Tag: Julia London

Guest Review: The Perfect Bargain by Julia London writing as Jessa McAdams

Posted July 6, 2015 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: The Perfect Bargain by Julia London writing as Jessa McAdamsReviewer: Tracy
The Perfect Bargain by Julia London
Series: How to Marry a Highlander #1
Publisher: Entangled, Lovestruck
Publication Date: June 30, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

American lass seeks brawny Scot...

As if being newly single isn't brutal enough, Sloane Chatfield's friends are getting obnoxious about setting her up. When Sloane insists she's waiting for a certain sexy fictional Highlander to come along, her friends surprise her with a trip to Scotland to find her a new boyfriend. She'd rather have a root canal. But if she can find a Highland hunk to "break her heart" before her friends arrive...

In a remote Highland village, Galen Buchanan is struggling to keep the family pub afloat. Everything is falling apart, he's running out of money, and now there's an opinionated American lass parked at his best table, driving him mad. But then Sloane asks Galen to be her pretend Highland boyfriend...and offers him enough money to save the pub. It's only for a few days, he figures. What's the worst that could happen?

Tracy’s review of The Perfect Bargain (How to Marry a Highlander #1) by Julia London writing as Jessa McAdams

Sloan Chatfield wants her friends off her back. They mean well but since her break up with her fiancé, they’ve been setting her up with every Tom, Dick and Harry and she was done with all of it. One night while they were all watching Outlander on TV she came up with a brilliant idea. She said that she was waiting for her very own Jamie Fraser – a highlander who is a real man – one who is brawny and protective of his family, etc. When the friends jump on that and say that they’ll find her a Scot in Chicago she says she can’t because she’s heading to Scotland. And the lies just keep coming…she had no intention of meeting a Scot or even going to Scotland but when her friends jump on it and decide that they’ll meet her in Scotland she has to go.

Sloane ends up in Gairloch – a little village in the highlands. She heads to the Black Thistle pub every day as it’s the only place with cell reception and free wi-fi. She plans on calling her friends, telling them that she’s met “the” guy and then by the time they show up she’d have dumped the fictitious man. Unfortunately her friends move up their arrival time and Sloane finds herself in a bind. Even though she’d become a thorn in the side of the pub owner, Galen Buchanan, she heads to him for his assistance. He’s may be a bit of an ass but she thinks he’s hot and knows her friends would like him. She propositions him to be her fake boyfriend and after much haggling he accepts.

The two spend time together as Sloane insists that they get to know each other as a boyfriend and girlfriend would. Galen is at first frustrated with Sloane but that doesn’t stop himself from liking her more each day – and he’s very much attracted to her. They end up in bed together and as time goes on Sloane realizes that there’s more to their relationship than friendship and sex. Too bad Galen wants nothing to do with a relationship and besides – what will happen when she heads back to Chicago? He’s not willing to get his heart broken when she leaves.

There were quite a few things to like about The Perfect Bargain. The humor that Galen showed toward the whole situation was wonderful. I loved that he could look at it and take it all with a grain of salt. Sloane was no easy woman to love so had to give him points for dealing with her.

Sloane wasn’t a bad person at all. She was very driven in her career and had been hurt terribly by her former fiancé (who showed up in the book which I felt was completely unnecessary) and took what he said to heart. She put on a good show but deep down she was lacking in confidence. Being with Galen certainly brought her out of her shell. I wish she could have been a bit less of a ball buster when it came to getting Galen to admit his feelings for her. She didn’t constantly prod him but she gave it the old college try.

I loved the descriptions of the village in Scotland where she stayed and frankly loved that it was a highlander story set in modern times. It was a pretty lighthearted story overall and I found it enjoyable.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

This title is available from Entangled Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

three-half-stars

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Review: Hot Ticket by Deirdre Martin, Julia London, Annette Blair, Geri Buckley.

Posted December 26, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments


Rowena’s review of Hot Ticket by Julia London, Deirdre Martin, Annette Blair and Geri Buckley.

Lucky Charm by Julia London.

Hero: Parker Price
Heroine: Kelly O’Shay

Uninhibited radio host Kelly O’Shay loves to take on the egos of overpaid sports stars. then she goes after hot-shot shortstop Parker Price, whose losing streak takes an unexpected turn when he goes head-to-head with his lovely nemesis-on the air and off.

