No prince charming in this book
356412
Hated! Hated! Hated.. Nico was such a disgusting tyrant. Ok, now that I got that out of the way. I liked Jessica for about 2 pages. After that she just went downhill. I grew up in the eighties reading Barbara cartland, Jane Austen, tons of romance books. This was not typical hero material. Yes, the men were usually more cunning, worldly, powerful and accustomed to getting their own way. But they weren't cruel, you knew they did those things to protect their love. This man never gave any indication of love just abuse. He showed hatred and disgust. Normally there's a buildup of I'm sorry, it's because I love you. Nope, he never apologizes, not even for raping her. His mother, who lived with her own abuser, tells Jessica he loves her. I'm sorry but I couldn't find anything good about this book. Every character was extremely dysfunctional. Nico was raised by an abusive father, his mother was a submissive, who allowed her son to be raised like this. Who will now encourage Jessica to also be a submissive. Jessica growing up alone  has no concept of a real family or how a man should treat a women. It's all wrong and actually kind of sad.
523059
I didn't like this book , the arrogance of the lead male character was beyond necessary. He used the lead female for sexual needs with forcefulness. Of course she weakly went along with knowing she was still in love. Add in baby and suddenly a happy family, ummm if only that easy
742207
I was disappointed as I wanted to read about why she is the woman she is, not a laundry list of her achievements. It was written in a very simple style with no challenging ideas, and no concepts that made me actually made consider the difficulties involved in her decision making.
I read about half of it and put it away, as I lost interest in what seemed like a love story about how much we should adore RBG.  I already adore her and her ideals and did  not want to read a litany of her life anecdotes.  My life had more challenges and reading about hers came off as boring. Sorry, I wanted to love this book, but couldn't.
4015853
Writing a review for this book is actually a little bit embarrassing because it requires the admission that I actually ordered the book--the very, very cheesy book.

The story revolves around Lady Jane, a young woman who has inherited her father's estate, but who must be married by Christmas in order to retain its possession. Knowing that Jane won't do it on her own, her aunt arranges to have six highland lairds come and fight for her hand. I'd love to say there were shades of Disney's Merida in this story. The reality, however, is that Jane is weak and kind of hard to like. While she spends her time roaming the castle and praising her people, she also spends it worrying about her weakness as a leader and rumors that have spread about her promiscuity.

Things don't get any better when the lairds arrive. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly made the story so cheesy right away, then the "hero" of the story actually has the thought that he wishes she would have chosen him. You see, the men are essentially going on group dates with Jane, with an occasional victor being given the opportunity to go on a one-on-one date with her. Yes, it rings of The Bachelor, in a terrible, cheesy, embarrassing, not fun way.

I quickly got tired of Jane obsessing over the fact that rumors of her "sensual nature" were being spread about. The fact of the matter is, the author let us know that she felt an attraction to at least five of the men who were "courting" her. I don't want to be judgmental, but there you have it--I didn't feel like her "sensual" thoughts about Nicholas, the supposed hero, were any stronger than her thoughts about any of the other men.

I don't want to spoil the rest of the book, but I do have to caution prospective readers--The Bachelor; you know whether you love it or hate it. Consider that thought before making your decision to purchase this book.
3175376
Save your money and buy Dr. Glover's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" instead. The author of this book, Wayne Levine, strikes me as the classic "nice guy" as it relates to women. The most useful advice this book has is listed in Part I and is the only part of the book that keeps the title from being completely misleading. Beyond that, it's just another book with the same old, tired message that blames men for everything and assumes they're all broken little boys who need fixing so they can make everyone else happy yet offers very little real help with their personal happiness and power as men. Instead, it tells them how they need to get help so they can have greater capacity to tolerate/accept more never-ending insecurity, drama, discontentment,criticism, and testing from the women in their lives.  I think we men get bombarded enough with that message from women in our lives and society.  Not sure why this book got such glowing reviews.  In my opinion, it was a disappointment.
3117677
It is hard to believe that a woman is responsible for writing this book.
I read parts of this book in a grocery store, and there is nothing in it you haven't seen
in a variety of men's magazines which are teaching men to become  homogenous in a
brand new way (though also championing individuality).  The book is tedious and not charming
in the least bit.
4403683
Interesting contemporary romance without crass language & graphic sex is a rare find In today's books.  This book is all romance with a silly attempt at intrigue.  I say silly attempt because any rational person whose life is threatened would not repeatedly open their door without identifying who was at the door first; a rational person would not let a person into their home that they believed killed her parents; would not repeatedly think they were safe because it was day-light; have a bodyguard that left her customers alone to answer the door when their lives a have been threatened. That's just silly.  This book would be so much better if the author included common sense in a threatening situation.  That way it is, all of the characters come across as empty headed.  At least no crass language or sex.
647399
I thought this was to be a clean book, so d/l it when told it had came out and was free. I do not like adultery, thief, lies, deception, babies out of wed lock in the first three chapters. I have no desire to rad the rest of the book. This is not a book a Christian would want to read,  I do not recommend this book at all.
3893528
The story is just a little blah. Perfect girl meets the 'prince', who she had a crush on as a child, and they fall in perfect love together. There is a villain who is very one dimensional - His motivation for hating the prince is lame and entirely out of proportion for his actions. And then we get to about three quarters through the book and it turns into a Christian romance. The heros meet a friar who helps them escape the villain and they start talking about relying on god to save them from their troubles, rather than relying solely on themselves. And it happens over and over again, basically for the rest of the book - I did start skimming at this stage, to be honest. The heroine even decides she has to forgive the villain. Definitely not my kind of tea - it's too sweet and overly religious for my taste but I can imagine young readers (who are religious) would enjoy it.
4886087
Oh man, I just don't like this book. And, the real shame is that I really liked the first one in the collection. I loved the sister's story, as she tries to get her husband to fall in love with her. But, this guy in this story is not what I like. Oh, I know that these narratives have traditional story lines. Yes, the guy is overbearing, but, we see a little bit of possibility in him and he changes. But, this guy is a douche. He's way too controlling, and I just didn't believe that this woman would fall for him. I am actually fast-forwarding through all romantic scenes (which I might normally enjoy) because I just don't care about the romance and I don't think there's enough romance in the world to negate this awful guy. I may not even finish reading it.
3201174
There was no world building, the characters were two dimensional and the language/dialogue was uninspired at it's best (ridiculous at it's worst). The authour claims that there was no cheating, and yet, there was. There was the intent to deceive and no real problem solving, just hormones and a weak excuse for romance.
1321543
Originally I downloaded this as a sample for my Kindle, only to realize I had previously purchased this at a Friends of the Library Sale.

