Basia's Bookshelf Book Reviews — Book reviews for the romantic, slightly snarky nerds in all of us

Review: Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany Allee

May 25, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 3 Comments

Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid
By Tiffany Allee
Publisher: Entangled: Covet
Publication Date: May 27, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Publisher

Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister’s wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he’s never met. And Alice’s offer comes at just the right time.

What could possibly go wrong?

Goodreads Summary

Are you in the mood for something fun and sexy? I’ve been waiting for a nice little paranormal romance, something that doesn’t make me have to write down the genealogy, power structure, all about the world and how it got there, who’s going to kill them – you get the picture. I just wanted something uncomplicated, like a nice frisky werewolf story or a nibbly vampire tale. I was so happy to get my hands on Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid. It was fun, so, so smexy and a tiny bit angsty to round out the experience.

Alice Shepard is desperate for a hunky man to help her prove to her ex-fiancé that she’s moved on and she needs him really soon. Her sister’s getting married and she’ll be stuck with the cheating dirtbag on a cruise ship for a week – hence the need to find someone to prove she’s not a total loser at love. She’s noticed – okay, ogled – her yummy neighbor more than a few times and she screws up her courage and pops the question. He says no until he has a little problem of his own and has to skip town for a week and a cruise with Alice becomes a very good idea.

It’s not that Noah doesn’t like Alice or want to spend time with her, he just afraid it’s not a good idea. Vampires aren’t great with sun and the fun he wants to get up to with Alice is horizontal and includes his teeth in her neck at some point. He’s hoping he can stave off his cravings long enough to get back home, but when her ex starts bothering Alice again, he’s not about to let her get hurt. Noah decides it’s time he and Alice play girlfriend and boyfriend, which leads to a lot of steamy glances and smexy alpha behavior.

I loved both Alice and Noah, but the best part of the book for me was the romance of it. Alice had a lot of trust issues left over from her relationship with her smarmy ex but it was fun to see her brain go all foggy whenever Noah was around. She was so smitten with him, it was kind of funny how much she wanted to jump his bones and because of his own issues with the pointy-teeth thingie, he had to run away. Noah was ridiculously hot, protective of Alice and even a sweetie all in touch with his feelings – say it with me – awwwww. They were so good and smoking together that I loved the dance between them and since it felt like they had gotten to know each other as neighbors, it wasn’t rushed at all.

There are some terrific side characters, especially Alice’s vivacious sister Cindy and her outrageous mom Edna. Edna is a widow and now she likes younger men – she really really likes younger men and she’s hilarious about it. I hope if there are more books in the series that we see more of her. She and Cindy were a riot.

I had so much fun reading this that I’m going to go back and check out Allee’s backlist. This was just the right combination of paranormal and fun, sexy romance to make me happy and gave me a new author to check out. I didn’t see that there were any sequels already listed but by the cover and some hints in the book, I’m hoping that there’ll be more. I’ll definitely be there to read it.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Paranormal Romance

Release Day Blitz: In Darkness We Must Abide by Rhiannon Frater

May 24, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 1 Comment

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I’m very happy to be able to be a part of the release day blitz for the complete first season (episodes 1-5) in Rhiannon Frater’s new gothic romance serial, In Darkness We Must Abide. I’ll have my review of the volume up next week, but in the meantime, I have a wonderful guest post from Rhiannon about Armando and Vanora and their unique relationship. If you’d like to chat with the author herself, she’s going to be conducting two web chat Q&A sessions later today. I’ve posted all of the details at the bottom of this post!

In Darkness We Must Abide
A Modern Horror with a Gothic Romance

In Darkness We Must Abide is a very unique experience for me as a horror writer. Not only is it a continuing serial with three planned seasons, but it’s also a story driven by the relationship between my two leads, Armando and Vanora.

Growing up, I loved gothic romance. Jane Eyre continues to be my all-time favorite novel. I used to gobble up Victoria Holt novels like candy. I loved the complications of a gothic romance. The characters were flawed, but somehow had dynamic chemistry. The endings were not always happy, but the couples were always fascinating to read about. It’s that type of romance I’ve infused into my serial.

