The Season Blog » Harlequin

Review: Time Out by Jill Shalvis

Beverley — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:06:00 +0000

Time Out
Author: Jill Shalvis
Publisher: Harlequin/ Blaze
Pub. Date: February 28, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0373796731
Pages: 224
Digital Price: $3.82
Print Retail Price: $5.25
Amazon ~ B&N ~ iBookstore

Sign up for recreational adult programs now!

Class: How to Drive Him Crazy

Instructional program for women unexpectedly facing the totally dishy guy from their past. Everyone welcome!

NHL coach Mark Diego’s plan to spend his off-season volunteering in his hometown goes awry when he learns that not only is he coaching teenage girls, but that the program is coordinated by energetic (and five feet two inches of trouble) coordinator Rainey Saunders, his childhood friend—and the woman he could never stand to see dating any other guy….

When their tempers flare, Mark and Rainey discover their fireworks don’t just burn angry—they burn very, very hot! But that’ll just sweeten the victory. Because Mark always plays to win. And with Rainey, he’s planning on playing very dirty, too…

~*~*~

REVIEW

Rainey helps run a recreation center for struggling youths. She is surprised to see her boss’s brother Mark arrive at the recreation center to help out. He is the head coach for a NHL team and when a few of his team mates get into trouble, he plans to take time off to help volunteer at the recreation center.

He knows Rainey has always crushed on him and it doesn’t help that she has grown into a beautiful woman. He tries his hand at seduction but Rainey is hurt by an event that has happened in the past with Mark. She is not willing to let her guard down now that Mark has returned.

There is not much to this story besides the couple working through Rainey’s insecurity issues and Mark’s dominating and possessing qualities. They are both bossy which makes for some heat in the bedroom. :) There is no real angst and since the novel is so short, I’m not sure what more the author could have added to their storyline.

This is a cute and entertaining story but it is also not memorable. Jill Shalvis does execute the steaminess into the short Harlequin book. I would have liked to see more of Rainey and Mark as a couple. It seems as though the book ended when she they finally decided to give it a go.

I recommend this book for fans of Jill Shalvis and who like steamy and spicy novels.

Rating: 3 (Satisfactory)

Heat-Level: 3 (Sensual)

Reviewed by Samantha

Giveaway & Reviews

Beverley — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:04:48 +0000

Two new reviews up! Click on the covers to read reviews. Comment and enter to win MY RUTHLESS PRINCE by Gaelen Foley

And the winners are…

Beverley — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:57:58 +0000

BLAME IT ON BATH by Caroline Linden

PATRICIA PEREZ

*~*~

WELCOME TO LAST CHANCE by Hope Ramsay

LIBRARYPAT

~*~*~

MORE THAN ONE NIGHT & ALL THEY NEED by Sarah Mayberry

TRACEY CARTER

~*~*~

AN HEIR OF DECEPTION by Beverley Kendall (when print version comes out)

KRISTINE

Congratulations, ladies! Please email your snail mail address to me at contests at theseasonforromance dot com and don’t forget to include the title you won. You have one week to collect your prize.

Giveaway: Sarah Mayberry ~ More Than One Night

Beverley — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:49:59 +0000

I was fortunate enough to get to read Sarah Mayberry’s MORE THAN ONE NIGHT several months back. And I do mean fortunate because it was a fantastic book! In Sarah’s usual squeeze-your-heart style, More Than One Night brims with emotion. In a tale of two strangers, whose one night stand turns them into expectant parents, this story is a much more realistic portrayal of the situation than most. More Than One Night is definitely a Top Pick in my book and a must read not only for Sarah Mayberry fans, but for contemporary readers who enjoy rich, realistic, sexy and emotional stories.

Comment to win an advance copy of MORE THAN ONE NIGHT and ALL THEY NEED (Click cover for review and blurb).

More Than One Night
Author: Sarah Mayberry
Publisher: Harlequin/Super Romance
Pub. Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0373717651
Pages: 288
Digital Price: $3.99
Print Retail Price: $5.50
Amazon ~ B&N ~ iBookstore

From bed to baby to…bliss?

A chance encounter. A steamy night together. That’s all Rhys Walker signs on for when Charlotte “Charlie” Long sashays across his path. Sure, maybe he catches a glimpse of forever in her eyes. But the brush-off note the gorgeous brunette leaves the next morning says it all, doesn’t it? Time to move on.

