Tag: Lori Wilde

Booksgiving with Book Binge: Day 22

Posted November 30, 2018 by Rowena in Giveaways | 11 Comments

November is a month of giving and a month of sharing so we had a thought. We’ve been at this book blogging thing for over eleven years now and to show our appreciation for all of you lovely readers taking this journey with us, we’ve got books to give away! We’re making this a month of Booksgiving and we hope you’ll join us.

Today’s giveaway includes the following:

The Christmas Key by Lori Wilde
A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe
For the Duke’s Eyes Only by Lenora Bell

To enter, please use the Gleam widget below. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, answering the question included in the widget and you are good to go.

Booksgiving with Book Binge, Day 22

What was the best book that you’ve read this month?

Good luck!


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Booksgiving with Book Binge: Day 8

Posted November 12, 2018 by Rowena in Giveaways | 10 Comments

November is a month of giving and a month of sharing so we had a thought. We’ve been at this book blogging thing for over eleven years now and to show our appreciation for all of you lovely readers taking this journey with us, we’ve got books to give away! We’re making this a month of Booksgiving and we hope you’ll join us.

Today’s giveaway includes the following:

Beautiful Lawman by Sophie Jordan
If Ever I Should Love You by Cathy Maxwell
Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside by Lori Wilde

To enter, please use the Gleam widget below. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, answering the question included in the widget and you are good to go.

Booksgiving with Book Binge, Day 8

What’s improved about your life from this time last year?

Good luck!


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Retro Review: Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Lori Wilde

Posted February 15, 2017 by Holly in Reviews | 5 Comments

Retro Review: Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Lori WildeReviewer: Holly
Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Lori Wilde
Series: Wedding Veil Wishes #2
Also in this series: Addicted to Love
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: December 14th 2008
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Legend claims this antigue Irish wedding veil can grant your heart's deepest desire. But be careful what you wish for...
Wedding videographer Tish Gallagher is at the end of her rope. Her business is about to go bust. She's just spent her last buck on nonreturnable (but oh so fabulous) shoes. And her most sustainable relationship is with a pint of Haagen Dazs. So she makes a wish on the lucky wedding veil to get out of debt...and sees the man she never stopped loving, her ex-husband, secret service agent Shane Tremont. Sure, their chemistry was off-the-charts sizzling hot, but their clashes were legendary, and no amount of longing will change that.
When her dream job of recording the first daughter's wedding appears out of the blue, Tish knows it's her only shot to get out of the red. Just one teensy glitch: Shane is the groom. From the moment they see each other, she knows nothing's changed--the same old black magic is still between them, as irresistible and potent as ever. But he's promised to another and Tish has been burned before. Will she always be...ONCE SMITTEN, TWICE SHY?

******As part of our 10 year anniversary celebration, we’ll be re-posting old reviews that make us cringe, laugh or sigh all over again.

I still have very fond memories of this series. I stopped reading Wilde some time back, but I often think back fondly on these books.

This review was originally published February 02, 2008

This is the second book in Lori Wilde’s Wedding Veil Wishes series. I didn’t read the first book, and don’t feel I missed anything by having skipped it. I think at some point I’ll pick it up, just because I like to read all the books in a series, but I never felt like I missed something while reading this book.

Shane has no idea what he was thinking to propose to the President’s daughter. But she’d caught him in a weak moment, staring at him like he was ten feet tall and bullet proof after he’d put his life on the line for hers. And now she’s concocted some scheme involving his ex-wife – the ex he still cares about more than he should.

Elysee knows Shane needs to make peace with the past if their marriage is going to work, so she hires Tish thinking they’ll be able to heal old wounds if they spend enough time together. But even she couldn’t have predicted just how much history there was between Tish and Shane, and just what they’d need to move past old hurts. And now she’s wondering if she made a grave mistake, because not only has she seen the looks the former couple pass between them, but she’s been getting some looks of her own, from her #1 bodyguard, Cal Ackerman.

I must confess, normally a story where one of the main protagonists is engaged to someone else would immediately turn me off. But in this case, it didn’t bother me a bit. I think the author did a fabulous job of writing an unconventional story that really worked.

This story is a somewhat predictable piece of fluff, but it was engaging and I really enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed it until close the the end, that is.

You see, Wilde did a fabulous job of keeping the focus on the main trio of characters. Elysee, Tish and Shane were shown in equal light, each with their own demons to battle and insecurities to overcome. I empathized with all three, understanding perfectly their personal issues. Shane, the wounded hero who just needed to be needed. Tish, the independent free spirit who needed someone to lean on. Elysee, the hopeless romantic who wanted nothing more than a knight in shining armor to sweep her away.

But then, more than 3/4 of the way through the book, a new element was introduced…that of a terrorist group who wanted to assassinate a woman who was trying to escape India. The thing is, there was nothing leading up to the sudden twist in the story. For almost the entire book, the focus remained on the three main characters and then BAM, all of a sudden Tish is being attacked and Shane needs to save her and Elysee is involved in an international rescue plot and there’s a murderer out to get them all. But..uh..I must have missed a memo, because that seriously came out of nowhere.

Despite that, however, I liked the book. I loved Tish and Shane together and I’m hopeful that Elysee will get a story of her own someday. Basically, buy this book for the romance, but don’t be surprised if it goes in a strange direction unexpectedly.

Even though I had a major issue with the latter half of the book, I’m still giving this:

4.5 out of 5

Because I really, really liked the rest of it.

