Day / November 20, 2010

by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Boss’s Valentine by Lynne Graham

Format: E-bookthebosssvalentine
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Harlequin Presents
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Santino Aragone
Heroine: Poppy Hyacinth Bishop
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: February 15, 2008
Started On: November 19, 2010
Finished On: November 20, 2010

I stumbled upon this title whilst trolling for books on Goodreads. I have always been a fan of Lynne Graham as she is one of the authors who instilled in me the love for Harlequin romances, no matter how predictable most of them are. I have always loved heroes in Ms. Graham’s titles in the 90’s and always check out her new books to see whether she would deliver one of those angst-filled romances that used to be the highlight of my day back when I first started foraying into the world of Harlequin romances.

Santino Aragone, Italian and a hugely successful enterpreneur is the head of Aragone Systems where 21 year old Poppy Hyacinth Bishop lands her first job as a marketing assistant. Santino had been surprised when his late father had hired Poppy six months back against the advise of HR personnel just because he had felt sorry for her. Poppy with her explosive Titan corkscrew curls and her comical penchant for floral prints and insane diets with her shy and sunny smiles couldn’t be anymore different from Santino with his spectacular sleek Italian looks and never ending string of gorgeous women in his life. However that doesn’t stop the enthusiastic and bubbly Poppy from giving her heart to the one man she knows is far above her league and not even in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that Santino was even aware that she existed.

The Valentine’s day when it comes has never been a favorite time of celebration for Santino. And when he receives an outrageous Valentine’s day card with pink flowers on its cover with an elusive jasmine scent wafting from it, Santino knows that none other than Poppy could have sent it to him. A man who is used to being the one to bestow expensive gifts on his women is surprisingly touched deep inside his cynical heart by her loving gesture though Santino has no intention of following up on her gift because it has never been his style to mix business with pleasure.

But all these rigid rules come tumbling down when during a moment of weakness Santino finds himself at the receiving end of Poppy’s loving nature and before the night is through Santino has earth moving sex with a woman who has been saving herself for the right man to come along and sweep her off her feet.

A string of misunderstandings, mostly on Poppy’s part because she doesn’t feel deserving of Santino’s affections when her own parents found her rather lacking ends up in a period of separation during which Poppy finds out she is pregnant and gives birth to a beautiful baby daughter. When Santino comes across Poppy and his daughter, it is up to him to convince his beautiful blue eyed Poppy to give their relationship a chance as Santino knows deep inside that Poppy is his happily ever after.

Likes:

  1. I liked Santino Aragone. Of course who wouldn’t love a sleek good looking Italian who is not afraid to show his emotions unlike lots of heroes in Harlequin romances. I loved how a man who is so used to his black and white world suddenly finds himself arguing with his marketing manager on using pink of all colors in their sales charts and what not. Cracked me up a lot, this hero.
  2. Poppy. Her sunny nature makes it hard not to love her. I always love it when heroines bubbly and sunny in their nature manage to get under the skin of rigid multimillionaires or playboys who love their women fast and without external baggage along for the ride. I certainly felt for Poppy with her family issues when she had been growing up and rooted for her all the way.
  3. Thank God this didn’t turn out to be one of those romances where the heroine takes it into her mind to keep the consequences of their one night together to herself so that she can feel victimized in the end. I seriously do not like those kinds of romances because no matter what, the father deserves to know that he has fathered a child, unless of course he is of the serial killer/molester variety.
  4. Loved the humorous style of this story. Reminded me of my favorite Graham book, The Spanish Groom which cracks me up whenever I think about it.

Dislikes: None.

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of Lynne Graham.
  2. Fans of Harlequin romances.

