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For Lindsay Kent, Vineyard is her dream job. She's thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she's been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she's more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss's daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move. For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one.
All work and no play has Autumn Primm in the market for a little excitement. Her Venice Beach coffee shop, The Cat's Pajamas, is her pride and joy, but the time has come to take off the apron and see what the world has in store. Kate Carpenter needs to get away. And quick. A former firefighter, Kate's been crowned her town's new hero for reasons she can't quite get behind. A free flight and some time off have her fleeing the scene to sunny California. Dreamy Autumn Primm was never supposed to be part of that bargain.
Being Principe of an ancient vampire dynasty comes with difficult choices. For Byron Debrek, that means putting the good of her clan and innocent mortals over her own desires. When she falls for the first woman to set her blood on fire in centuries, Byron must harden her heart and walk away. For Amelia Honey, a suit designer at a Savile Row tailor, the six months spent with her first love were the most wonderful time of her life. Byron made her feel like a princess and awakened her darkest sexual desires. But then she disappeared.
They say you can't go home again, but Raine St. James doesn't know why anyone would want to. Rory St. James was disowned after she came out at 17. She rebounded by moving to Chicago, changing her name to Raine and putting down her hometown to audiences around the country. Now, 10 years later, too old to be considered a gay youth, broke, evicted, and fresh off a much needed break-up, Raine St. James is forced to accept a job teaching at Bramble University in Darlington, the town she's been publicly bashing for the last decade.
Entrepreneur and innovator Kadrienne Davenport gets results. A demanding executive and stickler for punctuality, Kade throws herself into work to avoid hurting anyone, convinced she only causes pain to those she loves. When Jennifer Spencer meets an incognito Kade at a conference, sparks fly. But when Kade unexpectedly becomes her boss, Jen's problems multiply. The company she founded is going broke, her grandmother's dementia is worsening, and her attraction to Kade -- her difficult, brilliant, charismatic mentor -- is growing.
Army National Guard Colonel Sawyer Kincaid has served her time dueling with death in the deserts of Africa. Now that she's home, the only sand she wants to see is on the beach in South Florida. Too bad Tropical Storm Leo, swiftly gaining strength out over the Atlantic, is about to draw her in to another life or death war, this time on home soil. Dr. Dara Sims has too many critical patients in the intensive care units at Miami Memorial to consider evacuation, no matter how determined the battle-hardened colonel is to make her. As far as Dara is concerned, evacuate is just another word for abandon. When a state of emergency becomes a state of siege waged by Leo, all she can do is hope the rising waters relent before she loses everyone, herself included.
For Lindsay Kent, Vineyard is her dream job. She's thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she's been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she's more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss's daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move. For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one.
All work and no play has Autumn Primm in the market for a little excitement. Her Venice Beach coffee shop, The Cat's Pajamas, is her pride and joy, but the time has come to take off the apron and see what the world has in store. Kate Carpenter needs to get away. And quick. A former firefighter, Kate's been crowned her town's new hero for reasons she can't quite get behind. A free flight and some time off have her fleeing the scene to sunny California. Dreamy Autumn Primm was never supposed to be part of that bargain.
Being Principe of an ancient vampire dynasty comes with difficult choices. For Byron Debrek, that means putting the good of her clan and innocent mortals over her own desires. When she falls for the first woman to set her blood on fire in centuries, Byron must harden her heart and walk away. For Amelia Honey, a suit designer at a Savile Row tailor, the six months spent with her first love were the most wonderful time of her life. Byron made her feel like a princess and awakened her darkest sexual desires. But then she disappeared.
They say you can't go home again, but Raine St. James doesn't know why anyone would want to. Rory St. James was disowned after she came out at 17. She rebounded by moving to Chicago, changing her name to Raine and putting down her hometown to audiences around the country. Now, 10 years later, too old to be considered a gay youth, broke, evicted, and fresh off a much needed break-up, Raine St. James is forced to accept a job teaching at Bramble University in Darlington, the town she's been publicly bashing for the last decade.
Entrepreneur and innovator Kadrienne Davenport gets results. A demanding executive and stickler for punctuality, Kade throws herself into work to avoid hurting anyone, convinced she only causes pain to those she loves. When Jennifer Spencer meets an incognito Kade at a conference, sparks fly. But when Kade unexpectedly becomes her boss, Jen's problems multiply. The company she founded is going broke, her grandmother's dementia is worsening, and her attraction to Kade -- her difficult, brilliant, charismatic mentor -- is growing.
