Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

We loved this contemp.

 

We first met Fizzy Chen in The Soulmate Equation, when she and her friend Jess were trying out the algorithmically predictive matchmaking company, GeneticAlly. Jess was paired with its founder, Dr. River Peña, and Fizzy was left to her own romantic devices. It’s a good thing, too, because she counts every experience as fodder for her career as a romance author. It’s something she uses to hide the fact she – a bonafide expert in romance — has never been in love. She’s actually feeling like she may never fall in love.

Fate steps in with documentary filmmaker Conner Prince, who’s been tasked with developing a reality TV show based on Fizzy’s “life work as the central hook.” The authors nearly lost me there because I can’t even with reality TV. But reality TV wrapped in the bubble of a romance novel is entirely different than any number of unwatchable reality shows IRL. The True Love Experiment is what Connor comes up with, and he casts Fizzy as his star. He’s a single father who’s crazy about his daughter, and like Fizzy, wonders if love is in the cards for him. Good thing an experiment requires more than one element to make it pop.

This is a smart story with endearing characters, an enjoyable pace, and a fun premise. I love that Fizzy and Connor have been around the block. They’re in their late thirties and a little cynical about love and happily ever after. That being said, they’re also practical about matters of the heart and the reality of romantic liaisons. Both are employed, have robust friend and family sets, and are generally happy making their way through life. I understand conflict makes for good drama and storytelling, but it’s so refreshing to read about characters who are actually happy in life and satisfied professionally, and decide that taking a risk – both emotionally and romantically – isn’t going to kill them.

 

It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.


Looking for smokin’ hot sex scenes? Howard has them down in this romantic suspense novel!

 

Jane’s character made the book for me. There’s a lot to like about her. Physically, she resembles a regular woman, not a Miss America contestant. She’s brave, optimistic, and survival savvy, but she has very believable moments of anger, fear, and insecurity. A traumatic experience as a child has made it difficult for her to have close relationships. The only thing I found improbable was that, given her wariness in relationships, Jane fell so completely for Grant in only two days.

Grant is everything we know and love about Linda Howard heroes. He’s tough, masculine, and handsome, and he doesn’t waste time trying to be polite. He’s feeling physical stirrings for Jane before the gunfire has completely died down. In a nude bathing scene similar to the one in Heart of Fire, Jane is made aware of her effect on him. As the saying goes, seeing is believing.

There were moments when I wished for a chance to knee Grant myself. When they’re found by Tupelo, Jane throws herself at him as a strategy and Grant gets the wrong idea. Later, when Jane tries to explain, he rebuffs her not once but three times. While it annoyed me that he took his sweet time to acknowledge his feelings for Jane, I admired his self-awareness. As a hired assassin he’s spent years being emotionally detached. It’s natural for him to question his ability to sustain a normal relationship with Jane. Not that it stops him from seducing her. No locale is safe from their burning passion. They make love in their tent, a cave, a shower, and (eventually) a bed. These scenes are hot stuff – and not just because the story’s set in the tropics. They would still smolder if they took place in Antarctica. This couple is also a good match out of bed: Jane is the first woman to challenge Grant, and his damaged psyche brings out her tender, nurturing side.

 

It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.

 


Looking for old skool fun? Here you go!

 

The Normans have just conquered England and Merrick has been awarded the castle of Brynwald. There he encounters Alana, bastard daughter of the former lord. Since she might foment rebellion, he takes her as his prisoner.

Alana is torn in several ways. Not only is she technically a peasant who cannot aspire to be more than the mistress of a lord, she has the gift of true dreams and they warn her away from Merrick. She finds him a lot nicer than he seems, but he has turned her noble sister into a servant and forbids her to see her old friend Aubrey in the village. Merrick, on the other hand, suspects there are enemies and traitors around, and finds it difficult to take Alana at her word. Not only do her actions not exactly inspire trust, but she is a mouthy handful, however lovely.

In fact, it is Alana’s big mouth that instigated the early wall-banging incident. Let’s just say that if I had just been saved from being gang-raped, I’d have been a bit more polite. Some readers might find Alana and Merrick’s incessant “now I trust you, now I don’t” a stumbling block.

