Nicole Jordan - To Seduce a Bride

Lily Loring flees to London after the matchmaking of Mrs Freemantle ànd one hell of a kiss on an attic by Heath, the third friend of Marcus, the sisters guardian and now husband to her eldest sister.
But after a while Heath tracks her and is determined to secure her as his wife. Even though Lily rebukes his every attempt.

I won't spend many words on this book.

Many times I almost wanted to close it and put it back on the shelves...
Where Roslyn was a bit overbearing at moments, Lily was it during the whole book.
Ok, their parent marriage wasn't the HEA at all, but she did see her eldest sister and (after a while)her middle sister find true love. Heath is sweet, attentive, seductive... I mean... One can protest too much too...
When he claims he wants to marry her, she shoves him away
when he tells her he loves her, she pushes him away

only the idea of losing him makes her realize her mistake. But by then, in my eyes, noone would have blamed him if he shut the door in her face...

No, to me this trilogy started promising, but it ending was poor... Especially when you know this author has so much talent...

Nicole Jordan - To Bed a Beauty

After experienced the failed marriage of her parents and the following scandal, Roslyn Loring is determined to marry for love and love only. So after her sister gets engaged with Marcus, she feels her time has come. She has a nice friendship with Haviland and is determined to secure him, feeling he won't need much persuasion. However, she has learned that men fall in love with their mistresses, rather than their wives. So she turns to Fanny, a notorious Cyprian.
At a Cyprian ball, she gets the unwanted attention of Drew, The Duke of Arden and on of Marcus' best friends... After a sensual interaction she flees...

Only to have to face him again on her sisters wedding... He recognizes her as his little shepherdess and feels it his duty to find out why she would attend such an event. When he finds out why, and she proposes to him to help her gain Havilands attention, he refuses at first, only to rethink his decision.

He will help her to become a woman men want as their mistress. Unfortunately they both didn't count on the fact that the passion between them wouldn't be subdued but burn more fiercly each time they meet.

Only Roslyn wants love and the last thing Arden is willing to give is precisly that...

This is the second installment of the Courtship Wars trilogy (so far, probably more books will come out in this series)

Roslyn is determined to win a man by making him love her. Since men love mistresses, not wives, she needs to be taught how to be a seduction. She turns to Arden for lessons, lessons that turn out true seductions of their own. However, as long as there is no love from Arden's side, Roslyn will not bend... It will be love or nothing at all...

Arden doesn't believe in love. In passion, yes, but love is not meant for him. Roslyn, however, turns his world upside down. He's arrogant, handsome and confident. He won't be foolish enough to be lurred into marriage. Not even if this woman rises a passion that he never experienced before.

Book 2 is a very entertaining book. I would not recommend it to not-regency lovers, but those who like the period and Nicole Jordan won't be disappointed.
I still prefer the notorious series by this author, but the time reading this book isn't wasted.

The interactions between Roslyn and Arden are passionate and steamy. At some point however, Roslyn is dragged to a level of being boring and repetious. But she recovers and Arder is top all the way...

Like I said, the courtship war triloy is not the best by this authors hand, but if you're in for an easy and light read, this might be a book to grab.

European Championship

We're heading for the semi-finals... And without Portugal... Who would have thought? Well, besides me then ;)
This teams benefits from the success the previous generation had... Final, semi finals...
But imho the team now doesn't have the same level as the previous one... Luis Figo who could replace him? Rui Costa, certainly a more adept teamplayer than Deco, who - by the way- I never really liked, the defense is much weaker than the one with Couto, Jorge Costa and so on...

I have hopes for Christiano Ronaldo, but let's hope he's prepared to leave his celeb status and keeps focusing on his soccer!

But anyway, German, Spain, Turkey and Russia... Which means 2 teams that are hardly european... But that discussion has been held lots of times and I'm not going in to it anymore...

So who am I thinking will win the EC 2008...
Spain... no, they always fail somewhere...
Turkey, let's hope not or their noise will awake my kids again... ;-)))
Russia, from Russia with love, they are good, really good
But I'd put my money on Germany...

