Tag: Amelia Grey

Guest Post: Whitley’s DNF Roundup

Posted December 21, 2015 by Whitley B in Reviews | 3 Comments

So, in the first week of my self-professed “month of only reading Christmas romances” I have read…one Christmas romance.  And I DNFed before I got to the Christmas part. Oops.

In fact I DNFed most of these, but that’s par for the course with me and romances.  I’ll drop them with relative ease because so many things in romance bug me, but at least I think it’s fun to dig through stacks of these things looking for the gems. 😀

Against the Sky
1. Against the Sky by Kat Martin

ALASKA
In America’s last wilderness, there are no limits to what a man can do.

For detective Nick Brodie, that means keeping the perps off the streets of Anchorage 24/7. Nick has never backed down from danger, but after the horrors he’s seen, he’s definitely in need of a break.

Samantha Hollis never thought she’d meet anyone like Nick, especially in a place like Las Vegas. But after one reckless, passionate night, she discovers the charismatic stranger is everything she wants in a man. But can he ever be anything more than a one-night stand?

When Nick invites her to Alaska, Samantha decides to find out, never guessing the depths she’ll discover in him or the tangle of murder, kidnapping, and danger about to engulf them both…

So, right off the bat, I wish the summary for this book had included the KIND OF MAJOR BABY PLOT.  I mean, really, the heroine’s unplanned pregnancy is the catalyst for most of the plot going on, and yet it’s completely missing from the jacket copy.  The murder mystery had promise, but the writing was a bit annoying and the sex was brief and vague.  (Come on, my interest in this genre is not exactly respectable, give me some steamy goodness!)  I quit when the hero decided to go condomless without asking permission first.  (Dude, I know she’s already knocked up, but that doesn’t mean you get to make that call solo!)

Tremain's True Love
2. Tremain’s True Love by Grace Burrows.

Tremaine St. Michael is firmly in trade and seeks only to negotiate the sale of some fancy sheep with the Earl of Haddonfield. The earl’s sister, Lady Nita, is pragmatic, hard-working, and selfless, though Tremaine senses she’s also tired of her charitable obligations and envious of her siblings’ marital bliss. Tremaine, having been raised among shepherds, can spot another lonely soul, no matter how easily she fools her own family. Neither Tremaine nor Nita is looking for love, but love comes looking for them.

Technically I finished this one, but eh.  I don’t know why I picked this book up; I find Burrows’ writing to be very hard to follow.  It’s 95% dialogue and soliloquies, so very little normal narration, so I can’t keep track of where people are in a scene or what they’re doing.  You can be two pages into a scene and not know a character is present until they start talking. But this one in particular irritated me because the ending had the heroine giving up her “passionate” work of being a healer.  And way too easily.  And I’m just not here for that.  I want my historical romances to be full of ladies defying society and doing their thang and gentlemen who gasp at first and then by the end love them for it anyway.  What is this whole stay home and conform to gender bullshit stuff?

The Earl Claims a Bride
3. The Earl Claims a Bride by Amelia Grey.

Harrison Thornwick thought he was safe. The fourth son to the Earl of Thornwick, there was no reason he couldn’t lounge his life away, drinking and carousing in the notorious Heirs’ Club. But when the sudden deaths of his father and brothers leave Harrison holding the bag, he needs a wife in haste, unless he’s to defy the rule of the prince. Unluckily for Harrison, the prince has an entirely different rule for him—his wife-to-be, Miss Angelina Rule. But when he sees the lady in the flesh, Harrison finds her too beautiful and fascinating to resist…Princely command or not, Angelina has no desire to marry Thornwick. Waiting for her sweetheart to return from the army, she’s not about to be paired up with an Earl—especially with an infamous scoundrel like Harrison. But with Thornwick determined to make her his wife in more ways than one, Angelina will have to put up all her defenses if she is to resist being seduced…

I loved the premise of this one, but the hero was just a little too…um, enthusiastic about the heroine’s youth.  (Also, first one of these I’ve read where the girl is legit having her coming out and isn’t a spinster.  Turns out I like spinsters.  I do not have a problem with this.)

Deadly Christmas Secrets
4. Deadly Christmas Secrets by Shirlee McCoy.

