Phantoms & Fantasies

By Annie Rayburn

http://annierayburn.com/

Publisher: Annie Rayburn; 2nd edition (May 26, 2011)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Zeenie LaShey is recovering from a horrendous act that has left her afraid of intimacy. For years Turk Fontaine has known he is Zeenie’s life mate but has not acted on the feelings that are such a huge part of their Crainesians race.  With his best friend dating Zeenie’s roommate, Turk is able to stick close while giving her a chance to heal from an attack. Now that Zeenie has decided to step back into the relationship realm, Turk is more than ready to make his feelings known. He’s even willing to endure the ridicule of other Crainesians for being the pursuer in the relationship when it is normally the female who takes that role.

When Zeenie finally comes to terms with their inevitable attraction, she now has to find a way to fix things so that her life mate does not have to face the mockery from their world. But what would be a big enough gesture to fix this melee?

I won’t spoil the ending but I can tell you there is no doubt to be had about Zeenie claiming her man.

Phantoms & Fantasies is a breathtaking story. Ms. Rayburn has totally created a world that is both believable and sexy. Her alien race of Crainesians blends easily with their human neighbors and share a large number of similarities. The traits that do make them different are what make these books so tantalizing. I could see myself living next door to a Crainesian and am envious of the link the life mates have with each other. Zeenie and Turk have incredible chemistry and I love how patient Turk is as he waits for Zeenie. His surprise with house shows the reader just how vested he is and his willingness to take on the ridicule from their world shows how much she really means to him. This guy is everything a girl (either human or Crainesian) is looking for.

I read this Phantoms & Fantasies in one sitting, it was that good. I think Annie Rayburn has a definite keeper with this new world and I can’t wait to read more.

Single Dad Seeks A Wife

By Melanie Milburne

http://melaniemilburne.com.au/

Harlequin Medical

ISBN: 13:978-0-373-06787-9

Buy it Here

Brides of Penhally Bay

Bachelor doctors become husbands and fathers—in a place where hearts are made whole

Making the doctor his bride

Penhally Bay is a world away from everything Dr. Eloise Hayden knows. But this forensic specialist has come to Cornwall’s coast to find justice.  Gorgeous police inspector Lachlan D’Ancey partners with Eloise on the case and finds himself mesmerized by this stunning Australian. But he fear that his daughter will become embroiled in the investigation. He can’t stand in the way of justice, but he’s torn between his duty to his career, his duty to his only child and a newfound duty to the woman he’s falling in love with.

Eloise soon realizes that the single dad needs her help—together, they may be able to find an answer. Only then can Lachlan ask Eloise the most important question of all…

Eloise is a give me the facts person that believes science has all the answers.  Lachlan is a student of people’s actions to learn what he needs to know.  Eloise and Lanchlan go about finding who murdered a surfer in different ways but find they complement each other. Will they make their partnership last forever?

This medical is a little different from the typical medicals because the hero and heroine were not both in the medical field. The hero in this one is a policeman. It made for an interesting read.  The mystery was fun and there is a surprise twist to the story that added tension.

Emma’s Wish

by Margery Scott

Publisher:  Margery Scott (Indie Pub)

AISN: B0051306KU

Genre:  Historical fiction, American frontier

Buy it Here

REVIEW SUMMARY:

Emma’s Wish contains several items on my greatest hits list for a good frontier historical: hunky widower, pretty spinster, adorable kids, emotional angst, a little suspense and some great lovin’. It’s a good steady-paced read with characters you care about from the get-go. While it may not fit everyone’s idea of a beach read, I read it while lying on a beach and it fit the bill just fine. Heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable, Emma’s Wish should be on your frontier historical must-read list.

Her Little Secret

By Carol Marinelli

http://www.carolmarinelli.com/

Harlequin Medical

ISBN: 13:978-0-373-06785-5

Buy It Here

Daredevil doctor to doting daddy?

Eastern Beach hospital is just the next stop for doctor Nick Roberts-he’s left broken hearts on every continent! But Nick’s fun-loving altitude is so infectious that his patients-and nurse Alison Carter-are unwillingly hooked. One night with Nick leaves Alison with a new zest for life-and another, rather more unexpected gift!

