The Abduction of Julia by Karen Hawkins

Maybe I'm just feeling impatient today. I tossed aside several books before I settled on this one and I really can't focus on it so I keep putting it down to do something else. I've read about a third of it and I reckon that's enough. I just feel like I've read it before. Not literally, but more figuratively. There's nothing special about the story. The characters are all suitably likeable, although the heroine is of the sickly sweet do-gooder variety that makes you want to throw up with her overwhelming concern for others. The villians are also suitablly villanous with their evil machinations. It seems an okay story, but there are so much better ones out there.

The Husband Trap: A Novel by Tracy Anne Warren

The book begins with the heroine pretending to be her sister and marrying the man she loves. The story shows how they grow to love each other and keeps the angst and drama going with him calling her by her sister's name in moments of passion and her worrying over him discovering the ruse. The plot's been done before, but this is a really great version of it. The heroine is smart, has a sense of humor, has empathy for those around her, and put's others first. She also grows in the story to know herself better and grow out of the shell she surrounded herself with because of the psychological abuse of her family(they're all really critical of her).

I love stories about mousy or quiet heroine who get the guy and this story delivers. It seems like its been awhile since I'[ve read a story and wondered if the hero was worthy of the heroine. Lately it seems to be the other way around with these wonderful hero and self-centered, conceited, stubbon, and annoying heroines. He actually has to prove himself worthy of her since he's the one who didn't even know what twin he married.

If you liked Lisa Kleypas' Devil in Winter, you will like this too.

His Wicked Kiss: A Novel by Gaelen Foley

This is the frst book I've read by Gaelen Foley, but it won't be the last. I really liked the idea of the heroine living in ths exotic locale, very isolated and dreaming of going to England. It seems like a lot of stories with heroines from exotic locales end up with really strident and arrogant who are certain their way is the best and only way and that they need to change the society they enter to make a place for themselves. I hate those books and sort of don't read any romances with heroines from India because of it. They just annoy me. I liked that this heroine adapted well to her new circumstances. I do get what other complain about with the witholding sex thing and the contrived circumstances to set everything up and the story does lose steam once they get to Ireland, but I still really enjoyed it and would totally recommend it to others.

The Naked Baron by Sally MacKenzie

Basic Plot: Grace and the Baron see each other across a crowded dance floor and he decides he wants to marry her, but her father was once jilted by the Baron's mother and he hates the family and even influenced her aunt Kate to marry a much older man to keep her from marrying the Baron's Uncle Alex. Alex has always loved Kate and they sleep together and she gets pregnant and they have their love story. It's pretty straight-forward. Grace's father tries to force her to marry the man he chooses for her and drags her away from the Baron and she has to decide if she loves the Baron enough to disappoint her father.

I'm not sure I get why some of the other's were less than fond of this. Yes, the love stories are a bit superficial. For example, both the older and younger sets of lovers had only met a few times before deciding to love each other. In fact, for the Baron and Grace, he experienced love/lust at first sight. I didn't really ind it since none of the characters were particularly strident, amoral, or annoying. No, there isn't much drama involved in this story and that's one of my favorite things about the story. I also liked that the heroine is tall and statuesque instead of being either tall and slim, short and slim, or short and curvy. I can't think of any other similarly built romance heroines. I think Coulter had one years ago. I kinda liked that the Baron (his name is escaping me) liked her large breast since so many romances are about making women with smaller breasts feel better. 2 of my sisters have pretty huge chests and I bet they would definitely identify more with Grace than the typical skinny or hourglass heroines.

So in the end, this book is sort of middle of the road since it does nothing badly and also nothing well. It's proficient, but since it isn't offensive and didn't make me want to throw it across the room, I gave it 4 stars.

Sexy As Hell (Berkley Sensation) by Susan Johnson

Just FYI/Spoiler. Ther heroine is typical Susan Johnson, a bit strident and anooying, but mostly good. The realy problem with the story is the hero. He is really young at 22 and maybe that's the excuse for his behavoir. He leave his wife and goes back to his mistress and then gets rid of the mistress and spends a night with his wife then goes back to cheating on her with other women. Yes he sometimes calls the other women by his wife's name, but since the reason for him leaving is never really explains more than being commitment-phobic. He's also an alcoholic who never stops drinking something for every meal. I mean, alcoholism is a serious problem that causes lots of health problems. Also, he never feels guilt that he cheats on his wife or remorse even though she admits it bothers her that he did it. Also he says he loves her at the end of the story, but actions speak louder than words and his actions do not show love and even his wife doesn't think he means it when he says he loves her, but she feels he will mean it "with time". Yeah, it's a bit of a frustrating story so I'd stay away from it if I were you. Oh, and the end is really quick. It goes from him having dinner with a woman he's also sleeping with who runs a house of prostitution and within a few pages he has a complete turnaround because his wife is pregnant and suddenly he wants to be involved. There's no explanation given or closure. He just decided he wants her back after ignoring her and drinking all his meals and sleeping with innumerable women and he comes back and says he loves her and that's the end of it and the story is other. Literally the wrap up is like 5 pages.

At the Duke's Pleasure by Tracy Anne Warren

I'll admit that I liked the drama and angst of Claire. Yes, she did come across as a bit immature and crazy, but I give her a pass since she's a fictional character in a romance novel and they're kinda funny when they're crazy. Ned was a great hero, strong and determined and puts up with a lot from the heroine so you could see them together and happy for a long time. he can take a lot and since her excuse for the craziness is unrequited love, then I guess the craziness ends when she's finally certain her loves her. I was really expecting the heroine to have some deep dark secret of some reason other than unrequited love for not wanting to marry, but nope, that's what it was. The ending of the book is a bit absurd, but that whole spy subplot is a minor part of the story.

Blaze of Memory (Psy-Changelings, Book 7) by Nalini Singh

So everyone else has explained the plot really well. We have Dev and Katya with Katya brainwashed to kill Dev at some point. We never do find out what her trigger was for her attempt to assisinate him since that scene is from his perspective. While some people have complained about the discrepancy between Dev's strength and Katya's wilingness to follow him, I liked that about the book. There wasn't a lot of angsty drama with her doing her own thing no matter what. I get so tired of that in books where the author seems to just add the drama that the story lacks. I liked both Katya and Dev as characters, they were really sympathetic and(SPOILER) yes I cried at the end when they were happy anf during the scenes where she says goodbye before she thinks she will die. I don't usually go for melodrama, but in this book it worked for me.