Book Review for: "Decisive Moments"

Book Review for: Decisive Moments
Written by: Toni Noel
Desert Breeze Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61252-089-6
4.5 Stars

Reviewed by: S. Burkhart

Noel pens a high charged contemporary romance with "Decisive Moments." Secrets surround Amy Millington and Charles Harding. Can Amy and Charles find a way to forge a future despite the secrets that harden their hearts?

Set in modern day San Diego, Amy Millington has one more project to finish before she can get her degree - photograph the Harding mansion. Gathering her courage, she approaches the stoic and guarded architect, Charles Harding.

Charles says "no," of course, but Amy is undeterred. She picks up her daughter, Marta, from kindergarten and goes to the house. She promptly gets caught in the timbers and Charles comes to her rescue. Marta diffuses Charles' anger, but his answer to Amy is still "no."

Book Review for "Priceless Deception"

Book Review for: "Priceless Deception"
Written by: Jennifer Ann Coffeen
Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 978-1-60154-947-1
Avail as: print & ebook
5 Stars

Coffeen crafts a suspense-filled regency romance with "Priceless Deception." When Lady Madeline Sinclair's father dies, he asks one last thing of her - to acquire the rare French Blue diamond and destroy it. Madeline's task takes her to Colin Montgomery's house - the Duke of Douglas. Will Colin's charming disposition distract Madeline from accomplishing her mission?

Set in regency England with Prinny establishing the standard for English fashion and the ton in full swing, Lady Madeline Sinclair joins her Aunt Celia and her cousin, Helena, for a season. Madeline, however, has a mission - acquire the French Blue diamond and destroy it. Madeline's father buried the diamond in the cellar of the previous house he lived in, which is now owned by Colin Montgomery, the Duke of Douglas. Madeline's father has convinced her the diamond is cursed. On a cold call, Madeline goes to the Duke's house and encounters the man in a state of inebriation.

Book Review Of An Online Love Story A Family's Quest for Silence

A Family's Quest for Silence is a short love story involving the history of the Illuminati and how it affected one American family who had roots dating back two thousand years, from a small town named, Galilee. The story quickly brings the reader into modern day times and how the goals of the Illuminati are threaten when the young is born and educated in America.

The story takes place over a span of 2000 years and starts with a secretive family meeting where the head of the family reveals his prophecy of the future and how the family is to respond to the world events. The family is the neighbors and friends of the Family of Joseph of Galilee. Joseph who was also a carpenter, as was his son, may have been a FreeMason, as were most carpenters during that period of time.

The short story gives us an inside peek, at what may, have occurred, in reference to the FreeMasons, and later the Illuminati. This is a fictional story, unless you find truth. The story clearly is not intended to offend any authority, now, or in the past, yet easily explains how "love of the heart" can put a hold on family plans, which may be 2000 years old.

Book Review For: "No More Lies"

Book Review for: No More Lies
Written by: Mona Risk
Published by: Mona Risk
Avail as: ebook
5 Stars

Risk explores the damage lies can do to love in "No More Lies." Dr. Olivia Crane is a successful psychiatrist. Her world is turned upside down when her old boyfriend, Lucien George is invited to her university to consult. Will Olivia's lifelong lies interfere with her efforts to rekindle her relationship with Luc?

Set in contemporary Ohio, Risk places the reader in the middle of Olivia's problems right off the bat. Ten years prior, she had an intense romantic relationship with a French doctor, Luc George, but she called it off when she thought it interfered with her ability to keep her daughter, Melissa, safe. Luc is back now and all of Olivia's old feelings for him are rekindled.

The Ex Back System Overview

The Ex Back System is a superb product in itself. Nevertheless, now they've come out with a platinum upgrade. If you happen to be enthusiastic about getting the system, which version should you get? Is the basic system adequate, or do you need the platinum upgrade?

