Tag: Year of the Category Challenge

Year of the Category Challenge Review: Home for the Holidays by Sarah Mayberry

Posted December 30, 2009 by Tracy in Discussions | 8 Comments

Joe Lawson has a thing for his new neighbor Hannah Napier. As a single dad, he shouldn’t be thinking what he is about her. Still, that doesn’t stop them from getting close. And the way she connects with his kids, it’s as if they’re a family.

Turns out it’s too good to be true. Seems Hannah has plans that don’t include staying in Melbourne. Joe won’t stand between her and her dreams, even though letting her go is nearly impossible. The holidays are looking grim, with him and his kids missing Hannah like crazy. But it is the season of surprises, and Hannah may have one for them!
Joe Lawson and his kids move into a new home in Melbourne. He’s moved his family from Sydney so that he could be closer to his mother so that she can help him with the kids. It’s been 2 years since his wife died and he’s still trying to figure things out. The first night in his new home he has an altercation with his next door neighbor, Hannah Napier. She’s working on her motorcycle’s muffler and apparently making way too much noise. When Joe confronts her, as mad as he is, he can’t help being attracted to the beauty that is Hannah.

Despite an incredibly rough beginning Hannah and Joe start to become friends. His 10 year old daughter, Ruby, has become Hannah’s garage assistant every day after work is done and Joe can’t help but admire the way Hannah handles the girl. Hannah also has a hand in “helping” Joe’s son and this brings them a bit closer together.

Things start to heat up between Hannah and Joe but they realize that things aren’t going anywhere. Hannah’s figured out that Joe might not be completely healed from his wife’s death and Joe knows that Hannah is leaving on a motorcycle trip around Australia that will have her gone for months. However, even though they both know that it just wouldn’t work they can’t help but have feelings for the other person. The sexual tension is wonderful in this story and I love that.

I don’t want to delve too much into the details of this book because there are many twists and turns in it that are unexpected – I don’t want to give anything away. I do want to say though that the book is definitely worth reading.

When I first started the book and saw Hannah and Joe arguing I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out and I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue reading. Joe just seemed like such a meany but I kept going; I’m so glad I did. The dialogue, banter, love and friendship that is in the book makes it one of my favorite category reads this year.

Hannah and Joe were just so good together – not only in a romantic relationship, but as friends as well. Hannah was hurting from a previous relationship gone very, very bad but Joe made her see what a worthy person she was. She was able to come to terms with what had happened in the past and move on. For Joe’s part he was able to deal with his attraction for Hannah and the feelings of guilt it brought while thinking of his deceased wife. I also very much enjoyed watching both Joe and Hannah deal with Joe’s children. I can’t imagine it would be easy to step into a relationship with a widower and have to deal with his kids thinking you’re trying to take their mom’s place.

Near the end of the book there was a tragic issue with Hannah. Although I didn’t particularly care for the way that Hannah dealt with it, I believed it was definitely in character for her. (FYI – this part of the book made me cry so just be prepared.)

Just a fun yet emotionally charged holiday read and one I’d definitely recommend.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

This is my last YOTC review for the year. I have probably read more category romances this year than ever before. If Kmont were to run this challenge again I don’t know that I’d join, but I’ll probably keep up the category reading just for fun. 🙂 Thanks, Kmont, for a great year!

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Year of the Category Challenge Twofer: The Spanish Groom by Lynne Graham and Blackmailed Into Marriage by Lucy Monroe

Posted November 27, 2009 by Tracy in Discussions | 11 Comments

This month, just for you, it’s a Category Challenge Twofer. That’s right I read not 1 but 2 category books for review. Why, you may ask, would you do something like that? Well, let me just tell you how it came to be.

Last month I read and reviewed Lynne Graham’s The Italian’s Inexperienced Mistress and didn’t particularly care for it. In the comments of that review Tumperkin wrote these words:

I can’t disagree with one word of your review. Lynne Graham is one of my guilty pleasure authors but she hasn’t written a book in 4 or 5 years that has been good *sigh*. It makes me sad when I think of what she used to produce. If you can bear to spend a few cents at Amazon, I’d defy you to read Prisoner of Passion or the Spanish Groom and not thoroughly enjoy them.

Folks – she used the word DEFY! How can I ignore that for any length of time? I couldn’t – I had to go out, get the book and read it. Part of me was thinking that I really was not going to like this book but I was wrong.