Armando and Vanora are not perfect people. Armando is a 400-year-old vampire with many, many secrets. The Spanish vampire is often torn between his service to his mysterious, dangerous vampire Master and the feelings he has for Vanora and her family. Vanora is an albino, and the world is not always kind to her. Orphaned at a young age, she’s been raised by older siblings. To make matters even more complicated, Vanora has inherited her mother’s sixth sense and when she first meets Armando she senses danger. Despite all their difficulties, both characters’ actions are heavily influenced by their feelings for each other, in both good and bad ways.

When our story begins, Vanora is ten years old when her life changes forever, when her brother brings home their ancestors from Romania to be interred at their estate in Houston, Texas. When Roman has one of the old coffins unchanged, he unleashes an evil that threatens not only his life, but that of his two half-sisters, Alisha and Vanora.

A few years later, a mysterious stranger, Armando, enters her life and Vanora develops a mad crush on the charismatic Spanish vampire. All is not what it seems with Armando, and he is a keeper of many secrets that can potentially adversely affect her life. Through the first four episodes we witness Vanora growing up and becoming a strong young woman. By the end of episode four, The Gift, Armando has taken note as well, which leads to the dramatic and heartbreaking events in episode 5, The Vampires.

Because Armando doesn’t fully enter the story until episode 3, The Arrival of Armando DeLeon, I was had to find an inventive way to let the reader know about his impending arrival. I already knew from past beta readers that he is a huge draw to the story. That is how the prologues were born. Each episode starts in the “present” time period, where an adult Vanora is interacting with Armando, then flashes backwards in time. Each prologue hints at terrible events happening in the present time period and hints that something passionate once happened between Armando and Vanora, though they now appear estranged.

Season 2 will finally bring the two timelines together in a terrifying dramatic scene. Armando and Vanora’s relationship will continue to be at the core of the story as they face the ultimate evil that is coming to destroy their lives. Whether or not they will find true love in each other’s arms and a happy ending has yet to be seen.

~Rhiannon

In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete First Season
By Rhiannon Frater
Publication Date: May 24, 2013
Genre: NA Modern Gothic Horror

In Darkness We Must Abide is the epic saga of one young woman caught in the dangerous world of the creatures of the night.

Already living in the shadows due to her albinism, Vanora is just a little girl when her older brother inadvertently unleashes a terrible evil from the family crypt that changes their lives forever.

As she grows up in a world where beautiful deadly beings hunt by night, one captures her eye and her heart. Yet, can she trust the mysterious Armando? For there is a powerful entity plotting to claim her when she reaches adulthood in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy, and her enemy has enveloped her in a web of deceit, casting doubt on all she believes to be true. Soon, she will have to fight not only to save those she loves, but also for her very soul.

Rhiannon Frater delivers a chilling adventure once again with this multi-part epic serial with a dynamic cast, old school vampires, bloody action, a smoldering forbidden love, and a terrifying villain set against the backdrop of a modern day vampire war.

This paperback includes all five episodes of the first season of the serial.

Goodreads Summary

Purchase In Darkness We Must Abide:
Amazon (paperback) | Kindle | Kobo | Nook | Autographed copies available at Author’s store

About the Author
Rhiannon 300 223w Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the As the World Dies zombie trilogy (Tor) , as well as independent works such as The Last Bastion of the Living (declared the #1 Zombie Release of 2012 by Explorations Fantasy Blog and the #1 Zombie Novel of the Decade by B&N Book Blog),and other horror novels. Her next novel for Tor, Dead Spots, will be published in 2014. She was born and raised a Texan and presently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and furry children (a.k.a pets). She loves scary movies, sci-fi and horror shows, playing video games, cooking, dying her hair weird colors, and shopping for Betsey Johnson purses and shoes.

Connect with Rhiannon:

RhiannonFrater.com or AsTheWorldDies.com
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email

About the Q&A Sessions:

The chat will use Facebook’s TinyChat app, which you’ll need to download. After you have the app downloaded, when it’s time for the chat to begin, Rhiannon will post a link on her chat event page which will take you directly into the chat room.