Alison can’t help but love Nick and neither can the reader.  Any female can identify with a girl that doesn’t want to get involved with a goodtime guy but also can’t help but be drawn to him. In this book, the reader roots for the good girl to get the guy. When some of Nick’s passion for life rubs off on Alison the reader can’t help but cheer. But when the surprise of a baby is thrown into the mix they both have to make a hard decision about what they want.

Nice quick read and an easy way to travel to Australia.

 

Paying The Virgin’s Price

By Christine Merrill

http://christine-merrill.com/

Silk& Scandal Series

Harlequin Historical

ISBN-10: 0263870790

ISBN-13: 978-0263870794

I pledge in Payment the Maidenhead of my daughter….

Chaperon Diana Price knew she was teetering on the edge of ruin. Her father had staked his fortune, and her virginity, at the card table—and lost! To the most notorious gamester in town…

Nathan Wardale had money, plenty of it, but it was a long time since he’d been considered a gentleman. Still, he never intended to purse this debt. Until he met Diana Price in the flesh—and began to wonder just how long his honor would hold out…

I had met these characters in the other books in the series, but I was glad to get to know them better in their own story. Diana knows what she wants when she sees it— and Nathan is it. He is drawn to Diana even though he knows something bad in the past stands between them.   I felt for both these characters as they fought for a future. Nice read.

 

Baby, Drive South

By Stephanie Bond

http://www.stephaniebond.com/

Publisher: Mira; Original edition (May 24, 2011)

ISBN-10: 0778329445

ISBN-13: 978-0778329442

“There’s a caravan of women headed into town.”

Sweetness, Georgia was ravaged by a tornado more than ten years ago.  Because of the lack of industry in the area and the horrendous damage to practically everything, the town was abandoned.

Now, three brothers are back and wanting to rebuild the hometown they grew up in.  With a grant from the government to rebuild the town under their “Green-Town” experiment program, the brothers hope to bring life back while building an industry that will support it. Great plan and the brothers have thought of everything but one.  Women.  With a lack of women, it’s hard to keep a crew of men happy and enthusiastic about the project.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to raise an interest in a town with minimal conveniences.  Thus begins a plan to recruit the fairer sex to Sweetness with an ad placed in a Northern newspaper.  But what the brothers don’t understand is that it takes a hell of a lot more than promises to keep a woman happy.

Baby brother, Porter Armstrong, is far from a baby.  Having recently retired from the Army, he’s more than capable of pulling his weight.  Excited at the prospect of recruiting women to their town, he’s all set to find a woman who is “reckless, ripe and ready for the picking.”  Instead he gets Dr. Nikki Salinger.