Rhys never expects that moving on actually means reconnecting with Charlie. Or that her big news changes everything. Becoming a father now, under these circumstances, never factored into his plans. Yet he’s not as upset as he thought. Because now he has the opportunity to explore that glimpse of forever…and turn it into reality.

Have you ever picked up a contemporary romance written decades ago?

Beverley — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:17 +0000

by Kat Latham

I had the pleasure last weekend, thanks to the lovely Janet Webb and the power of Twitter.

A few months ago, I tweeted a picture of a statue in the gardens of a stately home in the middle of the Dutch countryside, near where I now live. It’s close to the sea, and the fog was so thick I lost sight of my husband when he was a few feet away. This statue shows how eerily atmospheric the gardens were.

Historical romance novelist Miranda Neville remarked that it looked very Betty Neels, and I said I’d never read any of Betty’s books. Janet and Miranda both told me more about Betty’s work (English nurses move to Holland and marry doctors who end up being filthy rich), and Janet actually sent me one.

How cool is that??

So last weekend I read Betty Neels’ The Little Dragon, published in 1978 – the year before I was born – and it was revelatory. Not only could I see how much romance as a genre has changed, but how women’s hopes, dreams and prospects have changed in real life, too.

Take this description of the heroine, Constantia, walking around an outdoor market with the hero, Jeroen.

They strolled round, the doctor’s hand on her arm, for there was a good deal of good-natured pushing and shoving and as he pointed out, her small slim person would have stood very little chance of staying upright. Constantia, who was remarkably tough despite her fairy-like appearance, didn’t argue the point; it was pleasant to be looked after so carefully.

Small. Slim. Fairy-like. Remarkably tough yet loving having a man look after her. Is this the ideal woman of the 1970s?

Has that changed?

And I loved this bit of praise from the hero when he gets an emergency phone call from work, and Constantia shows she understands he has to go: “What a splendid girl you are—not so much as a pout or frown.”

She’s a nurse! Of course she understands! But no, she’s a girl first and a nurse second.

In fact, her career is clearly just something to do until she finds a husband, which reminded me of my mom’s hopes for her own future. Mom wasn’t a nurse, but she certainly wasn’t encouraged to have a career. I wrote about her dream to be June Cleaver on my blog last week.

In The Little Dragon, Constantia’s career is never once mentioned again once she gets engaged. She doesn’t think about it, refer to it, or use the skills she developed through it. Instead, she essentially becomes Jeroen’s housekeeper and babysitter of his niece and nephews.

Contemporary romance often reflects women’s fantasies for their own lives. Did women who read Constantia’s story when it was first published in 1978 dream of being independent only until a rich man came along?

I really enjoyed the book, mostly because it felt like a historical romance since life has changed so much. But even more, it made me wonder about the contemporary romance published today. What does it say about attributes we value in women (slim? fairy-like?)? And what does it show that women today want from life and relationships?

Do you like reading contemporary romance published decades ago? What do you think today’s contemporary romance says about what women want from life and relationships? Thirty years from now, what will people think is strange about our contemporary romance novels

Kat Latham has been reading romance for a couple of decades. With degrees in English lit and human rights, she loves stories that reflect the depth, humor and emotion of real life. When she’s not writing contemporary romance novels, she can usually be found blogging or tweeting overly personal information. She loves meeting other readers and writers online, so follow her on Twitter or check out her blog and say hello!

And the winner is…

Beverley — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:17 +0000

CRASH INTO YOU by Roni Loren

SEVEN DAY LOAN by Tiffany Reisz

is…

CHARLI

Congratulations, Charli! Please email your snail mail address to me at contests at theseasonforromance dot com and don’t forget to include the title you won. You have one week to collect your prize.

Testing your boundaries through Erotic Romance

Beverley — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:53:38 +0000

by Katrina Latham

I’ve never been an erotic romance reader, but lately I’ve been testing my reading boundaries a little more and stretching out to read things that’re different from the contemporary and historical romances I usually choose.

I tell myself it’s because I want to improve my writing skills, but really it’s because I’m curious. (And a bit pervy.)

The first erotic novels I read turned me off completely and, I’m afraid, gave me a distorted view of the sub-genre. They were short books in my local library in London, and their authors had names that would make porn stars look clever. In fact, the books had a lot in common with movies you might find behind a curtain at your video store.