THE CHRISTMAS TARGET

When new evidence surfaces that Harper Shelby’s niece is possibly alive, Harper doesn’t expect it to endanger her life. For her protection, she has to put her much-guarded trust in Logan Fitzgerald, the man who unknowingly led a killer to her doorstep. Hired to track Harper down, security and rescue expert Logan doesn’t like that he’s been used to find a woman who someone apparently wants dead. Now he won’t leave Harper’s side until he can guarantee her safety and untangle the truth from the lies regarding her sister’s and niece’s murders. The closer they get to finding answers, the more intent the killer becomes on making sure that there won’t be a family reunion—or happily-ever-after—for Harper this Christmas.

Mission: Rescue—No job is too dangerous for these fearless heroes.

Got this one from Walmart about 75% because I just love the feel of those short slick paperbacks, and 25% because serial killer at Christmas!  I neglected to realize that it was from the “Inspirational” imprint, and I pretty much lost interest when I realized there wasn’t going to be hanky panky.  (I am terrible, I know.)  Shame, since the guy was the most respectful gun-slinger I’ve ever read in a romance.

Facing Fire
5. Facing Fire by HelenKay Dimon.

When his uncle is brutally murdered, Josiah King knows that business just got personal. His uncle’s ties to the Alliance can mean only one thing: Josiah and his black ops team are targets, along with everyone they love. Primed for vengeance, Josiah is determined to unravel the plot–until long-legged redhead Sutton Dahl becomes a dangerous distraction.

Sutton is very good at uncovering other people’s secrets—and protecting her own. When Josiah bursts into her life she’s torn between pushing him away and asking for his help. Mysterious, strong, and much too sexy, he’s a puzzle she longs to solve, and a temptation she can’t ignore.

Thrown together in the face of Alliance’s most lethal threat, Josiah and Sutton become unlikely partners, fighting for their lives even as the attraction between them flares into real passion. Torn between his team and the woman who means everything to him, Josiah will risk it all to save Sutton, even if that decision is his last.

It was a good premise, it really was.  I loved the set-up for getting the hero and heroine together.  He’s chasing a bad guy, she’s chasing the bad guy’s alias.  Her investigation makes her look suspicious, so he swings round to question her.  But it fell into that trap of just being WAY TOO MUCH right off the bat.  He burst into her room with a gun drawn on her, screaming about killing her if she does anything wrong, then asking vague questions, followed by more death threats.  JFC, dude, dial it down.  What even is with all this death talk; do you not realize you can’t interrogate a corpse?  (Which, really, is a big point here if you’re actually trying to catch said bad guy.)  And no further interaction from these two felt real after that.  How do you honestly have a romance after the “hero” makes you shit your pants?  (Didn’t actually happen, but realistically probably should have with that intro.)

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Guest Review: A Gentleman Says "I Do" by Amelia Grey

Posted May 24, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Tracy’s review of A Gentleman Says “I Do” (The Rogue’s Dynasty #5) by Amelia Grey.

Iverson Brentwood has finally met his match. Catalina Crisp heats his blood like no other lady. Her alluring countenance has stopped him dead in his tracks. But no matter how attracted he is to her, he can’t give into his desire to possess her in every way…she is the daughter of the man he’s sworn to destroy.

Catalina’s father is a well-known writer, but wastrel whose disappearances continuously put them close to destitution. Something drastic must change, so it is with quill in hand, that Catalina completes her father’s latest parody of Iverson and Matson Brentwood’s spectacular arrival in London. When the story hits the newsprint, a darkly handsome man is at her door, looking for her father.

Seeing the dashing rogue in the flesh, for a bewildering moment dallying with the rake seems like the perfect fictional escape—and it’s all she can do not to give into the madness of the intriguing man.

Iverson Brentwood doesn’t care for a parody that is written about him and his twin in a London newspaper and plans to let the author of the story know how he feels about the situation. When he gets to the man’s home however he is confronted not by the man but the man’s daughter, Catalina Crisp. She is calm in the face of Iverson’s ire and actually ends up battling with him verbally.

Iverson isn’t giving up on his search for Sir Phillip Crisp, who has apparently left town, but in the meantime he can’t stop thinking about Ms. Crisp. She was intelligent, witty, forthright and not afraid to stand up to Iverson, or what she believed in. He starts to head to her house on a regular basis under the guise of looking for the father – which he is – but at the same time he gets the pleasure of Catalina’s company. He ends up kissing her and once he starts he doesn’t want to stop.

