Just okay.... It's missing the romance
595103
I borrowed this on my kindle as I was intrigued by the premises. It even started off really interesting but then it just dragged and there really was a lack of romance n too much focus on the mystery. I felt Lily was too young and though I understand her trauma, she took too long to trust Arthur with the truth. He was the only man in her life to show any true gentlemanly character. There was too many misunderstanding... When they should have been patient and listen they didn't and when they shouldn't have been patient n get straight answers, they did. It was frustrating. I will say though that despite her lack of confidence in Arthur, she did trust him even at the time where she could have been suspicious and she really did listen to him and tried her best to please him, unlike many heroines I've read about before so I really liked that. Arthur I liked to but his hot to cold attitude was annoying and I wish he had shared more info with Lily and I can't really understand how he didn't recognize her sooner when every one else did (especially when he made a connection with the name straight away!) Overall it was an okay read.
2392598
My biggest complaint about this book, and indeed, this series thus far, has been the lack of chemistry between protagonists. I personally never really felt any deep attraction between Rhys and Corina, and though we're told that they've fallen for each other, I never really experienced it on the level I've come to expect from my romances.

I think, though, if I had approached this novel as though it were an adventure story with a hint of romance, rather than a romance novel with a bit of adventure, it would have fared much better. As it is, however, I couldn't really get past the feeling that the romance never really did more than just skim the surface, and my overall enjoyment suffered quite a bit as a result.

Even so, I'm still looking forward to the next book, as I'm curious as to what will happen when the brothers finally do find Sebastian after all this time of searching.

3/5 Stars

{This title was provided by the publisher free of charge in exchange for an honest review. The full review appears on The Romanceaholic.}
2006675
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was okay. Not bad, but not great, in my honest opinion.
In a way I enjoyed this book. It was different from the usual vampire books and it did have some good moments in the book, especially in the earlier parts. The sparks between Rob and Liz were sizzling. I was even excited reading about their first encounters. I like the first few chapters but somewhere along the way it fell apart. The chemistry terms were too technical for me to enjoy. The story became dragging and the hero and heroine became boring. It lacked the passion and depth that I look for in romance stories.
It had a lot of promise but failed to deliver all of them. So many questions were left unanswered that when I was through reading I was unsatisfied.
Even though it is a vampire novel, it felt more like a simple New Adult. The hero is a vampire but the drama isn't. It's like the author just made him a vampire for the book to be called a vampire novel.
Nevertheless, if ever this novel will have a 2nd book I will still read it. It might not be one of the best books I've read but it's interesting enough for me to look forward to the next book. There were lots of issues left hanging, especially about Rob's past, that I really want to know. I give this book 3.5 stars.
4631650
Seduction: Sophy is darling and makes this book enjoyable. I love how the ladies of society try to immitate her artless fashion disarray, with untied bows, slipping shawls and loose ribbons. Ravenwood is autocratic, annoying and a bully when it comes to getting his way, but Sophy does a good job of managing him. She's no door mat, thank goodness. Overall I liked this book but didn't love it and wouldn't read it again.

Surrender: I can see why this book only has an average rating of 3.5 stars on Amazon. It is totally lacking romance. Thankfully I checked this out from the library, so I didn't pay for it. And I'm also glad this wasn't the first book I read by Amanda Quick or would be the last. This book isn't terrible, I just didn't enjoy reading it. The premise of an heiress falling for a fortune hunter is standard fare, but the heroine vacillates from intelligent to hare-brained, and the hero turns out to be a scold. He's not a bully since he's kind of a push-over for her, but he's constantly lecturing. Even the ending, which is supposed to be the HEA, is really an argument about why each of them were justified in their bad behavior. Not very pleasant reading. I'm giving three stars because it is well written and the plot is pretty good, but the characters ruined this one for me. Attraction plus adventures does not equal romance.
1200307
I have found this series rather ho-hum and not anywhere as good as some of her previous work. Its okay. In this book the switch is an extremely romantic hero and a decidedly not romantic heroine. Ethan spews poetry and Garrett spews Greys Anatomy (the book, not the tv series.) Ethan was the most intriguing character in the previous book but did not develop well in his own story. Likewise West is the most intriguing character in this book and Im not confident how well he will turn out in his own story next up.

