new beginnings: a new home, new psychiatry practice, the opportunity to make new friends and, most importantly, For Faith Clancy, Santa Fe represents new beginnings: a new home, new psychiatry practice, the opportunity to make new friends and, most importantly, distance from the family that is no longer her's..and the man who never was. Everything looks bright, fresh and hopeful until Faith's patient - her only patient - confesses to her that he is the serial killer known as The Saint and is afraid he will kill again. Faith has no choice but to turn him over to the police. The law requires her to do so, even though she is far from certain that Dante Jericho, a man whose mind she believes is on the edge of psychosis, is the actual killer.
Luke Jericho is a man trying to piece his family back together. His late father's choice to have an affair with the family housekeeper then install the woman and the resulting child (Dante) in a casita on the family ranch when Luke was a child was bad enough. But when Dante's mother was killed in a car accident and their father banished a still young Dante from the ranch, it set into motion ripples that continue to reverberate through the Jericho family. As soon as their father died, Luke tracked down Dante and is determined to heal the breach between them and restore to Dante all that was taken from him by their father. Dante may be mentally and emotionally fragile but Luke believes in his innocence and is determined to prove the police have the wrong man. To do that, he needs the help of Faith Clancy, Dante's psychiatrist and the woman with whom he has been fascinated since the day she strolled into his art gallery...then right back out again when she discovered he was the brother of her patient.
Faith has been on her own long enough to be prickly, independent and unlikely to accept help gracefully. Luke has been in charge of his family's ranch and other businesses long enough to go after what he wants. There are bound to be fireworks, especially when Luke learns that someone has broken into Faith's home. Suddenly, he is not only determined to prove his brother's innocence but also to protect Faith. They are the only two people who believe in Dante and as they work to find the evidence that will free him their initial attraction deepens and strengthens. But, the closer they get to uncovering the truth the more their own lives are put at risk, for the real killer is much closer than they realize...and has Faith squarely in his sights.
Carey Baldwin has crafted another superb psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat and looking over my shoulder late into the night. Reading one of her books is not a passive experience. She doesn't relegate me, the reader, to the sidelines as an observer of the action. She places me directly into the minds of her characters: the sick and twisted mind of a serial killer, the terrified mind of a potential victim, the desperate mind of a man racing against time to save the woman he loves and the determined mind of a woman facing her greatest fears. I felt it all.
Carey Baldwin writes realistic characters, crafts riveting suspense, satisfies my romance-loving heart and throws in a twist that never fails to catch me by surprise. I highly recommend her books! ~PJ Ausdenmore The Romance Dish
ARC from HarperCollins Witness-Impulse via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review....more
Victor Cale has been nursing a grudge against his wife for ten long years. Though they had been married only a week, he believed they had a love that Victor Cale has been nursing a grudge against his wife for ten long years. Though they had been married only a week, he believed they had a love that would last a lifetime. But that was before his young wife made a fool of him and left him to take the blame for the jewel theft she and her family engineered. Now living in London, Victor, the newly discovered cousin to a duke, is not cut out to live a life of leisure so when a friend, who owns Manton Investigations, has a request to investigate a woman in Scotland who sounds suspiciously like his wife, Victor jumps at the opportunity. Maybe, finally, he'll get an answer to the question that's waited ten long years to be answered. Why?
At eighteen years of age, Isabella was already a talented jewelry designer specializing in paste replicas but remarkably innocent in the ways of the world and easily manipulated by her family. For the past ten years she's believed that her husband, the man she loved more than life, abandoned her after stealing priceless jewels from her employer. But she's not that naive young girl any longer. Extricating herself from her family, she's become a strong woman who has made a name for herself in the jewelry industry and has a good career and reputation in Scotland. The only thing missing is an answer to why Victor betrayed her all those years ago.
As the truth of what really happened all those years ago unfolds, Isa and Victor face the fact that the feelings between them burn brighter than ever. But ten years of hard feelings and mistrust are not easily overcome and a secret that one of them is keeping may bring their new-found love to a screeching halt.
Sabrina Jeffries is one of my "go to" authors who rarely disappoints. One of the things I enjoy about her books is her willingness to venture outside the box. When the Rogue Returns, the second book in Jeffries' new Duke's Men series features a hero and heroine who are Dutch. I don't think I've seen that before. The heroine is in trade, and proud of it, and while the hero has new-found connections to a duke, he's led a working life and is more comfortable there than among the peerage. Another thing I like about this book is the growth of the characters. They are both very young when first married and, while still married, they have each changed significantly during their years apart. The spark that first ignited their young love is still present but they need time to get to know the people they are today and grow together as a couple. I appreciate the fact that Jeffries gives them that time and that she doesn't make it easy. They've mistrusted one another for a long time. Those doubts and feelings don't just disappear overnight, especially when tested by someone determined to keep them apart. The action is fast-paced, the story line intriguing and the dialogue between the hero and heroine is snappy and realistic. The supporting cast moves the story forward and gives us a glimpse into the next book in the series which, if my guess is correct, will be filled with fireworks aplenty. I can't wait!
4.5 Stars ~PJ Ausdenmore As posted at The Romance Dish ...more
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