This story was a great big ball of corn. I mean, we have a whiny hot baseball player who keeps whining about how the talk show radio host keeps talking about him (badly of course) on the radio and then he blames her for her poor performance on the field? Yeah, how is a whiny baby hero going to make me drool with delight? He didn’t. I just didn’t really care for the story, it was too short and just really corny.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Same Rink, Next Year by Deirdre Martin.

Hero: David Hewson
Heroine: Tierney O’Connor

I’m not sure what it was about this story that I just couldn’t get. It fell flat for me, I couldn’t really connect with the characters and I really wanted to because this story had such good potential to be such a cute story but the dialogue felt forced and the witty characters and most especially the talk between the hockey players seemed…silly. I know, that word silly gets me in trouble with rabid fangirls but I can’t help it…that’s how I saw it, it may work for others but it just didn’t work for me. I read the chats between David and his friends as, not good. It didn’t flow well with the personalities of the hockey players, it just didn’t fit. But David and Tierny were good together, although once while they’re getting jiggy, I laughed because well, while they’re going at it, he says stuff like, “Better?” and “You like that?” and it totally just takes me right out of the scene…but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, it just wasn’t the best either. So while the story could have been cute, it just sort of is silly.

Grade: 2.75 out of 5.

You Can’t Steal First by Annette Blair.

Hero: Juan Santiago
Heroine: Quinn Murdock

Famous for his big numbers at bat, Juan Santiago’s struck out only once in his life–with Quinn Murdock. Now the Red Sox star player is getting one more shot with the sexy sporting goods magnate. But first he has to prove he’s not just playing the field.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I did not really care for this story either. I mean, Tiago and Quinn are long lost lovers who have this big misunderstanding and go all these years without seeing eachother or talking to each other and then Quinn’s friends throw her on his train thats heading for Orlando for Spring Training and on the train, they fall in love again? Hmm, okay, but the dialogue between these two, can it get any cheesier? Tiago didn’t have as much game as he thought he did, if he said some of the things to me that he said to Quinn, I would have laughed at him. I didn’t get how him and her kissing making it on the front page of the newspaper was funny…it seemed childish and juvenile. I just didn’t get this and I didn’t feel any kind of connection between Quinn and Tiago, though one thing that was a sure winner for me in this book, was the name Tiago…I like that Latin lover name, it’s yummy!

Grade: 2.75 out of 5

Can’t Catch This by Geri Buckley.

Hero: Josh Weldon
Heroine: Lindy Hamilton

Lindy Hamilton got her two-timing boyfriend right where it hurts–by stealing his pricey tickets to the Florida Moccasins football game. When she discovers that the really interesting action is in the stands, it proves to be the hottest season opener on record…

Okay, I think this was the worst of all of them. I really wanted to like ONE of the stories a whole lot because I love sports and sports stories like SEP’s were such winners for me, but this one fell right on it’s face for me. I was bummed because I felt like, ehhh, I can’t wait til I’m done with this book so that I can read something else already. The problem that I had with this story was I didn’t care for Lindy and Josh fell in love wayyy too fast with her, I didn’t see them connect anywhere and yet faster than you snap your fingers, they were in love..it was unbelievable and I just didn’t enjoy the interactions between Josh and Lindy. I thought the nephew was cute though, but that’s about it. I thought it was really weird that Josh’s cousin used Lindy as his lucky charm considering he had never met her or talked to her, it was hooky but whatever…so yeah this story was just blah for me.

Grade: 2 out of 5.

Overall grade: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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Review: A Courtesan’s Scandal by Julia London

Posted November 2, 2009 by Holly in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: A Courtesan’s Scandal by Julia LondonReviewer: Holly
A Courtesan's Scandal by Julia London
Series: The Scandalous Series #3

Publication Date: October 20th 2009
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Kate Bergeron is the beautiful and mysterious former mistress of a cloth merchant...and the latest beauty to capture the interest of the Prince of Wales.