First, we need to have a look at what you get with the upgrade. The upgrade provides you access to a private, members only area. In it, you'll discover 34 videos that cover a wide range of topics related to the totally different phases in the principle book. The videos are in a presentation format; that is, you undergo a slide show of the different details while listening to a feminine voice talk you through it.

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Book Review for: Lost Then Found

Book Review for: Lost Then Found
Written by: Christina Freeburn
Desert Breeze Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61252-095-7
Avail as: an ebook only
5 Stars

Reviewed by: S. Burkhart

Freeburn crafts a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat with "Lost Then Found." Jonas Knight is a skip tracer - a person who is an expert at helping to hide others - so is his ex-wife, Renee, who he still harbors feelings for. When his partner, Peter, asks him to help find someone, Jonas reluctantly agrees knowing the case will pit him against Renee.

Gina Howard has a reason to get lost - she's a minor and her uncle, Eric, is trying to cheat her out of her inheritance. Eric is a dangerous man and Renee has hidden Gina well. Eric has two weeks to find Gina before she turns of age, and he puts pressure on Peter to find her. Peter involves Jonas.

Book Review: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

Before writing this review, I did a bit of browsing of reviews already posted in Goodreads and saw mostly 1 star ratings. I felt quite sad because I really liked the story and how it was written. The prose bears a little semblance to Nicholas Sparks and Nicholas Evans, two authors of some books that I liked, and is probably one of the reasons why it was easy for me to fall in love with the story.

Francesca Johnson is celebrating her sixty-seventh birthday, and just like her previous birthdays, she has reserved the day for ceremonies that consists mainly of reminiscing the events that changed her life twenty-two years ago starting on the day she met photographer Robert Kincaid.

The Bridges of Madison County is a very poignant story of two individuals brought together by time and fate, and how they discovered the power of love and loving. It is also a story about choice and how the choices we make can affect us for the rest of our lives.

Paradise by Judith McNaught - A Review

Paradise is an emotional roller coaster that left me both exhilarated and exhausted by the end of the 709 page book. It's one of those books where you can't wait to get to the end to see how it all gets resolved, yet at the same time, you don't ever want the experience of reading the story to come to an end.

It begins with the story of Meredith Bancroft's childhood. Her father banished his wife from their lives when Meredith was a baby, because he believed she'd been promiscuous. In an effort to ensure Meredith didn't have a chance of being like her mother, Phillip Bancroft exerts unfair restrictions and control over Meredith's childhood, effectively robbing her of it. So instead of a normal childhood, Meredith grows up in a world of privilege, yet terrible loneliness. She acts as her father's business hostess and absorbs and loves everything about the Bancroft department store, which is her family heritage.

Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - A Review

When a circus came to our suburb, it reminded me of a book I'd read the year before. Being set in a circus is a fairly unique setting for a romance novel, so it had stuck in my head. I'd borrowed heaps of books from the library the previous year and try as I might, I could not bring to mind the name of the author or the name of the book. So in the books section in Amazon, I typed in the search words 'circus Alex icon Russian' and to my delight, Kiss an Angel came up in the results. I didn't think I really needed to read the book again, but something about it kept bugging me, so I borrowed it a second time, and regardless of a few issues I had with the story and some of the characters, it still had enough of something to get me in sufficiently to read it all again.

Daisy hasn't had an easy life. She's the illegitimate daughter of an exhibitionist, promiscuous socialite mother, whom she's accompanied around Europe, acquiring a hit and miss unusual education in the process and trying to stay unnoticed in the background. When her mother dies, Daisy finds herself with a heap of debts and no formal training or skills to support herself.

Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale - A Review

When Christian Langland, Duke of Jervaulx is first introduced in Flowers from the Storm, he is in the middle of a tryst with his married lover. All is going according to hisunrepentant rakish plan, until his mistress's husband comes home. Jervaulx experiences a minor stroke, without knowing what has actually happened to himself. A few days later, when he is called out in a duel, Jervaulx suffers a second, greater stroke that renders him literally speechless.

