Yesterday I shared some mini reviews for various category romances I’ve been reading lately. Well…my Harlequin Binge is so out of control, I now have EVEN MORE reviews to share with you today.
Category romance is my life now. #DealWithIt
Title: The Waitress's Secret Series: Sweet Briar Sweethearts #2
Author: Kathy Douglass
Published: August 22, 2017
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 224
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:On the run after a bad breakup, wealthy city girl Arden Wexford ends up stranded in small town Sweet Briar. When hunky chef Brandon Danielson comes to her rescue, offering shelter and a waitressing job until her car is fixed, she reluctantly accepts. But, wanting Brandon to like her for her, not for her money, she doesn't mention her rich roots. The closer they get, the harder it is to untell the lie.
Brandon came here to start over. Things weren't as they seemed with his ex-fiancee, and he got burned! But is it out of the frying pan, into the fire for Brandon as things heat up with this very special waitress?
Tropes: secret heiress + boss/employee
This has got to be the most lowkey rendition of the “hidden identity” / “lying to my significant other about my true name and past” trope. I LOVED IT. The reasons the heroine doesn’t tell everyone in town her real name are 100% justified, but Douglass still acknowledges that the hero (and everyone else) has a right to be hurt and confused by the deception. The love story itself was cute and quiet, and there’s plenty of food porn for those who are into it (hero is a chef).
Title: The Italian in Need of an Heir Author: Lynne Graham
Published: July 1, 2020
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 224
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:No one rejects Raffaele Manzini. Gorgeous, ruthless and successful, he gets what he wants. But strong-willed math prodigy Maya Campbell is his biggest challenge yet. Because if he’s to acquire the company he most desires, they must marry and have a child…
At first, Raffaele’s proposal shocks Maya. But her beloved family is in financial ruin, and this is her chance to save them. Maya’s head might be saying no to the wildly attractive Italian, but her body—and her heart—are saying a very emphatic yes!
Companion novel to Cinderella’s Royal Secret (which I also LOOOOOOOVED).
THIS IS SO GOOD. This is a modern spin on the “marriage of convenience” and “redemption of a damaged rake” tropes that I’m most familiar with in historical romances. The hero here had an absolutely traumatic upbringing and has hella mommy issues, so as an adult he coped by investing in a materialistic lifestyle with lots of flashy women. He sees the heroine as a means to semi-nefarious end, but along the way, we all realize he’s actually a soft boy who loves puppies and would die for his certified-genius, feisty wife.
(Please do note there is a content warning for an on-page miscarriage.)
Title: South Dakota Showdown Series: Badlands Cops #1
Author: Nicole Helm
Published: March 1, 2020
Genre(s): Romance: Suspense
Page Count: 256
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Sheriff Jamison Wyatt has spent his life helping his loved ones elude his father’s ruthless gang of thugs, the Sons of the Badlands. But he’s never forgotten Liza Dean, the one who got away. Now Liza’s sister, a child, is caught in the gang’s most horrifying crime yet—and only Jamison can help her retrieve the little girl from her captors. With only each other in the isolation of the unforgiving South Dakota landscape, can they infiltrate the crime syndicate before it’s too late?
I liked this—as an action/suspense novel with light romantic elements. It’s a second chance romance centering around a couple who grew up in a motorcycle gang / crime syndicate. And I think that perhaps because the couple already had an established love story in the past, Helm didn’t go as deep into their connection as she might otherwise have. Keeping the romantic arc on the periphery of the action is the very reason I so often struggle with romantic suspense, and I was kind of bummed out by the way we barely see moments of emotional intimacy between the protagonists. But! That’s for a very good reason, since the entire book takes place over a 24-hour time period in which (a) the heroine is shot; (b) they’re hiking through “enemy terrain”; and (c) they’re trying to extract a girl from the motorcycle club’s latest enterprise: sex trafficking.
There was a lot going on here, and it’s well written. I just wanted more feelings and less shooting—but that’s definitely a me thing.
Title: Stranded with the Navy SEAL Author: Susan Cliff
Published: November 1, 2017
Genre(s): Romance: Suspense
Page Count: 288
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Working on a cruise ship was supposed to be the perfect distraction for chef Cady Crenshaw. Instead, it made her the perfect target. Abducted and thrown overboard into foreign waters, she has only one shot at survival…and it comes at the hands of an irresistible ally.
Navy SEAL Logan Starke's protective instincts were locked and loaded the moment he met Cady at the ship's bar. When a violent struggle to take down her captors leaves Logan and Cady stranded on a deserted island, he leaps into rescue mode. But the hot sand and the even hotter attraction between them can't be denied…and temptation could be the deadliest threat yet.
This book is like The Blue Lagoon…but different.
Susan Cliff’s Stranded with the Navy SEAL is a satisfying and ever-entertaining castaway novel that’s a bit lighter on the “suspense” bit of romantic suspense. (This is good, by the way—I appreciated that the romance was given more time to develop than any mystery plots, which is a frequent complaint I have with romantic suspense in general.)
I’ve never read a romance where the characters spend the majority of the book stranded on a deserted island, so that was a new and exciting adventure for me. I could tell that Cliff paid attention to detail and tried to be accurate to the local flora and fauna, as well as the realistic capabilities of the characters. The relationship between them develops fast because of the charged situation, but it felt natural and believable.
However, the male protagonist, Logan Nathaniel Starke (he sometimes refers to himself using his full name like a weirdo), was a bit of a ‘roided-up he-man. I think he does grow but sometimes he was a bit much. Like when he finds out that Cady has been having sexual fantasies about him, he’s absolutely gobsmacked, because he thought “women never had such explicit thoughts about men” and it’s like…BOY. Women watch porn, too.
All this aside, I really liked Stranded with the Navy SEAL. The book is well-written, the romance develops nicely, and I had fun with it overall.