The storylines were no more interesting than the “Did-somebody-call-a-plummer?” plots in those videos. And the characters had more in common with dogs than with humans; they basically wandered around sniffing each other’s crotches before humping away – whether they liked the person or not.

Gross.

But then I “met” some friends online. Clever women who are strong, funny and creative.

Oh, and they write erotic romance.

So I gave their work a try. And guess what? I might be an erotic romance reader after all.

The first of those online buddies is Tiffany Reisz. She offered a free read, Daniel Part Two, on her blog last year, and who am I to turn down a free chance to test my boundaries?

Tiffany’s writing is powerful and entertaining. The witty, compelling characters in Daniel Part Two kept me returning to her blog as she posted a new chapter every week. Her stories are definitely beyond my comfort zone, as they involve a lot of pain (which apparently is pleasurable, though I’ll take her word for it) and sleeping around, but I’ll definitely read more of her work.

The second online friend is Amelia James. I bought Tell Me You Want Me in December and read it in an evening. The book is hot, with loads of sex (of the non-painful variety) and monogamy once the two main characters meet. For a good time, call Amelia James. (Or, better yet, download one of her books.)

The novel that really convinced me I could be an erotic romance reader is Roni Loren’s Crash Into You. *fans blushing face* Holy freakin’ hotness!

I confess, Roni Loren and I were critique partners for a short time before she sold this novel, so I got to read some early chapters. There’s nothing more vicious than a writer who’ll tempt you with an amazing story and then make you wait two years to read more. I ran (okay, drove) to the bookstore the morning Crash Into You was released, and once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down.

Crash Into You is my kind of erotic romance. Even though the focus is on the main characters’ developing sexual relationship, their emotional relationship is very much part of that, enhancing it every step of the way. There’s a deep bond (and a bit of bondage) between these two, and although it’s BDSM, it never scared me the way those early books I read did. Crash Into You is the thinking woman’s erotic romance.

Do you read erotic romance or erotica? What do you think of it? If you don’t read it, what turns you off about it? If you’re on the fence, like me, which authors do you feel are within your reading boundaries and write books that suit your tastes? Comment and enter to win a print copy of CRASH INTO YOU and a digital copy of SEVEN DAY LOAN!

And the winners are…

Beverley — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:36:48 +0000

The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber ~~ Making Spirits Bright by Fern Michaels

LSU READER

WENDY P

~*~*~

The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James

QUILT LADY

Congratulations, ladies. LSU Reader and Wendy, it’s first to respond, first gets to pick. Please contact me at contests at theseasonforromance dot com with your snail mail address and don’t forget to include the title of the book you won. You have one week to claim your prize.

Spending Christmas away from home

Beverley — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:19:53 +0000

by Kat Latham

When I was 23, I was dreading my first Christmas away from my family.

I’d moved to Prague, in the Czech Republic, that summer and had barely enough money to buy crappy food, much less to pay for a flight back to California. So I did what any sane girl would do: I got a foreign boyfriend whose family lived much closer.

Smarty Pants and I got together at the beginning of that October, and we’d only been together ten days when we bought a flight for me to spend Christmas with his family in England. That’s right, ten days into the relationship and I was already committing to a Christmas with a family I’d never met—a family that would become my in-laws four years later.

Since I’d never spent Christmas away from my family before, it hadn’t occurred to me how strange it would be to suffer through someone else’s traditions instead of my own. Of course, I knew different families celebrated in different ways. I’d watched enough Christmas movies to know that not every family invited its strangest relatives to spend hours drinking together and then watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and laughed hysterically about how familiar it was.

But damn, were my family Christmases like Chevy Chase’s. Complete with the mental grandparents and an uncle who actually referred to himself as Cousin Eddie because he knew people cringed when he showed up.

So I was struck dumb when I arrived at Smarty Pants’ childhood home and had a glass of expensive wine thrust into my hand. You see, I have absolutely no alcohol tolerance. I’d told my future father-in-law I didn’t want any, but he ignored me. So I drank out of politeness. And nervousness.

A few minutes later, I was stumbling through the kitchen calling out, “Thanks for the booze, Bryan!”

I can still remember the less-than-impressed look on his face.