In the unenlightened times, he is judged mentally ill, as his speech is almost completely impaired. He can't form proper sentences, he yells and rants and becomes abusive. He can't write, nor recall the name of everyday objects and his understanding appears damaged as well. A previously expert shot, athlete and outdoorsman, he can now no longer even button his own clothing. The messages between his brain and his hands fail to connect and he can't even explain this to people. As a result, his family admits him to a 'progressive' lunatic asylum, where he's treated like a caged animal.

Best Romantic Novels

In historical romance novels the time periods vary widely. A large scale event or series of events in a particular time period is a particular time period is often the focus of many writers while some tell tales that span hundreds or even thousands of years. Roman emperors, gladiators and even soldiers at war can be the characters in these tomes.

Here are some of the time periods covered by historical romances.

Elizabethan novels are set in England between 1558 and 1603. They are usually centered around the court of Queen Elizabeth I or on the high seas.

Book Review For: "The Violin"

Book Review for: "The Violin"
Written by: Sarah J. McNeal
Publisher: Rebecca J. Vickery Publishing
Avail as: print & ebook
4 Stars

McNeal pens a haunting romance full of longing and desire with "The Violin." Genevieve Beaumont was born and raised in modern times, but when she discovers a violin owned by a man who died in 1927, her heart aches to learn more about him. Dare Genevieve follow her heart wherever it takes her or will the secrets the violin holds destroy her chances at finding happiness?

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux - A Review

Not being a fan of time travel stories, I put off reading 'A Knight in Shining Armor' by Jude Deveraux, even though it makes its way onto a few lists of recommended romance reads. Surprisingly, I actually did enjoy it.

It contains a number of similarities to the movie 'Kate and Leopold', in that the reader is exposed to the reactions of the transported person to their new surroundings, encountering the unfamiliar customs, foodstuffs, machinery inventions and so on. It also has the suspense and urgency element of people needing to find a way of returning to their original time in history, in time to prevent or facilitate future happenings.

Dougless Montgomery considers herself to be a failure when compared to her high achieving siblings. With her low self-esteem, she's allowed herself to be used by her boyfriend whom she lives with in America. While on holiday in England in 1988, she has a huge argument with her boyfriend and his teenage daughter, ending in them abandoning her in an old English church without money or passport.

After The Night by Linda Howard - A Review

Ever since she was a girl, Faith Devlin has adored superb, sophisticated Gray Rouillard. They're at opposite ends of the social scale. Gray's father virtually owns the small township of Prescott and Faith looks up to Gray as the ideal adolescent hero. That image is shattered in one devastating night that forever changes the lives of both Gray and Faith.

Gray's father, a notorious womanizer has finally gone over the edge and left his family, vanishing into the night with his lover - Faith's mother. Upon discovering these disappearances, Gray takes out his overwhelming rage on Faith and the rest of her family by evicting them in the middle of the night, from the Rouillard-owned shack that they'd been living in for free.

Angel in a Red Dress by Judith Ivory - A Review

Angel in a Red Dress was previously published in 1988 under the title 'Starlit Surrender' with the author, Judith Ivory, writing as Judy Cuevas. The new title doesn't appear to be easily related to the story. The heroine, Christina, is the angel, but nowhere in the story is she described wearing red. There is a quote given at the start of Part One of the book - 'Except for the corn poppy, the pimpernel is the only scarlet flower in all of England'. So perhaps the red part comes in when the hero, Adrien, conjures her up in his favourite opium- induced fantasy, when he takes the opium (which is derived from the bright red poppy plant) for pain relief. She's also an angel in her battle to save him when everyone else thinks he's dead.

Christina Bower is the beautiful only child of a respected barrister on the King's Bench. During her very first season in London, she has a very brief meeting with the notorious libertine Adrien Hunt, seventh Earl of Kewischester. She finds him totally intriguing but even her title-eager father considers Adrien an unsuitable match for his daughter. Her father encourages a union between Christina and Richard Pinn, eldest son of a baron, only to have Pinn divorce her three years later for apparently being sterile.