Sunday, July 31, 2011

night after night.


WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS . . .

The son of a con-artist, Sean O'Brien learned the hard way that living by your own rules comes with a price. After a brief time behind bars, Sean is now ready to live an honest life, and pay for his past mistakes. But even his gorgeous face and seductive charms can't make up for his prison record . . .until a member of The Reliance Group sees Sean's potential for good and gives him a job at the Onyx Casino.

WILL KEEP THEM COMING BACK FOR MORE . . .

Zoe Russo has met all types of men on the Vegas strip. But when Sean pays a visit to her casino boutique, she knows she's in luck. They share an immediate, irresistible attraction, and for the first time in her life she's found a man she thinks she can trust. But when Zoe stumbles onto the truth about Sean and his reasons for persuing her, she can't help but question his feelings for her. Is he for real, or has she been a fool for love? Until now, nothing has prepared her for the thrill, and risk, of gambling on love.


Yet another standard romantic suspense. From Into the Night, I was expecting a bit of improvement and, unfortunately, that wasn't what I got. It makes me a little sad, since I really liked the glimpse of Sean's character in the series debut. Denison doesn't do anything new here. I found that I was reading it to be reading it and didn't really care about the characters. Then, there's the addition of Zoe's best friend, a superstar pop singer named Jessica, and her high school sweetheart. I have no idea how they warranted a plot of their own. It came out of nowhere with no connection at all to the storyline. On the positive end, I liked Zoe’s character and the fact that this book essentially stands on its own, so there’s no rehashing of Into the Night. Another thing I liked was the difference in the love scenes. For ITN, I noted that they were frequent and detailed. Here, not so frequent and it's absolutely believable that it plays out this way. As a whole, I thought Night After Night lacked feeling, which is my favorite element, and I found that I didn't care about the story.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

you dropped a blonde on me.


She was the perfect party-planning, haute-to-the max trophy wife. Now Maxine Cambridge is broke, unemployable and living with her mother and teenage son in a retirement village, with her self-esteem kicked to the curb.

Until her geeky former classmate Campbell Barker returns, all grown-up- and off-the-scale smokin' hot. Campbell refuses to believe Max isn't that smart, funny girl he's crushed on since high school. The more Max tries to show him he's wrong, the more she rediscovers her long-retired mojo. Now, she's ready to throw down some payback on her ex-life and fight for what she deserves.


What a nice surprise this book was. This was the first of Dakota Cassidy's books I've ever read, since I don't particularly care for paranormal and that's what her previous novels are. With Border's going out of business, I picked this one up, hoping against hope that it would be worth the money. And it was. (Although, not my money. The book was a gift.)

Max is a great heroine for this book. She's flawed, super messed up when it comes to relationships. She jumps to conclusions, a few times publicly, and it's embarrassing in its hilarity. The hero of the book, Campbell, is pretty fantastic. He's there for her every step of the way, taking up for her when she can't take care of herself. I loved the fun of this book. I've been waiting for a good, fun, easy book to come along and here we are!

After reading it, I found out that it's the start of Cassidy's Ex-Trophy Wives series, with book two released this month. I have every intention of reading Burning Down the Spouse, but, despite how much I enjoyed the first book, I'm a bit wary about this being a series instead of a stand alone.

Monday, July 25, 2011

savor the moment.


Wedding baker Laurel McBane is surrounded by romance working at Vows wedding planning company with her best friends Parker, Emma, and Mac. But she's too low-key to appreciate all the luxuries that their clients seem to long for. What she does appreciate is a strong, intelligent man, a man just like Parker's older brother Delaney, on whom she's had a mega-crush since childhood.

But some infatuations last longer than others, and Laurel is convinced that the Ivy League lawyer is still out of her reach. Plus, Del is too protective of Laurel to ever cross the line with her-or so she thinks. When Laurel's quicksilver moods get the better of her-leading to an angry, hot, all-together mind-blowing kiss with Del-she'll have to quiet the doubts in her mind to turn a moment of passion into forever.


Book three in the Bride Quartet follows the same pleasant pattern as the previous two books, but without the same results. I love a good conflict in a romance novel. I mean, I love, love, love it. Savor the Moment didn't have that. The relationship is, for the most part, easy. Laurel and Del manage to move from friendship to romantic relationship seamlessly, with only Laurel's class level hangups to deter them. That's not to say that this installment wasn't worth it. It is still worth read, even if it was for the Parker/Malcomb interactions alone.

What I'm hoping Happy Ever After has that Savor the Moment lacked is the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking feeling you get from reading the awesomely intense scenes.