* * * * *

You wouldn’t expect these two to ever have anything more than a friendly acquaintance because Tally Bennett has always been a giver while Brett Huntsman has always been a playboy. After a snowboarding accident Brett has to deal with the fact that he can't use his hands as well as one of his legs and he is in need of someone to take care of him until his casts are taken off. Tally’s best friend and Brett’s younger sister, Sophie, can’t make it back home to take care of her brother so she needs Tally’s help to do it for her. Now at first Tally’s not so happy to be around the self-centered playboy but she's happy to help him out in more ways than one—but for one night and one night only. But then Sophie asks her for one more favor and that is to take care of the arrogant rich boy Brett while his broken bones heal. Tally has just started developing her new bath and body line called Naughty Body, which could be a very profitable new line. So she’s wondering how she’s supposed to find the time to take care of Brett and deal with his latest request which is that they treat themselves to a six-week sex fest. Brett has always gotten what he wants no matter what and now he wants to have wonderfully exciting sex with Tally after their one night at the hospital. But this sex fest with the thriving, earthy Tally affects Brett in a way he never saw coming after never having a serious relationship with a woman before and now he's just discovered the one thing money can't buy…Tally's heart. After reading Elle Amery’s first two Quartzton series novels, Saving Sophie and Grace on Fire which introduced Tally Bennett and Brett Huntsman, I was really looking forward to reading more about Tally and Brett who finally have their own love story told after their best friends and siblings hook up. We get an introduction to Tally and Brett in the first two novels but now we get to know them so much better as their love story gets told at last. Tally is a really intriguing character because she seems so very different from her best friends Sophie and Grace since she is not at all concerned with her wardrobe and is a very carefree woman that some people might categorize as a hippie. Since Tally was a child and met Brett they have always had a sort of friendly acquaintance kind of relationship because they had nothing in common especially since Tally was and still is Brett’s younger sister Sophie’s best friend. Tally is not one of your typical heroines you usually read about in romance novels and that made her so much more relatable as a character. Brett was raised like a little prince who got whatever he wanted and was taught that money could buy you anything no matter what. But that changed once he really got to know Tally after his accident, which was caused because he was flirting with a woman. I think that Brett is one hot man who is really in need of a reality check to kick him in the pants because though he seems like a self-centered rich playboy I can see that there is a really loving man underneath. Brett’s accident is probably the best thing to have happen to both Brett and Tally because it gave them a chance to see that they were meant for one another. I had a really wonderful time reading this novel because it was pretty steamy yet it had such a character development that I really thought followed with the first two novels very nicely. Now Tally and Brett may really seem like complete opposites while you read Tally's Gift but I knew they were meant to be with each other because they have that intense spark that just really gets to you. I was a bit sad yet happy again when I finish this third and last novel in Elle Amery’s Quartzton series. I was sad to have come to the end of the novel but I was happy because I have heard that Elle might be working on another book for her Quartzton series. Elle Amery delivers a wonderfully deliciously hot, sexy and thrilling conclusion to her amazing Quartzton series that will have you panting from the start with steamy scenes that will keep you reading until the very end to find the happily ever after.

Lissa, who is a famous romance author, has travelled to a small town in southern Georgia because she needs to complete her latest novel for her agent or else. So she decides to rent an antebellum plantation for the next six months that she forgot to check out before deciding to rent the place. However, she didn’t count on sharing her temporary home with the resident ghost who is named Jesse and he has been dead for almost one hundred years. In all of his time on earth, both as a living person and spectral ghost haunting his home, he has never met anyone as special to him as Lissa. If Jesse had a beating heart, it would have stopped beating the moment he saw her because why couldn’t Lissa, who is passionate, beautiful, talented woman, have come along while he was still alive. During a trip to town, Lissa meets the local bank owner named Jared and he is one sinfully handsome banker who sweeps Lissa off her feet after five minutes. He claims to be in love with her and wants her to move permanently to the small town of Maple Falls so that they can continue their very fast paced relationship. Things are heating up very quickly between the two of them which leaves Lissa totally confused over whether it’s really love or uncontrollable lust that is drawing them together after such a short time. When Jared finds out that Lissa likes to casts spells and visits a magick shop things take a turn for the worse for their relationship. Jared can’t afford the hint of scandal which will send him running the other way instead of standing by Lissa in her time of need. I’ve read the first book of Jessica Coulter Smith’s Ashton Grove Werewolves series and really loved it so I was very much looking forward to reading one of her stand alone novels. The cover of Magnolia Magick really grabbed me when I first saw it, so I went to read the blurb next to see what the book would be about. I love to read paranormal romances because they take what we think of as normal and turn it into a totally different world filled with their own imagined beliefs of paranormal. I don’t read much paranormal romances about ghosts so it was a nice change of pace to read this novel by an author I liked reading. I thought it was so interesting that the heroine Lissa is a famous romance author in need of some alone time to get her next novel in her best selling series finished. It added a wonderful twist when she gets to the house she’s renting and finds the ghost of a very hot man living there already. I really thought that Lissa and Jesse were the intended couple in the beginning but then she meets Jared who really sweeps her off her feet. I was not that happy with that twist to the story because I thought Lissa and Jesse were the perfect couple. That didn’t put me off to the novel though because as I kept reading I could see that there was something bigger for Lissa and Jesse. There was something about Jared that I thought was too smooth and charming that I didn’t like and could see that it will be a good to be true relationship for Lissa. I was both sad and happy when things took a turn for the worse but I was so happy for the wonderful ending. Jessica Coulter Smith delivers an intriguing paranormal novel with twists and turns that will keep you guessing and with the thought of getting a wonderful happily ever after.

