Money Doesn't Always Make the Man: "Maid for the Billionaire" by Ruth Cardello

Dominic Corisi knew instantly that Abigail Dartley was just the distraction he was looking for, especially since having her took a bit more persuading than he was used to. So when business forces him to fly to China, he decides to take her with him, but on his terms. No promises. No complications. Just sex.

Abby has always been the responsible one. She doesn't believe in taking risks; especially when it comes to men - until she meets Dominic. He's both infuriating and intoxicating, a heady combination. Their trip to China revives a long forgotten side of Abby, but also reveals a threat to bring down Dominic's company. With no time to explain her actions, Abby must either influence the outcome of his latest venture and save his company or accept her role as his mistress and leave his fate to chance. Does she love him enough to risk losing him for good?


This author is new to me so I really wasn't going into reading this book with any kind of preconceived notions about either the quality of the writing or the story. It certainly started out like lots of other stories involving men of commerce who had more gold than Midas and who took on the "services" of a female "assistant" during international travel. What changed in this story--and what made it come much more alive for me--was the fact that this woman learned some important facts about herself and made some critical discoveries about her inner strengths. We all simply plan on her falling in love with her billionaire. That's almost a given. What is unexpected is the way she handles herself in some very sticky international business circumstances that could ultimately make or break her guy's business empire. It's hard to believe that one business transaction could decimate an entire empire but when considering the size and amount of money involved, it become very believable.


I found this to be a very interesting story, with some serious political, business and sexual tensions throughout. It was not the "creampuff" kind of romance I initially thought it to be and felt it ultimately had some genuine substance that gave this book its tensile strength. Dominic was the usual suave, gorgeous, and self-centered magnate with his "it's my or the highway" manner of conducting both business and personal relationships. Abby is a woman who has subjugated her own personal issues and needs to care for others in her family and professionally. She even took on the job of housemaid so her sister wouldn't lose her job. But she is a woman with far greater depth and with a spirit that genuinely cares about people, even if, in the end, she must sacrifice her most treasured relationships. Her honor and integrity are her hallmark, and while I know there are characters in stories that come across as being way too saintly, Abby isn't one of those, IMHO.

This was a free read that turned out to be a very good acquisition. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

This book is a Kindle e-publication and was released in April, 2011.

Is Marriage About Love or About Money? "Winning the Wallflower" by Eloisa James

It could only happen in a fairy tale.

Lady Lucy Towerton:
Plain and tall. (According to the lady herself.)
Titled and irreproachably proper. (According to her fiancÉ.)

Until, overnight, she becomes

Lady Lucy Towerton:
Heiress. (Thanks to an aged aunt’s bequest.)
Belle of the ball. (So say the fortune hunters of the ton.)

In charge of her own destiny (finally!), Lucy breaks her engagement and makes up her mind never to be proper again…

There is little doubt that Eloisa James is one of the giants of romance fiction and particularly historical romance. It was the genre that first captured my reading interest many years ago and I keep coming back, especially when a freebie becomes available and it is by an author that can be trusted to have created a tale that will be fun and engaging. So it is with Winning the Wallflower. It is a novella that is intended to come as a literary interlude between two full-length novels, one of which was released just before the end of 2011.

This is not a complicated story at all. Rather, it captures the essence of a young lady who is now betrothed to a man who has exhibited little if any personal interest in her as a woman and perspective bride. Cyrus is a man who is the "poor relation" to the Duke of Pole and who has secretly always resented his mother's seeming impulse to marry the love of her heart, a commoner, a solicitor who has now continued to call attention to their family by being one of the best criminal attorneys in England. Cyrus has made his own fortune, has determined to marry into the aristocracy, and has determined to get a bride for himself who will be no trouble. Lucy seems to fit the plan. That is, until her erstwhile aunt goes and bequests her fortune to her only niece and voila! Lucy is an heiress and the talk of the ton.

This novella is indeed about the politics of marriage, especially the influence that money brings to bear on choices of spouses. It is also about the politics of marriage that can crush a creative spirit or which can be shoved aside when determined, wealthy and very intelligent women decide to call the shots about their own future. One aspect of Lucy's personality that is highlighted and which is totally delightful is her inherent honesty. She demands that anyone who is interested in marrying her has to be able to see HER for who she is and not for her rank or her fortune. Destined to drive her mother to drink, Lucy sees herself as a plain Jane, but when she takes the reins of her life into her own hands, others begin to see her differently. Not the least of those persons is Cyrus himself.

