Phantoms & Fantasies

By Annie Rayburn

http://annierayburn.com/

Publisher: Annie Rayburn; 2nd edition (May 26, 2011)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Zeenie LaShey is recovering from a horrendous act that has left her afraid of intimacy. For years Turk Fontaine has known he is Zeenie’s life mate but has not acted on the feelings that are such a huge part of their Crainesians race.  With his best friend dating Zeenie’s roommate, Turk is able to stick close while giving her a chance to heal from an attack. Now that Zeenie has decided to step back into the relationship realm, Turk is more than ready to make his feelings known. He’s even willing to endure the ridicule of other Crainesians for being the pursuer in the relationship when it is normally the female who takes that role.

When Zeenie finally comes to terms with their inevitable attraction, she now has to find a way to fix things so that her life mate does not have to face the mockery from their world. But what would be a big enough gesture to fix this melee?

I won’t spoil the ending but I can tell you there is no doubt to be had about Zeenie claiming her man.

Phantoms & Fantasies is a breathtaking story. Ms. Rayburn has totally created a world that is both believable and sexy. Her alien race of Crainesians blends easily with their human neighbors and share a large number of similarities. The traits that do make them different are what make these books so tantalizing. I could see myself living next door to a Crainesian and am envious of the link the life mates have with each other. Zeenie and Turk have incredible chemistry and I love how patient Turk is as he waits for Zeenie. His surprise with house shows the reader just how vested he is and his willingness to take on the ridicule from their world shows how much she really means to him. This guy is everything a girl (either human or Crainesian) is looking for.

I read this Phantoms & Fantasies in one sitting, it was that good. I think Annie Rayburn has a definite keeper with this new world and I can’t wait to read more.

Single Dad Seeks A Wife

By Melanie Milburne

http://melaniemilburne.com.au/

Harlequin Medical

ISBN: 13:978-0-373-06787-9

Buy it Here

 

Brides of Penhally Bay

Bachelor doctors become husbands and fathers—in a place where hearts are made whole

Making the doctor his bride

Penhally Bay is a world away from everything Dr. Eloise Hayden knows. But this forensic specialist has come to Cornwall’s coast to find justice.  Gorgeous police inspector Lachlan D’Ancey partners with Eloise on the case and finds himself mesmerized by this stunning Australian. But he fear that his daughter will become embroiled in the investigation. He can’t stand in the way of justice, but he’s torn between his duty to his career, his duty to his only child and a newfound duty to the woman he’s falling in love with.

Eloise soon realizes that the single dad needs her help—together, they may be able to find an answer. Only then can Lachlan ask Eloise the most important question of all…

Eloise is a give me the facts person that believes science has all the answers.  Lachlan is a student of people’s actions to learn what he needs to know.  Eloise and Lanchlan go about finding who murdered a surfer in different ways but find they complement each other. Will they make their partnership last forever?

This medical is a little different from the typical medicals because the hero and heroine were not both in the medical field. The hero in this one is a policeman. It made for an interesting read.  The mystery was fun and there is a surprise twist to the story that added tension.

Emma’s Wish

by Margery Scott

Publisher:  Margery Scott (Indie Pub)

AISN: B0051306KU

Genre:  Historical fiction, American frontier

Buy it Here

 

REVIEW SUMMARY:

 

Emma’s Wish contains several items on my greatest hits list for a good frontier historical: hunky widower, pretty spinster, adorable kids, emotional angst, a little suspense and some great lovin’. It’s a good steady-paced read with characters you care about from the get-go. While it may not fit everyone’s idea of a beach read, I read it while lying on a beach and it fit the bill just fine. Heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable, Emma’s Wish should be on your frontier historical must-read list.

Her Little Secret

By Carol Marinelli

http://www.carolmarinelli.com/

Harlequin Medical

ISBN: 13:978-0-373-06785-5

Buy It Here

Daredevil doctor to doting daddy?

Eastern Beach hospital is just the next stop for doctor Nick Roberts-he’s left broken hearts on every continent! But Nick’s fun-loving altitude is so infectious that his patients-and nurse Alison Carter-are unwillingly hooked. One night with Nick leaves Alison with a new zest for life-and another, rather more unexpected gift! Read the rest of this entry »

 

Paying The Virgin’s Price

By Christine Merrill

http://christine-merrill.com/

Silk& Scandal Series

Harlequin Historical

ISBN-10: 0263870790

ISBN-13: 978-0263870794

 

I pledge in Payment the Maidenhead of my daughter….

