BOOK REVIEW (4): Boardroom Baby Surpise

BOOK REVIEW:

Boardroom Baby Surprise

So another review, another baby story…

Also another romance by Jackie Braun—who seems to love babies as much as I do (or maybe I just keep ending up with all her pregnancy/baby stories)…

But I enjoyed her last book and unlike that book, Boardroom Baby Surprise has a pretty crazy hook: the heroine, Morgan Stevens goes into labour in the hero, Bryan Caliborn’s conference room/board room.

What?!

I thought that was crazy clever…and also very, very awkward and painful and memorable in the Fates-don’t-let-that-happen-to-me way. xD

So Morgan gives birth early on and the baby is in the picture in most of the scenes after. Though between babies and children, I find those readers who don’t like kids (or at least don’t like reading about kids) need not worry because the infant doesn’t have any lines…

Baby Brice is just sorta there as a really, super cute prop.

Like an extra! A really, super cute extra…

Once again, warning: this story is a sweet romance. Usually babies indicate a sweet, wholesome-type romance. And this story was more wholesome than some of the Harlequin Romances I’ve read.

There is no sex in this one at all. It’s not even hinted at. There is none. (I don’t think it’s a spoiler, just a forewarning). Of course there’s plenty of well-written sexual tension. Bryan and Morgan have chemistry and it works—they work as a couple!

And the trick is their internal conflicts mesh really well to create those charged scenes, even if Morgan is actually very mellow and temperate, and Bryan is level-headed and a plan-before-he-speaks type of guy.

I loved that they were thrown together, even if it is a little over-the-top where Morgan’s pregnancy, delivery and new baby were rivaled against the fact she has no job, very little savings and was a state away from home with no family, which was the only thing that endangered my suspension of disbelief throughout the story.

IRL I believe a young mother would live at a women’s shelter of some sort until she could find some stability in terms of shelter and a job. BUT because this is a romance and a very short one at that Morgan just needs Bryan to swoop in and rescue her financially.

I don’t blame the author for this. For love’s sake, Mills & Boon’s logo is “pure reading pleasure” and I don’t think as a reader I would love to read about how Morgan struggles, fails, struggles some more, succeeds…it wouldn’t be romance anymore. Surely not short, category romance.

Still it pissed me off. I’ll be honest. It seemed too easy…

And maybe the whole secretary/receptionist/assistant-fiasco with Bryan and his ex-secretary/receptionist/assistant also added salt to that wound.

Let it be known: I don’t like stories where jealousy is not done well; where a woman—and it’s usually a woman—is bashed or something really dumb happens like the jealousy begins to take over the other priorities in someone’s life. And I know. I’m not naïve, I know there are crazy people out there in the world who take that jealousy to a whole new level of ‘WTfudge’, but I don’t want that craziness in my romances.

For instance I give props to Ms. Braun for working Bryan’s brother Dillon into the picture without making him look like an arsehole who mooched off of mummy, daddy and his more responsible older brother.

The story ends as expected with a HEA and yeah, a lot of feel good moments with this one.

So if you want to graduate to a book with more baby scenes, give Boardroom Baby Surprise a chance! You’ll love Morgan and Bryan—and baby Brice’s story.

I couldn’t help myself…

:)

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (3): Falling for the Rebel Heir

BOOK REVIEW:

Falling for the Rebel Heir

So far out of all the romances I’ve read recently…yes, I’m counting December. (For me that’s a lot with very little non-romance read breaks); Ally Blake’s Falling for the Rebel Heir is the most…poetic read?

It works because the heroine, Kendall York is a Lit major who gets the hero, Hudson “Hud” Bennington the III onto Shakespeare, and the hero’s supposed to be the broody, artsy type and all, yet it sort of threw me for a loop sometimes.

Most probably just me, but I kept re-reading a lot of lines trying to understand what was going on. If it was introspective, then I had trouble connecting with the emotion(s) trying to be defined...