Generally, this book could have benefited from being a short novella. It is clear just from the blurb that the story will be about how Ethan is gravely injured and how Garrett will have to save him. Sex and angst, but not character development, are the fillers. Its not an awful book. Easy to pick up but easy to put down. I fell asleep reading it more than once.
4701783
From the get-go, this seemed like a romance novel.  I was expecting more.
266244
I really wish Amazon would do the half star thing because although I didn't hate this book, I also didn't love it. So this is more like a 2.5 (okay) star read. The premise of the story was interesting. To be honest, I'm more a romance reader, but I love reading stories about relationships/families so thought I would give this a try.

The story centres around Nick who is married to Marcy. He decides to coach their young son's baseball team and meets, Tess, one of the mothers of the boys he coaches. There is instant attraction/infatuation that Nick struggles with and he finds himself at a crossroads of sorts. Told completely from Nick's POV, this is his story about his life and an inside look to the ups and downs of their marriage/family. I really enjoyed the way this was written. The story flowed well and was intriguing enough to keep my interest throughout the whole book. But there were some things that I'd struggled with, and mainly, that was to do with Nick.

I didn't like how he never told Marcy the whole truth of everything that happened and everything he'd been thinking/dreaming about. There were things that happened that he would tell half-truths to (or just not admit to at all), which made it really hard for me to be sympathetic towards him or to fully like him. It goes as far as him comparing to two women and finding Marcy lacking. And because of this, I feel that Marcy's decision in the end would have been different had she known the full story. It didn't help that Nick **************SPOILER***************had betrayed her while they were engaged*******************END SPOILER*****************and then to do this? She forgave him back then, and she forgave him again with Tess (multiple times with Tess, really). Makes me think that she will forgive him when he gets tempted (and follows through) again, which is kind of sad.

Despite all that, the story is good. Had it been a romance, this would have been an utter fail, but it's not, so normal romance rules don't apply here :) Because of that, I can appreciate the story for what it is, but I just wish that Marcy had known everything and that there had been more repercussions (or at least ones that Marcy didn't have to pay for!) and seen him really try to come back from that. Maybe if I felt Nick really wanted Marcy for more than just the familiar comfort she gave and was to him, I would have enjoyed it more.
1587196
Silent Witness was an okay book. It had a good point or two, but also a bunch of negatives.

The storyline was pretty interesting. It's very "military", lots of twists and turns. It was a well-thought storyline, easy to follow and it kept me reading. One issue I had with the whole plot though was what I call "author assumption": the author assumes we, as readers, should know something, when we don't. She refers to real-life military scandals of the past simply by name, but doesn't summarize them at all for those of us who don't know them. So I was pretty lost on those references.

As for the romance...I didn't care for it all that much. It wasn't, in a lot of ways, a very romantic book in the standard sense. Up until they end, I think Ellen and Jim share maybe two kisses. There's a sex scene at the end, but it wasn't written that well, and it seemed kind of plopped in there, and ill-fitting.

Aside from that, I just didn't buy into the romance. It was too...pretty. Ellen and Jim are always thinking or saying things like "you're so wonderful", "you bring the sun back into my life" and things like that. It was just too perfect and didn't seem realistic. Added to that, Ellen most of the time seemed to think of Jim as "Cochrane", which just seemed very impersonal.

The characters were very two-dimensional. Almost everything about them, and the book as a whole, was about the plot itself. While, yes, the plot is important, but if you're gonna develop a romance, you're characters need some meat. And it just wasn't there.

Rating: 2.5 / 5
813579
I will readily admit that one of this book's stars came from my deep enjoyment of the first book (Let's Get Textual). But the comparison of book one to book two also caused this one to lose a star--it just didn't measure up. I'm 26, so just a few years older than the protagonists, so if I don't fully enjoy a technology-based romance then who will?