It is a delightful story and while it is specifically about Lucy and Cyrus, it is also a bridge into Olivia's story which is featured in The Duke is Mine. Readers will most assuredly fall in love with Olivia who is a plain-spoken, strong-minded young woman who loves ribald humor. Some of the anecdotes are a hoot! Together, Olivia and Lucy--best friends since childhood--give the spice to the story and I have to admit, made me determined to read the next episode in this fascinating saga of these young women.

Historical romance fans will find this an easy read but don't let that fool you. It is quintessential Eloisa James and thus, will be a delight to her fans as well. I contrary to my usual practice of scoring short stories or novellas a bit low because their length irritates me a lot, I give this story a rating of 4 out of 5.

This novella was released by Avon Impulse publications in December, 2011.

Who Ever Waxed Eloquent About The Glory of War?? "Command & Control" by Shelli Stevens

Book 2 in the "Holding Out For A Hero" series.


He’s afraid of losing his grip. She’s about to untie his last knot… 

Megan Asher has a thriving career, looks, self-confidence to spare. It all means little without the love of her life. Trevor has returned from deployment in Afghanistan a haunted man, emotionally distant and unwilling to connect—except in bed. Then even that fragile thread snaps. Brokenhearted, she is forced to call off their wedding and, after a few months’ separation, try to move on. 

With every aspect of his life spinning out of his once-legendary control, Trevor Wyatt convinces himself that Megan is better off—and safer—as far away from his demons as possible. Until he comes back to town for his brother’s wedding, and discovers Megan is dating. 

Suddenly realizing what he’s thrown away, he vows to breach the fortress she’s built around her heart. They come together in a cataclysm of rekindled passion that unleashes the very demons he never wanted her to witness. Back to square one, Megan realizes she must take the ultimate risk to slip past Trevor’s defenses. Give him control in the one place she can. The bedroom. The seductive move is one she prays will be the first step in helping heal him and their love. 

Stories about the returning vets from the Middle East conflicts are becoming more plentiful as the United States remains embroiled in the Afghanistan fight.  Yet is seems that we as a society continue to have this insane perception that war is glory and that our vets must have the strength to "suck it all up" and return to their normal lives if they are these heroes we have made of them, covered in the glory of war.  But that's not the way it plays out in numerous situations and the divorce rate, the sense of loss over relationships that have bit the dust is phenomenal.

This story captures those truths as it brings two people together who truly and dearly loved each other and still do, but the distance caused by the turmoil and wounds of the spirit ultimately drove them apart. The wedding coming up the following week should have been theirs.  Megan is a delightful woman--an accomplished business woman and attorney, who knows how to take care of herself.  Trevor is an Army officer and one who has taken his leadership responsibilities seriously.  In their two year courtship they had easily and lovingly shared power between them, appreciating one another's abilities and empowering one another to live fully in their shared love.  That is, until Afghanistan.  Trevor had returned a year ago and the quiet, the secrets, the refusal to share anything except sex drove them apart, and cancelling the wedding, breaking the engagement was merely the official ending of a relationship that had ended months earlier.

How do you convince someone whose life feels like it is completely out of control?  This is the dilemma Megan faces when she finally faces the fact that she can't go forward with her life without making one last attempt to re-claim what she and Trevor shared.  This story is gritty and edgy, with family and friends in abundance, but with a hero who is an isolated island of misery and inner wounds, overwhelmed with his inability to move past the pain, the nightmares, the sense of survivor's guilt, the knowledge that Megan is the one person he needs in his life and he can't face what he might do to her if he claims her.  It is not a long novel but is one that will get to the heart of the problem so many people have faced in the face of war and injury, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.  Now that our troops are coming home from Iraq, our society needs to face up to our wounded warriors and their deeper needs.  This story is one that reminds us of their humanity, their need for understanding and not pity, their strengths that have been compromised by grief over the loss of comrades, often in circumstances that cause them to feel that they have failed.