Despite all this, I liked the book. A lot.

There were so many great lines (and now I’m regretting not documenting them along the way for this review). But here’s an easy one I found (at the end of the book—last paragraph, so I’m totally cheating):

As usual such sweet intimacy wasn’t enough. He lowered his head further, placing his lips over hers, branding her and marking his place for later. For another night spent in a strange bed, in a strange town, a million miles from where she’d ever thought she’d end up, but in the same pair of strong arms she knew she’d sleep in for the rest of her life.

The plotting was (is?) amazing!

For a 50K novel, there wasn’t too much of a word count allowance, but Ms. Blake really managed to weave the internal conflict pushing apart Kendall and Hud from page one. And it isn’t “bigger than the universe” type conflicts. Like the very enclosed setting of the book—most of the story takes place in this slightly decrepit mansion bordered away from the nearby small town by woods—Kendall’s issues with her body and self-confidence, and Hud’s wanderlust cure for loneliness echoes the insular environment throughout most of the story.

Also warning! This is a sweet romance. Remember that means no sex on page, and the story was more of a HFN with more room than usual for certain milestone markers in Hud and Kendall’s future.

What I didn’t like:

Hud’s name. I thought I would get used to it. But it continued to jar me. I’m not a stickler for character names. It’s like judging someone IRL for having a name you might never consider for your child… It’s dumb. Yet it’s there. It bothered me, and I’m taking it into account. Hud was a stupid nickname. I personally would have liked him to have just stayed Hudson. But that’s just me. –shrugs-

The really open end—what did Kendall and Hud decide on? I felt like there wasn’t much of a relationship compromise. Or the compromise wasn’t very clear…? Who knows…

What happened to Orlando? Again, not clear. I’m assuming Kendall’s good friend-slash-roomie has the deaf, old dog in her care, but I didn’t notice much of a connection between the two to make me believe Kendall’s dog is in her care. And this point brings me to the one above. Maybe all the florid language confused me and I missed something. Which might be my fault, but I don’t remember there being much info on this.

I did love the characterization as well as the plot. Ms. Blake really knows how to make her characters work and in the world of romantic literature, characters always come first. If they fall flat, their goals, motivations and conflicts fall flat and the plot will collapse in on itself.

Still if you’re looking for a feel-good book (and like me, possibly wondering if Kendall’s friend/roomie, Taffy, has her own story!), I recommend your reading Falling for the Rebel Heir.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮

(4 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (2): Expecting a Miracle

BOOK REVIEW:

Expecting a Miracle

After nearly a week without any romance, I greedily devoured Jackie Braun’s Expecting a Miracle in two days. Two days! That’s big for me.

And what a HEA!

I really liked Expecting a Miracle. I should warn though that it includes a baby. Not throughout most of the book, but I know that some readers are not into that thing.

I should also warn that this book is a sweet romance. That means no explicit sex scene(s). The language is euphemistic and the reader is left to put two-and-two together…or if you really are feeling gypped out of a sex scene, then write a fanfiction. ^^

So the story follows Lauren Seville, city girl into the countryside of New York to a lovely little town called Gabriel’s Crossing. There she decides to wait out the storm of her divorce and at the time it seems like a great idea until she starts falling for her land lord.

She’s pregnant, still sorta married and yeah…she’s pregnant.

But hero Gavin O’Donnell—Lauren’s land lord—also has his problems: he’s not so fresh out a divorce himself and he’s got trust issues. He’s the type of guy that wears his heart on his the sleeve of his work shirt and which is way I fell in love with him in the first place!

That and any description of a guy in nothing but work jeans kinda makes me happy.

But he’s starting to come around with his sexy-as-hell, pregnant tenant. It comes off like a city girl meets country boy romance, but Gavin’s loaded guys. And he’s not country, he just fits in right that. Lauren doesn’t do too bad herself. I find that it’s more that both of the characters begin an exodus from their high-powered city lives to the tranquility of their country lives.

