Mackenzie's Pleasure

by Linda Howard

#7 Book with less than 300 pgs

Rated 3.5

Back Cover:

Barrie needed a saviour. The terrorists holding her hostage surely wouldn''t tolerate her silence much longer. Instead they would silence her. Then out of the darkness he arrived. Rugged and dangerous, he led her straight into his sheltering arms.

My Thoughts:

I am willing to suspend reality to a very large degree, however....Barrie Lovejoy is kidnapped, stripped naked, and bound. She is rescued by Zane MacKenzie Navy Seal. Within hours, he rescues her, and they hide out in a falling down shack in libya. After a short time, she decided to lose her virginity to navy seal stranger. It was awesome.....like your first time after a trauma in a dirty hovel would be. (did you catch the sarcasm? I knew you did!)

After this, they escape with the help of his Navy Seal team, at which time Zane is shot. Barrie, wants desperately to see to Zane and his injuries! She is not allowed to and the mystery begins. Why was Barrie kidnapped? Was her father part of some criminal plot? After a few months, Zane is healed from his wounds and Barrie is confirmed pregnant. Her father and his friends try to keep Zane and Barrie apart. He finally comes for her, sweeps her off her feet and they run away to Las Vegas to get married. He gets his brother Chance to help, and they set a trap for the bad guys.

It was pretty good overall, but the beginning was so unrealistic for me. I just couldn't buy it.

Love Only Once

"Love Only Once" by Johanna Lindsey

Fall Reading Challenge

Mallory Series #1

From the Back Cover

The exquisite niece of Lord Edward and Lady Charlotte Malory, Regina Ashton is outraged over her abduction by the arrogant, devilishly handsome Nicholas Eden -- and is determined to make the rogue pay ... with his heart.

A golden-haired seducer, Nicholas has been hardened by a painful secret in his past. And now that he has besmirched Reggie's good name, the hot-tempered lady has vowed to wed him. Her fiery beauty stirs Nicholas as no woman ever has -- and the rake arouses Reggie's passion to an unendurable level. Such uncontrolled desires can lead only to dangerous misunderstandings ... and, perhaps, to a love that can live only once in a lifetime.

Well, I don't think this teaser is too accurate! I just finished this book, and I don't recall any dangerous misunderstandings, or that she was outraged at being abducted. I clearly recall her being amused by it, cuz she knew it was a mistake.

Aaaanyway, I think I liked this book! It was good. I don't think it was great! Now I will say that the moments before her wedding, I had to put the book down to go somewhere, and I wondered almost all the way to where I was going, about what was going to happen next to Regina and Nicholas. So, I was invested. I'm pretty easy, so I'll have to give this a 3.5 or 4. It was good enough for me to invest, but I'm not dying to read the next in the series. I think I was pleasantly surprised, cuz for some reason, I was expecting this to be pretty bad. It's almost better to have low expectations, so that you have a good chance of surpassing them. I'm going to say 3.5.

Highlander in Her Bed by Allie MacKay

Tour guide Mara MacDougall stops at a London antique shop-and spots perhaps the handsomest bed ever. Then she bumps into the handsomest man ever. Soon Mara can't forget the irresistible-if haughty-Highlander. Not even when she learns that she's inherited a Scottish castle.

Spectral Sir Alexander Douglas has hated the Clan MacDougall since he was a medieval knight and they tricked him into a curse-the curse of forever haunting the bed (the very one that Mara now owns) that was once intended for his would-be bride. But Mara makes him feel what no other MacDougall has-a passion that he never knew he'd missed.

I'm a little conflicted about this book. Ms MacKay (Welfonder) does a decent job of telling a fun little story. It was a quick read, and had some fun moments. However, there were definately parts that I felt were lacking. The secondary characters could have been sooo much fun, and a really colorful backdrop, but they were pale. She mentions a 1 armed gardener, then nothing. The ghost hunting cook, could have really been superb, but stayed just ok. Even Hardwick, the ghost friend of Alex, could have been so much more fully developed (pun intended, you'll have to read to find the pun). The plot progression didn't make sense to me.

Mara, finds a bed in an antique shop, (along with the ghost who haunts it.) She also inherits the castle (said ghost) was to inherit upon wedding the then maid. Yadda yadda yadda! He starts to haunt her, to quickly fall in love with her. She finds him rude and scary and then...is in love.