I will say that this book had some exciting parts in the plot, but there are things that don't add up.

First thing I did not like, the heroine is described as plain, ugly, and very unattractive, she is also basically described as stupid, from the initial meeting Rico finds Lizzy very unattractive. The author goes on to describe her this way through out the entire book, and Prince Rico is very shallow and vain from the beginning almost to the end of the book. Both Rico and Lizzy come from bad negative backgrounds, both were treated as a shadow to their respective siblings that is the one thing they share. It was somewhat exciting when he rescued Ben and Lizzy from the life his father had planned for them, I think that was the most exiting aspect of the plot. As for the rest of the book she has to have an extensive makeover in order for him to find her attractive, and she requires a lot of up keep to be beautiful. They do marry prior to her makeover, however he doesn't fall in love with her until after she is made up. Rico is later arrested and she is forced back to England where she basically accepts herself as the ugly unattractive frumpy aunt to her now bastard nephew. She is described as slowly turning plain without her beauty treatments. Eventually they are reunited after he is striped of his title of Prince and basically vanished from the kingdom.

Someone pointed it out Ben calls his uncle Tio which is the Spanish equivalent of uncle. I also felt the author extended the story of their past too long into the current story. I was very disappointed by the whole story, I would not recommend buying this book.

This is definitely not Harlequin Presents Material.
1822335
Theres no romance or love story in this book. Seemed like a bunch of hormonal challenged people screwing everyone around them both mentally and physically.  Theres nothing heroic or intelligent about Emma the main character, nor Carter or Bass the leading men and the unseen rivalry between them. This book was received as an Advanced Reader Copy.
2295499
I was disappointed in this tale by Christina Dodd, which made me happy I got the book for free.  I do encourage readers to seek out other Christina Dodd books; overall she's a good author, and this is one of her earlier tales.

As mentioned by other reviewers, Bronwyn Edana is a unique beauty convinced that she is ugly when compared to her beautiful sisters.  Her family enters into a betrothal with Adam Keane, a nobleman with something to prove and a family scandal hanging over his name.  He agreed to the engagement to secure a place in society with an Edana bride, but at first is unimpressed with his supposedly unattractive wife-to-be.  After overhearing a conversation between Adam and one of his employees about her being unattractive, Bronwyn enters the home of an outcast French lady and becomes adored by members of her salon.  Adam must chase after his runaway bride and convince her he loves her while simultaneously defending his reputation against a stock scandal and trying to solve a murder mystery that leads to a conspiracy against the government.

Sounds promising, right?  Wrong.

Problems with the book:
1. Bronwyn.  Just as I don't like heroines who know they're gorgeous and discuss it all the time, I don't like heroines who can't at least see themselves as attractive and constantly put themselves down.  I have seen authors start out this way and show character development and growth throughout the story, but in this case it just didn't happen until way too late in the book.

2. Adam.  I wouldn't marry him.  I wouldn't fall in love with him.  He was a jerk and treated Bronwyn horribly.  There was some promise as they got to know each other and attended a local event near his country home that demonstrated growth and growing affection, but then his stupid pride came roaring back.  While I can get behind a hero with something to prove and who may not always respond the best, Adam felt almost borderline abusive.

SPOILERS

3. The first sex scene.  To continue with the last line, the first sex scene between Bronwyn and Adam almost felt like a rape scene.  Up to a point it was romantic, but the last moment was awful.  I should never question whether or not the heroine actually wanted to give herself to the hero.  Ever.