Of course they end up running away from their personal problems into each other’s arms. Remember though! There’s enough sexual tension to keep readers tethered to those 180-odd pages.

Other things I might as well note on:

This book moved at a fast pace, but its timeline follows the first month-ish of the Lauren’s pregnancy to the birth of her baby. So pretty fast… Truthfully though given what had to be organized conflict-wise, it required time to go by otherwise the plot would have been unrealistic.

And there’s a baby! You know, if the cover didn’t give anything away.

Along with the baby, though, there’s a glimpse into the labour/hospital process—which was interesting. First time I’ve had that experience with a romance. (Clearly I don’t read medical romances.)

I don’t have anything bad to say about this book.

Like not one thing comes to mind to make me hate it.

I mean, let me give you proof--> here's a favourite scene where Gavin helps a very pregnant and in labour Lauren with shaving her legs:

After he put a towel on the floor under her feet, he slathered one leg with the shaving gel and got down to business. After several long, even strokes he'd completed the first one.

"You're pretty good at this," she said.

"Well, I've had a lot of practice."

Her eyebrows shot up at that.

"On my face," he clarified and they both laughed.

***

Haha! Love it.

But I mean conflict-wise because of the concept of a woman pregnant with another man’s baby, I expected some male jealousy and all. But there’s none of that.

And that’s really more of a warning than a spoiler! Don’t go expecting Alpha heroes to rear their heads… Gavin is most definitely no Alpha in the strictly “I-am-your-ALL” sense. Hehe.

In fact I'd say Gavin was very...naive? At least with certain topics. For instance, another scene I enjoyed, and for context's sake Gavin has just complimented Lauren on her sexiness or something and he's trying to brush off the embarrassment when she catches him in the not-so subtle act:

He fiddled with the handle of the spatula, his gaze fixed on it rather than on her when he admitted, "I don't know if I'm supposed to say stuff like that about a pregnant woman."

What? Gavin! You should know better. Pregnant woman definitely still qualify for compliments and charm and flirtation and word foreplay...

Don't worry, Lauren sets his courage straight right after:

"I'm a woman first, Gavin. And I won't always be pregnant."

*wink, wink*

So conflict-wise there isn’t much melodrama. Don’t expect anything over-the-top here, argument-wise… Lauren and Gavin are really battling their own insecurities and they just so happen to find comfort in talking and advice-giving with one another.

You’ll have to read for all the lovely sexual tension and to find out just how that HEA works out.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (1): The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven

BOOK REVIEW:

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven

First review of 2015—

And I do believe I chose a great book!

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven by the father-son duo Kevin & Alex Malarkey is exactly the kind of mind frame I needed entering this New Year: why? Because on a personal level I’m feeling lost at the moment…

What this biography (semi-autobiography?) taught me to look at the forest and not just one tree—even if it’s the size of a giant cedar—and that saying is in the book used by the father, Kevin Malarkey.

It’s Christian non-fiction though, and I’m not Christian.

Yet I always felt lighter after reading a chapter or two…

And though I don’t think it’s appropriate to overlook the Christian element—because it’s faith that helped the Malarkeys, still as a non-Christian I know this family’s story continues to touch my memory and heart in a human way.

So this isn’t a review—as how does one review this sort of nonfiction, instead I’ll detail the points I liked the best.

First I enjoyed the set up of the story. Each chapter has two parts: Kevin Malarkey’s account is longer and it starts off the chapter, and the chapter closes with an account from Alex Malarkey. Kevin gives all the details of the accident and Alex gives us some of the goods on Heaven.

And secondly the quotes in the book from others, including Kevin’s father, Dr. William Malarkey—who Alex is the namesake of… There’s also accounts from the Malarkey’s pastor, one of the paramedics who was on the MedFlight rescue team, one of Alex’s younger brothers, Aaron Malarkey, etc. These accounts help flesh out the story and highlight the theme of the importance of community even more.

