Corrine read and liked Beanbag Love's review of Don't Tempt Me:

"This isn't the best Loretta Chase book, but it's certainly not near the worst. It's actually very enjoyable. The end peters out a bit strangely, but overall this book was much better than I thought it would be based on other reviews I've seen.
...more This isn't the best Loretta Chase book, but it's certainly not near the worst. It's actually very enjoyable. The end peters out a bit strangely, but overall this book was much better than I thought it would be based on other reviews I've seen.

Lucien and Zoe are a really great couple. Chase does her patented and peerless manipulation of the reader to make a hero who is a paradigm of lazy, arrogant, selfishness actually lovable. The specifics fill out the model and you just have to feel for the guy in so many ways. He's amusing, sexy, and needs a hug. Only he's in denial about the hug part.

Zoe is precocious, but has some very amusing moments as well. Raised from the age of twelve in a harem after being kidnapped while traveling with her parents, she's relearning the little she knew of British society before her abduction, and heaping on top of that all the new knowledge that a woman of 24 will be needing. She has problems with her inhibitions and loose tongue and some of the most hilarious terms for male and female genitalia I've read, as well. And, yes, she's still a virgin. The explanation for this is decently believable, so don't think it'll take you out of the story when you get to that part.

As I said, there's an odd petering out at the end. I can't explain it. There are things happening that should seem like an adventurous climax, but it just wasn't pulling me in. It wasn't awful by any means. I enjoyed the book as a whole very, very much. It's just something I can't quite put my finger on. I also wish there had been an epilogue. I often wish that. Maybe I'm spoiled, but they are a couple that one simply must see as parents. (less) "

Corrine read and liked Auntee's review of Two Plus One:

"Darn, I just lost the review I'd just written...*sigh*

Okay, here I go again...This was a short story (50-something pages) about a 33 year old college math professor (Briony Swift) and her affair with her two former students, 27 year old N...more Darn, I just lost the review I'd just written...*sigh*

Okay, here I go again...This was a short story (50-something pages) about a 33 year old college math professor (Briony Swift) and her affair with her two former students, 27 year old Nic and Leo. Although technically they weren't her students when the affair began, something about it came close to being 'icky" for me.

Briony's petite, pretty, and smart, but she has a bum leg (she walks with a big limp and uses a cane) that she injured while skiing as a teen. The accident has left her scarred physically as well as emotionally, and she finds comfort in her ordered world of math where one plus one equals two and there are no surprises.

Dark and hunky friends Nic and Leo are college students but also successful travel writers who have already published a book. They spot Briony working out in a gym and follow her for two years before they make their move and take her Algebra class (which they don't need). Towards the end of the semester they decide that they can't take it anymore--being around Briony and not being able to do more is driving them crazy! So they decide to drop her class--and proposition her (in graphic terms). Since they would no longer be her students, there's nothing standing it their way from having her, right?

Briony is shocked with Nic and Leo's proposition--she had no idea they felt that way about her, although she had noticed they paid particularly close attention to her in class. And if she could admit it to herself, she had noticed how utterly attractive they are. But they're her students--it's wrong, wrong, wrong to feel that way! But if they're determined to drop her class so they could be with her, then maybe...?

Well, this develops just as you'd expect. After a little cajoling, Briony takes Nic and Leo up on their offer, and has a little weekend fling with them. Briony is used to living a vanilla life, and Nic and Leo are anything but vanilla. The threesome have some hot times, and even include an icicle to help 'cool' Briony off. But of course, someone from work finds out just what's putting the 'smile' on Briony's face, and trouble ensues. Will Briony chose the safety of her career, or will she throw caution to the wind and take her chances with Nic and Leo?

Hmm. I thought this was a pretty well-written story, and despite the subject matter, it was by no means a total sex-fest. (Although those scenes were certainly hot). I just wished I liked the characters a bit more. Nic was sort of a hot-head when he didn't get his way, and I thought both he and Leo bordered on the stalkerish. They had this idea that once they saw Briony, she was "the one". They were big believers in fate, kismet, etc, and were kind of relentless in their pursuit. I'm just wondering what they would've done if Briony told them she wasn't interested. I also didn't totally buy it that after one weekend together, they were "in love". Ahh, Romancelandia...

