This is, Tome 1

Résumé : Quoi de mieux qu’arriver au bras d’un hockeyeur célèbre au mariage de son ex pour lui prouver qu’on est passé à autre chose ?

Zara Stone
J’ai côtoyé des joueurs de hockey toute ma vie. Je sais à quel point leurs vies sont compliquées, et je ne veux pas que la mienne suive le même chemin. C’est pour cela que j’ai juré de ne jamais en fréquenter.

Je suis d’ailleurs tombée amoureuse d’un intellectuel.
Mais au lieu de me demander en mariage, ce connard m’a larguée et a annoncé ses fiançailles trois mois plus tard sur Instagram.
Croyez-moi, il ne s’en tirera pas comme ça !

Evan Richards
J’étais en passe de battre mon record de points de l’année précédente, prêt à revendiquer la première place de la Ligue. J’étais au sommet de mon art et de ma carrière quand la princesse du hockey, Zara Stone, m’a contacté sur Twitter avec une drôle de proposition : s’incruster au mariage de son ex en me faisant passer pour son petit ami.

Ce qui pouvait arriver de pire ? Un cauchemar médiatique.
Au mieux ? Une super soirée avec une femme magnifique.

Alors ni une ni deux, j’ai accepté. Après tout, je ne résiste jamais à un défi.
Et qui aurait pu croire qu’on se retrouverait pris à notre propre piège ?

Avis : J’aime beaucoup les romances sportives et n’ayant jamais encore lu de roman Natasha Madison, j’étais curieuse de commencer cette série. Du hockey, une romance, une relation qui commence de façon un peu inattendue ? J’adore ça ! Pourtant, je dois dire que finalement, j’ai été un peu déçue …

Ce qui je pense m’a le plus posé problème ici, c’est l’insta-love. C’est j’ai toujours eu beaucoup de mal avec ça et c’est très mis en avant ici. Tout va très vite entre les deux personnages, c’est peu crédible… J’ai aussi trouvé que l’histoire tirait en longueur, il n’y a pas beaucoup de suspense, et bref vous l’aurez compris, j’ai eu du mal.

Pourtant, c’est vrai que ça commençait bien. L’idée de base m’a beaucoup plu, mais je n’ai juste pas réussi à accrocher. Je m’attendais à plus avec l’histoire. Ca ne veut pas dire que vous ne passerez pas un bon moment avec ce roman. Ce n’était peut-être pas le bon moment pour moi de le lire.

Dangerous Damsels, Book 1

Synopsis: A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he’s under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her–hopefully proving, once and for all, that she’s as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

Review: The synopsis of this book was very tempting. How do you resist an unusual organization of women, pirates, plots and all, in Victorian society? I say yes!

So we discover Cecilia, who is finally old enough to have an assassin on her tail. This is a great moment for a woman of the Wisteria Society. And one thing her pirate assassin doesn’t expect is to fall under her spell. But Ned is much more than just a pirate and we’re about to discover that he has many hidden sides.

I had a great time with this novel. Cecilia will open up to the world and maybe even her feelings. She is willing to do anything for the people in her family and even more so for her aunt who raises her. So when she has to ally herself with the pirate who is trying to kill her to save her, she doesn’t hesitate to do so, even if they have to pretend to be husband and wife so she doesn’t lose her reputation.

As you can see, this was a very enjoyable novel and I’m curious to see what the second volume will be about.

The Traders, Book 2

Synopsis: Ismay Deagan has one wish in the world – to leave Ireland and join her brother, Bram, in Australia. But her father has other ideas and orders her to marry their vicious neighbour Rory Flynn, even though she can’t stand him.

After Rory brutally attacks her, Ismay runs away, disguising herself as an impoverished young widow. When she meets Adam Tregear on the ship, she finally starts to believe her dreams of future happiness may come true.

Before she reaches Australia, however, she’s flung into adventures in Suez, Ceylon and Singapore. Dare she tell Adam the truth about who she really is? Does he have secrets of his own? Or will her past catch up with her and ruin her new-found happiness?

Review: The author writes original historical romances, multiple series that intersect and even if I do not remember all the stories, it is always a pleasure to find the characters.

We follow this time, mainly, the story of Ismay and Adam. Ismay is the sister of Bram that we met in the first volume. She dreams of joining her brother in Australia but her father has decided otherwise. He wants her to marry the man she has hated since childhood: Rory Flynn. And he is ready to do anything for that! He even goes as far as to let the young man attack his daughter. Ismay decides to flee and succeeds, thanks to her employers, in leaving for Australia. On the other side, we follow Adam who receives in legacy of goods in Australia and who must decide if he accepts them or not. His father has always hated him and he knows that he has many surprises in store for him.