The only thing I didn’t like about The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven was the vagueness of it… Because it was written mostly by Kevin Malarkey (and understandably because Alex would have required assistance), it felt like too perfectly constructed. And I know coincidences (or fate) can align in the weirdest of ways, but there was a lot of “Come on!” from me.

One scene in particular is the angels that are described by one woman are then supposedly confirmed by another woman who happens to be an artist and who draws the angels over Alex…

Not so believable.

And the book is very much a book that could act as a missionary, or to spread God’s word as Alex wanted (wants?) to be a missionary and his father believes his son’s story is the message from God that should be delivered: making this book have a purpose for its publication—still I think certain parts of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven were…too much.

On a side note, there are also pictures halfway through the read, and I skipped these pictures while I was reading the story for the reason above: I didn’t want to put a face to Alex and his father and mother and the rest of his family just yet. I wanted them to remain faceless, because I felt that seeing their faces while in the midst of reading this small piece of their life story would detract from the words. (And they do say a picture speaks a thousand words…) It felt unfair.

But last night I looked at the pictures…and I started crying. And although Kevin Malarkey has captioned one of the photos with “Please don’t feel bad for us…because we don’t” that I began to understand it wasn’t about the Malarkeys, but rather my own selfish view of the world and my life problems.

This whole book is about trusting (in God, I’ll admit) but in the goodness of others. After an accident like this I noticed that Alex’s parents were so worried about him, particularly his father, who would sometimes reference/redirect his frustration onto the doctors.

In the end I don’t have any regrets reading the Malarkeys’ story.

It was quick. It got to the point. It didn’t yank your chain about the subject matter.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

Keeping it short for a year-long worth of dreaming. (Big Dreams Blog Update #15)

It’s New Years’ Eve! See that obligatory fireworks image.

-wipes tears-

And it feels like only yesterday—

Actually I sorta felt all of 2014 go by, because things happened this year. Not big, crazy publication-deal things, but things:

I finished my first novel for instance, and I decided to write a second one—for good measure and all. Make sure the first one wasn’t a fluke.

 I FINALLY set a reading goal I could work with and I’ve wanted to try book reviewing for a long time and I ended up combining & completing both!

Now I'd like to pause here during my speech and thank the 'Do You Have Goals?' blog hop hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred.

For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, the 'Do You Have Goals?' blog hop is all about setting big (IMO crazy) goals and then blogging updates on said goal(s). There are 19 of us now, and there's always room to make that 20, 21, 22...

Think about it.

2014 also marked my 1-year blogiversary.

I never thought starting this blog that I would last a year. But this blog hop kicked my butt into gear and the Update Day blog posts we (typically!) every last Friday of the month was a way for me to look forward to something.

It's like being invited to a birthday party, RSVPing and then showing up without a present.

I didn't want to show up empty-handed to the next Update Day, so I would aim to DO something to write about. Blogging with an update about how "I didn't do anything" wasn't tolerated.

This year I’d like to ground new writing and reading/reviewing goals (and if I’ve learned something in 2014, I don’t do brevity but I’ll try to keep this short).

***

2015 Writing Goal:

Last New Years’ Eve I set a stupid goal of writing 750 words/daily after being inspired by this site: 750words.com.

And it wasn’t that it was stupid so much as it was wrong for me. 2014 definitely taught me—through trial and error—that I’m not the sort of person that works efficiently in a boxed-in scenario. (I tried it during NaNo…yeah. It wasn’t fun those first few days. Cabin fever and whatnot.)

Writing 750 words/daily is a great goal—just not for me! (In fact I gave up on another goal like this where I was planning to write 1 million words by Mother's Day 2016).