The first chat is designed to be convenient for people in Europe (generally will convert to early evening) and will take place at 1 p.m. Central Time. The second will be at 8 p.m. Central Time.

Rhiannon said, “Basically, I’ll be on live webcam and you guys and gals get to ask me questions about IN DARKNESS WE MUST ABIDE or anything else you’d like to discuss about my writing career, my books, or the horror genre.”

Sounds fun!

Filed Under: Book Blast, Guest Post Tagged With: Rhiannon Frater

Review: The Caged Graves by Dianne Salerni

May 21, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 13 Comments

The Caged Graves
By Dianne Salerni
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Source: Publisher

17-year-old Verity Boone expects a warm homecoming when she returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867, pledged to marry a man she has never met. Instead, she finds a father she barely knows and a future husband with whom she apparently has nothing in common. One truly horrifying surprise awaits her: the graves of her mother and aunt are enclosed in iron cages outside the local cemetery. Nobody in town will explain why, but Verity hears rumors of buried treasure and witchcraft. Perhaps the cages were built to keep grave robbers out . . . or to keep the women in. Determined to understand, Verity finds herself in a life-and-death struggle with people she trusted.

Inspired by a pair of real caged graves in present-day Catawissa, this historical YA novel weaves mystery, romance, and action into a suspenseful drama with human greed and passion at its core.

Goodreads Summary

I love historical fiction but with all of the other genres I review, don’t have time to read much of it anymore. When I saw the synopsis for The Caged Graves in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt catalogue I was completely captivated by it and immediately requested it, hoping it would not only be great but the YA genre would make it of interest to everyone who reads the blog. After reading it, I can only say that YA or not, perfect fit or not, I would have had to review this for you – this was an absolutely gorgeous, captivating story.

It’s 1867, and Verity has returned to the small rural town she was born in to fulfill a childhood promise to marry Nathaniel McLure. She was sent away from home by her father when she was two, so Nate is a stranger for all intents and purposes, except for the letters they’ve been exchanging. They’ve been sweet, romantic letters and Verity has developed a regard for Nate so she’s disappointed when they meet and he’s nothing like that. During one of their stilted conversations and walks, Verity comes across two graves near a church. They’re outside the church’s hallowed ground and have bizarre iron cages built around them. A closer look reveals them to be Verity’s mother and her aunt, who died within days of each other right before Verity was sent away.

No one wants to talk about the caged graves, including her own father. The more Verity searches for answers, the more ugly rumors she hears, from curses to grave-robbers, hidden treasure to witchcraft. When even her father won’t tell her the truth, Verity takes drastic steps to uncover why her mother and aunt were ostracized from the community after their deaths, why their names are whispered with venom and why even those who knew and loved them want to continue the cover-up.

This is one of those stories with a large cast of characters, nearly any of whom could have something to do with what happened fifteen years ago to Verity’s mother and aunt. It was a deliciously rural small town of that era, with all of its class snobbery and racism in place. The area had been a hotspot during the war and after being originally settled with British, Sioux and American, became the local melting pot. One family that had a generous line of Sioux blood was extremely prolific, very poor and discriminated against in the community. It was made known to Verity that most people in town thought Nate was marrying her to gain a large portion of her father’s extensive land through her dowry, even though his family was well-off. I loved having so many characters weaving in and out of the story both helping and hurting Verity’s search – there were suspects and motives everywhere.

Verity was a wonderful character, with flaws that I thought were consistent for a girl of her age in her time. She’d come from a sheltered, fairly affluent situation, expecting a happy reunion with her father and a romantic marriage and found a dusty, spare home, a father who doesn’t know what to do with her and a young man who isn’t what she’d hoped for. Her upbringing meant she was headstrong, outspoken, unapologetic and secure enough to think she could choose her own destiny, which wasn’t always the case with women in the 1800s. I loved her devotion to the mother she’d never known and the lengths she was willing to go to for her, to have her name restored and her grave placed on hallowed ground. I think it was realistic that a young girl like Verity would have doubts about her feelings for Nate, but I didn’t like the sort-of love interest triangle that developed between Nate, Verity and a young doctor’s assistant. I think it was taken a little bit too far, even if it was romantically dramatic.

