Today I finally took the time to sit down and write a few quick reviews of some books that I have read over the last couple of weeks. I have been having computer issues and don't feel that I really should use my husbands laptop for my blogging, but I just couldn't wait any longer to post these reviews. I hate waiting, I always feel that I am forgetting something and that I don't do the book justice. Hopefully I will get my computer up and running soon! In the mean time I hope you guys have been having a wonderful weekend!

Highland Obsession by Dawn Halliday

In the Scottish Highlands, two warriors are about to clash over a woman of passion...

They were the unlikeliest of friends debauching their way through London: The Earl of Camdonn, a nobleman of vast wealth and power, and Scottish laird Alan MacDonald, a respected Jacobite with ambitions of his own.

But their friendship is destroyed when Alan marries the beautiful Sorcha Stewart—only to witness Cam kidnap her from their bedroom. Then Alan learns the truth: his bride was not an innocent. She took a lover before him—his friend—who taught her the ways of pleasure.

Now, Alan will do anything to get his wife back. Cam fights to redeem his honor, even as he refuses to give up his desire. Torn between love and duty, Sorcha must watch as the two men she desires go to war over her. And when the battle lines are drawn, all three lovers are lured into a triangle of forbidden passions...

My Thoughts:
First off--- this cover is gorgeous!! I could just eat it up!!!!

Alan has spent most of his life in England but the time has come for him to journey back to his homelands in Scotland and take his rightful position as Laird. His best friend, Cam, has already made his journey back to Scotland to secure his lands. Now the two men live as neighbors in Scotland on different sides of the political drama that is taking place.

Alan feels that the time is right to find a wife and settle down, seeing Sorcha only confirms his thoughts. Alan is completely mesmerized by Sorcha's beauty and asks for her hand in marriage. Alan is so gentle with his new wife on their wedding night. He would never have suspected by her performance that she was any less than what she says she is. The realization of her lies comes crashing down around Alan's head after Sorcha is abducted by none other than his best friend Cam.

Alan must learn to trust his wife, redeem his honor, and find a way to forgive his best friend or he will lose the two most important people in his life. This love triangle is definitely intersting. I had a little bit of a hang up with the story but don't want to give anything away. All in all this was a delightful story that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend reading it!

Rating: 4.5

With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke

Her proposition . . .

London Society is harsh for a young woman with no family connections who has to work for a living. But when Daisy Merrick is sacked from yet another job, the feisty and outspoken miss comes up with a plan that could give her a future beyond her wildest dreams. There's only one problem. Her success depends on a man, the most infuriating, impossible, immovable man she's ever met.

His resolution . . .

Sebastian Grant, Earl of Avermore, is England's most infamous author. Known for his notorious reputation, he is more interested in play than work, and has no intention of cooperating when Daisy shows up on his doorstep with a mad plan. The provoking, fire-haired beauty stirs his senses beyond belief, and Sebastian knows he has only one way to stop her. Seduction.

My Thoughts: When the owner of the publishing house that Sebastion writes for decides to take matters into his own hands Sebastian won't know what hit him. Sending the fiesty Daisy out to partner with Sebastian was jus the ticket to getting the creative juices flowing for both of these to writers.

Everyone know that rewards are the best way to get something done. It gives just the right amount of a kick to get you going and gives you something to look forward to at the end of the job. This is the tactic that Daisy implements on Sebastian. Now Sebastian must write a hundred pages before he is able to experience the taste of Daisy's kiss again. This will surely drive both to distraction!

This was a fun and enjoyable story.

Causing Havoc by Lori Foster

Description:Sexy, sculpted extreme fighter Dean "Havoc" Connor has knee-melting good looks-and thick skin. But not from his brutal sport's enclosed rings. Orphaned and torn from his sisters as a boy, he has no family. That is, until he gets a letter revealing how much the once-little girls want him back in Harmony, Kentucky.
To stop his sister from marrying a man as sleazy as he is wealthy, Dean finds himself teaming up with her pretty-but-smart-mouthed friend Eve — who's heard of "Havoc's" reputation and doesn't need some hunk trampling on her heart. Now all Dean has to do is protect his sisters, win Eve over, and expose a devious criminal.
And he thought winning the heavyweight cage fighting belt was hard.