Nikki Salinger is sure she’s made a terrible mistake.  After being dumped by her fiancé, Nikki had hoped to make a clean break from her past.  Except now that she’s in Sweetness and seeing the type of women the men want to meet, it is more than obvious she’s not the right person for the town.  But one of the sexy Armstrong brothers keeps getting in her way of leaving.  From the moment she met Porter, she knew she wasn’t his type.  Yet each time they’re together, the sexual tension threatens to combust.  As soon as she gets the fuel pump fixed on her van and the grant papers complete for the new clinic, she’s on her way outa here.  This is exactly what she wants. Except why is the thought of leaving no longer all that appealing?

~~~

This is a fun story with a great backstory.  I love the idea of rebuilding a town after a natural disaster and the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers theme that occurs in the need to recruit women to their town.

Porter Armstrong is fun and sexy and his easygoing personality had me ignoring the fact that he kept overlooking Nikki.  The outlandish ideas he comes up with to keep her in town were inventive and I couldn’t help but anticipate her reactions.  I knew when the truth came out there would be a backlash, but when Stephanie Bond ended the story like it began, I cheered at the genius of the idea.

Stephanie Bond hooked me with the free prequel short story, Baby, I’m Yours which tells the HEA story of Emory and Shelby and the day the tornado struck Sweetness.  Now that I’ve read Baby, Drive South, I can’t wait to read the other two books in the series.  Not only for the other two brothers’ HEAs but to glimpse the next stage of Porter and Nikki’s life together.

Don’t miss out on reading about middle brother, Kendall, in Baby, Come Home and older brothers, Marcus, in Baby, Don’t Go.

 

Treachery In Death

by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)

Author Web site: http://jdrobb.com/

ISBN: 978-0-399-15703-5

Publisher: Putnam (G.P.Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Group)

Release Date: February 22, 2011

Formats: Hardcover/Audio; Paperback Release July 26, 2011

In Hardcover # 32 of the In Death Series, 50 years into the future, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, stumble onto corruption and murder at Central. In Treachery in Death, Dallas and Peabody’s Homicide Division is pitted against dirty cops (almost an entire squad of them) in the Illegals Division. The squad’s leader and ringleader, Lieutenant Renee Oberman, daughter of former Commander Marcus Oberman (Saint Oberman), has her fingers in a lot of pies and the pie is spoiled rotten.

It will take everyone on Eve’s support team to take them down, including handsome, sexy, Civilian Consultant Roarke, Mira, EDD, Eve’s ex-lover, Lieutenant Webster in IAB, Commander Whitney and her squad.

J.D. Robb doesn’t disappoint in this action-packed romantic suspense. There’s a chilling shower scene that kicks off all the action and a steamy scene in the garden as Roarke and Eve take a stroll in the sunlight in front of their home.

You won’t want to miss the latest in the In Death series, Treachery in Death. 

 

In The Line of Fire

By Jennifer LaBrecque

http://jenniferlabrecque.com/

Harlequin Blaze

ISBN-10: 0373796021

ISBN-13: 978-0373796021

Contemporary Romance

There is no way Andromeda “Andi” Mitchell is getting married after finding out who her brother got to walk her down the aisle.  She has lusted after her brother’s best friend from the time she was little; but the sexy Amy Ranger has never wanted anything to do with her, either then or now.  In an attempt to move on and find a little freedom for herself, she almost makes the biggest mistake of her life.  When her escape out the bathroom window of the church lands her in the arms of the very man who has caused her to run in the first place, then the getaway car she plans to use is blocked in by the other wedding guests; Andi is sure that fate has put her right where she needs to be and she’s not going to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. 

Colton Sawyer wanted to say hell no when his best-friend and fellow Army Ranger asks him to fill in for him and walk his sister down the aisle.  He’s been attracted to Andi for longer than he cares to admit, but he’s not going to overstep his role and get involved with his best-friend’s sister. But honor and duty overrides his irritation and when he catches the bride sneaking out of her own wedding, he can’t help but offer to drive the get-away car.  “The way he saw it, driving her getaway car was a damn site better than handing her off to marry Blanton.”  If he only knew what Andi had in store, he might have ran instead.  But now it’s too late and he’s about to “launch a counterattack” of his own.

 ~~~

 Jennifer LaBrecque caught my eye with her Blaze story, In the Line of Fire.  

I’m not normally a fan of runaway brides because I know how much a formal wedding costs and my heart goes out to the parents paying for the weddings.  Also, I feel for the awkwardness the guests must experience (although I’ve never actually been a part of a ceremony where this happened, so maybe it is more exciting than the actual wedding would have been….) and I tend to feel a bit sad for the groom.  How embarrassing would that be to be left standing at the altar?  BUT with this story, the groom totally deserved it AND the bride made the right decision to sneak out the bathroom window.   As fate would have it, the sexy hero just happened to be trying to “run away” from the wedding himself.  

I often wondered about the logistics of stories like this.  How does the runaway bride manage with just herself and a wedding dress?  I loved the way Andi and Colton solve this problem and could totally picture the two of them walking into a Waffle House to keep Andi from passing out after a morning of no food and tons of stress.  I laughed at the nosey Waffle House waitress, the mirrors on the ceiling of the bed and breakfast where they stop, and the idea of finding your car up on blocks and the tires missing.  Ms. LaBrecque kept the story light and easy to read; which made me an instant fan of this runaway bride story.  In a world where there are so many books that you can read one and move on to another without a backwards glance, In the Line of Fire is a story you will want to make room for on your keeper shelf. 

Amazon Link 

Barnes and Noble Link 

Borders Link

 

My One and Only

By Kristan Higgins

http://kristanhiggins.com/

ISBN: 13: 978-0-373-77557-6

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Publisher: HQN^TM

Release Date: March 29, 2011

USA Today bestselling author and two-time RITA award winner Kristan Higgins has a way with words and a great voice. I found that to be true when I read “All I Ever Wanted,” so I was eager to read her newest book, “My One and Only.”

Thirty-four-year-old Harper James is a divorce attorney in Martha’s Vineyard who has more experience with broken marriages and broken hearts than she does with happily-ever-afters. She’s a total buzzkill when it comes to matrimony. And she has abandonment issues. After all, her mother left her when she was 13 and she left her brand new husband, New York architect Nick Lowery, after less than a year of marriage.

