Mommy and the Millionaire by Crystal Green(suds club, bk 1)

I have always enjoyed reading the silhouette special edition line and the books that having a continuing story always hold a place in my heart. this is my first book by crystal green and will not be my last. I felt the plot could have been stronger and the characters a little more engaging but overall i give the book a four out of 5.

Naomi Shannon was not looking for love in the town of Placid Valley but a place to raise her unborn child. The father had asked for her to get an abortion but she wanted to keep her baby so she hightailed it out of her hometown where there would be comments about her being trash and an unwed mother to boot. She went to live with a friend who offered to let her stay rent free in her apartment while she was away, her friend was a flight attendant and was rarely home.

She didn't have any friends in this new town but met some girls at the local laundromat where they all sat together at the television to watch flamingo beach together everyday.  Naomi had been watch the soap opera since she was 12. Then one afternoon in comes David "dave" chandler  wealthy tycoon dressed in street clothes who had the unfortunate luck of getting caught between two boys and a tomato. All Dave wanted to do was get rid of the stain and high tail it out of there.....but one look at this beauty and he was sunk. was she all he had been looking for his his whole life? Dave had taken a vacation in order to try to find what was missing from his life and came upon this quaint town. He was sick of the cutthroat businessman he had become and the meaningless sex.He didn't want to manipulate people anymore and after his last stunt where his brother married an ethnic girl to better the company image he needed to gain an acquisition. He wanted a real life with a family and people who loved him. He wanted kids. Was is possible for him to melt the ice that ran through his veins that went back to his childhood? He had learned at an early age to separate himself from emotion. Could this girl and her baby be what he was looking for? would she want to be with the real him and not the low key dave she had come to know? the dave who listened to her and made her feel safe? Naomi made him feel things he had never wanted to before. She made him believe it was all possible, that he could have the family he truly wanted if he only took what was given to him.

Tempt Me If You Can by Janet Chapman

So far to date I have read everything Janet Chapman has written except for a few short stories that can be found in anthologies. I first fell in love with her writing when i came across her book Loving the Highlander, Morgan Mackeage's story. One of her many books of the highland series. Her style of writing is far more compelling that others i have read. They sometimes lack the creativity that a reader requires to be engaged in the story and wanting more. Although the Sinclair series is entirely different then her highlanders' it still holds a place dear in my heart. 
Tempt Me If You Can is book 2 in the Sinclair brothers series. The first book The Man Must Marry follows the eldest brother Sam on his quest to marry Willa and the requirements their lovable but bullheaded grandfather bestowed upon him.
Book two, tells the story of Benjamin Sinclair the CEO of the company and middle Sinclair brother. Ben finds out through a letter in the mail that he fathered a child some 15 years ago and he now resides in Medicine Grove ,Maine with his Aunt Emma the only mother he has ever known. Emma has been taking care of his son since he was young when his mother suddenly takes off promising to return not long after the death of their father. Ben decides he must meet this young man who is his son and he cant waste another day not knowing him, so he takes the next plane to Maine, but because of the state of the town when he left he registers under an alias which doesn't fool his son or Emma one bit . They go allowing him to play his little act out until Emma confesses she has known from the beginning. Father soon bond in the effort to court his aunt....Emma has been in love with Ben Sinclair for 16 years but had long ago given up her teenage dreams of ever having a happy ever after with him, she had built a hope chest of treasures in anticipation of their relationship that never occurred. When Kelly left that dreamed and so did something in her. Seeing Ben again brought all those feelings back to the surface. Can she really trust this man who claims to want to be with her? Will he hurt Michael and take him away from the only home he has ever known?....

currently reading

lLast week i was on vacation and did not have as much time as i would have liked to continue with my daily reading. things to be done and places to be. although travel was limited due to we didint have a car with it being in the shop for a transmission repair but i did find some time to finish up a book and start a new one.

during the holiday season i have a tendency to read a lot of holiday themed books and this one was just one of the many . unfortunately i read the first story in the book Can This Be Christmas? and then misplaced it after. the other day i cam across the book and finished up with Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.