This story was published December 2010, but it is one that bears reading and carries an important message to families and friends left here at home.   It cost Megan a great deal to find her possible solution, but for her the payoff was the important issue.  This story does indeed embrace some light BDSM but it is not really about these practices.  Rather, it is about finding a way to heal someone whose healing is more important than anything else.  It is about giving and serving and being available however the one who is loved really needs.  It is about the empowering quality of authentic love and about the fact that we all may, at some time in the future, have to help ourselves or someone we love accept the inevitable evils of war and its damage, and then find a way to walk forward together.  I give this story a rating of 4.25 out of 5.

Are You Who I Think You Are? "Intimate Exposure" by Portia De Costa

From the moment Red Webster arrived at executive Vicki Renard's firm, sparks flew between them. The photographer is supposed to create a company profile for its new owner, but he spends most of his time flirting with her. His sexy teasing infuriates Vicki...and piques a desire to submit to him. His hypnotic eyes promise what she's been secretly craving: a sexually dominant master, like the ones in her favorite erotic novels.

Investigating his new business incognito, billionaire F. W. Shanley--aka Red--is turned on by Vicki's fiery personality and undeniable beauty. When he discovers her reading a BDSM novel on her eReader, he knows he's found a woman who shares his desires and promises to be a challenging submissive.

When Red arranges a weekend at a secluded hotel, Vicki agrees to indulge in no-strings-attached erotic fun. But can she commit to this kind of life with Red when he realizes they can have so much more?

I don't think it is a secret that the "face" we present to the world is often very different than what we know about ourselves or what we would want others to know about us. In fact, we often seek to present an external demeanor that is what we think others want to see in us. Now think on this: Dr Robert Schuler made this statement: "I am not what I think I am. I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am." I have to admit that when I first heard that I was scratching my head for a bit until I got the point. That quote has been very helpful for me for many years and I think such is the case at the heart of this story.

No getting around, however, that the hero of this novella deliberately is portraying himself quite differently to Vicki and her co-workers than what he is in his normal life. He is not a "simple" anything as he functions as a business magnate of international reknown. Yet here he is working as a "simple" photographer with an eye to looking over one of his businesses in order to get on the inside where he can judge the routines, relationships, and attitudes of his employees. The last thing he ever expected is to run into a woman like Vicki with her beauty, her intelligence, and her interest in the "darker" and kinkier aspects of sexuality. His kind of woman, as it turns out.

This is a short read with some interesting BDSM ingredients and encounters but which are well told and which are safe, sane, and consensual. Yet at the heart of this story is the desire by a man who has everything for a relationship that can fill his heart, his emotional well with authentic love, something he has wanted and needed for a long time. It won't take a long time to read this story but it will be a fun read and one that is right down the alley of those who really like erotic romance. Ms de Costa is a very good writer and has done well with a smaller literary format in telling a well-balanced story. If you like a good love story spiced up with a little bit of BDSM, you'll like this one. I give it a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

This novella was released by Carina Press in February, 2012.

Better Late Than Never: Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak

This was the FIRST historical romance written by author Brenda Novak over twelve years ago but through a strange set of circumstances and coincidences, its publication was delayed.  Yet its story is such a feat of good writing and story development.  So I am reviewing it here in the hopes that those who really love historical romance will find it and add it to their library.  I got it through All Romance eBooks and I am so glad I did.  I immediately went back and got the next historical romance by this author and I am about half way through that one.

He Was a Man Who Took What He Wanted.
And He Wanted Her.

To escape her cruel stepfather, seamstress Alexandra Cogsworth envisioned sailing far from England . . . though not as a captive aboard a pirate's ship.  Pirate Captain Nathaniel Kent's strategy for exacting revenge on his cold-hearted father involved taking a valuable hostage . . . not a seamstress he mistakenly thinks is his half sister.

Yet fate has designs of its own, landing them both on board the Royal Vengeance. At sea, Nathaniel intercepts and plunders his father's ships, all the while tormented by his illicit hunger for the tempting prisoner he thinks is his blood relation. And although Alexandra wants no part in this terrifying voyage, to reveal her true identity to the handsome, blue-eyed Nathaniel would invite danger. Not only would she become worthless cargo, but the revelation would surely unleash what she and Nathaniel have been fiercely battling—a rising undercurrent of impossible desire that could sweep them away for good.