When the book opens, Harper proposes to her hunky firefighter boyfriend Dennis, even bought her own ring, and she comes packing a list of demands. Dennis is less than receptive. When she flies off to a destination wedding at Glacier National Park in Montana, to try to stop her sister Willa from marrying Nick’s brother, the fun continues. 

Dennis and her adorable dog Coco, a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix, tag along, even though Dennis (who calls Harper “dude),” hasn’t given her an answer to her proposal. Harper comes face-to-face with her ex at the wedding and finds still has unresolved feelings for Nick, who thinks she cheated on him. He can’t believe she divorced him, but according to Harper, her workaholic husband left her first. They haven’t seen each other in 12 years, but as fate would have it, they end up in a cross-country car trip revisiting their past. 

The author’s sense of humor is priceless. You’ll laugh all the way through the book, which is as witty as it is satisfying. Complete with a wonderful cast of primary and secondary characters, this book is full of surprises. Harper confronts her demons, and you won’t be able to look away as Higgins puts Harper in the messiest predicaments and you enjoy watching her get out of them. 

If you want a great romance about love the second time around, you won’t want to miss My One and Only by Kristan Higgins.

The Most Wicked of Sins

by Kathryn Caskie

http://kathryncaskie.com/

Publisher: Avon

ISBN:  0061491012

Left motherless, with a father that turned to alcohol to console himself, the Sinclair siblings ran wild. They became known as “The Seven Deadly Sins”. In response, their father, the Duke of Sinclair banished his children from Scotland until they can redeem themselves by bringing respect and honor back to the Sinclair name.

The Most Wicked of Sins, the second installment, is Ivy’s story. Her sin is envy.

“Of late, ye, Ivy more so than any other of my children, have brought shame upon the Sinclair name… Will anything ever be enough for ye, or will ye continue to spend yer life peering hungrily over yer neighbor’s fence, coveting her life…Raise yourself up as a true example of decorum and respectability. Become a lady deserving of yer Lord Tinsdale’s admiration and standards…”

The story begins with this letter from Ivy’s father. She knows what she must do. She must become betrothed to Lord Tinsdale within a month’s time, when her father will visit. The only problem is Lord Tinsdale’s affections have strayed to Miss Fiona Feeney. A comment Ivy’s brother, Grant makes, spurs her into action. “Och, dinna fret over it…All you need to do is find a gentlemen to compete with Tinsdale…for hers.”  

Ivy twists Grant’s comment into a plan to create a fake suitor. After all, Ivy understands human nature and the sin of envy better than anyone. If Lord Tinsdale sees competition for her affections, he’ll want her back. Ivy’s plan is simple; she’ll hire an actor to play the Marquess of Counterton. What could it hurt? The new Marquess is expected to stay in the country to attend to his late brother’s affairs before arriving in London. She waits outside the Drury Theater and when she thinks she found the right man, she gives him a test. A kiss… that rocks both their worlds.

Dominic Sheridan is intrigued with the bold, copper-haired lady. So intrigued he agrees to impersonate a peer. Yet he has a secret of his own. To make the rouse believable, Ivy hires out Counterton House from the servants, while the Marquess’s home is being repaired. Ivy takes over Nick’s life with various social functions. He willing goes along to be near her and to figure out why she has him impersonating a Marquess. A crime punishable by imprisonment.   

In order for the ton and in particular Lord Tinsdale to believe the new Marquess of Counterton is enthralled with Ivy, they must be seen everywhere together. Proximity breeds familiarity, understanding, and longing in the two. Yet they stick with Ivy’s plan, so she may be considered respectable and return to her home. The closer they become, the more barriers Ivy puts up. Now Nick needs to make Miss Feeney fall in love with him, but at the same time stay true to Ivy. This spider’s web becomes very complicated and while Lord Tinsdale is starting to take notice, unanticipated feeling grow between Nick and Ivy. The more Ivy’s plan works, the less she wants it to. As Ivy realizes how much Nick is risking for her, her conflict grows. This story reminds me of the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.”

Kathryn Caskie leads the reader down a delicious path of sharp curves, crossroads and a few illuminating secrets. Whenever I pick up a book by Kathryn, I clear my calendar for the day, for I know I won’t put it down until I reach the happily ever after. The Most Wicked of Sins is sure to please.