This book was great and sends a message that forgiveness is possible even in the most heart wrenching circumstances.

Greg Bennett had made a lot of mistakes in his life, He is in the middle of divorce proceedings with his third wife and lawyers are in no hurry to come to a settlement. His once flourishing vineyard is destroyed by a virus and has to rebuild from scratch. In order to do that he has to be able to have the capital to fund it.He goes to several banks and they all turn him down. He can't understand why. He has good credit and was financially stable until the virus drained all his resources. 

He finally sits down and prays for help from the good lord himself. Finally says the archangel Gabriel only took 30 years but better late then never.(not an actual quote but more of an impression). With some reluctance he assigns Shirley, Goodness and Mercy to the task of helping Greg Bennett long the way. In order to receive what he needs he must repair some of the damage he has done in the past. He runs into his college sweetheart where he learns that she kept the baby he fathered. He wants to get to know him but his son is set against seeing him.Greg goes to the hospital to meet him anyways under a false name and ends up giving blood for a screen for bone barrow donors in which he faints because he is terrified of needles. Needless to say he ends up being a match . Also the grandfather of the boys he saves is none other than his second cousin Matthias, whom he turned down a money loan some ten years back that could have save his aunts life. She died of the same cancer the boy was now suffering. 

His brother whom he has been estranged with for 10 years is the only one how could approve the loan for the credit and the reason he has been denied by the other banks. his brother sent out a memo to all the banks in the area to turn down his loan if he applied because he would be the one to approve it face to face.

Paul Bennett has a grudge against his brother because he did not come to see their mother when she requested to see him but instead went to his divorce hearing. His mother died before Greg could get there and has held it against him ever since. their mother was singing Greg's praises even on her death bed. you see Paul has resented Greg their whole life because he believed his parents and his mother in particular love him more than Paul.

Can Greg really start over at sixty? can he repair the damage of his past? Can Shirley, goodness and mercy help him when other think he has what is coming to him...?

The marriage soultion by brenda harlen

               another winner by silhouette's special edition line.

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Tess Lucas is the type of person who has all the details planned out in her life down to what color her elastic band in her hair is. She is yet again let down in her life when she finds her fiance in bed with his ex-wife, in THEIR bed. so what is a girl to do? she sleeps with her best friend of 15 years whom she has had lusty thoughts about now for several years now. 

Unfortunately she finds her self pregnant with his child after their one night stand.

 Craig Richmond was not planning to ever become a father but when the opportunity knocked he answered the door. He had learned at a young age that he shouldn't love anyone because it only left you disappointed in the end. Craig being the responsible man that he is offers to marry Tess for the sake of the baby or at least that is how it starts out in the beginning.

Tess turned downed his many attempts at marriage until she finally caved when she realized over the weeks with his efforts to court her that she had fallen in love with her best friend. So what is a girl to do but marry the man she has harbored feelings for the last 10 years?

Lucas slowly comes to realize that his affection for Tess is much more than he ever planned for...Love in it's truest and simplest form. Can he still convince her that he can give her all she has ever wanted?

This is a heart warming story about finding love denied and the ability to overcome in when you realize the one person who means the most can be lost to you in the blink of en eye.

Marriage, Interrupted by Karen Templeton(bk 1, babies, inc)

Before reading Marriage, Interrupted I had read book 4, Pride and Pregnancy in the Babies in Series. Reading Pride and pregnancy made me want to read more of her books. What better way then to start from the beginning of the series.

