Dls’s Comments (group member since Sep 14, 2010)

Dls’s comments from the Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn group.

Ok I know the author--and I have it down to one of two books in the series. Pretty sure it's the first one...

I am not a big "read in order " person but I do think it's good for this set.

Sorry! Just in meetings all day. Thanks for asking...
It's Carolina Man by Virginia Kantra.

Both brothers are great but this one has my heart a little more.

I love this hero. He figures out how to become a father to the 10 year old daughter he never knew he had without making one false step. He also figures out how to win over a scared heroine … The whole book is lovely, but I want one of him for my own. So I’m giving you a couple of different views of him, to try to convey his charm.

She pushed at his shoulders. He raised his head. Her eyes, more brown than green, were dark and dazed. “What’s this about?”
He wasn’t sure. But he wanted it again. “How about ‘thank you’?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Thanks for being here. For everything you’re doing for me and daughter. “
“Oh. You’re welcome.” She swallowed, easing away from him. His body protested the loss of her softness. “Maybe next time, you can write me a note.”
He grinned, going with his gut. “How about I take you to dinner instead?”
Her fugitive smile flickered before she shook her head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
He cocked his head. “Why not? Unless you’re seeing somebody.”
She licked her lips, which made him want to kiss her again. “That’s really none of your business.”
“So, no,” he said with satisfaction.
Her breath escaped in a huff of laughter before she caught it back. “You can’t know that.”
“Calculated guess,” he informed her. “I figure you’d come straight out and tell me to get lost if there was somebody else. Plus, you kissed me back.”
“All right, fine. I won’t deny that I’m attracted. And flattered. But—“ She held him off with one hand. “You just got home. You’re understandably feeling unsettled. This is hardly the right time for you to be. . .for us to be doing. . .” She waggled her fingers in the air between them. “This.”
His grin broadened. “I‘m not sure I recognize your hand sign. You mean dinner?”
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. Any sort of personal contact—relationship—between us would be terribly complicated.”
“Only because you’re thinking like a lawyer.”
“I am a lawyer.”
“Right. You’re used to complicating things. Marines keep it simple. Identify your long-term objective, execute the steps to achieve your objective.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you honestly expect me to believe your objective is to have dinner with me?”
“No,” he admitted. “Dinner would be more like the short-term strategy.”
“I thought so.”
“Getting to know you would be the objective,” he explained.
* * * * *
Heroine stood paralyzed in the pet super store. This was what came of making impulsive decisions. Of getting emotionally involved. Of falling victim to the appeal in a little girl’s eyes, the temptation of her daddy’s kiss. You wound up stalking the cat food aisle, trying to decide between chicken–n-gravy or seafood medley.
Children of alcoholics are frequently afraid of making the wrong choices, came the lecturing voice of her therapist. You need to learn to trust your instincts.
Easy for therapist to say. Her instincts had obviously never landed her in Cat Food Hell.
Heroine fought down panic, surveying the bright rows as if careful study would yield the desired answer. She was almost certain that yesterday she’d seen a dirty white shadow slinking under [daughter’s dead mother’s] bushes. It had to be [cat]. Anyway, something had been eating the canned tuna she’d left on [daughter’s dead mother’s] back porch.
Racoons, supplied the lawyerly part of her brain. Possums. Rats. . .
Heroine shuddered. She’d already plunked down fifty dollars for a humane cate rescue kit. All she had to do was bait her trap.
“The hell with it” she muttered.
She grabbed an armload of cans at random from the nearest shelf and marched toward the registers.
“Ronald! Ronald!” a child called.
“Damn it, dog.” A man’s voice, more amused than annoyed.
Heroine froze. Was that…?
“There he is!”
She caught a blur at the corner of her eye, moving fast and low to the ground, and checked herself just in time to avoid the puppy scampering up the main aisle. His leashed whipped across the floor. Heroine tripped, slipped, and flung out her arms, executing a clumsy shuffle-change step as a little girl—Hero’s daughter—dashed by in pursuit. Cans of cat food scattered and rolled.
A hard, warm arm wrapped her waist. A lean, muscled body took her weight.
“Nice moves,” hero said in her ear. “You ok?”
Her breathing hitched, lifting her breasts against his chest. His face was close and smiling.
Heat swept from her throat to her hairline. “Fine,” she said stiffly. “I—“
Daughter reappeared, the puppy tugging on a leash behind her. “Sorry,” she said. To which one of them, heroine wasn’t sure.
The child’s anxious gaze tugged at heroine. She’d always liked daughter, who was bright and confident and funny, if [dead mother’s] stories were true. But the sad truth was that heroine wasn’t very good with children outside her office. What did she have to offer them besides her jar of candy, her box of tissues?
“Hi, daughter,” heroine said.
“Hi.”
Heroine looked down at the puppy, tan and wobbly, with huge paws and a kink in its tail. Its short face was marked with black patches in place of eyebrows, giving it a permanently quizzical expression. Kind of like daughter’s. “Who’s this?”
Daughter beamed. “That’s my dog.” Her gaze switched to Luke, suddenly anxious. Heroine tensed in instinctive sympathy. “I was watching him, honest. He just pulled all of a sudden and I—“
“It’s okay,” Hero interrupted.
Heroine cleared her throat. “I’m sure she was trying—“
“I said it’s okay.”
“I didn’t mean to let go,” daughter said.
“I know. Try holding on like this.” Releasing heroine, hero dropped to his heels and slid the loop of the leash over daughter’s wrist. “You were right about that name,” he added.
The girl regarded him warily from under the brim of her hat. “Yeah?”
Heroine held her breath.
“Yeah. We should change it.” His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Dog sure as hell isn’t answering to Ronald.”
Daughter’s laugh sputtered out. Hero grinned back.
A void opened in Heroine’s chest. So much love there, she thought. In his eyes, in his smile. She wondered if either of them recognized it yet.

