Day / March 7, 2011

by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: My One and Only by Kristan Higgins

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Nicholas Sebastian Lowery
Heroine: Harper Elizabeth James
Sensuality: 2.9
Date of Publication: March 29, 2011
Started On: March 7, 2011
Finished On: March 7, 2011

I have always heard very good things about Kristan Higgins. Though I have a couple of her books in my to-be-read pile which I have yet to make a dent in, which just keeps growing in monstrous proportions on me, I decided to take the plunge into her stories with this read that was up for grabs on Net Galley. I was surprised and a little bit thrilled when my request to read this which is to be released on the 29th of this month got approved. So here I go, reviewing a book that is yet to hit the markets, hoping that I do justice to what a swell and amazing read this turned out to be.

My One & Only is the story of kick-ass divorce attorney Harper Elizabeth James who lives in Martha’s Vineyard of Massachusetts. About to turn 34 years old, Harper is in the midst of proposing to her yummy and younger firefighter boyfriend of the past 2 and a half years when she receives the mother of bombshells from her stepsister Willa that she is getting hitched to Christopher Lowe, half-brother of Harper’s ex-husband Nick and that it is to happen in 2 weeks time.

Abandoned by her self-centered mother when she had been just 13 years old only to receive the shock of her life to come face to face with her father’s bombshell of an instant family, needless to say Harper suffers from severe abandonment issues which she has never really got over from.

It is on Harper’s 20th birthday that she meets her future husband Nick, the man who would own her heart for all time to come. Nick had reeled her in with his sophisticated nature, the way he could so easily see into her soul and because of his ability to cherish her and love her unlike anyone else had in her life. Skittish as Harper is, after being courted and wooed over a period of months, Harper finally takes the plunge and gets married to Nick amidst all her misgivings. It is right after they both say their I dos’ that things start going rapidly downhill.

Their divorce when it comes is a bitter one which leaves scars on both of Nick and Harper and had come after just 6 months of matrimony.Though it has been 13 years since they have laid eyes on one another, as they come together for a wedding which neither of them can avoid, old hurts and resentments flare up leaving them battered and raw after the onslaught.

It is during the road trip that these two embark upon that everything changes, bringing forth feelings Nick and Harper both harbor towards each other, feelings that they have both kept under lock and key for so long. Hurts and disappointments both have never healed from rage onto the surface, leaving them both with no other choice but to deal with them and let themselves heal after 13 long years.

My One and Only is such a beautifully done story of second chances, of the power of love and forgiveness and its ability to heal even the deepest of emotional wounds. With a rich caste of multi-dimensional secondary characters, my favorite being Harper’s stepmother BeverLee, I loved this story right from its beautiful glossy cover to each and every emotion that it pulled out of me as I read along. Thank God for the fact that today is a holiday over here and that I got in uninterrupted reading time because if not I would have done some serious harm to anyone who would have dared to interrupt my indulgence in the beautiful and soulful world that Kristan Higgins has created so evocatively in this one.

I laughed out loud so many times during the story, one of my favorites being the scene where Harper and Nick get the scare of their lives on the trails of the Glacier National Park in Montana. My heart bled the times I visited Harper and Nick’s past where they both had been so very much in love with one another, but things had not worked out as both of them had envisioned. And there came moments in which I rejoiced and cried happy tears because frankly put, Kristan Higgins pulls no punches in all the emotions that she so effectively pulls from the reader with her fabulous way with the words. Though stories told in the first person are not my favorite thing, I foresee Kristan Higgins joining the ranks of authors for whom I would make an exception because this story has definitely wormed its way into my heart and got its permanent residency application approved just as I sat down to write the review.

All in all, beautiful storytelling that each and every contemporary romance reader needs to indulge in. This one earns 5 big, fat stars from the sunny side of life and is recommended very highly to all contemporary romance lovers.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: River of Eden by Glenna McReynolds

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Bantam
Hero: William Sanchez Travers
Heroine: Annie Parrish
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: December 10, 2008
Started On: February 26, 2011
Finished On: March 7, 2011

Jungle-trek themed romances are one of my favorite tropes in the world of romance. I got off this recommendation from my friend Jill on Goodreads who was wonderful enough to give me a huge list of jungle-trek themed romances which we both seem to love. River of Eden is my first novel by Glenna McReynolds and according to FictionDB the last of her published books as well.

River of Eden takes us through the steamy jungles of the Amazon where fact and myth submerge, where evil lurks in every deep and dark shadow that the jungle and its surrounding river harbors. Dr. Annie Parrish aka Amazon Annie had been a world renown botanist until the unfortunate Woolly Monkey incident which had labeled her persona non grata. Originally from Wyoming, Annie had been chased out of Brazil after having being captured and tortured in a Brazil jail until Dr. Gabriela Oliveira had pulled all imaginable strings to rescue her.

Annie returns once again, this time to garner more samples of the incredible orchid that she had found on her last trip, before her run in with the evil Corisco Vargas who has his own evil plans to conquer the wild jungle and its riches for himself once and for all. Corisco has been waiting for Annie, the one who got away from his clutches the 1st time round.

To make the required trip upriver to Santa Maria, Annie hires Dr. William Sanchez Travers, a Harvard trained ethnobotanist, until 3 years ago William had forsaken academia and his fieldwork and disappeared into the Amazon rain forest. Six feet tall, rangy in build with wild sun-streaked hair and a face that had set more than one coed on the path of a botany degree, Will is rumored to have lost it all and become a drunken half of a man who ferries scientists like herself upriver to pass his days.

Every preconceived notion that Annie has of Will flies out the window as she begins to learn more about the complex man who reluctantly agrees to take her on his boat Sucuri without half-knowing the secrets that she holds very close to her soul. Annie who is skittish at best when it comes to men after her horrific up close and personal encounters with Corisco finds herself fascinated with how Will makes her lose sight of herself with their up close and personal encounters.

Annie doesn’t feature into any of Will’s plans, Will who has been biding his time in fulfilling his end of a deal that has bound him to the jungle and its people for the past 3 years. Annie tempts him beyond anything Will has encountered before and when his protective and possessive instincts flare to life around a woman who is a mass of contradictions herself, Will is helplessly drawn into plans fate has in store for them, a plan that lands them right into the center of execution of Corisco’s evil plans.

Though I found myself a little  bit impatient with the pace of the story at the beginning, things began to turn around once the trip aboard Sucuri took underway. Both Annie and Will’s characters are interesting ones, each carrying a whole lot of secrets with them, and each surrounded by the mystiques that cloak the Amazon and its tribes which lend an interesting facet to the story. Let me not forget the romance between Will and Annie, and how it drew me in as Will and Annie seduce more than just their surface emotions, but end up coming together as one and combining their lives together, once and for all.

All in all an entertaining read recommended for those who love a romance between two endearing people in the midst of a jungle adventure which gets its extra richness from the mystique surrounding the whole tale from beginning till end.

I leave you with a little spoiler, the scene which comes after the very erotic hammock smexing scene, where Will realizes that he has fallen completely for his Amazon Annie.

Amazon Annie.
Good God, he thought, a tired grin spreading across his face. They were a long way from a first-class hotel suite with hot towels, clean sheets, and room service, but she was reminding him of all the luxuries he’d been so long without, and of a luxury he’d never had.
Her, with her tough-girl reputation, her Israeli rifles, and the softest mouth he’d ever kissed. He hoped like hell she didn’t hate him in the morning when she realized what had happened, because he was afraid he’d fallen in love in a hammock.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo | Diesel

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