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from our B+ review

Anamaría Novaro is anchored down in Key West, Florida, but she’s not really happy about it, feeling like she’s stuck between her pushy mom and her regrets she harbors for the life she could’ve led. She had plans to travel the world beside her former boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Alejandro – Ale – Miranda, but he decided to leave without her to go exploring when she decided to stay home in the wake of her father’s heart attack. Anamaría eventually became a fitness instructor with a.booming business, AM Fitness.

Alejandro loved Anamaría, but he really felt like he had to go – the act was a rebellion against the smothering atmosphere of his family home and his autocratic father’s behavior. Yet he felt betrayed by Anamaría’s choice to stay in Key West instead of following him to Spain as they’d agreed. His family still expects him to come home and take […]

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from our B review

Lately I’ve had great luck with anthologies and novellas, so I approached Dressed to Kiss hopeful to discover promising new-to-me authors (Robens and Frampton), and confident I would enjoy stories from old favorites (Hunter and Linden).  With thoughts of Loretta Chase’s delightful Dressmaker series in mind, I started reading Dressed to Kiss optimistic these four stories would be romantic, entertaining and informative (dressmaking is an enigma to me; I break out in hives just contemplating a sewing project).  Unfortunately, though all the stories met the aforementioned criteria, none of them stood out as particularly memorable.  Dressed to Kiss is solidly average, with a too-brief glimpse of greatness at the very end (from Ms. Linden).

In a prologue, we’re introduced to Sophie-Louise Follete, owner of Madame Follette’s, a dressmaking shop to the ton, and her children, Felicity and Henry Dawkins.  But times and fashions are changing, and the business is steadily losing customers […]

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from our B review

As the creator of Derek Craven, Lord Alex Raiford, and Jack Devlin, Ms. Kleypas has set the bar impossibly high, something she must feel acutely with each new book. But, clearly, the well is far from running dry. Because in direct contrast to the delicious younger man in last year’s Suddenly You, Lisa Kleypas now offers burning, smoldering proof that 40 really is fabulous. Ladies, prepare to meet Sir Ross Cannon, intrepid head of the Bow Street Runners.

Maybe the key is in the small, personal details. Sir Ross is a bit thin because he often just can’t find the time to eat. He is a devoted son to his flighty society mother. He is so dedicated to his position that he will even chase a criminal over rooftops – to truth, justice, and the English way. He keeps unflattering caricatures of himself on his bedroom wall. He is a cranky patient […]

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From our DIK review:

Daniel Cumberland and Janeta Sanchez could not have joined the Loyal League for more different reasons. Born free and then sold into slavery, Daniel uses the League to provide structure for vengeance against, in particular, the Sons of the Confederacy organization. By contrast, Janeta – whose Cuban plantation owner father freed her enslaved mother and then married her – is there to spy on the spies, hoping to gain information that will buy her father’s freedom from Union prison. This story is honest, raw, and dark, and while the romance isn’t as strong as I’d have liked, I still recommend An Unconditional Freedom as a deeply affecting read.

The strongest aspect of this story by far is the intersection of history and character. Daniel was kidnapped out of his life as a trainee-attorney Northern freeman to be sold into slavery. Daniel is a protector, and the author […]

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From our DIK review:

Our heroine is Anna Roux, a professional ballet dancer who is originally from France, but moves to the United States with her husband. She’s been forced to take some time away from the stage due to an injury, and she’s not coping well with the down time. Her husband works long hours, and Anna finds herself alone quite a bit of the time. At first, she doesn’t mind so much, but as time passes and she begins to feel ever more disconnected from her former life, she begins to spiral into a state of deep depression.