There is an epilogue in this one, which I found a bit preposterous. I guess anything's possible...If you're not bothered by the whole "hot for teacher" vibe or a couple of stalkerish heroes, you may enjoy this one. And you'll probably enjoy the erotic sex scenes (don't forget about the icicle). I wasn't totally sold on this one, but it's good enough to rate 3 1/2 stars. (less) "

Corrine read and liked Verity's review of The Wife Seduction (Romance):

"When I read the back blurb, the 1st thought that crossed my mind : uh-oh hero gets caught w/ his fiery pants down & now he’s in a doghouse ! =^P

It was luv @ 1st sight for Oliver & Anna @ a gift shop (on a ferry). He follows her, they s...more When I read the back blurb, the 1st thought that crossed my mind : uh-oh hero gets caught w/ his fiery pants down & now he’s in a doghouse ! =^P

It was luv @ 1st sight for Oliver & Anna @ a gift shop (on a ferry). He follows her, they spend an idyllic 2 weeks @ an enchanted cottage in southern Ireland & a marriage proposal ensues. He brings her home to meet his daddy dearest. Alas, the disapproving daddy instantly brands her as a gold-digger who’s hit the jackpot, having caught him on a rebound. Daddy tries to pay her off & Anna proves she’s the real deal by tearing the cheque into pieces in his face. After 6 months of marital bliss, seeds of distrust are planted in Oliver’s mind thanx to daddy dearest who witness Anna having a clandestine meeting w/ a mysterious bloke – Chris, her bro’ - who’s in dire financial straits. She agrees to loan Chris 30,000 pounds from her account – a generous allowance from Oliver even tho’ she insists she doesn’t need it (which is a rare quality that makes him fall deeper). Chris extracts a promise outta Anna to keep her trap shut ‘cuz his business is tied w/ Oliver. Since the 2 of ‘em haven’t met yet, Oliver suspects Anna of having an affair w/ her former fiancé, which she vehemently denies. No good deeds ever go unpunished. Anna gets caught meeting the same chap again for lunch a week later by the sneaky ol’ dad-in-law from hell. This time all hell breaks loose ‘cuz Oliver checks up on her account & sees red upon seeing her empty piggy bank. After a blazing row, he walks out on her & goes back to daddy’s house. To pour acid into Anna’s sore open wounds, dad-in-law evicts her ‘cuz lo & behold, he drops the bombshell that the house Oliver & Anna live in, actually belongs to him. She has nowhere to go so she takes refuge @ the same cottage where their luv 1st blossomed. When Oliver finally contacts her after weeks of miserable silence, it’s not to extend an olive branch but to break the news that his dad keeled over & he wants Anna to attend the funeral. He’s over-stressed & she supports him, but the worst is not over yet. To add to the drama, Melanie, Oliver’s former squeeze, wreaks havoc in his life again & is prepared to get down & dirty to fulfill her mission. His long-lost mommie dearest - who had walked out on her family ages ago – is also back w/ a vengeance. Melanie wants a piece of him. Rosemary wants to get her grubby paws on the chunky family coffers. So U see, Oliver has major trust issues when it comes to $$$ + women ‘cuz Melanie & Rosemary have been not-so-exemplary figures in his sad life. Anyhoo, Anna offers to stay on to assist Oliver w/ sorting thru’ the family leftover stuff. The chemistry’s still red-hawt between ‘em & whenever she’s in the vicinity, his raging libido goes haywire. She gets the message loud & clear, that he wants to use her as a bed warmer & is crushed by the realization that any chick would do. As if 1 allegation isn’t enuff, here comes another 1 & it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back. How dare he accuse her of stealing his family heirlooms ! Shell-shocked, it’s her turn to walk out on him. It’s like a slap in the face, to be accused of theft after all the dwama she’s had to endure. Melanie’s in-her-face innuendos that she & Oliver are an item again makes Anna think twice, is her marriage really worth saving ? She’s never seen this side of Oliver before (shoot 1st, ask questions later). She wonders if she’s receiving mixed signals from her estranged hubby. When her bro’ calls Oliver, it dawns on Oliver – albeit belatedly – that Chris isn’t a phantom bro’. He kicks himself for being a numbnut now that he knows Anna’s been telling him the truth all along, her bro’ does exist ! Now the million-dollar question is, what will it take to get the luv of his life back ? How can he undo the damage that’s been done ?