It all started with a ring…

Cesar Valverde was the man with everything–stunning good looks, wealth and a bachelor lifestyle. But Cesar knew it would please his ailing godfather more than anything if he got married, preferably to Dixie Robinson. Well, perhaps a temporary engagement to Dixie would be enough to please Cesar’s godfather.

And ended in marriage…

But Cesar discovered Dixie was a beautiful, sensual virgin, and he couldn’t help but make love to her. Cesar’s bachelor days were over! Within a week, he was standing at the altar, and Dixie was his bride–though unbeknown to Cesar, she was now also the mother of his child!

Dixie Robinson works at a bank owned by Cesar Valverde. She got the jobthrough a friend of hers who happens to be Cesar’s godfather, Jasper, and the man that has raised Cesar since he was 12. She’s really an inept worker and can’t seem to do anyhing right but make coffee and fetch things – but everyone loves her to death…except Cesar.

She had not one single trait which didn’t grate on her cool, sophisticated employer.

and this, one of my favorites:

‘But then that’s because you’re a lazy, disorganized lump, who contrives to hide behind the front of being a brick short of the full load! Only around me you won’t get away with that kind of nonsense!’

Dixie has financial issues because of her step-sister and is currently in debt. Cesar finds out because they do random credit scans at the bank and being in debt is grounds for dismissal. Cesar is more or less overjoyed that he gets to fire Dixie and get rid of her once and for all. But Cesar then finds out that Jasper’s health is failing and Cesar wants to make Jasper’s last days happy ones. So he concocts a plan to pretend to be engaged to Dixie (yes, the same woman that annoys the hell out of him).

While Dixie is resistant to Cesar’s offer at first, she soon figures out that it’s prison (for her debts) or Cesar. Cesar appears to be the lesser of the two evils. Or is he? His plan to make Dixie into someone that he feels is an appropriate fiance for one such as himself – a slim line Dixie Mark Two. lol

Dixie finally agrees – seeing no other options and goes with Cesar to his home – where she is promptly put into the servants quarters. Cesar arranges to have new clothes, new hair and make-up, diet and a fitness trainer to come and “help” Dixie. This is where Cesar starts seeing the real Dixie. She puts on the exercise clothes that were purchased for her and Cesar sees that she doesn’t need to diet and exercise at all he loves her body the way she is. Not only that but despite the crappy situations she keeps her humor about her and makes him laugh.

The couple finally flies to Spain to be with Jasper but find that Jasper isn’t as sick as was made out. Yes, he has heart issues but with the insertion of a pacemaker he should be fine. Jasper is elated with the engagement and makes Dixie and Cesar get married for real – before his operation – because he wants to be in attendance.

I could go on with more of the story but that would take forever. There were so many little things about this book that captured my attention. At first it was just Cesar and what an arrogant man he was and so frigging demeaning to Dixie! I mean some of the things he said to her were awful and would have had me in tears – and I’m a person that can give as good as I get. But as the story went on we watched as Cesar started seeing the other sides of Dixie that he hadn’t known about and getting to like her.

This brings up my major beef with the book and that is the fact that even though the book was technically 3rd person pov we got very little from anyone else besides Dixie. We got a line or two here and there from other characters but as I said, very little. I wanted to see some stuff from Cesar. You could tell that he was coming to admire her, and possibly love her, but we were left guessing by his actions. Drove me a little bonkers.

For Dixie’s part she was stuck in the rut of seeing the nice/kind/sensual things that Cesar did but not taking them seriously. She was of the mindset that to Cesar this was strictly pretend and that everything he did was for show. But whether she realized it or not Cesar was redeeming himself in small ways in what I came to realize was the only way he knew how. He wasn’t someone who was good at communication but he was doing the best he could. For all of Dixie’s thickheadedness she just couldn’t see that he was trying to redeem himself. I saw it and I loved it. Especially when he finds out that she’s pregant with his child.

In the end Tumperkin was correct. She said I would thoroughly enjoy this book and she nailed it on the head.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5


Then Orannia, on the same Lynne Graham review last month, left this in the comments:

Tracy, if I sent you a contemporary HP (I think it’s an HP) I love would you be interested in reading it? and later: I love this book to pieces!

When I couldn’t decide whether to read Tump’s suggestion or the book, Blackmailed into Marriage by Lucy Monroe, that Orannia sent me I decided to read both and that’s how this twofer thing came to be. I know – long ass post. Just deal with it.