Still I ended up writing 274K-worth of completed and in-progress works (>>>look to your write at the word count bars for proof>>>). It snuck up on me as I was completing stories (fiction and fanfiction) and…it hit me. Somehow I ended up reaching a goal I no longer had a care for. Crazy right? (But isn’t that what this blog hop is about…tackling crazy, big goals?)

But even though I kinda wrote 750 words daily I don’t want to rinse and repeat anytime soon.

No. 2015 is just going to be about writing daily. Rather than set a word count goal, I’m going to keep it short. I’m committing to a one-sentence goal.

As long as I write one complete (hopefully grammatically correct) sentence in all 365 days of the coming year then I’ll be as good as gold.

One sentence examples:

“Every year she set the same resolutions.”

“She typed up the blog post before getting ready for the New Years' party.”

"'I can do it!'"

***

2015 Reading + Reviewing Goal:

Last year I set up a reading/reviewing goal. I combined the two because I’ve always wanted to try my hand at regularly reviewing the books I read. Mostly because I’m always sharing details with my family who haven’t read the book and though they look super interested, they’re too polite to tell me to “shut the eff up”.

So that’s where this blog came in handy! :)

My 2014 reading goal was to read and review 30 books. I did that. And then I went on to review 11 other books.

Ahem.

Yes, after reviewing 41 books though I’ve decided that I’m not really cut out to be a professional book reviewer.
Nope. I can’t do it.

Yet I’m renewing the reading + reviewing for 2015—ONLY because I like going back and remembering what I thought about a book sometimes. And it wasn’t all bad… Just not always fun.

So for 2015 I’m going to also up the challenge and aim to read & review 53 books. Why such a crazy number? Because I want to read + review on a weekly basis, and there’s about 52ish weeks of the year. It’ll keep me on my toes.

***

Goal-wise that’s it for me.

Some other stuff I’m going to try to do in 2015 includes baking more, participating in more local 'writerly' activities, saving more and figuring out my personal finances—that sort of stuff.

Happy New Years to all of you, and may 2015 be exciting, memorable and fruitful—hehe, that word—as 2014 has (or has not) been.

See you on the other side…

BOOK REVIEW (41): Persuasion

BOOK REVIEW:

Persuasion

So with the romantic Christmas reading challenge out of the way, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself…so I decided to read. Squeeze in one more book for 2014 before I called it a wrap—

That lucky book is Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I read one of her books earlier this year (Sense and Sensibility) and this one is another of her books that I watched a film version of before actually reading it.

It’s a pattern, really, between JA and I. I watch film adaptations and then get so inflamed I have to read the book. See what’s different between the two and all.

But I don’t really remember the movie as I watched it many, many years ago (at least something like 3-4 years ago). Save for knowing that the protagonist, Anne Elliot (doesn’t that have a lovely ring to it?) gets her HEA. The rest is a blur pretty much so I wasn’t influenced by the film so much.

What’s the deal with Persuasion? Why is it called that anyways?

I’ll tell you.

Persuasion follows 27-year-old Anne Elliot, the second eldest daughter of some fool, prissy/dandy baron and her trials with a father and older sister and younger sister who are all but useless. She’s unmarried, but she’s got a spinster-companion in her older sister. She’s not beautiful, but she’s perceptive and kind-hearted and wife/mother-material. If we were in the Victorian era, Anne Elliot would be the perfect Victorian house angel.

Though plain, Anne was once super beautiful and she had a marriage offer. Unlike the unlucky majority, she actually found a great guy when she was 19 and had been planning to marry him, but her stuck-up family thought Captain Frederick Wentworth as “a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining influence”…so to sum it up: he’s broke and nameless and will probably always be broke and nameless.

So Anne is persuaded from the union. (Get it? :D)

Fast forward eight years later and Anne bumps in Captain Wentworth—a successful naval officer now with his share of great wealth—and it’s like eight years of spinsterhood hadn’t occurred. Neither of them are married (or have been married) and it’s just the perfect atmosphere for a reunion romance.