I don’t want to say a lot about Nate or Hadley, the doctor’s assistant, because they’re both vying for Verity’s hand and she does choose one – the right one, in my opinion. They both brought different things to Verity in a relationship and in different places I went back and forth between them before settling on the one that I knew would have her heart.

The Caged Graves was more than just a good book I picked up. I was completely captivated by the occasionally dark story, by Salerni’s gorgeous writing and the search for the truth behind the burials of Verity’s mother and aunt. I loved that even though there was one true answer in the book there were a few other plausible answers too. The resolution of the mystery was well done and the romantic ending was satisfyingly sweet and believable. I can’t wait to see what Salerni does next.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult

Tell Me Something Tuesday (12)

May 21, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 6 Comments

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Tell Me Something Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings that gives bloggers a chance to chat about everything from books to social issues and get to know each other better. It’s a big ‘ol group effort meme, so anyone who has an idea for a topic is encouraged to either email Heidi or leave a comment during the week’s stop.

This week’s question:

Let’s talk banned books. How do you feel about book banning? What are some of the banned books you have read?

Well first, book banning is horrible and shouldn’t be done. I know there are some books like The Turner Diaries that are controversial because of the hate they spread and their connection to criminal activity, but I think if you start banning books like those, you start on a slippery slope that can only lead to more bannings. As much as I dislike hateful books, I believe that they have a right to be published and shelved.

I also believe book sellers and libraries are free to make their own choices about what to stock and sell but if a customer asks for something, they ought to make an effort to locate it from another source for them (in the case of a store, special order, a library, check other branches). There will always be outlets to buy something, but that doesn’t mean it has to be available at your local Barnes & Noble or favorite Indie store. I have no idea how corporations make decisions on what to sell or not to sell and that’s their choice – I see Amazon is currently selling The Turner Diaries, but they also sell porn leaflets, so I take it for what it’s worth.

Have I read banned books? The list is so gigantic, I think anyone who’s gone to school and taken a required English course has! Just from the American Library Association’s list of the Classic novels that have been banned or challenged in libraries and schools, I’ve read:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Those are just the classics among the top 100 banned or challenged that I’ve read. Can you imagine if I went through the top 500? And then added the contemporary novels? Shine by Lauren Myracle, an amazing, award-winning book gets placed on the list, and her Internet Girls series was on it at last look for five years running, I believe. Last year for Banned Books Week, I listed the top 10 banned books for each year of the last decade and it was startling how much YA was on the list – YA that is hugely popular that I couldn’t ever imagine anyone having a problem with was being challenged in libraries across the country.

This year, Banned Books Week is September 22nd thru the 28th and there’s usually an event going on to commemorate it (I’m not sure who’s running it). I’ve always participated though, so once I do know, I’ll put up a link in my sidebar.

A great reference for all things banned books, to find and offer advocacy and to keep up on legislative efforts is the ALA’s Website.

sig Barbara

Filed Under: Tell Me Something Tuesday

Review and Giveaway: Runes by Ednah Walters

May 20, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 16 Comments

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Runes (Book One)
By Ednah Walters
Publisher: Firetrail Publishing
Publication Date: May 20, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: Netgalley for Xpresso Book Tours
Follow the rest of the tour!

Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.

Goodreads Summary

Purchase Runes at:
Amazon | Kindle (US) | Kindle (UK) | Kindle (CA) | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

I haven’t done this in a while, so I hope I’m up to the challenge. There will be some serious gushing about a YA fantasy coming up, including some sort-of inappropriate fantasizing about a hot guy. The only problem I’m going to have is avoiding spoilers – Torin keeps telling Raine there are a lot of things he can’t tell her and that’s going to be the theme of my review too.