Ok I did read it. I just don't recall the hero being a heavyweight champion or the plum cake. Gotta reread.

I thought I had read this but I don't remember tbe consequences of grabbing the plum cake ...

I think I know what this is...if so its one I read years ago

Manda, absolutely. I actually have never read the first three--what I have read about them doesn't interest me. But I've loved all the books from the fourth book on. She weaves fascinating bits of history in and the books cross all levels of society. And the people are fascinating.

Definitely have not read this!

I have been rereading C S Harris' Sebastian St Cyr series. The writing and historical detail is wonderful as is the relationship between Sebastian and Hero (who becomes his wife). I get annoyed at the way he doesn't ask key questions--either from people involved in the crimes he is investigating or who know about aspects of his parents' lives that he is desperately curious about --until they have just been shot, and the way people die before they can answer him--not to mention the way the deaths don't seem to be the logical result of a murderers thinking but just a way to move the plot along. But the books are so wonderful in other ways that I love reading them nonetheless

I really don't know. The next new releases I am looking forward to are the end of this month. Maybe it's time for nonfiction...I have a bunch of books about the 18 and 19 c .

I wasn't sure until the deer.

I'm finishing this weeks puzzler and then not sure. There are so many books I am waiting to read but they won't be released for weeks or months

I am halfway through it

I am halfway through it

I have not read it!
Georgie, if you know it you can hint --but the way we play this we don't give the author or title so that everyone has a chance to try to figure it out. The poster will give the answer Tuesday night. So a hint might be "I thought the third book in this series was better" or "I loved the way hero calmed her down"....

Today I have three new releases--Karen Templeton, Janice Kay Johnson and CS Harris.
Gonna be a good week.
Later this month there is in addition to those mentioned above Grace Burrowes and Sabrina Jeffries and I believe Julie James

February has been a low month for new releases for me and so I'm catching up on magazines, nonfiction, rereading some Baloghs,and waiting eagerly for March 1

I liked the first one best but this is great too.
The third actually didn't do much for me. Still she is an autobuy for me...