And because we’re reading JA we know we’re going to get A LOT of drama. I like drama. This has great drama—not too little, not too much. I also liked Anne because not every friggin’ guy was fawning over. I think that’s why I’m all for JA—usually her books don’t have 2+ guys vying over the heroine. If there is a love triangle, it’s more an illusion because one half of the love interests actually don’t care diddly-squat for the heroine and they want some material wealth she owns or has access to. (Which is the case here…)

I liked Anne, too. For the most part, although she reminded me of Anne Bronte’s heroines—like them, Anne Elliot is sorta preachy. Not as preachy as Bronte’s Agnes Grey, for instance, but she’s up there. The novel had footnotes that explained that JA happened to be going through a religious revival or something around the time she was writing this story in 1816, so her ideas clearly leaked into the novel through Anne and her internal monologues. Overall, Anne Elliot was not as bad as the sister-duo from Sense and Sensibility (those two were annoying).

I also liked our hero, Cpt. Frederick Wentworth. He was most certainly NOT a Mr. Darcy, but although he wasn’t an alpha, he had his share of broodiness. There wasn’t too much conversation between him and Anne really, save for after he confesses his feelings for her and whatnot (umm…spoiler?). He’s a good guy. More beta than alpha that’s for sure, but every time he made an appearance I perked up and started reading faster, feeling too much like anxious Anne whenever he was around.

It’s a fairy tale. Anne Elliot is super abused…she’s neglected emotionally and mentally, even if she has everything she wants physically. She’s well off compared to most of the heroines JA writes about (the Bennett sisters anyone? Fanny?), but it’s kinda sad to see her interactions—or lack thereof—with her family. What this girl really needs by the end of it is a HEA (“one HEA please!”) and I’m all the happy she got her just reward for tempering such a silly bunch of blood-related dummies.

All in all Persuasion is almost a moralistic tale, one that applies to the social world and I genuinely believe is more of a universal message (since we don’t really interact in early 2000s like they did in the early 1800s): don’t allow yourself to be persuaded from something you want to do (as long as it isn’t anything harmful to you or anyone else).

A lot of people are held back by the people they love from things they want to do. As an example my family is HELLA supportive of my writing endeavours, but I bring up travelling with my parents and they’ll flip out (“How can you travel alone? What if someone hurts you?” and on and on)…

So take advice as just that, advice. Make sure that you don’t run along with something unless you’ve weighed it with your own feelings and happiness.

And now that I’ve gotten off track, let me return to the review and explain why I don’t give this a full 5 stars.

I didn’t like Anne’s do-goodness…I thought it was over-the-top sometimes. Maybe because I was stuck in her head and I thought it would be pretty cool if the story was told from some other character’s perspective. I mean JA writes her tales as limited third person, though she sometimes peeks into the mind of even minor character, she tends to stick fast with the heroine and generally completely avoids the hero while the wooing occurs.

The book also came to a sudden end. The version I have (Everyman publisher) included an alternative chapter that was replaced by the third and second last chapters (respectively Chapters 22 and 23 were not the originals out of the 24-chapter story). Yet this felt like the shortest of her reads…and in a way it was unsatisfying. I don’t care to read short books. As long as I felt like things are paced nicely—I don’t know what I expected. More teasing, more wooing, more conflict…compared to Sense and Sensibility there wasn’t as much twists and turns.

They meet, they are forced together in awkward social situations, they confess their love, and they get married. The end.

It wasn’t satisfying…lo my rating.

Still I recommend you read Persuasion. It’s not as bas as Sense and Sensibility (and that book wasn’t even that bad!)—give Anne + Cpt. Wentworth a chance. Who knows? It might be a perfect read for you.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮

(4 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (40): Christmas at the Castle

BOOK REVIEW:

Christmas at the Castle

Here is the review of the final book of the 5-book (totally random) Harlequin Christmas Challenge and the only one being reviewed AFTER Christmas. Good thing the book has a plot continuing after Christmas…so it works out! Yes, we’re at the end…time flies by and I’m sad! Sometimes it was hard cranking out these reviews. Particularly the last few days, and I enjoy reading more than gathering my thoughts into a review, but I’ll miss it all. I love the winter holiday and hopefully I’ll get to do more of these.