I also have to say, that I found the chemistry between these two, too unrealistic to even make allowances for. I understand that many (ok maybe most) romance novels there is the suspension of reality for the sake of brevity. But this was.....too much. He sees her and is instantly "standing at attention". Really! He talks to her in his burr, (usually mean words) and his accent alone, has her...umm...almost finishing! (**wink wink**) REALLY! I mean, if that accent is ALL THAT, I need to get to scotland stat!! Crud, for a heroine, who's not sure she has had a "real" -O-, the wind on her breasts, (through her shirt) is almost enough to finish the job. Scotland, here I come! (get it? Here I ...aaaany way!)

Besides that, the story was ok. If you want quivering, standing at attention fun little reads, this is the book for you.

I rated it 3.5 stars.

It meets needs for my Read Around the Genres and Fall 08 Reading Challenges.

Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

After a string of disastrous dates, Emily Albright decides she's had it with modern-day love and would much rather curl up with Pride and Prejudice and spend her time with Mr. Darcy, the dashing, honorable, and passionate hero of Jane Austen's classic. So when her best friend suggests a wild week of margaritas and men in Mexico with the girls, Emily abruptly flees to England on a guided tour of Jane Austen country instead. Far from inspiring romance, the company aboard the bus consists of a gaggle of little old ladies and one single man, Spike Hargreaves, a foul-tempered journalist writing an article on why the fictional Mr. Darcy has earned the title of Man Most Women Would Love to Date.

The last thing Emily expects to find on her excursion is a broodingly handsome man striding across a field, his damp shirt clinging to his chest. But that's exactly what happens when she comes face-to-face with none other than Mr. Darcy himself. Suddenly, every woman's fantasy becomes one woman's reality....

Well, noone will be surprised when I say..."I think I've read this book before!" It was called_____________(fill in the blank with your choice: Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones' Diary, any other adaption you like.) This one has a New York bookstore manager taking a trip with goofy grannies on a tour of Jane Austen's haunts. She meets Spike, who is a London reporter doing a story on Why is Mr. Darcy "All that and a bag of chips" (I paraphrase). She dislikes him, and he doesn't help himself by referring to her as sorta dull, and plain. (You know the scene where Mr. D and Mr. B are at the Ball and Lizzy overhears them talking about her? Yea, I knew you did.) AAAnyway, we've seen it done more times than we can count. Ms. Potter does it ok. She's not the best, and I'm sure there are worse. There is a paranormal visitation by the "real" Mr. Darcy, and he is kinda annoying. The secondary characters are charming, and Mr. Wikham turns out to be an elderly bus driver. I'm not mad that I spent time reading this, but I'm also not in a hurry to go out and get Ms. Potters other titles. I read many scathing reviews about this book, before reading it myself, so my expectations were low. Fortunately, I liked it a little better than they did, but that is probably because I expected to loathe it. I was pleasantly suprised. This book fulfills my Chick Lit requirement for the Read Around the Genres challenge.

The Girl Next Door

The man was impossible! Infuriating! Maddeningly blind! Sure, freewheeling bachelor Simon Christopher was Jenny Randall's best friend, but when would he stop ogling busty blondes and start seeing her as more than just plain Jenny, the wholesome girl next door?

Clearly, drastic measures were required. So Jenny transformed herself. From predictable to...provocative. From straitlaced to...sensual. From sweetly domestic to downright dangerous! And Simon began to sweat. Began to see...red. Darn it! He wanted his Jenny back! But would he ever admit he wanted all of her?

This was a quick read, being 250 pages. It was a nice Friends to Lovers story. It was good. I'd give it a 3.5 to 4. For a short story, the character development was pretty good. I got a sense of the history and the tension was good. The ending seemed rushed. But is was overall a good story.

Ain't Myth Behaving

STAG PARTY
Dane Hearne -- also known as the Irish fertility god Cernunnos -- must choose a bride quickly. His long-time goddess has run off with a salsa dancer, and Dane must be married by Beltane, just a week away, or become a mortal -- and die. When he meets American travel writer Megan St. Clair, he knows he's found his soul mate. But while Dane is a sexy Irish hunk with his fair share of blarney, can he convince Megan to marry him in just one week?

NORSE TRULY
Alrik Sigurdsson is cursed to sail his Viking ship along the same stretch of Scandinavian coastline forever. So when lovely American Brynna Lund skids her car off the road into the ocean, he and his men are happy for the diversion of rescuing her. Then Alrik discovers that Brynna is the only woman who can break the curse. Is it any wonder that he's determined to keep her...forever?

I thought these were fun, frivolous stories. There is no real character development, and tension. These whimsical stories are perfect as a light poolside read. They were short and fun, and that's what they were intended to be. I didn't like these as much as Men in Kilts, but that's ok.