Chaperon Diana Price knew she was teetering on the edge of ruin. Her father had staked his fortune, and her virginity, at the card table—and lost! To the most notorious gamester in town…

Nathan Wardale had money, plenty of it, but it was a long time since he’d been considered a gentleman. Still, he never intended to purse this debt. Until he met Diana Price in the flesh—and began to wonder just how long his honor would hold out…

I had met these characters in the other books in the series, but I was glad to get to know them better in their own story. Diana knows what she wants when she sees it— and Nathan is it. He is drawn to Diana even though he knows something bad in the past stands between them.   I felt for both these characters as they fought for a future. Nice read.

 

Baby, Drive South

By Stephanie Bond

http://www.stephaniebond.com/

Publisher: Mira; Original edition (May 24, 2011)

ISBN-10: 0778329445

ISBN-13: 978-0778329442

“There’s a caravan of women headed into town.”

Sweetness, Georgia was ravaged by a tornado more than ten years ago.  Because of the lack of industry in the area and the horrendous damage to practically everything, the town was abandoned. 

Now, three brothers are back and wanting to rebuild the hometown they grew up in.  With a grant from the government to rebuild the town under their “Green-Town” experiment program, the brothers hope to bring life back while building an industry that will support it. Great plan and the brothers have thought of everything but one.  Women.  With a lack of women, it’s hard to keep a crew of men happy and enthusiastic about the project.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to raise an interest in a town with minimal conveniences.  Thus begins a plan to recruit the fairer sex to Sweetness with an ad placed in a Northern newspaper.  But what the brothers don’t understand is that it takes a hell of a lot more than promises to keep a woman happy.

Baby brother, Porter Armstrong, is far from a baby.  Having recently retired from the Army, he’s more than capable of pulling his weight.  Excited at the prospect of recruiting women to their town, he’s all set to find a woman who is “reckless, ripe and ready for the picking.”  Instead he gets Dr. Nikki Salinger. 

Nikki Salinger is sure she’s made a terrible mistake.  After being dumped by her fiancé, Nikki had hoped to make a clean break from her past.  Except now that she’s in Sweetness and seeing the type of women the men want to meet, it is more than obvious she’s not the right person for the town.  But one of the sexy Armstrong brothers keeps getting in her way of leaving.  From the moment she met Porter, she knew she wasn’t his type.  Yet each time they’re together, the sexual tension threatens to combust.  As soon as she gets the fuel pump fixed on her van and the grant papers complete for the new clinic, she’s on her way outa here.  This is exactly what she wants. Except why is the thought of leaving no longer all that appealing?     

~~~

This is a fun story with a great backstory.  I love the idea of rebuilding a town after a natural disaster and the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers theme that occurs in the need to recruit women to their town. 

Porter Armstrong is fun and sexy and his easygoing personality had me ignoring the fact that he kept overlooking Nikki.  The outlandish ideas he comes up with to keep her in town were inventive and I couldn’t help but anticipate her reactions.  I knew when the truth came out there would be a backlash, but when Stephanie Bond ended the story like it began, I cheered at the genius of the idea. 

Stephanie Bond hooked me with the free prequel short story, Baby, I’m Yours which tells the HEA story of Emory and Shelby and the day the tornado struck Sweetness.  Now that I’ve read Baby, Drive South, I can’t wait to read the other two books in the series.  Not only for the other two brothers’ HEAs but to glimpse the next stage of Porter and Nikki’s life together.   

Don’t miss out on reading about middle brother, Kendall, in Baby, Come Home and older brothers, Marcus, in Baby, Don’t Go.

 

Treachery In Death

 

by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)

 

Author Web site: http://jdrobb.com/

ISBN: 978-0-399-15703-5

Publisher: Putnam (G.P.Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Group)

Release Date: February 22, 2011

Formats: Hardcover/Audio; Paperback Release July 26, 2011

 

In Hardcover # 32 of the In Death Series, 50 years into the future, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, stumble onto corruption and murder at Central. In Treachery in Death, Dallas and Peabody’s Homicide Division is pitted against dirty cops (almost an entire squad of them) in the Illegals Division. The squad’s leader and ringleader, Lieutenant Renee Oberman, daughter of former Commander Marcus Oberman (Saint Oberman), has her fingers in a lot of pies and the pie is spoiled rotten.

 

It will take everyone on Eve’s support team to take them down, including handsome, sexy, Civilian Consultant Roarke, Mira, EDD, Eve’s ex-lover, Lieutenant Webster in IAB, Commander Whitney and her squad.

 

J.D. Robb doesn’t disappoint in this action-packed romantic suspense. There’s a chilling shower scene that kicks off all the action and a steamy scene in the garden as Roarke and Eve take a stroll in the sunlight in front of their home.

 

You won’t want to miss the latest in the In Death series, Treachery in Death.