Army National Guard Colonel Sawyer Kincaid has served her time dueling with death in the deserts of Africa. Now that she's home, the only sand she wants to see is on the beach in South Florida. Too bad Tropical Storm Leo, swiftly gaining strength out over the Atlantic, is about to draw her in to another life or death war, this time on home soil. Dr. Dara Sims has too many critical patients in the intensive care units at Miami Memorial to consider evacuation, no matter how determined the battle-hardened colonel is to make her. As far as Dara is concerned, evacuate is just another word for abandon. When a state of emergency becomes a state of siege waged by Leo, all she can do is hope the rising waters relent before she loses everyone, herself included.
Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs to get married fast and is tightlipped as to why. And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Perez isn't about to demand answers. The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden's going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they're madly in love and that racing down the aisle is all they've ever wanted.
After quitting the high-stakes world of finance, Lennox King is content with keeping her life simple. As the new director of a hospice charity, she uses a strict business approach to help the charity grow and prosper. When Rosa comes to work at the charity under orders from the Queen Consort, babysitting a spoiled princess is definitely not on Lennox's agenda. But when passion flares between them, will Lennox's past stop their relationship in its tracks, or will a twist of fate bring a new future that neither was expecting?
Eighteen-year-old Charlee Parker met the love of her life in a parking lot-a leggy brunette with a valedictorian medal hanging from her rear-view mirror and an attitude as biting as a Boston winter. Alexandra Woodson was guarded, a 19-year-old orphan set on a bright future in hospitality administration. She never imagined an art student with a penchant for cheesy pick-up lines and stealing parking spaces would crack her rigid exterior and claim her heart. For four years, theirs was an enviable love - evergreen and growing. Unbreakable... until it broke.
Kelli MacCabe is a no-nonsense detective with a tough exterior. Only a select few know her as a loyal, loving friend. Committed to her family, her friends, and her job, Kelli puts her needs behind everyone else's. As a surgeon, Nora Whitmore is used to being in control. The hospital is her life and leaves room for little else. Respected by her colleagues, but misunderstood by the residents, Nora takes what she needs and keeps everyone at arm's length. In the process, she creates unexpected enemies. Tragedy brings them together.
Self-made business owner Dale McGuire has always enjoyed two things in life: women and fast cars. Now in her mid-30s, she's restless and can't work out why. Then one day a 10-year-old boy turns up, claiming to be her son, and her simple ordered world turns upside down.
Accountant and financial advisor Lacey Chamberlain doesn't consider herself a control freak. She's merely a planner-orderly, neat, and content in her tidy little life. When a marketing firm moves into the empty office next door, the loud-music-playing, stinky-food-ordering, kickball-in-the-hall staff make Lacey crazy. Marketing expert Alicia Wright is spontaneous, flies by the seat of her pants, and lives in the moment-all the things Lacey is not. She's also gorgeous, thoughtful, and seems determined to make Lacey like her. They say opposites attract, but for how long? And is that really a good idea?
Finnian Kane, famous master of illusion, mentalist, and renowned atheist, has a crisis of faith after her sister's death. She rents a cottage in the village of Axedale in Kent, desperately trying to find a safe haven from the intrusive media to grieve and work out how to move on. The Reverend Bridget Claremont makes it her mission to help the enigmatic Finnian find her faith in life again. Their chemistry is clear from the start, despite their different beliefs.
With the arrival of Courtney Carrington, Margaret's youth sparked into color. But first loves can scar. Margaret hasn't seen Courtney in years and that's for the best. But when Courtney loses her father and returns to Tanner Peak to take control of the family store, Margaret comes face-to-face with her past and the woman she's tried desperately to forget. The fact that Courtney has grown up more beautiful than ever certainly doesn't help matters.
All her life, Annie Prideaux has suffered through her brother's constant practical jokes. But Jake's last joke is one too many, she decides when he sets her up on a blind date with his friend Drew - neglecting to tell his straight sister one tiny detail: Her date is not a man but a lesbian. Annie and Drew decide it's time to turn the tables on Jake by pretending to fall in love with each other.