My Thoughts: Cindy has done it again! She sent me a book to read saying that I would love it... and Yes I absolutely loved Causing Havoc. I don't know how she does it, always finding really great books and authors and sending them my way at just the right moment.

Dean heads to his childhood home after receiving a letter from his long lost sister. In the letter his sister seems desperate and full of hope, hope that catches Dean and sends him to find out what she needs. Arriving in Harmony, Dean finds anything but harmony. He has just walked into a mountain load of family problems and can't seem to shake the desire to help out the sister that he thought lost to him forever. It helps that Eve, sister's best friend, is one hot little ticket that he can't keep his hands off.

I really loved how the family dynamics just kicked into gear full force. The interaction between the three siblings reminded so much of my own life with my siblings. You have to have at least one smart ass and a mother hen... which definitely describes me and my sister. I would like to think that my brother would have continued to be a smart ass and the big over protective brother that Dean wound up being.

Then we have the hot and heavy romance between Eve and Dean. These two were perfect for each other. There time together was definitely electrifying!!

I can't wait to get to the rest of this series!

Rating: 5

Deeper by Megan Hart

Megan Hart
Publisher: Spice (July, 2009)

Some lovers never leave you...

Twenty years ago she had her whole life spread out before her like a mesmerizing map. She was Bess Walsh, a fresh-scrubbed, middle-class student ready to conquer the design world. And she was taken. Absolutely and completely.

But not by Andy, her well-groomed, intellectual boyfriend who hinted more than once about a ring. No. During that hot summer as a waitress and living on the beach, she met Nick, a dark haired, local bad boy. He was, to put it mildly, not someone she could take home to Daddy.

Instead, Nick became her dirty little secret; a fervent sexual accomplice who knew how to ignite an all-consuming obsession she had no idea she carried deep within her.

Bess had always wondered what happened to Nick after that summer, after their promise to meet again. And now, back at the beach house and taking a break from responsibility, from marriage, from life, she discovers his heartbreaking fate--and why he never came back for her. Suddenly Nick's name is on her lips...his hands on her thighs...dark hair and eyes called back from the swirling gray of purgatory's depths.

Dead, alive, or something in-between, they can't stop their hunger.

She wouldn't dare.

My Thoughts:

I have heard many great things about this author and her books, but having not read anything by her I jumped at the chance to borrow Deeper from an online friend. I will definitely be purchasing books in the future by Megan Hart.

The first chapter moved a little slow, maybe I wasn't in the mood for this particular book, but I was sorely tempted to set it aside and try it later. However, it being a borrowed book I wanted to get it read quickly so I could send it back, so I pushed through. Once the story got really going I could not put the book down. The unrecognized love that Bess and Nick shared was heart-breakingly sweet and only such a love could hold the spirit to this world and allow it to come back to right the mistakes from the past.

Deeper moves between now and twenty years past. Bess has moved back to her grandparents beach house in Bethany while dealing with a marriage on the rocks with a divorce coming soon. Coming to the beach and this house stirs her memories of a summer love, memories that were never forgotten and never far from the surface. Young Bess and older Bess are dealing with the same relationship issues with Andy.

Twenty years ago: Bess is living in the beach house while working at Sugarland to pay for college. She has been in a relationship with Andy for three years and suspects him of cheating on her. He has become distant and is not answering her calls or calling when he is suppose to. She meets Nick at a party when she says she "sort of" has a boyfriend.

Nick has a bad rep and Bess has been warned away from him on several occasions by several of her friends. This does not stop Bess's desires. She keeps it on a friendly level until she decides that she has had enough of Andy's antics. Bess and Nick's relationship progresses pretty quickly, moving from a roll in the sack to being unseperable over night. Neither one of them are willing to put a name to what is going on between the two of them. They won't admit their feelings for one another.

Present: It has been twenty years since Bess has been back in Bethany. She has not seen or heard from Nick in as long. With her marriage falling apart she takes herself to the beach and is comtemplating her life and the summer love that she shared with Nick, when out of the blue he is there. She thinks it must all be a dream until he shows up at her door the next morning soaking wet and smelling of the beach and summer. Thing progress very quickly again. This time everything is different. Bess wants to know why Nick never came for her but is afraid the answers will send him away again.

The time that they share in the present shows a different side of Nick. He can't answer where he has been only that he wanted to come back to Bess. And until Bess said his name that fateful night on the beach he couldn't reach her. With the time that they have together, Bess and Nick are more honest with each other about their feelings and what happened in the past.