Some reviewers have stated that they thought there was so much in this novel because it was a first work and thus contained every thought in the author's head.  I see it differently.  I think it is one of those novels that brings the strands of several people's lives together and weaves them into a literary tapestry.  First there is the heroine--a young woman who has been abused systematically by a stepfather who is still grieving and continues to be so very angry that the woman he loved has died.  Alexandra is too great a reminder of that long departed spouse and in his alcoholic haze, his anger comes out as ever escalating abuse.  The only option is to leave and in that process she collides with the hero, a man whose agenda is very different than his.

Nathaniel Kent is the oldest son of a duke but was born with only half an arm.  Rejected as deformed, he was raised by the housekeeper until she tried to again bring into his father's household but to no avail.  Now as a grown man, Nathaniel is determined to bring his father down by pirating his father's ships.    His agenda causes him to mistake Alexandra for his half-sister, a woman who he seeks to kidnap in order to force his father to release one of his crew being held hostage.  And the story goes from there.

Add in an unexpected clash with his half-brother, a conspiracy to kill Nathaniel by his father and brother, treason, hanging, and so forth.  It is a story that is about the tangled web of hurt, anger, disappointment, and political and legal manipulation.  It's a novel that is the feast for the mind--it's for really thinking readers and those who get turned on by complicated and involved storylines and plots.

Ms Novak has written over 40 novels in the years since this novel was first written and there are a large number of those novels that have been translated into a goodly number of languages.  Suffice it to say that this is a novel well worth the time and effort to read and one that will probably become a favorite for many.   I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

Are You Who I Think You Are? "Intimate Exposure" by Portia De Costa

From the moment Red Webster arrived at executive Vicki Renard's firm, sparks flew between them. The photographer is supposed to create a company profile for its new owner, but he spends most of his time flirting with her. His sexy teasing infuriates Vicki...and piques a desire to submit to him. His hypnotic eyes promise what she's been secretly craving: a sexually dominant master, like the ones in her favorite erotic novels.

Investigating his new business incognito, billionaire F. W. Shanley--aka Red--is turned on by Vicki's fiery personality and undeniable beauty. When he discovers her reading a BDSM novel on her eReader, he knows he's found a woman who shares his desires and promises to be a challenging submissive.

When Red arranges a weekend at a secluded hotel, Vicki agrees to indulge in no-strings-attached erotic fun. But can she commit to this kind of life with Red when he realizes they can have so much more?

I don't think it is a secret that the "face" we present to the world is often very different than what we know about ourselves or what we would want others to know about us. In fact, we often seek to present an external demeanor that is what we think others want to see in us. Now think on this: Dr Robert Schuler made this statement: "I am not what I think I am. I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am." I have to admit that when I first heard that I was scratching my head for a bit until I got the point. That quote has been very helpful for me for many years and I think such is the case at the heart of this story.

No getting around, however, that the hero of this novella deliberately is portraying himself quite differently to Vicki and her co-workers than what he is in his normal life. He is not a "simple" anything as he functions as a business magnate of international reknown. Yet here he is working as a "simple" photographer with an eye to looking over one of his businesses in order to get on the inside where he can judge the routines, relationships, and attitudes of his employees. The last thing he ever expected is to run into a woman like Vicki with her beauty, her intelligence, and her interest in the "darker" and kinkier aspects of sexuality. His kind of woman, as it turns out.

This is a short read with some interesting BDSM ingredients and encounters but which are well told and which are safe, sane, and consensual. Yet at the heart of this story is the desire by a man who has everything for a relationship that can fill his heart, his emotional well with authentic love, something he has wanted and needed for a long time. It won't take a long time to read this story but it will be a fun read and one that is right down the alley of those who really like erotic romance. Ms de Costa is a very good writer and has done well with a smaller literary format in telling a well-balanced story. If you like a good love story spiced up with a little bit of BDSM, you'll like this one. I give it a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

This novella was released by Carina Press in February, 2012.

Welcome, 2012!!

A Happy, Happy New Year to all my followers,

friends, family, and all who stop by to visit.

May this year be filled with sufficient challenges

to keep your mind and heart engaged,

with sufficient joys to salve the hurts and bruises of living,

and sufficient good memories that will remain as

treasures of your heart to be tucked away

and brought to mind in the future.

Many, many blessings to you all!!