The series:

There Goes the Bride
Once Smitten Twice Shy
Addicted to Love
All of Me

You can buy it here in paperback or here or here.

four-half-stars


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Guest Review: Smooth Sailing by Lori Wilde

Posted April 21, 2013 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Judith’s review of Smooth Sailing by Lori Wilde

Desperate to win back his ex, billionaire playboy Jeb Whitcomb spent a year in self-discipline and (mostly) celibacy. He’s a new man. But when she decides to marry someone else, Jeb immediately sets sail. He has only four days to stop the wedding and, worse still, he has a stowaway…the only woman who can make a newly good man behave very, very badly!

R.N. Haley French is furious. For one night, she lets go of her usual boring routine, and the next she knows she’s accidentally off to Florida with Mr. Sexy Superficiality, and desperately trying to forget the steamy encounter they almost shared.

And in the boat, there’s no escape from each other…or the unfurling lust that threatens to send their self-control overboard!

 
This is one of those stories that is rooted in a situation that is pretty serious yet manages to have so many opportunities for comedy.  It’s always a good thing when a man with too much money and too much time on his hands and too many willing women at his disposal decides to live responsibly and turn his life around, all for the love of a good woman.  However, in this case, the woman in question is marrying another man.  As an old time radio personality was known to comment:  “What a revoltin’ development this is!”
This story embraces a series of mishaps that puts the two main characters on a sailing vessel bound for Florida in the hopes that hero Jed can stop the wedding of the woman who precipitated his attitude and life changes.  But there is one really difficult issue playing out here:  the woman in question has consistently made it clear that she is not really interested in Jed.  Her final ploy at getting him out of her sphere was to give him big-time hell over his playboy lifestyle and her absolute refusal to get involved with any man who treated women as he did.  The other big issue in this story is his relentless and growing attraction to the other passenger on his sailing ship–a nurse with whom he has collided romantically, who gets his motor going seriously, and a woman whose sense of right and wrong keeps challenging him in ways he has resisted in the past.
I loved this story–the seeming impossibility of the relationship Jed was chasing with that sense of panic throughout the story, the intrepid Haley who kept reminding him of so  much about himself that he wanted to ignore, reminding him of so much about this relationship he was chasing he didn’t want to hear, and the sense of both of them hurtling toward a future that may or may not keep them together or be the source of deep emotional hurt.  It’s a fun read in the truest sense of the word by an author who keeps on giving us stories we enjoy in that way that deeply satisfying and likable stories do.  I think you’ll want to read and enjoy this one!

I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

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


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Guest Review: A Cowboy for Christmas by Lori Wilde

Posted October 30, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Tracy’s review of A Cowboy for Christmas (Jubilee, Texas series #3) by Lori Wilde

It’s Christmastime in Jubilee, Texas, but Lissette Moncrief is having a hard time celebrating . . .

Especially after she accidentally smashes her car into Rafferty Jones’s pick-up truck. Yes, he’s a whole lot of handsome—from the tips of his boots to the top of his Stetson. But he’s no Christmas present. Lissy’s not about to let herself get whisked away by his charming ways and words . . . only to watch him drive away in the end.

But what Lissy doesn’t know is Rafferty’s in town just to meet her—and to give her a share in a windfall that doesn’t rightly belong to him. At first, he just wants to do his good deed and get out. But one look at this green-eyed beauty has him deciding to turn this into a Christmas to remember . . . making promises he’s determined to keep—whether she believes in them or not.

Lissette is headed for a breakdown. Her soldier husband was killed in action 3 months ago and she’s just been told that her 2 year old son is, for the most part, deaf. She finally loses it a bit in the grocery store and when she’s in the parking lot ends up plowing into another truck. The man is kind and understanding and even tries to comfort her when she starts crying. When Lissy opens the door to her house a little bit later she’s shocked to see that the man who she crashed into is standing on her porch.

Rafferty Jones is Lissy’s dead husband’s half-brother. Lissy’s husband left his life insurance to Rafferty rather than his wife and since he died in Afghanistan doing something against orders Lissy received no survivor benefits. Rafferty, having just found out that he brother is dead drove to Texas from California to give Lissy the money as he feels she should have it. Lissy refuses the money (why, I’m still unclear about) but allows Rafferty to stay in the apartment of her garage. He ends up staying to train her late husband’s horse but he really stays because he’s sweet on Lissy. He knows he shouldn’t be but he can’t seem to help himself.

Lissy and Rafferty get along well, when she finally gives him a chance, and Lissy finds herself falling for Rafferty. She feels a bit guilty as she thinks she should be mourning her husband longer – even though their marriage was over long before his last re-enlistment. The guilt eats at both of them and they can’t be sure of what they’re feeling.

The story was a good one. I thought that Lissy, for all her troubles and financial woes, was a bit too proud. I think she should have taken the money –even if all she ever used it for was her son’s medical expenses. I did like that she wanted to be independent but there’s a point when you just can’t do it all yourself. I think she finally saw that by the end of the book.

Rafferty was a wonderful character. He was kind, understanding, trustworthy and well, hot. lol He really was trying to take care of Lissy but not in the smothering way that would make it seem like she didn’t have a brain in her head. For instance he was helping her set up a website. He took her ideas and did what she wanted – he was just the one with the html knowledge. He didn’t try to influence her or tell her that her ideas were wrong or bad as her husband would have. He was just that kind of guy.

There were also some issues with Lissy’ mother-in-law and Rafferty and the circumstances of his birth as well as conflict with Lissy’s family when it came to the “proper” way to have her deaf son learn communication. When it came to Lissy’s family I know this was added to show us how she was standing up for herself when she never had before but really I didn’t feel either issues was a core part of the story. I found them a bit superfluous.

In the end it was a good book. I didn’t read the first two books in the series but that presented no problems at all when reading this story. If you want a warm Christmas story then this one will probably work for you.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

The series:
Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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


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