Deeper had tears stinging the backs of my eyes and my heart melting over and over again. The love shared between Bess and Nick was a love that would stand the test of time and bring them together again. I truly loved this story.

5 stars

The Commander's Desire by Jennette Green--Review

Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press (October 24, 2008)
Jennette Green

Blurb:

Princess Elwytha wants revenge on the monster who murdered her brother. In a false exchange for peace, she offers herself in marriage to the enemy Prince. The plan? Kill the Prince’s battle-scarred Commander—the man who ended King Thor’s life with one filthy sword thrust through the back.

To her horror, the Commander agrees to take Elwytha as his bride. Worse, the wedding date will be sooner than expected. Not all is lost, however. Now she has more opportunity to be alone with him--and exact justice.

But the deed is not so easy now. Fighting her innate sense of honor, she begins to see the ironclad integrity of the man behind the scars. And with this knowledge comes doubt. Did he slay her brother? What exactly is the new king's plan? Whom can she trust?

Elwytha must decide well, for more than her life is at stake. Soon she must betray either allegiance to her kingdom--or the man who is quickly claiming her heart.


My Thoughts:

I have had The Commander's Desire sitting in my TBR pile for months now. I first heard about this on Keta Diablo's blog several months ago and I have absolutely no idea why I waited so long to read it.

Elwytha's favorite brother Thor was stabbed in the back. Now she will follow her brother Richard's devious plan to offer peace by way of marriage to the Prince. Only the Prince is not looking to wed and gives her to his right hand man, the Commander. Her hatred for these two men cloud her warriors judgement at every turn.

The Commander is tired of warring and ready to live in peace for once. He desires a wife to spend his life with, he thought any woman would do. He soon finds out that he is wrong in these thoughts. He finds his perfect mate in Elwytha's spirited form. He must find a way to make Elwytha respect him and want him as he wants her, though treachery is afoot.

I could not get enough of this story. The outcome of Elwytha's turmoils and battles were pretty obvious, and I had the feeling of deja vu but I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Commander's Desire. There is just something about a story involving a big honking man who does not fit the stereotypical good looking character and is more fittingly described as a monster that shows his softer side that just makes my heart melt. If you have not had the pleasure of reading this very sweet book, I suggest making some time to do so.

Rating 5 stars

Haunting Beauty by Erin Quinn--Review

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade (August 4, 2009)

Erin Quinn

Danni always believed she was an abandoned child. Then the seductive Sean Ballogh appears out of nowhere with a startling story challenging everything Danni thought was true. He claims that Danni's family has been searching for her ever since she disappeared twenty years ago. He's come to bring her home to Ireland. Now, Danni must rewrite history to save her family, to fight a force more evil than she ever imagined, and to reunite herself with the man she was destined for-or risk living forever in time as nothing more than an ethereal memory, a tragic and haunting beauty.

My Thoughts:

Always feeling like she was different she hid her gift to the point that she completely blocked her past, remembering nothing more than an image of her mother dropping her off at preschool, never to return again. She grew up being shuffled from foster home to the next. She can no longer block out her gift and is faced with the haunting images of a family torn, a gorgeous man that she senses wants her for some purpose.

Sean walks into her life with stories of her disappearance and the knowledge that her family has been searching for her. They are swept into another time and place where they must put the clues together before the sands of the clock run out. Danni must right the wrongs done to her family in order to find a happiness to last her for a lifetime.

Haunting Beauty is a spellbinding mystical story of love lost and paths crossed. It is not an epic romance by no means, but it surely will drag you into the lives of this family and have you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out if the pull that Danni and Sean feel toward each other will finally bind them. My only problem with the book is that I thought it lacked in the romance department, great paranormal though.

Rating: 4 stars

Guests Angelica Hart and Zi

Welcome Angelica and Zi, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to share a little with us! (What a cute pair!!)

WHO SAID IT FIRST

eBay has engendered itself into our workplace. As an overview, this phenomenon has taken our culture by Perfect Storm. There it is, so common, that governor Sarah Palin used it to sell a state owned jet. And its stock is considered by money people like Michael Nesmith as indicators as to the direction of our market. We have five computers, of which, one seems to be a virtual eBay satellite. As we have written previously, Zi buys! He finds beauty to behold in treasures that unfold on his screen.

