Heather MacAllisterReseñas

If I'm being honest, I did not enjoy this little twosome. It felt more action and drama than romance and Christmas. The writing is good, and both authors do an excellent job weaving their tales, but I felt like this was sold as a romantic Christmas series. It did not feel like that in the slightest.

One out of five stars.

Taken by Storm
2 Stars

An intriguing premise yet the execution leaves much to be desired.

The idea of a couple stranded in a blizzard fighting the elements as they give in to their attraction is very appealing. Unfortunately, the titular storm in this book plays a very minor role in providing the "meet-cute" scenario and thats about it.

Moreover, the couple in question is, to put it mildly, boring and even a tad bit annoying. Zoey Archer has a bad reputation for ruining everything she touches and her self-confidence has taken a beating. Her constant self-flagellation quickly gets old as does her insistence that the hero would be better off without her.

Cam Macmillan is too good to be true. He is gorgeous and sweet, patient and caring, and loves dogs to boot. This paragon of masculinity cannot possibly exist, and the fact that he falls in love with Zoey it first sight is even more illogical and unrealistic.

In terms of the romance, Zoey and Cam have some mild chemistry and their interactions are sweet. Nevertheless, their one sex scene is rather tepid and definitely not up to the Blaze imprint.

The main plot revolves around Zoey's attempt to transport her sister's Afghan Hound to Seattle for breeding purposes. While the dog, Casper, certainly provides some much needed comic relief from Zoey's angst and Cam's perfection, the sheer number of incidents involving the pooch endangering himself is ridiculous.

In sum, an OK contemporary romance, but not recommended for readers who prefer action and spice in their books.

I dug the different type of heroine used to create this story - headstrong and independent, Piper makes a living by categorizing people (specifically men and women when it comes to dating). She'd like to build herself up to a serious career, not just a side dating column on her best friend's paper, but that has yet to come. She's hung up on her mother's past mistakes with men, so it's with reluctance that she falls in love with the hero of the story, Mark. Mark was a decent person but to me lack luster in the yummy department. He was too typical to me.

Not a large amount of adventure, twists in this one, and I think it would have been more enjoyable if it either added more genuine cuteness/humor, or kept it serious by injecting more genuine sensuality. Still it works as a good Harlequin to read, and MacAllister's writing style rocks with it's readability and wording choice. Definitely a writer to read more of.

sweet½

nope not for me

Na het mislukken van haar carrière als actrice, keert Laurel Hall berooid terug naar huis. Daar wacht haar tot haar verbazing de moeilijkste rol van haar leven — ze dient de man die haar vader geruïneerd heeft, te verslaan met een spelletje poker. Dit wordt haar tenminste te verstaan gegeven door haar familieleden, die een plan hebben beraamd om wraak te nemen. Hoe formidabel Laurel echter ook zal acteren, ze kan natuurlijk nooit winnen als ze niet goed kan pokeren. Ook daar heeft haar familie aan gedacht. Ze hebben de hulp van Jack Hartman ingeroepen, een pokerspeler van naam. Al snel beseft Laurel dat ze van deze man meer zou willen dan alleen lessen in het kaartspel...

Bron: Bouquet 1409

I just got this book and finished it in one day! It's very intriguing and really fun to read.
I love the romance and the suspense, I think the setting of Haunted Houses is the perfect book for this time of year! Great book!
Brandi Gillilan

I have really enjoyed this collection of books so far and happy that they are all connected in some way. I was excited about the ending of this story and surprised as well.

Kaia Bennet came from a family of jewel thieves. She was actually out of the business when a client backstabbed her while her undercover detective boyfriend, Blake McCauley, put her in prison. Now, six years later, she had made a new life for herself when Blake and Kaia met again.

I have a soft spot for thief and detective stories. :3 Blake seriously wronged and hurt Kaia so I was really rooting for her to have her revenge on him. There was one scene that did not disappoint, but since the premise of this series was to have the story take place within 24 hours, I thought Kaia wasn't hard enough on Blake. (I need some serious Presents-style groveling!) At least the ending was a forgive-and-not-forget, and that the two will move on from there.

His Little Black Book was my first of the Harlequin Blaze line. I just loved the premise, 3 short stories interconnecting all based out of an advertising agency when a high up sends a private text message to everyone in his phone book! It follows 3 women as they try to get to the company beach house for the "party" he has invited them to, during a hurricane!

All the stories sounded promising and started off great, but by the end of each of them I wasn't convinced by the chemistry between the characters, I think the stories were too short to make much really believable. I wanted more from all of the stories.

The best to me was the last story, Safe Text, because Cammy and Gil had a history, they already knew each other, so that made it most believable that all these feelings, emotions and naughty bits would happen between them. But overall I didn't find any of them hitting the right note for me, everything happened so quickly and ended just like that. I needed more!

All in all, I had fun with this book, great premise but the delivery was a little too quick handed for me. I look forward to trying another full length story from the Blaze line to see how I like it!

A quick and enjoyable read involving a "man magnet" (magical?) skirt. Computer geek becomes femme fatale. Amusing.