Review: Crux by Moira Rogers

Title: Crux
Series: Southern Arcana
Author: Moira Rogers
Read copy: eBook
Published: March 3, 2009
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1605044598
ISBN-13: 9781605044590

To find her destiny, she must trust him with her life...and her heart.

Jackson Holt makes a decent living as a private investigator in New Orleans, home of one of the largest underground supernatural populations in the United States. He and his partners have never met a case they couldn't crack...until a local bar owner asks him to do a little digging on her newest hire.

New Orleans is the fourth destination in as many months for Mackenzie Brooks, a woman on the run from a deranged stalker. After all, any man who shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her destined lover has more than a few screws loose. But crazy doesn't explain why he always finds her no matter how far she runs.

When her well-meaning boss puts a PI on her case, Mackenzie comes face to face with the incredible truth: magic is real, and whatever spell has kept her hidden and separate from the paranormal world is rapidly deteriorating.

With time running out, she has no choice but to trust Jackson as he struggles to uncover the truth of her past-and her destiny.

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Review: A Lot Like Love by Julie James

Title: A Lot Like Love
Series: FBI / US Attorney
Author: Julie James
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: March 1, 2011
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 0425240169
ISBN-13: 9780425240168

The FBI wants her cooperation.

As the daughter of a billionaire and the owner of the city’s top wine store, Jordan Rhodes is invited to the most exclusive parties in Chicago. But there’s only one party the FBI wants to crash: the charity fundraiser of a famous restaurateur, who also happens to launder money for the mob. In exchange for her brother’s release from prison, Jordan is going to be there—with a date supplied by the Bureau.

Agent McCall just wants her.

As the top undercover agent in Chicago, Nick McCall has one rule: never get personal. This “date” with Jordan Rhodes is merely an assignment—one they’re both determined to pull off even if they can’t be together for five minutes before the sarcasm and sparks begin to fly. But when Nick’s investigation is compromised, he and Jordan have no choice but to pretend they’re a couple, and what starts out as a simple assignment begins to feel a lot like something more. . .

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Review: I Do (But I Don't) by Cara Lockwood

Title: I Do (But I Don't)
Author: Cara Lockwood

Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: January 26, 2010
Publisher: Pocket Star
ISBN: 143917542X
ISBN-13: 9781439175422

She creates perfect days.

In spite of her incorrigible curly hair, Lauren Crandell is a neat-freak and organizational guru, qualities that make her the perfect wedding planner. But when two weddings in one day go haywire, and hunky firefighter Nick Corona comes to the rescue—twice—Lauren realizes there are a few important details in her own life she hasn't been tending to since her divorce. Namely, her sex life.

She lives lonely nights.

Sweet and sexy Nick seems hell-bent on fanning the flames between them, and Lauren definitely feels sparks flying. But she's scrambling to plan nuptials for her most challenging client yet -- a beautiful, cunning, and certifiable Psycho Bride. With the big day rapidly approaching, a series of misunderstandings, mishaps, and mistaken identities threatens to ruin not one, but two happily ever afters. But with her career and her love life on the line, the wedding planner just might learn that you can't plan everything, least of all true love.

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Review: Regency Christmas Proposals (anthology) by Gayle Wilson, Amanda McCabe, Carole Mortimer

Title:Regency Christmas Proposals
Author: Gayle Wilson, Amanda McCabe, Carole Mortimer

Read copy: eBook
Published: November 1, 2010
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1426874952
ISBN-13: 9781426874956

The Soldier's Christmas Miracle by Gayle Wilson

Wounded soldier Guy Wakefield has finally found the woman who saved his life. Isabella Stowe accepts his gratitude, but it will take more than a kiss under the mistletoe to convince this world-weary widow to accept his proposal….

Snowbound and Seduced by Amanda McCabe

Mary Bassington, Lady Derrington, longs to be the carefree woman she once was. But she gets more than she bargained for this Christmas when she's snowbound with old flame Dominick, Viscount Amesby, who reignites her passion for life—and love!

Christmas at Mulberry Hall by Carole Mortimer

Spending Christmas alone with his unconventional ward pushes the boundaries of propriety—and self-control—too far for Lord Gideon Grayson. So he takes delectably pure Amelia Ashford to Mulberry Hall—but that pesky mistletoe is still all around….