Shelly White is a coding genius who has mastered the IT world but hasn't quite mastered dating. While she searches for Ms. Right with the help of Samantha Monteiro's matchmaking agency, Shelly embraces her inner nerd, and when one of her newest ideas turns into a creative goldmine, she hires PR exec Claire Moseley to help her professional dreams become reality. But is Claire the girl of her dreams in more ways than one?
Catherine Birch is a lonely workaholic who hates Christmas. This year, she is being forced to celebrate with her best friend's family in the Highlands of Scotland. Having missed her flight, Catherine reluctantly ventures on a road trip with beautiful stranger Holly Daniels. Although polar opposites, the intense attraction between them is unmistakable. Just as Catherine begins to think spending Christmas with Holly might not be so bad, a raging snowstorm leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Kip Kensington owes 400 hours of community service for a joy ride gone wrong. Jordan Rice has no time for younger women with "trouble" written all over them no matter how sexy they might be, even if she is in desperate need of more hands - and more funds - to keep her community garden project alive. Kip's past follows her into Jordan's carefully constructed, and safe, world, disrupting Jordan's orderly life and threatening to uncover all the secrets she'd locked away:
Love is thicker than blood.
When Yale student Sarah Storm comes out to her parents, they disown her and withdraw all support for her education. A few days later, Sarah's long-term girlfriend breaks up with her and Sarah loses everything that matters - family, future dreams, and love. Forced to leave Yale with only the contents of her dorm room and a boat of a car bequeathed to her by her grandmother, Sarah scrambles to get her life back on track at the University of Rhode Island. Burying her hurt and disappointment, Sarah throws herself into both her classes and social life. But no one she meets is quite as intriguing as Rory, her new-and apparently straight-roommate. When it becomes clear that her attraction to Rory is mutual, however, Sarah begins to fear that history will repeat itself and she'll end up alone.
Will Sarah be able to put aside the betrayals of those she loved and trust again? Or will the consequences of her own coming-out experience get in the way of a new chance at happiness?
I freaking hate the apparent Rom/Dram definition of HEA. What it boils down to is that while HEA is seemingly available to the characters the reader gets diddley. We have little chance to actually see the characters live happily. We get the conflict, the drama, the pain and, yes the resolution, but we get little opportunity to enjoy life shared, the happiness, the beauty of that resolution in situ. It is so frustrating to be left with only the hope that the author will revisit the characters, al la Joey W. Hill, in various vignettes posted on fan pages.
To be led to caring and even deep affection the characters of the books and left hanging with no real chance to see their happiness is the soul of frustration. Epilogues won't do. Would an extra couple of chapters really be so hard? Have a little mercy. HEA is insufficient if it is simply assumed.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Anyone who remembers Sarah from her cameo in Unexpected could discern that sweet, naive, eager to serve Sarah, would be the giver in her personal relationships. So when her parents find out she's gay and disown her it's clear that they saw her as their good little Stepford child who'd never stray from her prepared script. Her commentary concerning her girlfriend 'Dar' makes it plain that her romance followed a similar course. It was always Sarah who reached out, it was Sarah who made the effort pretty much every time. Dar then ended their romance by letting Sarah dangle all summer, then shot down their plans to get together for the first time in three months at the last moment.
All this sets up Sarah to be as sympathetic a figure as possible as a character unless the author in question going over the top is Radclyffe. The metamorphosis our hero makes at the University of Rhode Island from being a programmed robotic one dimensional character into a woman growing into herself is an inspiration. Rory's fight with what she's feeling for Sarah seemed somewhat overblown to me, but then I'm a woman who realized she was at least bi, somewhere about the time I turned twelve.
The end of the story shows just how much things have changed in the last few years; it's easy to forget how far we've come, and how fast. I saw this story as a good solid 4.
next time don't wait so long for the sex haha
I almost passed out when she got up and ran.
but it was a really good listen. I recommend a part 2 :)
About the first third is excellent, well written and setting everything up. But after that the the story becomes frustrating. There are too many points at which the protagonists get together and then fail to connect, in my view. And without other events or story lines this starts to drag on. Rather than just using all the other treads and characters as a reason to break up the moment they connect, it would be better to have expanded these out to become arches in their own right. Otherwise you're just left with a constant, 'oh great! They are going to kiss and tell each other they are in love-- oh... no... they're not', then this is repeated multiple times to in the last two-thirds of the novel.
That being said the narration is excellent, the story works and fits the standard mode of lesfiction. The characters are also great. Just too much of the 'they going to get together, oh darn' rollercoaster.