You can find the original review of this book on Manic Readers and you can find it by clicking on the banner above to get there.

Once I started reading Saving Sophie I couldn’t stop reading it until I knew that Sophie and Jake would have their happy ending. I really loved all the other characters as well, such as Sophie’s best friends Grace and Tally. Grace is Jake’s younger sister and Tally is Wyatt’s younger sister so there were a lot of fun memories shared throughout the novel that added such emotion to this wonderful novel. I was a bit sad yet happy to finish this novel. I was sad to have come to the end of the novel but I was happy because I found out that this is the first book of Elle Amery’s Quartzton Series and that there were at least two more books to read about Sophie’s friends Grace in, Grace on Fire, and Tally in, Tally's Gift. Elle Amery delivered a hot, sexy and thrilling novel that will grab you from the start with witty characters and keep you reading until the very end to find out if the hero and heroine will get their happily ever after.

* * * * *

Izzy has always been the fearless Titan sister but when an oil rig blows up, leaving her with only 30% of her vision, her sisters find themselves as concerned by her emotional withdrawal as by the possibility that the explosion was not just any accident. Are the mind games their long-lost brother Garth has been playing turning physical even though he has admitted to all the other misfortunes but this one? Or is someone else out to get them? When her sisters signed her up in a survivor training camp Izzy is not happy because Nick, her instructor, is determined that she won’t be left in the dark, in more ways than one. But if he tells her the terrible truth behind why he’s helping her, he’ll never see her again, unless they’re both willing to take the biggest risk of all. Letting themselves fall in love with one another with no restrictions and past baggage to interfere.

Nick is just the perfect guy for Izzy because they both have personal past baggage that has really defined all of their relationships with the opposite sex. I thought that Nick was such a wonderfully sexy and strong man who could really use a wild and fun woman like Izzy in his life to shake things up. There were so much delightfully funny scenes mixed in with some lovely intimate scenes that I so enjoyed reading about between Izzy and Nick. I was also glad with all the progress the sisters have made with their relationships as sisters since the first novel in this great series. Reading about all the struggling that they were going through just to get their happily ever after was great fun and I knew that they would get there. Susan Mallery has delivered a wonderfully exhilarating story of the last of the Titan sisters to what I believe is one great new series that everyone should watch out for this year. Now there is one more novel in this series coming in November 2009 called Hot on Her Heels, which is about Dana the Titan sisters’ best friend and their older half-brother Garth. I’m very looking forward to reading that novel because it will give me the conclusion to the series and I am sure it will be amazing!

Mitch Cassidy is such a strong male character even though at the beginning he seemed like a bitter man who wanted to hurt everyone even those that loved him. I thought that though Skye and Mitch have a lot of baggage in their past with one another they can somehow find a way to make it work so they can finally be happy together. Mitch and Skye are wonderful characters that really kept me on my toes throughout the entire novel because they always did something I didn’t see coming. I also really loved the interaction between Mitch and Skye’s eight-year-old daughter Erin because I love to read about children in my romance novels since they add that bit of child fun to the novel. Reading about all the struggling that Skye and Mitch were going through just to get their happily ever after was great fun and I know that they will get there in the end. Susan Mallery has delivered an exciting and pleasurable continuation to what I believe is going to be one great new series that everyone should be watching out for this year.