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Review: Tempestuous/Restless Heart by Tami Hoag

Title:Tempestuous/Restless Heart
Author: Tami Hoag

Read copy: eBook
Published: December 16, 2009
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 0307575284
ISBN-13: 9780307575289

Tempestuous

Alexandra Gianni had come to Briarwood with her infant daughter, Isabella, to start over. Determined to rebuild her life and the ramshackle farm she’d purchased with the last of her money, Alex had one goal: independence. She wasn’t looking for another relationship or the painful revelations she’d have to share about her past. Most of all, she wasn’t looking for a man like Christian Atherton, who could lead her dangerously astray. But the handsome, aristocratic English rider won’t accept that it’s too late for Alex or that she has to keep running…from her past and him.

Restless Heart

As a world-renowned globe-trotting photographer, Danielle Hamilton was at home with Tibetan nomads and Kenyan bushmen. But she didn’t think she’d survive six weeks in the “wilds” of New Orleans babysitting her sister’s five children. Then help arrives in the form of the most unlikely nanny Danielle could imagine. Tall, dark, and Cajun, Remy Doucet isn’t really a nanny and he isn’t accepting Danielle’s certainty that true love isn’t in the cards for her. He’s convinced that her self-control masks a deeper need to let go, and he’s determined to prove she could trust him with the memory of a tragedy that still haunts her dreams.

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Review: Wild (anthology) by Maya Banks

Title: Wild
Author: Maya Banks

Read copy: Paperback
Published: July 1, 2010
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1605045128
ISBN-13: 9781605045122

Golden Eyes

When Duncan finds an injured cheetah, questions about how she wound up in his mountains—and going after the poachers pursuing her—can wait. First he brings her home. Then he checks in on his patient, and finds not a cat, but a gorgeous, very naked woman.

Aliyah Carter spent the past six months trapped in cheetah form, a prisoner of the poachers who took her to use in an illegal exotic-game hunt. Finally she’s escaped, but now she faces another problem. A devastatingly sexy sheriff who knows her secret.

Amber Eyes

The beautiful, timid cougar that appears at Hunter and Jericho’s remote cabin breaks their quiet routine, warms their hearts—and rouses their curiosity. Why would this wild creature want to form a friendship with humans?

Kaya has survived a lifetime of isolation in her shifted form. Yet there’s something about these two men that draws her to embrace her human side. In the shelter of their love, she blooms. Then they are called away on a mission that goes terribly wrong. Now pregnant and alone, Kaya’s only hope is that the men who love her will find their way home.

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Review: The Adultery Diet by Eva Cassady

Title: The Adultery Diet
Author: Eva Cassady

Read copy: Paperback
Published: August 31, 2007
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 0749937343
ISBN-13: 9780749937348

Eva Cassady is stuck in a marriage that's completely lost its luster. She's even envious of her twenty-year-old daughter, living la vie Parisienne (complete with les condoms) in France for a year. Somewhere inside, Eva knows she's still a woman with dreams and desires—but her whole dull, status-quo existence can be summed up by the tyrannical numbers on her bathroom scale. At 176 pounds, is she just one more invisible, middle-aged woman who will never inspire lust in a man again?

Then fickle fortune—via her job—puts Eva back in touch with Michael Foresman, her passionate lover one unforgettable college spring break. Michael seems trés interested in meeting up and rekindling some old sparks, but she can't possibly let him see her the way she looks now. With reborn fantasies burning through her blood, Eva starts dieting and exercising like a woman possessed...by passion.

With the pounds dropping away, Eva feels as if twenty years have rolled back as well. She feels young, sexy, desirable...and when Michael arrives, he obviously agrees. So now Eva has to make a choice. When a diet promises to change your life, just how big a change do you really want to make?

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Review: Ghost Moon by Karen Robards

Title: Ghost Moon
Author: Karen Robards

Read copy: eBook
Published: December 18, 2007
Publisher: Dell
ISBN: 0307422968
ISBN-13: 9780307422965

Olivia Morrison is the prodigal daughter returned. She was only six when her mother died, leaving her to be raised by a stepfamily, the affluent and well-respected Archers. Growing up on LaAngelle Plantation—a lavish estate in northern Louisiana—and leading a life of privilege did little to quell Olivia's wild urges as a teenager.

After a promiscuous and rebellious few years, she ignored the advice of her adoptive family and ran off at the age of 17 to marry a charismatic rodeo rider. Now, nine years later, divorced and struggling financially to raise her eight-year-old daughter, Sara, Olivia has been summoned back to her childhood home by her beloved step-aunt, Callie, who has been diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer.

Though Olivia is prepared for a less than exuberant welcome, she isn't prepared for the reaction she gets when she first arrives at the estate. The Archer patriarch, John, takes one look at her and collapses with a heart attack. From this less-than-auspicious beginning, Olivia's visit quickly becomes even more complicated.