Lia had turned her back on her rich aristocratic family. But now she needs their help to save her daughter. Their response – to sell her off to the highest bidder. Damian Marquez prizes Lia’s blue blood – he was stripped of his own title at birth. Lia is the perfect brood-mare, who can provide him with an heir – and a spare!

But, as the wedding night looms, Lia knows the truth will out – because Damian doesn’t know she can’t be his in the marriage bed…

When Lia was 15 her father died. Her grandfather, a wealthy Spanish businessman, cajoled Lia’s mother into moving from the States to Spain where Lia’s life was taken over and controlled. When she was 18 she eloped with Toby, a boy that she had known in the US and stayed in touch with.

When the story begins Lia is now 24, her husband is dead and she has a small daughter, who I think is about 5, who needs heart surgery that Lia cannot afford. She has brought her daughter back to Spain to try and get the money from her grandfather. When he finally will sit down and talk with her he tells her that he will only give her the money that she requires if she will marry his business associate, Damien Marquez.

Lia has not only met Damien but has already had some pretty heated kisses with him. She doesn’t want to marry him but she promises to because she will do anything to get her daughter what she needs. She also knows that once Damien finds out her secret – the fact that she can’t have sex – he will dissolve the marriage. She’ll get the money for keeping her promise, her daughter will get the operation and Lia won’t have to be married anymore. Yeah, things don’t always work out as planned, especially when they involve Damien Marquez.

Damien is determined to make the marriage work. He is so physically attracted to Lia he can’t stand it, but he also gets attached to her daughter and finds what he’s been looking for his whole life – a sense of family. You see Damien is the illegitimate son of a very wealthy man. He is the oldest but since he was illigitimate he didn’t inherit a thing from his father’s estate and neither side of his family acknowledges him at all. So when Damien is told by Lia, on their wedding night that she can’t have sex he doesn’t accept it lightly. He forces her to tell him exactly what the issue is so that they can deal with it together.

Lia has what is called Vaginismus. It’s the contracting of the vaginal walls to the point that it’s completely closed off and makes intercourse impossible. Lia and her previous husband were very young when they got married and they weren’t equipped to deal with the issue. Lia had gone to the doctor but was told that it was all psychological and if she just had a glass of wine and relaxed before sex it would all work out. Since that never seemed to do the trick her husband was not understanding and made her feel like less of a person because of it. She allowed the issue to be forced and conceived her daughter, which she loved with all her heart, but wasn’t willing for that to happen again. Damien made Lia realize that even if they could never have children because of the lack of penetration there were many, many other ways of being intimate with each other. He proceeds to show her those ways, along with the patience of a thousand saints. He also discovers that there could be a way to fix the problem.

At first I thought that Damien was going to be an uncaring man who was only interested in sex and he didn’t care if Lia thought she couldn’t have it or not. But he turned out to be a kind, thoughtful, understanding man who showed his love in many different ways, even if he didn’t realize that’s what he was doing. He hadn’t grown up with love so doubted its existence. When Lia finally accepted that she loved him she was hesitant at first to tell him, but she finally did and said it over and over . Damien didn’t think she was sincere – he felt it was more gratitude for his financial support and the consideration he has shown to her daughter that was behind her feelings. But soon Lia made him believe and it was wonderful to see. He was definitely a man who deserved love.

As much as I liked Lia in this book I thought that Damien made the story. If it wasn’t for him I’m not sure I would have liked the book quite as much as I did…I read it all in one sitting and quite quickly as I couldn’t manage to put it down (good thing the kids were already in bed).

Rating: 4 out of 5

Thank you to Tumperkin and Orannia for their wonderful book suggestions. I only have 1 more month in the challenge so now have to figure out how to end it with a bang.

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Year of the Category Challenge Review: The Italian’s Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham

Posted October 27, 2009 by Tracy in Discussions | 14 Comments

When Angelo Riccardi sought revenge Gwenna Hamilton added another, delicious dimension. Innocent and pretty, she had no chance when the Italian tycoon offered her the devil’s bargain: pay for her father’s freedom with her body.

In her naiveté, Gwenna thought that Angelo would tire of her and her innocence very quickly. But he had more in mind than just one night…

While on a visit to his crime boss grandfather’s deathbed Angelo finds out some information about a man who took horrible advantage of his mother when he was just a child. Angelo is told that this man dated his mother then took all of her money and then ran off. Angelo finds the man in order to seek revenge. He purchases the company that Hamilton works for. While doing an audit on the books the accountants find where Hamilton has been pilfering money from the company. He is going to jail.