Raine meets the super sexy Torin when he moves next door into her childhood friend Eirik’s house. He’s a little arrogant, a lot cocky and there’s something kind of strange about him that he jokingly calls magic. Raine is completely tongue-tied and usually irritated around him but can’t stop looking to see if he’s around. Torin seems pre-occupied with her too, always there when she’s in trouble or just on the periphery of her sight when she’s thinking of him. When three new students show up at school and there are actual attempts to harm Raine, it’s Torin who comes to her rescue, displaying otherworldly powers that stir something inside of her.

I sort of knew which direction Walters was going just by the title of the book, since the general area of mythology that uses runes are limited. I was still thrilled with her vision of things and the way she worked it all into a contemporary YA setting. From the outside, this may look like a typical fantasy, but it’s creative, a little violent and a fast ride. There are a number of twists, some I saw coming, some I didn’t. I’ve remarked before that one of my pet peeves is that a lot of YA protags don’t have parents present and I’m happy to say Raine has a loving mother here who actually cares about curfew, dinner, her car and classes. Her father has been missing for three months after his plane crashed into the ocean, and it’s a significant plot in the story too.

Raine was an…interesting character. I can name a lot of things about her character that annoyed me that should have made me not like her, but I still did and I really wanted that happy ending for her. She was ridiculously blasé about all of the insane things that were happening, about a momentous development – several momentous developments – near the end and she went running into trouble so many times after she was told not to. I wasn’t happy that she encouraged Eirik’s romantic feelings for her when all along she and Torin were really practically making fire with the sparks they were throwing, not to mention I kind of saw Eirik with someone else. I still liked Raine a lot though – she had a funny, snarky way about her sometimes, she was sweetly vulnerable and I loved the scenes she had with her chatty and fun friend Cora.

Torin was hot and sexy personified. I’d feel really gross writing that about someone his age, except he’s not really his age. Cryptic, huh? I know I complained a little about his arrogance earlier, but on him, it worked. I loved that he called Raine, “Freckles,” and that even though she hated it when anyone else did, from him it was nice. Sure, it’s kind of stereotypical, but he rode a motorcycle and, hello? Another sexy point. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t explain to Raine what he was, but I think that had more to do with Walters warping the mythology than any character flaw.

I hadn’t planned on it, but I gobbled this book up in one sitting – sorry, laundry. I loved how fast it moved, the way the revelations about the mythology were doled out and the relationship between Raine and Torin. One thing I didn’t like was the ending. I. Hate. Cliffhangers. There’s no doubt that I’ll buy the next book because I have to know what’s going to happen, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t scream a little when I saw the last few paragraphs.

My Rating: A-

sig Barbara

EDNAH WALTERS grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and dreaming of one day writing her own stories. She is a stay-at-home mother of five humans and two American short-hair cats (one of which has ADHD) and a husband. When she is not writing, she’s at the gym doing Zumba or doing things with her family, reading, traveling or online chatting with fans.

Ednah is the author of The Guardian Legacy series, a YA fantasy series about children of the fallen angels, who fight demons and protect mankind. AWAKENED, the prequel was released by Pill Hill Press in September 2010 with rave reviews. BETRAYED, book one in the series was released by her new publisher Spencer Hill Press in June 2012 and HUNTED, the third installment, will be released April 2013. She’s working on the next book in the series, FORGOTTEN.

Ednah also writes New Adult paranormal romance. RUNES is the first book in her new series. She is presently working on book 2, IMMORTALS.

Under the pseudonym E. B. Walters, Ednah writes contemporary romance. SLOW BURN, the first contemporary romance with suspense, was released in April 2011. It is the first book in the Fitzgerald family series. Since then she has published four more books in this series. She’s presently working on book six. You can visit her online at ednahwalters.com or ebwalters.com.

