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...?