Gwenna Hamilton loves her father dearly. He couldn’t possibly be as bad as everyone is saying. In a desperate attempt to save her father Gwenna goes to the company to see if Angelo will take all of the properties that her father owns to make repayment toward the money he took. Angelo is happy to take the properties but he wants something else as well: Gwenna. If she agrees to become his mistress then he will keep her father out of jail. Gwenn is an innocent virgin and can’t possibly understand why Angelo would want her, but to help her father she agrees, believing that Angelo will tire of her quickly.

I’m not even sure where to start with this one. Gwenna is the illegitimate daughter – she’s treated like Cinderella by her stepmother and step sisters – but is willing to do whatever she can to make her father’s life easier. She has a tiny plant nursery on the property that has been in her mother’s family for years. When Angelo takes the properties he also takes her home and her livelihood. But that doesn’t matter because he has her fixed up and made over and her dog taken to a doggie hotel. She’s not to contact her friends and he’s to be the only person she needs. She’s made to feel like an object and feels pretty cheap and sleazy. When she does go out he has her followed. Ug. I was just so disgusted with Angelo for most of the book. He’s an Italian millionaire and gets what he wants but he was such an ass. Yes, they show him realizing that he wants to be with her more and more but at the same time he’s still digging up shit on her dad.

Yes, Gwenna’s dad is a total sticky fingered ass. It’s all about the money and who he can pilfer from to benefit himself but when Angelo starts falling for Gwenna shouldn’t he have stopped that? IMHO he should have.

Gwenna was a pretty good character. She was very stubborn and tried to fight back but Angelo would always pull the “what about your father” card and she’d cave. I know she was in a tough spot but it just didn’t endear her to me. Especially when she found out what a louse her father was and she still stayed with Angelo. Have some self-respect, honey.

I can’t say I was a huge fan of the writing in this book either. It has some scene changing issues – as in it changed to the next scene but it was just in the next paragraph so you had no idea what was going on. It threw me off a time of two, I must say. Then the sex was…not non-existent, but was told in a way that you almost missed it. Like he took her in a closet and then they were grabbing for their clothes after they were done. Wait – did I miss something? lol

Overall I just didn’t love the book. I never care for forced mistress books but I won this one from Anna’s blog and it was there on my shelf so I thought I’d read it. Unfortunately I have to say that I can’t recommend this one.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Year of the Category Review: Her Best Friend’s Brother by Kay Stockham

Posted September 29, 2009 by Tracy in Discussions | 8 Comments

They had one night. That’s all Shelby Brookes would allow herself to indulge in with Luke Tulane. Yes, he’s gorgeous. And yes, he’s the greatest guy she knows, but he’s her best friend’s brother, for crying out loud! She’s pretty sure there are rules against sleeping with friends’ brothers.

Then Shelby discovers she’s pregnant. And Luke’s determined to do the right thing—down to the bended-knee proposal and the meeting at the altar. As tempting as his offer is, Shelby’s convinced she’s not the marrying kind. She’s bound to hurt him, and that’s definitely against the rules of friendship. Still, she doesn’t count on how persuasive Luke can be when he really wants something…her.

Yes, as the blurb said, Shelby finds out she’s preggo by Luke. She thought she could never get pregnant so she told him at the time that she had the birth control taken care of. Now in this day and age why a man wouldn’t use a condom anyway is beyond me, but I guess that’s just me. Anyway, when Luke finds out about the pregnancy he is ready to step up to the plate. He’s been more than half in love with Shelby for years and to him it’s the next logical step. Not to Shelby. She wants nothing from him – and I mean nothing. She basically says she doesn’t even want him in the baby’s life and he should just go about his business. He’s appalled and even threatens legal action if she tries to keep him from his child. Eventually Shelby gives in and marries Luke but she’s certainly not happy about it.

You see Shelby comes from a broken home. Her parents love each other but have married and divorced 5 times. There have been reasons for each break up and reunion but Shelby’s had to live through all the fights and everything else. When she finds out even more about her family history she’s set on believing that even though she’s marrying Luke it can’t possibly work and the only reason he wants her is to be with the baby.

Things are tough for both Shelby and Luke and when Shelby is in an car accident she crawls even farther into her own shell and tries to push everyone away.