Connect with Ednah:
Her Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Ednah is holding a tour-wide giveaway (open to international entries) with 2 grand prizes. The first is for a signed copy or ebook of Runes plus a $25 Amazon gift card and the second is for a signed copy or ebook of Runes plus a $10 gift card from Amazon. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: 2013 Ebook Challenge, Fantasy, Giveaway, Young Adult Tagged With: Ednah Walters

Review: Desire by Design by Paula Altenburg

May 18, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

Desire by Design
By Paula Altenburg
Publisher: Entangled: Bliss
Publication Date: May 13, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher

He stole her job, and now she’s stealing his heart.

Eve Doucette finally almost has it all. She’s free from her mistake of an ex-husband and just landed her dream job: project manager for a new City Hall and drafter of the final design. That is, until a handsome architect sweeps into town to commandeer her blueprints.

Famous architect Matt Brison is unsatisfied with his mundane life in Toronto. So when the mayor of Halifax asks him to spearhead his City Hall project, Matt jumps at the opportunity. There’s just one problem: the feisty and beautiful project lead, Eve, who isn’t exactly thrilled about her new “coworker” hijacking her design.

But when the sparks begin to fly, they both find themselves falling for the colleague they shouldn’t want. And before they know it, their already shaky foundation might come crumbling down…

Goodreads Summary

Whether I want it to or not, my reading seems to go in one direction or another that I often don’t notice until I look back on a week or so of reviews and books read on my Kindle. I’ve been on an adult contemporary romance kick lately – my personal buying choices have ranged from meh to ugh and it’s been a little disheartening. Being offered a title from Entangled’s Bliss imprint was like getting to pick the first chocolate in the box of adult contemporaries – I know what I’m going to get and I know I’m going to like it, it just depends on how much. Desire by Design was chocolate-covered toffee crunch – yummy.

Eve Doucette is the project manager for Sullivan Construction, the company handling the new city hall project and while she doesn’t have a formal degree, her draftsman skills have been highly regarded on past jobs. She’s worked up a design for this one and expects to be able to present it to the mayor sometime before she kills him for trying to mess with her budget, but that dream goes out the window with the arrival of his nephew, hotshot architect Matt Brison. Mayor Bob already gave the design job to Matt, whose sleek modern style isn’t what Eve had in mind for her lovely Nova Scotia town.

Following a cute meet-cute that’s a great indication of Altenburg’s sense of humor, the sparks flew between this unconventional couple. There’s no insta-love, and although the book isn’t long enough to let things percolate forever, Eve and Matt still take their sweet time working around each other’s prickly spots. Eve in particular has a lot of issues – as a woman in what’s typically a man’s job, she’s developed an aggressive exterior over what was already a tough hide from her weird family and a rotten first marriage. I sympathized with her, I really did – she kept getting knocked down as person after person hinted that she failed to meet their expectations, but she just got up again. It was frustrating that she kept Matt in the dark so long about her issues with her ex-husband Claude, but I might have done the same thing. I loved that she threw a punch just as well as any guy, not that I’m going to start enjoying heroines beating people up or anything. For this particular heroine though, it worked – Eve was a firecracker and I wanted her to be as physically able to take anyone on as she was intellectually.

I’m not normally a fan of beta heroes and I’m not sure if Matt was all beta, but he was close. He was a nice guy, a good complement to Eve’s storminess. I liked that he wasn’t a pushover for her but that he gave her space, made her come to him then pounced on her – then they repeated the process. It was a nice changeup, having the guy in the book being more in touch with his feelings than the woman, and I can’t believe I just wrote that, by the way. Feely Book Guys aren’t for me usually, but Altenburg made Matt really sexy in a cute, wish-he-was-my-boyfriend, way.

At some point, when I reach a certain number of books I’ve read from the Bliss line that I’ve loved, my reviews will consist entirely of, “Bliss – loved it, go for it.” Or maybe I’ll rate them just based on a box of chocolates and which ones are my top five or something, since none have been less than good. When I’m just in a blah mood, need something sweet and uncomplicated, I pick one of these up and am guaranteed a good story. Altenburg’s Desire by Design was fun, sexy and had some serious moments that made me sad for one of the characters, but ended with such a sweet note, I pulled out a Kleenex. This is a keeper for me and I recommend it if you’re in the mood for an adult contemporary romance.

My Rating: A