There's Seth, her older step-cousin, who was once like a brother to her but now triggers an unexpected passion. There's Seth's fiancée, Mallory, a cool, slender, professional woman who is busy planning the wedding, which is mere weeks away. Then there's Seth's daughter from his first marriage, eight-year-old Chloe, whose temper tantrums and hysterics have everyone on edge. Rounding things out are a host of aunts, uncles, and cousins who all trip in and out of the stately old house, making for an eclectic extended family.

As John Archer lingers near death, Callie's condition rapidly deteriorates, and Seth's marriage date draws ever nearer, Olivia's emotions are further taxed by a recurring nightmare centered around her mother's drowning death years before. Several times Olivia is awakened in the middle of the night, only to smell the lingering traces of her mother's perfume. As time goes by, Olivia begins to suspect there is much more to her mother's death than she remembers. What Olivia doesn't know is that her return to LaAngelle Plantation has resurrected a dark and deadly family secret, one that can provide the answers Olivia seeks but at a horribly high price—namely, the lives of her and Sara.

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Review: Sanctuary Redeemed by Moira Rogers

Title: Sanctuary Redeemed
Series: Red Rock Pass
Author: Moira Rogers
Read copy: Paperback
Published: May 3, 2011
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1609280261
ISBN-13: 9781609280260

The most scarred heart can’t run from love forever.

Sanctuary’s Price

Dylan Gennaro is reeling from the changes in his life: a new home, a new alpha, a pack at war. Still, he doesn’t hesitate to protect an outcast witch, thinking it will help him rediscover his own inner strength.

Wounded in body and spirit, Sasha Wallace found refuge with the Red Rock pack. Yet her willingness to lend her powers to the battle makes her an object of suspicion. Except for Dylan. Their attraction is a balm to their wounded hearts, until they face a fight for which neither has the strength. Unless they do it together.

Sanctuary Unbound

After eighty years of solitude, a life debt owed to the Red Rock alpha forces Adam Dubois to leave his retreat—where he encounters a woman who challenges and tempts him on every level.

Cindy Shepherd isn’t concerned that her interest in the mystery-shrouded new vampire in town seems mutual. After all, it’s only sex—there’s no danger he’ll dig deep enough to unleash her demons.

Casual flirtation turns deadly serious when Adam discovers an evil has followed his tracks to Red Rock. To survive, Adam and Cindy must trust each other with more than just their lives…

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Review: Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Title: Halo
Series: Halo
Author: Alexandra Adornetto
Read copy: eBook
Published: August 31, 2010
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
ISBN: 1429945052
ISBN-13: 9781429945059

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone—especially herself—from the Dark Forces.

Is love a great enough power against evil?

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Review: Sanctuary by Moira Rogers

Title: Sanctuary
Series: Red Rock Pass
Author: Moira Rogers
Read copy: Paperback
Published: April 1, 2010
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1605045691
ISBN-13: 9781605045696

The only way to win is to lose your heart…

Cry Sanctuary

Keith Winston has come home to Montana to find peace. Instead, the veteran warrior finds himself fighting pressure to become the alpha’s right hand. His attraction to a new wolf on the run sucks him into yet another battle between his instincts and his heart.

Abigail Adler knew nothing about werewolves—until she became one. Red Rock is her only refuge, but she chafes under its rigid rules. Except when it comes to submitting to the passion Keith stirs in her body. With her sister in danger, though, they will both have to risk breaking all the rules.

Sanctuary Lost

Brynn Adler hates feeling helpless and vulnerable. But that’s right where she is…in a world of werewolves. Worse, her sister Abigail is one of them. The pack wants to send her packing, yet she’s unwilling to leave—her sister, or the one man who makes her forget her life is falling apart.

Joe Mitchell knew getting involved with Brynn was a bad idea. A supernatural war is no place for a human, and he’s not about to let her make a decision that will bring pain and regret. Now all he has to do is let her go.

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Review: Cold Feet by Brenda Novak

Title: Cold Feet
Author: Brenda Novak

Read copy: eBook
Published: August 1, 2007
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1426836597
ISBN-13: 9781426836596

The Seattle police suspect Madison Lieberman's father was the serial killer they call the "Sandpoint Strangler." Madison refuses to believe it. Her father is now dead, and all she wants is the chance to create a new life for herself and her six-year-old child.

Then she discovers something in the crawl space beneath her parents' house. Something that makes her question her father's innocence. Or the innocence of someone else who's equally close to her...

When another woman turns up dead, crime writer Caleb Trovato wonders whether they're dealing with a copycat killer. Or is the real Sandpoint Strangler still alive? Caleb's sure Madison knows more than she's telling, and he's determined to find out what. But he doesn't expect to fall in love--or to lead Madison and her child into danger....

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