I dunno why I always have mixed feelings when reading MM’s books, not that I’ve read a lotta ‘em ‘cuz I only have a few left in my TBR pile, still trying in vain to find more of her backlist =^2. This book coulda been a 5-star read if it weren’t for the hero. Oliver blows hot & cold. Anna reels from 1 allegation after another. @ times he seems to be missing a sensitivity chip. Anna’s delectable bod is like an aphrodisiac that he can’t get enuff of, yet he says the stupidest things in the universe, lashing out @ Anna that she’s using her body to wheedle more dough outta him. He’s like a daddy’s li’l boy, believing his dad more than his wife. This dude claims that, throughout his life he could never earn his dad’s stamp of approval, no matter what he did, yet he jumps the gun as soon the dad says : Fire ! In Anna’s case, it’s twice bitten, thrice shy. She ponders the possibility of Oliver going off the deep end in the future whenever something triggers his distrust. I understood her predicament but I didn’t like how she was way too understanding when he found the real culprit who stole the family jewels in the end. I wished she’d stuck to her guns & made him get down on his knees kissing her soles, buy her dozens of roses & boxes of Godiva ‘till the snow melts. On 1 hand, she still lusts after her sexy hubby, but she also can’t forgive the way he slaps her w/ the myriad of outrageous drummed-up accusations. Playing hard to get longer woulda taught him a bitter lesson. He has to grovel (not enuff in my book tho’) to earn back her luv & trust. For once, she has the upper hand, but then the unexpected happens. Yeah, he’s not shooting blanks after all, to her shock & dismay. She caves in to his emotional blackmail that he wishes to take care of her during the pregnancy. She bargains w/ him that she’ll return w/ him but he must adhere to the implemented “look but not touch” policy. I dunno if I really bought his lame excuse (more than once) that sexual frustration was the main reason he put his foot in his mouth time & again. That sounded like a cop out to me. I thought Anna made too much concessions, I wish she’d kicked him to the curb sooner. I liked the fast pace & the multitude of conflicts, Anna got a raw deal when she married Oliver, battling 2 wicked witches & 1 dad-in-law. I sympathized w/ her plight & totally agreed w/ her thinking that mayhap Oliver didn’t really luv her ‘cuz the trust should come hand in hand w/ luv. Her subterfuge – thanx to her bro’ - plus a string of incidents make her question if he’s a control freak. He professes his luv for Anna but his actions speak more eloquently than words. His instinct is to storm out & sulk after a confrontation instead of clearing up the air, plus he doesn’t show too much eagerness to get back @ 1st. He came across as thinking w/ his blue b@ll$ more than w/ his head. Typical HP male LOL…
(less) "

Corrine read and liked Fani's review of Blaze of Memory (Psy-Changeling, #7):

"
In Blaze of Memory, Dev Santos, head of Shine Foundation, an organization that tries to find and protect Psy descendants among the human population, finds an unconcsious, tortured woman outside his door. When she regains consciousness, it turns...more
In Blaze of Memory, Dev Santos, head of Shine Foundation, an organization that tries to find and protect Psy descendants among the human population, finds an unconcsious, tortured woman outside his door. When she regains consciousness, it turns out the woman has amnesia but she's also Psy, thus an enemy of Shine. They all deduce at once, that she must be part of a Psy-plan to hurt Shine and probably Santos in particular. The obvious solution to that would be to keep her locked somewhere until they find out who she is and what goal she has. Dev however, cannot bear to have this tortured, broken woman, suffer any more. On the contrary, she's so helpless and battered that all his insticts cry for him to protect her. The fact that she's also quite beautiful, makes him feel not only protective but also attracted to her, as he has been to no other woman. Dev has been a cold, ruthless man, as the head of the Shine Foundation has had to be. But this woman cuts straight through his defenses and makes his heart ache. Is she really who she seems or is she a Psy spy after all? What future can there be for them when he cannot trust her?