But I closed off with a winner because this next couple are my favourite couple out of the other 4 I’ve introduced/reviewed on here. Without further ado, let me introduce Angus and Holly…

So like the majority of the romances I’ve read in this Challenge, Marion Lennox’s Christmas at the Castle is part of Harlequin’s line of sweeter/milder romances (basically sex off-page books). But don’t let the ‘sweet’ before romance fool you: this book (like many of the other mild romances) is full of sexual tension. And, as a writer, I find sexual tension is WAY harder to writer!

It reads like a fairy tale-come-true, but Holly’s sassy personality and Angus’ down-to-earth charm ground it in reality. I don’t hate the characters as much when I know they’ve both worked hard for their personal success and wealth. That as characters—aside from the central conflict being their love—they have separate lives.

Angus is a financial wizard and Holly is a chef. He plays the chequebook for Christmas, she’s his fake fiancée. And if that couldn’t get fairy tale enough, there’s a Castle…

Yes, as the new Lord/Laird/Himself, Angus from Manhattan becomes kilt-wearing, village-pillaging, maiden-ravishing Lord Angus McTavish Stuart, Eighth Earl of Craigenstone. For a guy who’s described as the classic ‘Tall, Dark, and Handsome’ alpha, Angus is not much of an alpha. He’s super sweet and SUPER funny (especially with Holly), and quite frankly I’m smitten and I’d wish he would ravish me.

Holly McIntosh is ADORABLE. She’s a combo of ninja + teddy bear. She’s an amazing heroine and possibly the only one I could picture with Angus. To continue the fairy tale motif/plot, Holly is introduced as a talented chef reduced to rags for Christmas and answers Angus’ post for help. Now she has to keep both her hands off him—and his off her because Holly doesn’t want a fairy-tale romance. She’s got too many trust issues and problems with love in general…

“I’ll do this on my own terms, if you don’t mind,’ she said briskly. ‘I need your job. I’d also quite like your fruit cake, but I don’t need anything else.’ (p. 27)

‘Nothing.’ She peeped a smile at him and he saw the return of a mischief that he suspected was a latent part of this woman. ‘So any thought that you might be having your wicked way with the hired help, put out of your mind right now, Lord Craigenstone.’ (p.27-28)

Yeah right. Of course she wants him to have his ‘wicked way’ with her. What red-blooded heterosexual woman wouldn’t? (But did anyone else have a giggle when they read “wicked ways”? Hehe.)

Oh, and from what I’ve learned in this Christmas Challenge, at least one of the characters has beef with Father Christmas and all he stands for.

Angus is the one with the beef in Christmas at the Castle. He’s had a crappy childhood in general and celebrating Christmas (like celebrating birthdays, etc.) was not a family affair. So Angus lacked love and he’s just associated all family-oriented events (like Christmas celebrations) to his own very negative experience.

But there’s always a HEA and I can assure you, dear (future) reader, Angus + Holly get theirs eventually…you’ll have to read for yourselves to find out where, when and how though. ;)

What I disliked: Personally I’m not a fan of the insta-love thing particularly when Holly + Angus quickly move from passionate love (lust) to romantic love (that perfect…or supposedly perfect combo of passionate and companionate love)… But the plot didn’t hoodwink me. I got what I cam for—no refund of my time needed. Just ‘cause I’m an unbeliever of ‘love at first sight’ I also believe I can be convinced, persuaded (ravished?) to the dark side…

There’s hope if I love Romances. And boy, do I love romances. And since I’m going to keep an open mind (and heart), you have to let Christmas at the Castle convince, persuade (ravish?) you, fellow cynic.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)