The first, Bending to the Bachelor's Will is a light story of a woman who takes part in a Bachelor auction and buys a guy she has always regarded as a friend, as a favour and then ends up finding herself attracted to him. I liked the characters, Holly Prescott is such a cool woman in her own right and is certain that she knows how to deal with successful banker Eric Alden. He's certain that her personality will drive him off but he finds that actually, she attracts him. He fears the reaction of his friends. Light, predictable and totally not the reason this book gets four stars, on it's own this book would have got 3.5 stars as a reasonable read.

However, the Nalini Singh story of a couple working their way through a marriage that they want to save but have to learn their way to finding the love that will last rather than the lust that led them to marry is the more interesting the more visceral read, for me. It was like a sequel to many of the romance stories out there, what about finding out about each other, what about creating a relationship that will allow you both to evolve as people, how to create a good work/life balance that will enable the other person to feel wanted and loved and what happens when the trust starts to crumble.

This is actually one of the best Mills & Boons I have read, it felt real, the characters came across as real people with problems they needed to work out and while occasionally things happened or were solved very quickly I cared about them and the outcome. ( )