This was a good book but I had serious problems liking Shelby. I’m the first person on earth to say that two people should not get married just because they’re pregnant but with Luke in love with Shelby I could kind of see things from his point of view. Shelby was just a bitch. Yes, she had issues with her mother, her father, their relationship, her own self-esteem issues and so much more but she was just mean to Luke. She said some horrible things to him and at times I wanted to crawl through the pages and give her a big ole slap!

I liked Luke a lot in this book and he was just a decent man who could see his own faults – and even some he saw but didn’t really have. He really stood by Shelby until he just couldn’t take it any longer…and man he took a lot. At times toward the end of the book I was thinking – run, Luke, run! But that wouldn’t have been a romance, now would it? lol

Despite the issues with Shelby I thought it was a pretty good book. I really like Kay Stockham’s work and will definitely be reading the next book in the series (that I think just came out).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Year of the Category Review: Amorous Liaisons by Sarah Mayberry

Posted August 27, 2009 by Tracy in Discussions | 10 Comments

Max Laurent has always wanted Maddy Green. But he let her go once before rather than stand between her and her dreams. Now she’s on his Paris doorstep, needing a place to stay. She’s just as hot and he wants her just as much. How can he resist seducing her?

When Maddy’s world falls apart, it’s only natural that she turns to Max for support. But fall into his bed? Never…until one steamy night, that is. And having had a taste of him, she’s hungry for more. Then she has the chance to resume her career, although it means leaving him. Can she throw away the best sex—and the best friend—she’s ever had?

Maddy is a prima ballerina. She has worked her way to the top and is on a road that she loves when a knee injury and the resulting surgery slow her down. Now the dance company’s doctor says that she’s done dancing and the owner of the company agrees and let’s her go. Maddy is extremely upset and is anxious to seek out one of her friends who can make her feel better. When she thinks of that person she thinks of ex-dancer Max who was always able to make her feel better. She hasn’t seen him in 8 years but what does that matter? She hops a plane from Sydney, Australia straight to Paris, France and hardly stops to pack a bag. When she knocks on Max’s door he’s more than a little shocked.

Max was also on his way to a fabulous dance career himself when he gave it all up to take care of his father who was ill. His father recently died and now he’s following another of his dreams – of being a sculptor. Way back when (10 years before) Max had been madly in love with Maddy. The pain of leaving her and getting over his feelings were horrible. Now Maddy’s on his doorstep and he’s realizing that he never really stopped loving Maddy, he just pushed his feelings down into himself where they didn’t hurt so much.
Maddy is not dealing with not being a ballerina so well. She’s having problems with her emotions which was completely understandable. She didn’t know what to do with herself or her life. She talks Max into letting her model for his sculptures when his regular model cancels even though she has to model in the nude. Max tries his best to act comfortable and not attack Maddy while she’s modeling but barely restrains himself. After the first session Max has to hit a cold shower immediately only that doesn’t do the trick. Maddy catches him in the shower jacking off and is suddenly seeing Max more in the “hot man” light rather than the “friend” light. Sexual relationship ensues.
I have to say that I really liked Max in this book. He was an upstanding guy who did what he needed to do when his father took ill. It wasn’t what he planned to do with his life but he did it and did it well and with love. Even with his sister, who has a child with Autism, he is there for her when she needs him. He’s very patient with Maddy. He more or less knows what she’s going through since he had to give up dance so many years before and tries to be there for her without coddling her.Maddy took some getting used to. She was very wrapped up in herself but I tried to see things from her point of view. She had lost the biggest thing in her life and didn’t know how to go on. But it seemed that she was set to go in one direction and then she’d change her mind and go another. After a bit I was rolling my eyes at her. I couldn’t quite say that I enjoyed her character until near the very end of the book.The story I wasn’t too much of a fan of. As much as I liked Max it was 2 adults who had no clue how to communicate with each other unless it was as friends or having sex. When it came to a loving relationship I’m not sure they knew what to say to each other. They couldn’t speak their feelings but yet at one point one couldn’t understand why the other didn’t know how they felt. It’s that whole, woman expects man to just know how she’s feeling. And yeah, as far as I know, that never really works out. Some men just have to be told. It was frustrating to read for me.
This was my first Mayberry book and though I wasn’t completely thrilled with the story itself I really enjoyed Mayberry’s writing. It was easy to read and I never felt like I wanted to put the book down or just move on to the next chapter. Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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