Yes, Zi got a few more shirts, today, didn't need them. The day ended up being quite interesting. We'd be in the middle of discussing dialogue between characters, obviously he multi-tasking, and suddenly he'd yelp, "Gotcha!" He won what he thought was beauty. What's thought to be one man's discard is another man's treasure.

Margaret Hungerford wrote, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." She was an Irish novelist in the 19th century who wrote light romantic fiction. However, this saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek. I find it ironic and inspiring that a romance writer would be attributed to that quote. Every day we explore and sexplore beauty and its play in love and romance.

It is so dag-nabbit-snap-dragon easy to write about traditional beauty. Easy to love a gorgeous woman. It's equally simplicitic to adore a hunky man but give that dude a goiter and he ain't dating. We believe that love is goiter-blind, and will try to discover a deeper purpose in love.

A movie from 1945 called The Enchanted Cottage played out this concept when what was considered a homely housekeeper falls in love with a scarred soldier. He saw her as beautiful, and she simply could not see his scars.

In our new manuscript, LOVE LETTERS, our hero Rich Longar has a burn scar that is predominate on his face. Our heroine Lauren Pike maybe a bit fleshy, hippy, zaftig, voluptuous, much of the Mae West character. We found great pleasure in building their love-ship. And aptly felt a certain requiting when it unfolded before us.

You have to adore Mae West. She once said, "A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up." Additionally, she stated, "A hard man is good to find." She is attributed with, "A man in the house is worth two on the street." and "A man's kiss is his signature." We simply adore M. West. She said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly", "Cultivate your curves they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided", and "He who hesitates is a damned fool". Our last two are these, "I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them" and "I believe it is better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked".

Lauren Pike is Mae Westian in her sexually overt and vivacious personality as well as her curvaceous appearance.

The question is would every man find her beautiful? And the answer is simply, no. The question is would every woman find Rich Longar attractive? And the answer is simply, no. There is a beauty that each holds that has to find synergy with the other. As writers and especially as romance writers we have to seek that potential interconnect and grow its viability so the reader can feel their raw lust and love.

So every day the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we are its agents.

In KILLER DOLLS our heroine purports herself as a tad dowdy and our hero has deep emotional scars that hold him in abeyance to accepting love. Neither perfect but perfectly matched. We hope you enjoy the following excerpt.

EXCERPT TWO

They got a room, asked to use the phone, storm had the lines down, asked about a cell phone and the clerk, a man of advanced age, looked at Taut as if he were an alien, paid in cash, parked out of view, and entered a nice but tacky cabin room.

“I see that shabby-chic is nouveau. The guest towels say… well used. Look, a bottle of shampoo. I used this stuff when I was a kid. It bubbles." Letti was rambling and gently ranting to cover her fear. She now understood the gravity of the situation; it was real, though she did not know why two very evil men were chasing them. Nor why they had her dolls. Why? The dual whys came out in unattractive rumbling, its blasphemy a cruel sacrilege.

“I am sleeping where?” asked Taut. The room had one bed.

“Between me and the door… and that window.”

ABOUT AUTHORS

Their combined accomplishments include book publications in print and/or electronic versions of twenty-four titles, fifteen romance specific, ten manuscripts pending, EPPIE finalist for three books, Cecil Whig award, Hob-Nob Reader's Choice Award, written over 500 shorts with numerous published in both nationwide and small press magazines, articles published in various local, city and statewide newspapers, including four as a Guest Columnist in addition to trade articles. Both are members of various writing groups.

We love to hear from anyone interesting in what we do. Anyone who writes us at angelicahartandzi@yahoo.com and leaves a s-mail address, we will send you a gift and add you to any future mailings.

Angelica Hart and Zi

Killer Dolls ~ September 2009

Snake Dance ~ February 2010

angelicahartandzi@yahoo.com

angelicahartandzi.com

Champagne Books

CONTEST: Just write us at angelicahartandzi@yahoo.com with contest in the subject line and your favorite genre in the body and you’ll be entered into a drawing for our latest release KILLER DOLLS

Up Coming Guests!

Friday I have the authors of Killer Dolls stopping by. They have a great post lined up to share with us! A little birdie told me that there will also be a give away involved! So make sure to stop by and visit with this delightful writing team!!