First it's always better that we can say "he, we lost from the EC winner!" :)
Second, they are a cup team, always have been and always will be...

So Germany is my guess...

Nicole Jordan - To Pleasure a Lady

Marcus Pierce, the new Earl of Danvers is at lost. With his title he has inherited the responsability of 3 wards. No kids, but 3 young, beautiful women, all at a marriageable age. He has no intention of letting the responsability last, so he intends to marry them off as soon as possible. He'll provide them with a nice sum, so their suitors might look over their scandalous past. Four years ago, their mother ran of to France with her lover, finally tired of her husbands escapades. Two weeks later their father was killed in a duel over a paramour.
The ladies started their own life, they found a teaching school and start teaching there, thus providing an income of their own.

But Marcus is determined to get rid of them untill the eldest of the sisters Arabella storms in during a fencing session with his friends and captivates his immediate attention.
After meeting again Marces is even more determined to marry her off... only he will be the groom and no one else. So they make a bet... He'll court her, and she will try to resist him. If she won't succumb to his charms in two weeks, she'll be free and so will her sisters... She will be able to continue teaching, given a large sum and more important he won't force them into marriage...

This is part one in the Courtship Wars trilogy.

Arabella is the eldest of the sisters. She's hurt by the quarrels of her parents and she's determined never to marry.

Marcus is captivated for the first time in his life, and is equally determined to marry her. He uses all his charms and sensual knowledge to make Arabella surrender.

I always like Nicole Jordans book. When you pick one, you are in for a nice regency read with a lot of steamy scenes. While this book doesn't have as many of them, the erotical scences are more that sufficient.
The dialogues are great, the book put a smile on my face more than once.

The other characters are interesting too... Mainly the stoic duke of Arden and the hellion sister Lillian...

I'd definitly advice people who love regency to get this book and the 2 sequels. You won't be disappointed.

Sherrilyn Kenyon - The Dream Chaser

Simone Dubois gets a call from the coroner. He's Tate, her friends and a squire... He needs her help since his corpse got off the examiners table and walked out of the room... Since Simone has paranormal gifts (she has a ghost as a housemate) she might find out something.
When she gets at the place, she meets the ghost of Gloria, the girl that walked out of the room, but her body is gone...
Suddenly they are attacked by daimons. Luckily a handsome stranger rushes to her aid: Xypher. One of the daimons attaches bracelets on both their wrists. This are bracelets given to Satara by Stryker. They connect the two people... Which means when one dies, the other one dies too. Satara did this because she knows Xypher will come after her now that he's released from hell for a while. To be able to kill him, Stryker gave her the bracelets.

Xypher knows the bracelets are no good. But he can't identify them, so he and Simone decide to go to Julian for help. Julian is able to tell them the limits of the bracelets and also that they are unable to be removed...

So now Simone is stuck to this handsome stranger, a man so angry he leashes out to everyone around him. But when she gets a glimpse of the man behind the anger, she can't help but feel curious about Xypher... So when she is nice to him, Xypher realises that is the one thing he has no defence against...

This should be part 3 in the Dream Hunter series. We meet Xypher, whom we met in Devil May Cry. And the story that began there, just continues, so I don't understand why this is a Dream Hunter... It proves to me that both series are still connected very strongly. We don't see M'Adoc or V'Alerian at all, there are no dreams to appear in... So to me, this is just the sequel to Devil May Cry.

Xypher is the type of man I love. Hard, hurt, he lashes out to everyone and everything. Until Simone is just nice to him. He has no defence against that, but he doesn't trust it either. Never in his life has somebody been nice to him just because...

Simone is a ME. She lives with a ghost and things from other dimensions are no suprise to her. She has lost her parents and learned to survive on her own. Still her core is nice and friendly, so even when the odds are against Xypher, she still tries to reach out for him.

I really like most of this book...
Xypher is hard, he has some great comebacks...Simone is sweet, but strong at the same time. We meet Ash again and a new caracter that really caught my attention...
We have the ghost Jesse, who died in the 80's and got stuck there... Readers that were born then will have a good laugh at his cultural references.