Mired in a disastrous divorce, the Prince attempts to distract attention from his next amorous pursuit by ordering Grayson Christopher, the eligible Duke of Darlington, to pretend to London society that he is having an affair with Kate. When Grayson reluctantly agrees to his Prince's demand, he finds the lady no more willing than he is. Kate will grudgingly act the part in public, but her favors are not for sale to any man.

As Grayson and Kate mimic ardor for the world to see, they find what started as a deception becoming all too real. And when passion flames into love, their predicament becomes extreme. For while marriage between a duke and a courtesan could never happen, Kate knows in her heart that she is willing to accept nothing less....

 

A Courtesan’s Scandal is the first book I’ve read by Julia London. I’ve been hearing about her for years, but put off reading her because I burned out on historicals. I can’t quite decide how I feel about this book. My initial instinct after finishing it is to say I enjoyed it. It was a sweet, light romance. But if I look at it too closely I find many things that bothered me.

The heroine was portrayed in an almost child-like way, which worked to an extent, but became tedious after awhile. Because she’s had little education, Kate struggles with the meaning of words and finds joy in some of the simplest things. At first I found this endearing, but as the novel progressed I found myself becoming annoyed with her. She was an adult, not a 5-year-old. I wish she had been portrayed as older and wiser, instead of young and innocent. At first I thought she’d be one of those courtesan’s that wasn’t really a courtesan, but that wasn’t the case. Considering the extend of her ‘knowledge”, I expected her to be more worldly and mature.

And yet for my annoyances, I still liked her. Her outlook on life was optimistic and refreshing, and matched against Grayson’s more serious personality, she brought much needed levity to the story.

Grayson is a snob, plain and simple. That’s one of the key conflicts in this story. I understood that. I even understood why he was a snob – he was a Duke, and one of the most upstanding of them all at that. But he was also a hypocrite. He stepped outside the bounds of propriety all the time, only he found convenient lies and excuses to explain the behavior away. I could have excused that, but the issue was never really addressed. That of his snobbery was, but his being a hypocrite seemed to completely escape everyone, the author included.

And yet I liked him. He was kind and considerate, and his confusion over his feelings for Kate was adorable. As the story progressed and he lightened up, I really started rooting for him. His obvious struggle between his feelings for Kate and doing what propriety demanded really drew me in.

Mostly I think I was bothered by the overall storyline and the way the class distinctions were portrayed. Especially since the ending left a lot open. It bothered me that Kate felt she deserved marriage from Grayson, especially since she often claimed to know and accept her place in life. I think the way a duke marrying a courtesan was written is more believable than many others I’ve read, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with it. Shouldn’t a duke be able to say, “Screw convention, I do what I want”?

And yet the storyline is one of the things that worked. London stayed true to the times, writing something that isn’t generally accepted in the world of historical romances. I have to give her credit for that, even if it left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

As you can see, I really struggled with this book. On the surface I quite enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish it in one sitting. It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized so many things bothered me.

3.5 out of 5 (or maybe 3.75 out of 5? I can’t decide)

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

Totally unrelated to the review: I really dislike her website. It loads very slow and I couldn’t find any information about connecting books. Based on some things referenced in this one I assume there are books prior to it, but I can’t say for sure since her website is unclear.

three-half-stars

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Giveaway: Summer of Two Wishes by Julia London

Posted August 18, 2009 by Casee in Giveaways | 39 Comments

Book Cover

Whose wife was she?

Macy Lockhart’s life shattered in a moment with the news that her husband, Finn — serving in the military overseas — has been killed in the line of duty. Their ardent and devoted marriage is over, leaving Macy alone, empty, directionless. But while she tries to sustain herself with memories of Finn, the quiet, strong man who made her and their small Texas ranch the center of his life, it is wealthy Wyatt Clark who slowly brings joy back into her life. Her love for Wyatt may be less romantic than the breathless passion she’d once shared with Finn, but she vows to cherish him, and their marriage is happy and as solid as a rock. Until the day that Finn, miraculously spared from death, returns home to claim his bride….

Julia London has written contemporaries in the past, but nothing with this level of emotion. In my experience, there are very few authors that successfully go from historical to contemporary. If you want to win a copy of Summer of Two Wishes, answer me this…

Which authors do you think write historicals and well as contemporary (or vise-versa)?

This book is available from Pocket Star. You can buy it here.

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