Catalina is thrilled with Iverson and his witty banter. She’s definitely worried about her father and what Iverson plans on doing with him when he does return home but that doesn’t stop her from thinking romantic thoughts about the rake that keeps showing up in her life. She’s also not being completely honest with Iverson about the parody’s that he’s upset about. There are actually two more installments, which she is afraid to mention in the hopes that she can find her father and get him to recall them from the paper. Eventually the truth comes out and Iverson is none too pleased with the information.

This is my first read by Grey and it was a good one. The story started off pretty slow for me even though I liked the banter between Iverson and Catalina quite a lot. There just seemed to be quite a bit of description or inner thought when I needed something more to happen. As the book went on though things picked up and there was a bit of fun, a bit of humor and some good ole romance.

I really liked the conversations between Iverson and Catalina. They were interesting and clever and I loved that the author had them getting along so well despite their differences – you know…him wanting to hurt the father and the daughter defending the father.

There wasn’t a whole ton of angst in this one and it was always nicely resolved and didn’t involve the romance itself. It was nice to read a novel where the people fell in love and didn’t have great angst over the fact that they liked and eventually loved each other.

I will definitely be reading more of Ms. Grey in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Series:

Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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What I Read Last Week

Posted April 23, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

Greetings Earthlings
It wasn’t too busy of a week this week. Now that Easter’s over the office has calmed considerable so it’s kind of business as usual. I like the super busy times but I also like when my days are just “normal”. That doesn’t happen very often as I never know who’s going to walk through the office door but when it happens it’s great. 🙂
The fam and I managed to get to a (very small) carnival yesterday that they had in town for a few days. The girls had fun riding the rides and I managed to win them a couple of toys to take home. Yep, I’m mean with a water pistol. lol
I just had to share this picture of our kitten Echo. She was just so cute hanging out below the window as we have a mother bird nesting under out back patio cover. I was zooming in and she turned around right when the flash went off and this was the result. LOL Too funny.
Have you ever seen the movie The Iron Giant? Great movie but this picture reminded me of the giant when he turns his eyes “on”.
Anyway, on to what I read this week:
I started off the week with Deadly Nightshade by Victor J. Banis. This was my TBR Challenge read for the month and it was really good. Gay cop gets partnered with a straight cop to investigate a series of murders and it looks like a drag queen’s the murderer. Stanley and Tom investigate the murders and kind of end up investigating each other. You can read my review here. 4.25 out of 5
I liked Deadly Nightshade so much that I immediately started on Deadly Wrong by Victor J. Banis right after. This had Stanley headed from San Francisco to Bear Mountain in Southern California to do a childhood friend a favor. Stanley’s supposed to see if he can figure out any info about a supposed manslaughter case. Unfortunately Stanley apparently asking the wrong questions and gets himself into trouble. Tom finds out about Stanley heading south and isn’t thrilled at all – to say the least. This was another great story. I love how Banis seamlessly weaves the relationship portion of the book with the mystery so that it’s all just one great story rather than 2 portions of the same book. I can’t wait to read book 3! 4 out of 5
My next read was North of Heartbreak by Julie Rowe. This story took me to Alaska where Willa has been living and running a clinic. She meets the new pilot Liam who takes her to other villages and to the hospital when needed to deliver a patient. Liam is attracted to Willa right off but she’s leery of men as she was horrible abused by her previous husband. You can read my full review here. 3.5 out of 5
Next was Power Play: Resistance by Rachel Haimowitz and Cat Grant. This story was about a multi-billionaire who wants a man he’s met to play his submissive for 6 months in exchange for 3 million dollars. You can read my full review here. 3.75 out of 5
Priceless by Cat Grant was next up. This story was about a professor who gets sent a rentboy for his birthday by one of his friends – only the professor has no idea that the guys a rentboy and starts having feelings for him. I’ll be reviewing this one this week so keep your eyes open.
Natural Evil by Thea Harrison is a novella in the Elder Races series. This story was about human Claudia Hunter who is driving through Nevada and sees a large dog by the side of the road. She decides to stop and help the animal but starts to think that he may not be a regular dog. He isn’t, he’s a Wyr shifter by the name of Luis who definitely would have died if left on the side of the road. The story follows Luis’s recovery – the reason for his almost demise as well as Claudia and Luis getting together. I really liked the story even though it was to terribly deep. I didn’t care for the fact that it cut off without a HEA but it did give us a Happy For Now ending. 4 out of 5 (Is it just me or does the guy on the cover look like Antonio Banderas?)
A Gentleman Says “I Do” by Amelia Grey was a book I read for The Book Binge. This is the story of Iverson Brentwood who is pissed off because a man wrote a parody about him and his twin brother that basically made his deceased mother look like a loose woman. He goes to the man’s house to knock some teeth and instead of the man finds the man’s daughter Catalina. Iverson and Catalina are instantly attracted to each other and have some great conversations.. But Catalina is keeping secrets from Iverson and isn’t quite sure he’d like her too much if she told him what they were. This was a cute story. It started out slow and got a bit too dramatic at the end but I very much enjoyed the middle. The intelligent yet witty banter between the h/h was pretty darned good. 3.5 out of 5
Under the Vampire Moon by Lynsay Sands – another book read for The Book Binge – is book #16 in the Argeneau series. This was about Christian Notte, Marguerite’s son, who heads to the Caribbean on his mother’s request. There he meets his life mate, Carolyn, but she is not going to get close to Christian because she’s 42 and she believes Christian to be around 25 (he’s actually about 500). Christian’s cousin comes up with a plan where she tells Carolyn that Christian is gay and needs a Beard – that way Carolyn can hang with Christian and get to know him without feeling guilty. I like this series – it’s just fluff and humor and just hits that spot for me every time. 3.75 out of 5
Last for the week was a short called Realize by Kerry Freeman. This was about a senior in college who “takes care” of his roommate who is 3 years younger. He has feelings for his roommate though he’s never acted on them. This story has to two getting together. It was a good story but too short! lol I would have loved this to be longer but oh well. 🙂 3 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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Guest Review: Never a Bride by Amelia Grey