What bugged me... The Kenyon errors as I call them... In one chapter Ash removes Xypers scares, a few chapters later, Simone traces his scars with her fingers...
And the end... I feel it's rushed... The book could use one more chapter to give it the ending it deserves... Or at least to explain the end some more...
When Katra showes up f.e. and does what she did ;) I felt like: that's all there is to it?????????

But overall it's a nice read? Jaden is a new person I would love to meet again soon... ;)

Christina Dodd - Touch of Darkness

Rurik is heading towards the island where an ancient crypt is being uncovered. After some research and the recent events with his brother Jasha, Rurik believes this could be the tomb that holds an icon he is searching for to get salvation... When he arrives at the isle he learns that Tasya is back. He seduced her a while ago, but she left him the next morning. He now also realizes Tasya might be the woman he needs, the one destined for him and thus the one to discover the icon...
When they are in the tomb together the next day to uncover some traps, they are closed in by some Varinskis. Luckily they don't realise Rurik and Tasya are in the tomb. They are only determined to close the tomb by creating an explosion...
Rurik and Tasya barely make it out in time, and now need to run for their life! The Varinski are after them and they have to find the lost icon. Heading from Scotland to France, the Varinski are on their tails and Rurik has to find a way to make Tasya his, this time forever... But he doesn't realise she has her own agenda... And when she would discover he's one of the Varinski's... There might never be a future for them together.

Again a wonderful story by Christina Dodd. To be honest, she should keep writing paranormal, since I love this work, while I don't run wild about her historical books.

Rurik is a former pilot, but due to an experience a few years ago he won't fly anymore. Not very handy when his animal form is an hawk. He's arrogant, understanding, and all we want in a hero... and his seduction... well let's stick to cruelty in a way you have to love it...

Tasya is hunting Varinskis. Determined to bring them down she somehow never dug up the fact that Rurik Wilder was a Varinski too... She's attracted to him, but she knows his life is in jeopardy should she face the Varinskis at last.

This is a story of two people with their own agenda. An agenda that's the same but that also crosses the other one in the end. Only love and sacrifice can make the goal for both of them the same.
It's a great story that leaves me waiting for the next one.

I look forward to Ardik's story!!

Jacquelyn Frank - Damien

With the library discovery, the Nightwalkers have to work together for the first time in centuries...
When Syreena joins the group, she meets Damien, the Prince of Vampires, again. He brings his representant Jasmine to the meeting.
Syreena is going for a walk, but finds Ruth on her track... Unable to defeat her, she is taken with the evil Mind Demon. Damien has followed a little later, eager to discuss with the little lycanthrope... But he can't see or sense anything. Luckily he's an elder, so well trained in using his senses and when he shakes of the spell Ruth casted, he can see the bloodtrail Syreena has left behind. Without hesitating he sets after the two women, determined to get to Syreena before she gets killed...
He tracks her down and flees with her.. But she's wounded so severly he has only one option... Breaking a century old rule and feed from another Nightwalker so she can use his strenght to heal...

I've anticipated this book for a long time and Damien didn't let me down...

We meet the clan of the Vampires with Damien as the supreme ruler. He's tough, smart, arrogant and of course handsome as sin...
Syreena gets his attentions straight away, but he doesn't recognize the true attraction right away... Vampires are easily bored and always seek for new challenges.

Syreena is the little sister of Siena. She's her adviser and friend. When Damien enters her world, he forces her to choose for herself for the very first time. To take choices about her own life and live with the consequences.

I loved the story, I loved the romance... You have the same main story as in Elijah: two different Nightwalker species attracted to eachother, while it's forbidden. But that didn't bring the story down...

What I didn't like was the interaction between Jasmine and Damien, and Jasmine as a caracter. I could understand her, and him in the beginning, but after a while I just wanted Damien to say: stop whining and get a life of your own... Just my 2 cents about it...

I'm curious about Noah. With the new discoveries they made... And I loved the introduction of Tristan and the Shadowdwellers...

So in short, great story, Damien is great when with Syreena or on his own, I dislike him with Jasmine. Syreena lives up to the expectations.