This book contains sex scenes between the villains that perpetuate the tradition that only bad girls are allowed to freely explore their physical desire. Heroines can only do that with the hero, and only after having been thoroughly bedded by the hero for most of the book.

 

It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.


We LOVE this one.

 

I think most aspiring historical romance writers would like to be Julie Garwood when they grow up. I know I would. Her stories always give me a smile, a laugh and a tear. I love them all, but my favorite Garwood book has always been The Secret.

This book grabs you from the first page and never lets go, beginning when four year old Judith, an English girl, befriends four year old Frances Catherine, a Scots lass, at a border fair. Over the years, they share their deepest secrets. Frances Catherine fears giving birth, and when she becomes pregnant by her Highland husband, Patrick, she sends for Judith. Her husband’s brother, Laird Iain Maitland, is elected to fetch her. Iain believes Judith, being English, won’t honor her promise to Frances Catherine. To his surly surprise, he finds Judith waiting on her doorstep.

Iain immediately decides Judith will be difficult. And she is, but not in the way he expects. She’s polite, stubborn, sweet, tender-hearted, brave and beautiful. He’s used to women cowering at his slightest frown, but Judith stands up to him. He soon finds he can’t even look at her without being torn by desire. Desire for an Englishwoman? Impossible!

Judith also feels attracted to the huge, scowling Scots laird. Despite Iain’s bluster, she sees an intelligent man with a kind heart, an arrogant confidence in his abilities, and a fierce handsomeness that makes her heart pound!

When Iain decides a kiss will get her out of his system, it backfires. He wants her more than ever. Judith wants Iain to kiss her again. Even though they agree nothing can ever come of their attraction, desire and fate keep throwing them together.

 

It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.


It is a bit more than our usual Steal and Deal, but this recent Eloisa James is a winner.

 

Good lord, was this charming! I fell fairly quickly for The Reluctant Countess, with its likable characters and high angst quotient. However, I was a little disappointed by the way the conflict balances itself on misunderstandings and outside interference.

Lady Yasmin Régnier was coaxed into a false marriage at the age of sixteen by a fortune hunter who hoped that despoiling Yasmin would land him the family’s estate, which was a gift from Napoléon to Yasmin’s mother, a former courtesan who was once his mistress. A heartbroken Yasmin very fortunately has no ‘consequences’ to deal with, and her father gets rid of the man by calling his bluff, but she is understandably scarred and changed by this manipulation. Her parents blame her for being foolish and soon ship her off to relatives in England to avoid the scandal.

But Yasmin does not let the incident dim her inner light. Ten years later, she’s become a flirtatious and lighthearted member of the ton. She wears daring, clinging dresses, but in private does not give herself over to temptation.

Giles Renwick, Earl of Lilford, is a man of great dignity. He is stuffy, fussy and concerned with his reputation as a way of distancing himself from his father’s poor decisions and the general self-interest both his parents. He has no intention of succumbing to the urges his fellow members of the ton so wantonly display. And yet he’s highly attracted to Yasmin, who is light and gossipy and silly. They get on like oil and water; he’s recalcitrant, she talks too much. He’s only here because he needs to keep an eye on his teenage sister, Lady Lydia, while she goes through her Season. And yet… Giles reliably queues up at every single ball to spend time with Yasmin.

Life is not easy for Yasmin. People gossip about her and her family constantly, though they are unable to cast her out of polite society thanks to the influence of her grandfather. Giles needs a woman who is countess material, and Yasmin does not appear to be this – an opinion Lydia holds and uses to help drive a wedge between them. Will love conquer all?

The Reluctant Countess rings with James’ ear for warmth and romantic connections. Yasmin is the only person alive who can charm Giles into smiling; Giles is protective of Yasmin and her reputation. Their chemistry is electric. And yet James trips across the old miscommunication trope – and miscommunication due to an interfering relative to boot.

 

It’s at Amazon for 4.99 here.


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