Before I started the book, I had trouble imagining Dev as a hero. It turned out that I shouldn't have, as Dev was quite a nice and intersting guy. My problems focused on the heroine. The heroine who, in those 375 pages, showed that she had some spine after all, in 3 or 5 of them. IMHO, the author kept trying to convince us that she had some spine by having Dev say it quite often, but it never really showed. Their relationship felt too unbalanced, and honestly, I never understood how Dev became so quickly attracted to her. 30 pages into the book and he had feelings for her he never felt before, while she, a Psy, could barely keep her hands off him. He kept saying that he had an Achilles heel for weak women, but is helplessness reason enough to fall in love with someone? And what does that say about her or him as a character? What will happen if she someday finds some self-confidence and inner strength after all? He'll give her up and go to save another damsel in distress? Although, I must admit that judging by what I read, the posibility of her finally developing a spine, is an extremely small one:)

Scene:
"Dev, you're not taking me seriously!" she exclaims. And proceeds by throwing him a shoe. Yeah, that's guaranteed to make him see her as a grown up all right!



*****Spoilers and some mad raving********

I knew the Forgotten had some Psy powers, but from the previous books, I had judged that these powers were weak more or less. It turns out that the Forgotten are Psy with feelings. They have all the range of powers that the Psy have and even some unique ones, telepathy being a very common one so they use that one pretty often. They even have their own Net, called the ShadowNet. So Dev was more like a changeling hero -extremely protective and jealous- but with Psy powers. I'm not exactly thrilled by this revelation, as I expected the third power in this game (=humans), to be something different than a combination of the two others.

As I said, I couldn't like the heroine. She was so weak that she was pathetic. Singh had Dev say a couple of times how strong she was undreneath because she managed to beat Ming. How exactly did she beat Ming is beyond me. Ming mind raped her, turned her into a puppet by planting a triggering device in her mind that would turn her into an assasin and released her on Dev's doorstep. She doesn't know if her thoughts are her own, if her insticts are her own, if her actions are based on her decisions or are been guided by Ming. So, how exactly did she beat him??? He did what he wanted, turned her into his puppet and set her free to execute a mission. I repeat, when exactly did she beat him or did she show her inner strength?

Also, I had problems with Dev's decision to take her with him everywhere he went. He was a leader, thus his first duty was to protect his people. As everyone agreed, she was most probably sent by Ming to kill someone inside Shine (probably Santos himself) but he believes he can handle her. So instead of locking her up, he takes her with him in Shine's offices where she shows powers they didn't know and detects a child they desperately try to hide from the Council. Nice handling Dev! And after that, he carries her with him in Changeling territory, where she asks -and gets her wish- to meet Jon, the kid that Ming was after during Talin's book, so she can say she's sorry. For all they knew, this could be her target! Now, how stupid was that? And all that, because he can't think of imprisoning her -an enemy from crying out loud!- because she appeals to his protective instincts. Give me a break! In a realistic senario, the rest of the Shine whould have shoven him off the director's seat at that point and take care of her themselves, instead of befriending her like Tiara did. One more unbelievable situation above the other... how could this not turn into a disaster in the end?

********End of Spoilers**********




Another bad thing is that IMO, the story between Psy, Changelings and Humans progressed very little in this book. It was based solely on the romance while, what little action and revelations occured, took place near the very end. We learn however a lot of things about the Forgotten, which are more or less summarized in just one sentence found in the spoilers section above, and see a couple of potential new heroes and heroines. Nothing new about the Psy Council, Kaleb, the Ghost, Hawke (not even a single line!) or the Changelings. It may be the fact that I didn't find the romance satisfying or believable, but I think the pace was also slower than the previous books. All in all, it was a huge disappointement for me. I'll just pretend I didn't read it and hope she'll make it up in the next one.(less) "