Francesca DuVall is a rebellious beauty who gets kidnapped along with her younger brother, Marsh, by the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. Since the kidnapping Cesca spends every waking moment planning an escape for her brother but she never counted on falling in love with the man whose blazing sapphire eyes cause her to quiver with unrestrained passion but there is something she doesn’t know about this man. Ethan Gray is a curator at a famous museum...most of the time in the present that is and at other times, he’s Meko, a savage warrior plunged into the past to help his beloved people, the Cheyenne. Meko is a brutal, savage leader of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, who has been in many battles as he fights to save his people. Now that he has met Cesca he wants to win more than the mission he was sent into the past to win he wants to win Cesca’s heart forever. From the desolate plains of Colorado and the harsh life of a Cheyenne Dog Soldier to the good-natured life of a Native American Museum curator, their love was fueled by passion and ignited by destiny.

Where the Rain is Made is my first novel by K. Celeste Bryan but it definitely won’t be my last because she spins such a wonderful love story between two characters that may, at first, seem like opposites but are really meant for each other. I love reading historical romances and I’ve read my share of Native American based historicals but I hadn’t heard of the Dog Soldiers before I read this novel. Now that I have finished reading about them in this novel I wish there were more historical romance novels with them in it. Cesca and Meko are such wonderfully complex characters that I really had fun getting to know as the novel progressed. After the first couple of chapters I couldn’t sleep much until I found out what would happen for them since Meko isn’t from the same time period as Cesca. I won’t give any spoilers away but I really loved how things ended and I really hope that one day K. Celeste decides to write a sequel to this book because there is so much she could expand on. K. Celeste delivered an awe inspiring novel that made me appreciate the Native Americans and their way of life so much more and it is a definite keeper that everyone should give a try because they will be immediately hooked!

Lexi Titan can just see the headlines of the town’s newspaper as well as all the other newspapers out there. With all of Titanville, Texas, buzzing with the latest juicy gossip of a Titan, not that she has any other choice. Lexi is faced with exactly twenty-one days to come up with two million dollars in cold, hard cash and she is out of options or so she thought. Except now she has one option and that is to marry Cruz Rodrigues or lose everything—the chain of day spas she built herself. She could also lose her tyrant of a father’s respect as well as the long-standing competition with her sisters for the family business. The proposal is cold and hard when Cruz delivers it to Lexi at one of her sister’s foundation parties raising money for needy children. Cruz has money, success, smolderingly good looks—everything but the blue blood needed to become a true member of Texas society—that he can’t buy with all the money he has. So if Lexi agrees to be his fiancée for six months, lending him her famous father’s last name and his snobbish connections, he’ll hand her a check for two million dollars on the spot. And in six months they’ll go their separate ways, but neither one is prepared for their long-ago shared passion with each other when they were young to throw a big wrench into what would seem to be the perfect deal. I love Susan Mallery’s novels very much because she always seems to come up with similar yet totally different novels with such compelling characters with intriguing issues. I like her series more than her stand alone novels but they are both very good reads in their own way. Under Her Skin is the first book in her Lone Star Sisters series, which will be officially be released in May 2009 with the second, Lip Service, and the third, Straight from the Hip, releasing in June and July 2009. I look forward to reading about the next two sisters’ love stories. Lexi, which is short for Lexington is the oldest of the three Titan sisters and the one with the most to prove to her father, Jed Titan. The man who was never there for her or her sisters like a real father should. I like Lexi because she is such a real character that is independent, loving, caring and wants to succeed in the career of her choice not that of her fathers. Her relationship with her sisters is not as ideal as she would have liked but they seem very close to each other though the youngest, who is the wild child, seems to be a bit of a flake. Now Cruz is a hot guy who Lexi met when she was in college about 10 years ago and they had this connection that she had never felt before. Then they had one night of passion. Cruz could not handle it because it meant so much to the both of them—he was so scared he had to run from it. But as luck would have it after a decade Cruz needs Lexi’s family connections to help him achieve his new goal. Cruz has some very serious family issues that have really gotten in the way of his past relationships with women but it is really getting in the way of his relationship with Lexi now. They have something real with each other that I really loved reading about especially since their past relationship is what really brought them together again. Reading about the struggle that they went through just to get their happily ever after was great fun and I knew they will get there. Susan Mallery has delivered a fun and exciting beginning to what I believe is going to be one great new series that everyone should watch out for this year.

You can find the original review of this book on Manic Readers and you can find it by clicking on the banner above to get there.