         

 I absolutely loved this book and was entranced from page one. Cass was alone once again. Her first husband Blake Carter left her shortly after their marriage started out of his own fears of being a father among other things. They were young when they were first married her only 20 and him 25. Now, her second husband who she genuinely cared for dies of a coronary will taking his morning jog. Blake has always loved Cass and has stayed away for so many years because he couldn't be around her and not love her . He also was ashamed of the events that led up to the dissolution of their marriage and the torn relationship with his son for his lack of being around. When Shaun calls him to inform him of the death of his ex-wife's second husband, he realizes he has to have him family back. Blake does everything in his power to gain Cass's trust. With every attempted she just pushes back harder until finally she gives in once her son , Jason is born, Blake loves the baby as his own and sees this as a second chance to fix the past. All along Cass wanted to take Blake back it wasn't him that she didn't trust but herself due to the values that had been instilled in her as a child.

Having Her Boss's Baby by Susan Mallery

 I had previously read book 2 in the positively pregnant series by Susan Mallery and liked the series so much that i decided to read them all..one more to go before my goal is complete..read noelle and crissy's story ..now have to find rachels....and now for the review to having her boss's baby

 Noelle is young and barely out of high school when she finds out she is pregnant. The baby's father had been her first lover and was recently killed in iraq. They hadn't been dating for long before the tragedy but did she honestly love jimmy?
    She worked for the President of the company who also happened to be the next of kin to her unborn child. No sooner had she found out she was pregnant, she ran into Devlin Hunter uncle to the baby and a hottie to boot. 
     So what does Dev propose as a solution to the baby but a marriage of conveince. They will be married right away so he can care for her and the baby, but at what expense? under the conditions for her to have a monthly allowance and housing with child support along with a trust set up for the baby. during the marriage there is to be no emotional or physical entanglements, he just wanted to be friends and be able to care for her since his brother was duty.
    Dev felt that he was immune to love. everyone who had ever loved him had left him in one way or another. His father left after his mother died in which he believed her to have died of a broken heart when his father couldn't love her enough and his grandfather then of old age. Devlin Hunter was then left to raise he young brother who seemed to defy every barrier that was ever set before him. Between curfew and the law he got into trouble of all kinds and dropping out of high school because he refused to attend.  Devlin gave him two choices when he found him stealing from the company that was their heritage, military or Jail. 
    We obviously know which was jimmy's decision. Dev blamed himself for his brothers death because of the ultimatum he gave.
    Noelle fell form Dev quick and hard but he refused to return her feelings feeling that loving her would break him and make him weak. in the end her learns love makes you stronger not weak and completes the soul.... 

rancher's redemption

Today I read rancher's redemption by beth cornelison a book from the silhouette romantic suspense line and from the miniseries the Coltons: family first.
       Clay Colton finds an abandoned car on south end of his ranch crashed into a mesquite tree. Appears to have been left behind but later turns up stolen. The CSI team from san antonio, texas turns up to investigate the scence but who other but his Ex-wife , Tamara brown . She had always wanted to be a CSI and now her dream had apparently came true but at what cost? They had divorced five years earlier and she left Clay and the Bar None to pursue her career. Could she still hold a torch for him all these years or has she forgotten the powerful love they once had?
     Tamara ends up laid up at the Bar None with clay after falling into a sinkhole while inspecting the crime scene, can anyone say awkward? She is temporarily put on medical leave due to her bruised ribs that hurt like the dickens, not that she doesn't still try to be active in the case. Clay tends to her health needs and unconsciously her heart as well. They find it suspicious that doc masons' office gets a phone call saying he is thinking of retiring in Arizona when all the townsfolk who he would like nothing more than to retire at home in Esperanza, Texas.
     Evidence of fowl play and homicide are found in the hole where Tamara fell and she untimately implicates her childhood friend of the murder which turned out to be accident when he fell on a knife they Billy Akers had brought to scare the doc into giving back his money when the doc refused to help in the assisted suicide of his mother who had been diagnosed with ALS, after he had been paid to do so.
     Billy panics and hides the body because he believes no one would believe him since people don't generally follow others in order to scare them with deadly weapons but most likely use them on the unlikely suspects. He is then sentences to jail along with his father because he hid the truth instead of comign forward which would have reduced the sentence....
In the end, Clay and Tamara find their love for each other once again and will hopefully appreciate what they have in each other in years to come...