Posted September 22, 2010 by Ames in Reviews | 5 Comments

Ames‘ review of Never a Bride by Amelia Grey

Her name is on everyone’s lips . . .
When he left for America six years ago, the handsome Viscount Stonehurst never suspected that he would return home to England to find his lovely fiancé embroiled in the scandal of the decade. The woman he planned on making his wife has been kissing every man in London . . . except him!
But scandal doesn’t matter in search of the truth . . .
Engaged and then abandoned, Mirabella Wittingham is determined to find the man who drove her cousin to suicide, even if it means ruining her reputation and disgracing herself in the process . . .
When her plans go awry, Mirabella has no choice but to turn to her long-lost fiancé for help. But can she trust the man who deserted her so many years ago, or is he destined to fail her yet again?

Never a Bride is a reprint of Amelia Grey’s first novel, which was originally published in 2001. (She does have other older published works under a pen name.)

Mirabella Wittingham has been engaged for what feels like forever with no fiancé in sight. She has given up hope that he will return and instead decides to try her hand at investigation. You see, her best friend and cousin was seduced by a gentleman and when she got pregnant, he abandoned her. Mirabella’s cousin killed herself rather than deal with the scandal of an illegitimate child. Now Mirabella is out for justice and she doesn’t care if she has to ruin her reputation to get it.

Camden, Viscount Stonehurt, the fiancé, has returned to England from America after 6 years. Just in time to hear the rumors about his betrothed. He first left London because of another betrothal that went horribly wrong and he does not want to be the cuckold for the second time in a row. He does not want to marry Mirabella and is quite happy that she doesn’t want to marry him. But his parents desperately want the marriage to continue on so Mirabella and Camden start acting like the engaged couple, meanwhile, they will use their ruse for their own ends.

I always wanted to read Amelia Grey’s work and unfortunately, I was not impressed with Never a Bride. I knew from the minute Mirabella’s cousin, Sarah, was introduced, that Mirabella was going to get into shenanigans that would annoy me. And I was right. Mirabella was stubborn to a fault. Camden was ok. He was vulnerable and afraid to put himself out there again. All the fault lies at Mirabella’s feet.

Also, the plot was predictable. I knew how things were going to roll out and I correctly guessed the identity of the villainous seducer. There just wasn’t enough to keep my interest. In the end, I need to give Never a Bride a 2.75 out of 5. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good.

This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can buy it here.

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