This was a very enjoyable novel. I enjoyed getting to know Ismay and seeing her strength despite everything she goes through. Nothing is easy and yet she moves forward as best she can. Adam is a character tht I liked, as is his aunt Harriet. And it was a treat to discover their story. I was quite surprised, but you also read about other characters’ stories that I loved seeing again.

Anna Jacobs’ novels are always very interesting and I follow them with pleasure.

Synopsis: We met on a Tuesday.
Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday.
And everything fell apart on a Tuesday…

Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I’m a “domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego.” (I do have something huge. It’s not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She’s sexy as hell…And a virgin.

At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for.

Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set:
Professional football for me. Law school for her.

But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life.

Until tonight.

We met on a Tuesday.
Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday.
And now it’s seven years later, on a Tuesday…

Review: I did read a novel by Whitney G that I enjoyed so I was curious to discover this one.

We follow, alternating past and present, Grayson a famous NFL player and Charlotte, a geeky young woman who doesn’t really like parties or big blowouts. The meeting between the two characters is explosive and it was great to see them get to know each other. They are determined and their exchanges are always spicy.

The author offers us a fairly classic romance that doesn’t really revolutionize the genre but is still enjoyable to read. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and seeing how our two heroes would deal with their problems. So it was a good read and I am curious to discover another title of the author.

Résumé : Il pensait qu’il ne la reverrait jamais, mais le destin en a décidé autrement.

Charlotte Taylor a trois défauts :
1) Elle me déteste. Elle affirme même que je suis un « crétin tyrannique avec un énorme ego ». (J’ai effectivement quelque chose d’énorme, mais ce n’est pas mon ego.)
2) Elle prend nos séances de tutorat bien trop au sérieux.
3) Elle est incroyablement sexy…

Du moins, c’étaient ses points négatifs avant que nos séances ne commencent à durer plus longtemps qu’elles ne l’auraient dû. Jusqu’à ce qu’un baiser innocent se mue en une centaine d’autres plus coquins, et jusqu’à ce qu’elle devienne la première femme dont je suis tombé amoureux.

Notre avenir ensemble après l’obtention de notre diplôme semblait tout tracé : j’allais devenir un joueur de football américain, et elle irait à la fac de droit. Du moins, c’était le plan avant qu’elle ne me quitte à la fin du semestre sans explication et disparaisse complètement de ma vie…

Jusqu’à ce soir, sept ans plus tard.

Avis : J’avais lu un roman de Whitney G que j’avais apprécié et j’étais donc curieuse de découvrir celui-ci.

Nous suivons, en alternant passé et présent, Grayson un joueur célèbre de la NFL et Charlotte, une jeune femme un peu geek qui n’aime pas trop les fêtes ou les grandes effusions. La rencontre entre les deux personnages est explosive et c’était très sympa de les voir s’apprivoiser. Ils sont déterminés et leurs échanges sont toujours plein de piquant.

L’auteure nous propose une romance assez classique qui ne révolutionne pas vraiment le genre mais qui reste agréable à lire. J’ai pris plaisir à découvrir les personnages et à voir comment nos deux héros allaient régler leurs problèmes. C’était donc une bonne lecture et je suis curieuse de découvrir un autre titre de l’auteure.

Synopsis: The Hurlingford family have ruled the small town of Byron, nestled in the Blue Mountains, for generations. Wealthy, powerful and cruel, they get what they want, every time.

Missy Wright’s mother, a Hurlingford by birth, has been shunned by her family since marrying for love, not money. Now widowed, the women live a quiet existence in genteel poverty. Plain, thin and unforgivably single, it seems Missy’s life is destined to be dreary.

But then a stranger arrives in town. A divorcee from Sydney. And she opens Missy’s eyes to the possibility of a happy ending.

Review: I hadn’t tried this author before, but I was curious to discover her and dive into this novel.

Missy doesn’t have an easy life, especially since she’s already 33 years old. She lives with her mother and her aunt and she has long since lost hope of finding a husband. She is not very beautiful, she has no money and nothing to attract a man of the world. However, when an unknown man arrives in town, she falls under his spell. If Missy has always been submissive, she will finally assert herself and surprise everyone by taking her life into her own hands.

I did read the novel pretty fast, it’s not very thick. I was curious to find out what our dear Missy was going to do to get her life back on track, because it is far from easy.

A good discovery!