Purchase Links: Amazon 

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Beg Me by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-bookbegme
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Drake Bennett
Heroine: Tania Sinclair
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: November 19, 2010
Started On: November 19, 2010
Finished On: November 20, 2010

Ever since Ms. Walker announced on Twitter that she had an upcoming contemporary erotic romance release titled “Beg Me” and that she was going to release it on Smashwords, I have been on tenterhooks so to say, awaiting eagerly for its release. One reason being that I love books by Ms. Walker as her titles ALWAYS deliver what they promise and also because regardless of the fact that I love all sorts of romances, contemporary romance is the genre I prefer above everything else. And so onto my review I go, of this very different title by Ms. Walker, which I couldn’t put down since I loaded it onto my Kindle around 2 hours back.

Tania Sinclair is a woman who is haunted by the death of her husband Kyle Sinclair, and 3 years on what devastates her more than anything else is the fact that Kyle’s identical twin brother Kent had ruined all of the good memories that she had stocked up on her beloved husband who had embraced the rough and kinky side of her that craves for the not your usual type of sex, but rather role playing of a bit more kinkier variety. It doesn’t help matters when her ex-mother-in-law Gail Sinclair blames her for the deaths of not one but two of her sons, something Tania would much rather prefer feeling than the emptiness that she had been living with since that fateful night two years back.

Sick and tired of being unable to enjoy what she wants to enjoy, Tania turns to the one man who she knows she can trust enough to deliver on all counts. Drake Bennett, Kyle’s best friend since childhood, someone who had come to mean a lot to Tania as well all through the years. Though Kyle nor Tania has a clue, Drake had fallen in love with his best friend’s girl when they had just been dating and Drake knows that his heart and soul would belong to Tania though he knows that she is far from getting over that nightmarish night that had put those deep shadows in her eyes.

When Tania proposes that Drake ease her back into the world of sensual delights and give her back the one thing that she craves more than anything else, Drake who can never  say no to the woman he loves gives in, knowing that if all Tania wants from him is just sex of the rough and kinky variety that she sometimes craves, his heart would just break into pieces when he would have to walk away from it all. But as Tania learns from Drake’s first touch itself, the feelings that he invokes even with a graze of his fingers on her skin creates total havoc on her senses and the answering need that she sees deep within Drake’s eyes acts as the most soothing healing balm of all on her tattered heart and soul.

As the title itself is testament enough, this story contains material that would prove offensive to certain readers. Role playing which includes playing out of rape fantasies take place within this story and so if you are the type of person who does not like such content in your erotica then this book is not for you.

Apart from this book being one of the most different books that I have read to date, I liked the “forbidden love” aspect of the story as in Drake loving and lusting after the wife of his best friend, but being honorable enough never to cross that line when Kyle had been around. And even when the playing field had evened out, Drake had bided his time until Tania had been the one to approach him and initiate things to take their platonic relationship to the next level. I absolutely loved Drake as the hero because even with all the intensely wicked role playing that was going on, he still managed to show his tenderness and love for Tania through his actions. The way Drake breaks down during the last couple of scenes just damn near broke my heart, and made me love him even more in the end.Though I enjoyed reading this highly unusual romance, I do wish that Ms. Walker had included some scenes of “normal” or rather tender love scenes between Drake and Tania that would have balanced out the story in the end.

I would recommend this for readers who can withstand their erotica with more than the usual rough and kinky sex, and for those who are fans of Ms. Walker’s contemporary erotic romances.

Kudos to Ms. Walker for pulling it off with a story such as this one, and I can’t help but wish for more contemporaries from her, which I keep bugging her about now and then on Twitter.

Favorite Quotes

“Can you make it so I can’t remember?”
His throat went tight, He could barely manage to breathe. Slipping out of his booth, he moved to sit next to her. She leaned against him with a sigh. “No, baby. I can’t. I would if I could, though. I’d take it all away if I could.”
She sniffled. Then she sighed and reached down, touching his inner forearm, tracing a fingernail over the skin there, along the lines of his tattoo. The stylized S. “You would, wouldn’t you, Superman?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her brow. “I’d undo the past three years for you if I could figure out a way.”
“How about you just keep holding me for a little while instead?”
“Yeah.” He breathed in the scent of her hair, felt the crack in his heart widen. “I can do that.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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