As a dancer, Anna is no stranger to watching her weight, but it quickly becomes an obsession she’s unable to beat. When our story opens, Anna weighs only eighty-eight pounds, and her doctors tell her she’ll die if she doesn’t seek help. Anna isn’t really all that interested in changing her relationship […]

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From our B- review:

Dr. Morgan Adler, a paleoanthropologist working in the Djibouti desert, has discovered a set of bones as old as Lucy. Unfortunately this attracts attention of the wrong kind, from an Ethiopian warlord called Etefu Desta. Morgan drives with some of the bones for the nearest US military base. As the daughter of a general, she’s not intimidated by soldiers.

But she hasn’t met one quite like Master Sergeant Pax Blanchard. He flags her down and saves her from a car bomb – literally throwing her over his shoulder and running for both of their lives, while she screams at him because the explosion destroys the bones. After that, it’s a matter of escaping from various threats together, dealing with the military, deciphering Desta’s purpose (despite the blurb, he’s actually not after the hominid’s bones or Morgan’s bod), and, of course, having lots and lots of sex.

I loved the […]

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From our B review:

It opens with a disastrous wedding night.

Helena lay there, trying to think of England, but when it hurt, she yelped in pain. Nicholas pulled out and ran as though chased by the hounds of hell. Since then, he’s pretended she doesn’t exist. Helena, however, wants a real marriage and another go between the marital sheets, so, wearing a wig and the trappings of a lady of the night, she tracks her husband down at his favorite house of carnal delights.

She finds him watching an adventurous threesome. Nicholas has been in sexual hell since his marriage. All he can think about is pounding into his genteel wife but is convinced that’s a bad and inappropriate idea given her delicate sensibilities. He believes she wants nothing to do with him. He’s coped by masturbating endlessly while fantasizing his virtuous wife but it’s not enough. He’d come to the Nunnery […]

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From our DIK review:

As the book opens, Elisa Perez and her sisters are preparing to leave Cuba with their family. It is 1959, and none of them realizes the length of the exile that lies ahead. From this prologue, we shift to the current decade and encounter Elisa’s granddaughter Marisol Ferrera, a journalist preparing to visit Cuba as travel restrictions have been relaxed. Not only does Marisol intend to go to Cuba to write, but she also carries the ashes of her recently deceased grandmother and has been charged with finding the right place to scatter them. While in Cuba, Marisol will be staying with her grandmother’s childhood best friend and Marisol hopes that as she explores Havana, the right resting spot will present itself.

Once Marisol arrives in Cuba, the story switches back and forth between her and Elisa. We see Marisol coming face to face with the realities of […]

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From our B+ review:

Kiem, Prince Royal of Iskat, has been asked to marry Count Jainen, the Thean representative to the federated empire ruled by Iskat. Jainen was recently widowed when his husband’s spacecraft crashed. Kiem agrees to consider the idea but is shocked at the rush.

Every few years, Iskat has to prove to the Resolution that they have control over their sector of the galaxy. If the Resolution Auditor decides Iskat does not, Iskat and the planets it oversees will lose the benefit of Resolution protection and access to the link networks throughout the galaxy, without which Iskat and its vassal planets will be left on their own in a hostile space. The primary way Iskat provides proof of those strong relationships is by uniting a member of Iskat royalty with representatives from the planets. Iskat cannot afford for the Resolution to question the bonds, so Kiem has to marry […]

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From our DIK review:

If you’re new to the series, The Wicked One begins where The Defiant One’s cliffhanger left off: American agent Eva de la Mouriere has broken into Lucien’s bedroom to find a potent aphrodisiac. Since he’s swapped potions before, she pulls a gun and orders him to test the aphrodisiac on himself. He smiles, closes the door, and removes his coat. The foreplay ends with Eva disappearing into the night, a wounded Lucien roaring after her. (Yes, it’s over the top to have him stitch up his own leg. No, I don’t care.)

Lucien’s hobby is manipulating his brothers for their own good, and now it’s his sister’s turn. Impatient with their vague promises, Lucien ships Nerissa’s sweetheart off to Spain on the theory that absence will make the heart grow fonder. The scheme goes wrong when the ship goes down. Only someone with French connections […]