4. The "tension" from Adam and Bronwyn's sister becoming engaged.  This was a horrible plot device.  After Bronwyn runs off her parents arrange for Adam to become betrothed to another of Bronwyn's sisters.  Don't get me wrong, I've read stories that I liked where the hero and/or heroine was engaged or on one occasion even married to someone else.  But in these cases it was usually they didn't even know their betrothed/significant other, the other person was abusive/etc.  In those cases I can at least forgive them and be happy that they found true love.
In this case, Bronwyn's sister, while annoying at times, was by no means a bad person.  Adam seduces Bronwyn while being betrothed to her sister, and even though Bronwyn is horribly hurt this doesn't stop her from continuing to engage in carnal relations all the way up to the night before the wedding...what?!?!  Despite the fact that Adam chases the bad guy around London to rescue Bronwyn from a horrible death, he does a complete 180 towards the end, withdraws from her emotionally, has one last night of physical passion, and then goes to get dressed for his wedding to Bronwyn's sister!  Even though it ended well, YUCK YUCK YUCK!

I will be honest that I got to the point of flipping through parts because I just couldn't stand it any longer.  As mentioned above, I do encourage readers to check out other Christina Dodd books.  Some are good reads, some are great reads, and even though I hated this book she still has a lot of talent compared to other authors who write not just bad books, but write badly overall.
3056600
I had high hopes for this book, but found myself disappointed in the hero and disbelieving in the romance. The premise is great: Fiona has told her family that she has a fianc because she was too shy and nervous during her Season and never wanted to do it again. Shes waiting for her grandmother to die before revealing the embarrassing truth. But, while out digging for Roman ruins, she kind of sort of accidentally holds up a carriage with a handsome Duke inside. She may as well recruit/force him to portray her imaginary fianc, right?

I feel the need to point out that Fiona has red hair and hates mushrooms, just like me! I had no idea that redheads were so scorned in British society:

Red-headed women with freckles were never destined to possess elegance.

How do you think my hair turned so red? Blood! Graeme gasped. I always knew redheads weren't trustworthy.

Kisses were things girls with glossier hair and freckle-free complexions whispered about. They didn't apply to Fiona.

Anyway, moving on from my personal issues, Percival is the new-to-the-title Duke. Hes returned from the war missing a leg, and now his aunt wants him to marry his dead cousins fiancee, because pedigree, and also hed never find a better woman what with his wooden leg and all.

Percival is a spineless jellyfish, okay? When Fiona kidnaps him, he worries about being late to meet his aunt. Then, even when he realizes that Fiona might be a nice girl in need of help, he still tries to escape instead of summoning up his noble blood and doing the right thing. THEN, even when he realizes that Fionas uncle is a louse of the highest degree, he STILL doesnt want to stick around to serve some righteous in-your-face Dukeness. (I don't know what that would look like, I just know that it would be awesome and that Percival did not do it.)

This book is written with a light touch, as you can tell from the red hair quotes above. Fionas horrible uncle is hilariously obtuse while putting down Fiona. I must divulge the poor character of my niece. I cannot wait. My conscience will not permit it! And every time Percival tells people that Fiona kidnapped him, they just nod and smile, all, Love feels that way, doesnt it?

At the end of their three-day adventure (and I think two of those days were Percival thinking escape thoughts and not caring about Fiona), Percival goes back to his life and his aunt and his possible fiancee. Fiona is sad, and pissed, and her reputation is ruined. But she pulls herself up and plans an awesome future for herself as a spinster, and its seriously like, go, Fiona! You don't need a man or a castle, you do you! Of course Percival has thoughts and realizations and returns because this is a romance and hes supposed to, but I think Fiona would have been better off without him.

Rating: C
379964
It was a free book.  Thankful that I didn't pay for it.  Thought the author could have done a male version of the "princess diaries" which were humorous and fun with some romance.  NOT.  Just plain boringly dumb. Disliked the characters.
3885221
If you were looking for the story of a heroine who had been rescued by her prince and then fell in love with him, but realized that just maybe she needed to make sure of herself and her love before she fell victim to Stockholm syndrome, and wanted to explore who she was so she made good life decisions, then this book isn't for you.  This is the story of a girl who liked Stockholm, but didn't want to be controlled 24/7, so she moved out, missed sex, failed to use birth control, so she got her man back.  This is the story of a controlling guy who wants to keep his princess trapped in his tower, instead of the bad guys' tower, and he succeeds.

There was no underlying plot drama here - the clean up to the cartel/political sub plot was used to create weakness (and then strength) in Savi.  There was never any real character tension as you knew she and Cole were headed to an HEA.  So this is just a bit of HEA fluff that was completely unnecessary.  We never learn why Savi, daughter of a wealthy mayor of NYC (I keep thinking of Bloomberg's daughter) would find fulfillment slinging drinks in a upper class restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, we know nothing about what she wants out of life except to be loved by Daddy and Cole and to have a family.  At least we know Cole has an underlying work passion and a goal in life.  Sadly, he's in love with a picture, and she's in love with a fable.  Not sure how that works in the long term because co-dependence never goes to a good place.  This book wrecked what came before it because it allowed me to really question this relationship, when before I was willing to accept their relationship.