Dinner—instead of being a massive pot-luck buffet of dishes that were easy and could feed 30—was a formal sit-down affair with several incredible courses, all prepared by Smarty Pants’ mum, a lovely woman who missed her calling as a gourmet chef. The food—God, the food!—was amazing, and I discovered a load of new dishes and vegetables I’d never heard of before: celeriac, rum butter, Christmas pudding—which she covered in brandy and set on fire!

But the meal lasted forEVER. In my family, no meal lasts more than 20 minutes. And that’s for a real celebration, like a wedding. We tend to hoover things up within minutes. Sitting at a table with people I was desperately trying to impress for over TWO HOURS nearly killed me. I kept excusing myself from the table so I could stand in the hallway shaking my shoulders and head like a prize fighter, whispering to myself, “You can do it. You can do it. Surely they can’t sit there much longer. There’s gotta be some kind of sports game on TV soon. The men’ll get bored and head for the couch.”

No such luck. So every 20 minutes or so, I excused myself again for another pep talk. They probably thought I had the trots.

Over the years, I started getting used to those long dinners and really enjoy my English Christmases now. This year, we’re with my family in California, so Smarty Pants will probably be enjoying a nice Christmas lasagna and being teased by my brother for using a napkin. And utensils.

Have you spent Christmas away from your family and the traditions you’re used to? How did you fare? Comment and enter to win a copy of THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber or MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT by Fern Michaels et al.

What would make your Christmas perfect?

For Cassie Beaumont, it’s meeting her perfect match. Cassie, at thirty-three, wants a husband and kids, and so far, nothing’s worked. Not blind dates, not the internet and certainly not leaving love to chance.

What other options are there? Well…she could hire a professional matchmaker. Simon Dodson has quite a reputation, but he’s very choosy about the clients he takes on—and very expensive. Cassie considers him a difficult, acerbic know-it-all, and she’s astonished when he accepts her as a client.

Claiming he has her perfect mate in mind, Simon assigns her three tasks to complete before she meets this paragon. Three tasks that are all about Christmas: being a charity bell-ringer, dressing up as Santa’s elf at a mall and preparing a traditional turkey dinner for her neighbors (most of whom she happens to dislike). Despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie does it all—and then she’s finally ready to meet her match.

But just like the perfect Christmas gift, he turns out to be a wonderful surprise!

~*~*~

Secret wishes, sweet surprises, and gifts straight from the heart. Delight in this season’s most joyous presents with these four sparkling tales. . .

“Making Spirits Bright” by Fern Michaels

Melanie McLaughlin desperately wants to adopt two orphaned siblings and give them a real home for Christmas. A just-for-the-holiday marriage to Bryce Landry fits her plan perfectly. . .until unexpected sparks have Melanie dreaming of forever by his side. . .

“Runaway Christmas” by Elizabeth Bass

A glass of wine, lounging in pajamas, and catching up on movies—that’s Heidi Bogue’s idea of a perfect Christmas. Until her thirteen-year-old niece makes a surprise visit—and a snowstorm turns Heidi’s café into a community refuge. Now one handsome cop is giving Heidi plenty more reasons to celebrate. . .

“Home For Christmas” by Rosalind Noonan

Jo Truman needs a replacement Santa for her gift shop’s Christmas Eve party. She’ll do whatever it takes to convince lonely soldier Sam Norwood that he’s perfect for the part…and that the season for love is always. . .

“Christmas On Cape Cod” by Nan Rossiter

Maddie Carlson would do anything for her best friend. And helping Asa Coleman babysit a rambunctious puppy Christmas Eve night is her one chance to help the troubled teacher put his past to rest. . .and give the sweetest gift of all.

Giveaway: Jackie Barbosa is Spicing things up by Taking Liberties

Beverley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:18:56 +0000

Making Sausage
(or The Ugly Way Stories Sometimes Get Written)

By Jackie Barbosa

Sometimes, a story seems to write itself. Other times, a story seems to resist being written despite the writer’s best efforts and intentions. Taking Liberties, which comes out today from Harlequin Spice Briefs, definitely fell into the latter category.

It’s hard to say why some stories are so darned hard to write. In some cases, it’s probably because the whole thing was a bad idea in the first place that was never destined to work. That’s happened to me more than once. I have the carcasses of a few manuscripts that never got past the first twenty or so pages because they just weren’t meant to be littering my hard drive.

