No True Gentleman by Liz Carlyle

Since we are reviewing Liz Carlyle books lets get to the one I read that was a complete miss. I could not bring myself to even finish reading this one.

Catherine is the sister to the Earl of Treyhern who was the hero in Beauty Like the Night. She is a widow who still finds herself mourning her husband but knows that she needs to move on with her life. While she is in London she crosses path with a man that is No True Gentleman.

Max de Rohan was introduced to us in A Woman of Virtue. He was in charge of the murder investigation of the women in Cole's Mission. In that tale he was a bit spooky but at the same time very admirable. Now, in his own book he just ended up being plain boring.

He is involved in some investigation, Catherine gets in the way, he tries to ward her off, she is determined to stick her nose into what doesn't concern her... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Can you guess I didn't like this one? I just felt bored to pieces. I wanted more of the romance and less of the subplot and since I was not getting it by mid book I decided to close this one and put it to rest. As I mentioned earlier, I did not finish this one.

Grade: DNF

A Woman of Virtue by Liz Carlyle

I want to say that Carlyle is a hit and miss author for me. Because of that I tend to wait a while before picking up her latest releases. I already have all of her earlier work in my TBR pile and I'm working my way to her more updated stuff, but because of that hit and miss situation, I take her work in small doses. The problem with this is that most of her books are interrelated and I tend to forget who is who and how they relate.

Thus was the case with David, Lord Delacourt. I had to go back and look at her previous work to find out that David is the secret brother of Reverend Cole Amherst's wife, Jonet from A Woman Scorned. David is put in a precarious situation when his brother in law, Cole swindles him into taking over his duties at the Mission he has started for fallen women.

Cecilia Lorimer, Lady Walfren would prefer to keep a respectable distance between herself and Delacourt. When she was just 18, Delacourt almost compromised her, which led to a fictitious engagement and finally, a similarly fictitious jilting on her behalf. She eventually married an older man who gave her stability and calmness after the whirlwind that was David. Now that she is widowed she tries very hard to keep that calmness in her life, but the news of David sharing duties with her in the Mission has her trembling, but not so much in fear as in need.

I really loved these two characters, both had reasons to resent the other but they learned to put that aside when a series of murders follow the woman of the Mission. David and Cecilia are able to focus their energies on something other than their disagreements and they discover that there is more to each other than a first impression.

Wonderful, wonderful book! I absolutely loved how these two found a way back to each other. The subplot of the murders never out shined the romance.

Grade: B+

Anthology - Big Guns Out Of Uniform

I'm not real big on Anthologies but I really am going to try to read on a month since for some reason I seem to collect the damn things. I have way too many of them to keep dismissing them and, well, I'm going to TRY to read more of them.

This anthology has three stories which is nice because it gives the authors more of a book to develop a story, and yet, it seems not everyone can hit it off in a short story format (my biggest gripe when it comes to anthologies)

Sherrilyn Kenyon - BAD to the Bone: Marianne Webernec is on a fantasy vacation where she gets to play the part of her favorite romance heroine. Kyle Foster is part of BAD, a covert government agency that rivals the Navy SEALS. During his latest mission he was shot and his boss sent him to a remote island for some enforced R&R. While playing commando to relieve his boredom, Kyle encounters Marianne and discovers that the other side of the island is a 'Fantasy Camp' where woman go to enact their romance novel fantasies and Kyle wants to help Marianne live hers. Although entertaining, this story was just a little too silly. Kyle wanted a simple relationship and someone that accepted him for himself but Marianne was viewing him as part of her fantasy so, it made no sense that Kyle was happy with Marianne. (C )

Liz Carlyle - Let's Talk About Sex: Delia Sydney is a radio sex therapist who is living above her means after her husband dumps her for another woman. She thinks she is having a bad day until her Volvo breaks down in front of her neighbors drive way. Nick Woodruff is a cop forced on leave after a drug bust has him shooting a suspect. With two weeks to kill Nick offers his services as a mechanic to the neighbor he thought was a snob. Delia turns out to be the less snobbish person he has ever met and, despite himself, what starts out to be a very sexual affair turns into a lot more. These two have great chemistry from the get go and if Nick was not so paranoid about social differences between him and Delia the story would have been even better. Regardless of this, the story just flew off the pages and was a delight! (B )

Nicole Camden - The Nekkid Truth: This was the story that actually made me pick up this title. While reading the first story I kept wondering why I actually wanted to read this piece, since I am no fan of Anthologies. Debbie Valley suffered an accident a few years ago that left her face blind. This is a disorder that causes the person to lose the ability to distinguish faces. It's not that they cannot see certain parts of a face but that after the face leaves, they don't recall what that person looks like. Some people forget names, people with face blindness forget faces. Debbie is a photographer and works with the police taking crime scene photos. Detective Marshall Scott has a thing for Debbie but has been struggling to deal with his feelings of guilt, since his partner was the one that hit Debbie and caused her disability. When all of a sudden Scott gives into his feelings and decides to be with Debbie, it shocks her and throws her life into turmoil since she now has to deal with her own feelings of inadequacy and her fears of not being able to love a man she will not recognize the next time she sees him. Great story but would have enjoyed it even more if it had not been in first person POV. Would have loved to know more of what was going on in Marshall's thoughts. (B+ )

Grade: B-