In the case of Taking Liberties, however, that wasn’t the problem. The problem, in retrospect, was that I sold it to the publisher on the strength of two pitch paragraphs, but aside from the setup described in those paragraphs, I didn’t have the faintest idea of where the story was going. Because the maximum word count for Spice Briefs was 15,000 words (about 50 pages, give or take), I fell into the trap of believing it would write itself. I mean, how hard could it be? I had a hero and heroine who were meant for each other but didn’t know it, a conflict, and some hot sex in mind. No sweat, right?

Except that as I wrote the story without a clear outline, I kept taking wrong turns. I wrote myself into dozens of corners I couldn’t find my way out of. Every time I did it, I’d have to scrap about 5,000 words to get back to where I’d gone in the wrong direction and continue forward. By the time I got 15,000 usable words, I’d probably written three times that many. Some of the words I wrote also wound up needing to be cut because, although I liked them, they weren’t strictly necessary to make the plot hang together and would have put me over the 15,000 word limit.

I did, of course, eventually finish the manuscript and, although when I turned it in, I was sure it was the worst thing I’d ever written in my life (mainly because I’d long since gotten sick of it), I’ve since reread it a few time and I almost can’t believe it’s the same story. Because, you know, it’s actually a lot of fun. The heroine, Tish, is funny and clever and the hero, Nash, makes me a little swoony because he knows what he wants (Tish) and will stop at nothing to get her.

Because Taking Liberties is a brief, I thought you might enjoy reading one of the “outtake” scenes I mentioned above. This one, between Tish and her older sister, Beatrice, is one of my favorites. I hope you like it, too.

“Ouch!” Tish popped the digit she had just absentmindedly stabbed with her sewing needle into her mouth. She had never been particularly skillful at stitchery—much to her mother’s chagrin—but she was even worse at it when she was distracted.

And she was considerably more distracted than usual.

She glanced at the clock above the mantel again. What could be taking so long? She had sent the footman out first thing this morning with the invitations. He should have been back hours ago with the responses, and yet it was approaching high tea with no word.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or are you just going to poke yourself until you’ve as many holes as a pincushion?” Beatrice asked in her best older sister voice. The voice that, when they were children, inevitably led to Tish being locked in a wardrobe or finding a frog—or worse—in her bed if she failed to comply. “I know you didn’t invite me here this afternoon just to sit and do needlework.”

Irked at being found so transparent, Tish removed her finger from her mouth and jutted out her lower lip. Beatrice was surely past amphibians by now, and Tish wouldn’t fit in a wardrobe anymore. At least not without a great deal of compacting, and that would require cooperation, which she would not be inclined to give.

“Perhaps I just wanted to spend a few companionable hours with my sister.”

Beatrice rolled her eyes. “So you could spend our entire time together in pursuit of one of your least favorite activities while simultaneously checking the clock every few minutes and jumping whenever a servant comes into the room? I know you better than that. You want to tell me, you know you do.”

The truth was, Tish had wanted her sister’s company solely keeping her mind off the scandalous thing she had done. If even one of the gentlemen breathed a word…well, her father wouldn’t be able to marry her off to the mustiest, goutiest, poorest aristocrat in all of England.

With a sigh of resignation, she set aside her (sampler) and sent a furtive glance toward the salon door. The last thing she need was the untimely arrival of a servant in the middle of her confession. “Papa has given me until next Friday to choose a husband, or he will choose for me.”

Instead of evincing sympathetic horror, Beatrice laughed. “Did you really think he would let you string along forever?”

“Three years is hardly forever.”

“It’s long enough,” her sister countered. “I was only out a Season.”

“And look where that got you,” Tish snapped, more harshly than she intended. Her sister paled, and Tish was instantly contrite. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

Beatrice set her needlework—the straight, even stitches in sharp contrast to Tish’s haphazard ones—on the gold velvet settee beside her and sighed. “Yes, you did, because it’s the truth.” Her sage green eyes misted over. “Albemarle doesn’t love me and never did. If it weren’t for the baby…” She pressed her hand to her belly, which had only just begun to swell, and the hint of a smile curved her lips.

As pleased as Tish was that her sister had something to be happy about again, she refused to take the chance of following in Beatrice’s footsteps. “I’m afraid,” she admitted.

Beatrice’s expression sobered. “Of marrying badly?”

Tish nodded. “I need to be sure that I choose the right man. I want to be madly, deliriously in love with him—and for him to be equally in love with me.”

You can read the first chapter of Taking Liberties at my website and comment here to enter to win a digital copy!