That's not to say that the lead couple was not enjoyable, because they were. They had really good chemistry and both helped each other well as the relationship developed. But their need for texting was so very artificial compared to the first book's couple. Also, the issues that kept them apart (as every romance novel encounters) were even more flimsy than usual. If they were in high school it would have been believable.

Overall: if you felt like this book was missing a little something, then go back and read "Let's Get Textual". The flashes of Delia and Zach made me nostalgic for their romance. Also, there is only one real sex scene in this book, but many innuendoes.
1893363
I have been a reader of both the authors as well as Ridley's, The Duke of War series and yet this story was a letdown for me. The plot was equal to the previous novels in the series, but I think that might have been part of the problem. It seems like the more a collection progressives the more the plot tends to start drying out and this sadly was the same case with this book.

On a more lighter note the romance in this book was very good. It wasn't as strong as it could have been, but I still found myself enjoying it. The fact that both the hero and the heroine are middle aged was a nice retreat from the younger characters that are often found in romances and so the romance made up a nice portion of the book.

Despite the romance I think the writing in this book failed to impress me. The author has a great talent for writing, but the story felt like it was rushed. There were certain scenes that didn't exactly add up and the back stories of the characters needed more detail as did the plot. I feel like the plot itself has been used so much in other historical-romances that I was desperately looking for something to separate this story from others and in the end I couldn't find it.

I would not recommend this book as I have had the prior books of the series and I find this detail to be sad because I admire the author and I have been a devoted reader to the series for so long, but I think this is where the adventure ends for me.
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.
1970110
It's okay.  I mean it's not terrible.  But it isn't amazing.  I like some other reviewers just don't get the breathless reviews that this book has gotten.  This book is on par with those old drugstore romance novels we used to buy in the 70s and 80s.  You know the ones with the heroine on the front, quickly read and forgotten?  For the younger crop of readers, it's at the level of a fanfic that's okay.  Nothing ground shattering or amazing, but not a bad read if you have time to waste and nothing better to do.  The plot is pretty evident, the dialog a bit stilted and the narrator is better than a Mary Sue, but still bears Mary Sue's DNA.  I got about 2/3rds of the way through before I just couldn't take any more of it and quit - I knew the ending, anyone should know the ending, it's a standard trope of romance lit.

So if you still love a good drugstore romance novel or like romance fanfic, you'll be good.  Otherwise, back away!
3180605
Fake dating, a.k.a. fauxmance  one of my favorite tropes in romance novels. So, yeah, I couldn't resist No Love Allowed. I like contemporary romances because regardless of quality, they're breezes to read and I can usually find something entertaining or fun about them. No Love Allowed had that and it didnt. It was rather average, though undeniably disappointing in some parts.

Caleb and Didi meet and quickly engage in a fake dating arrangement. Caleb is a notorious heartbreaker who needs a girlfriend so that he can get away unscathed during all the high society events. (Hes rich AF.) Didi is poor, her mothers working two jobs, she just lost her part-time job, and it sounds like a fun enough adventure for the summer. Caleb is clear: no love allowed. He has issues (surprise) because of the death of his mother, which turned his dad into a cold and heartless guy. Better to have no love, than to risk losing it. (Right.) Can you guess at all where this is going?

Contemporary romances are clich&eacute; nine times out of ten, and most of the time I don't really mind that. If the characters are vibrant enough and the chemistry they have lights up on the page, I can easily give a clich&eacute; story five stars. No Love Allowed was not that story. The characters remained rather flat because the story is told in third person. And I could have mapped out the plot from the first chapter. There were a couple of entertaining moments, when there were the slightest sparks of chemistry and I cheered the couple on. Some of the glitz and glamour of the high society parties was fun to read about, in a Gossip Girl kind of way, especially with how Didi actually held her own there. And I did genuinely like reading about her passion for art. But clich&eacute;s gave way to sap and then before I knew it, the story was over already.

Honestly, the way that the book is written from two third person points of view kind of diminishes the effect that the book could have had. Didi is obviously coping with a certain mental health issue  shes seen taking meds in one of the first chapters, so that is not a spoiler. But I think its sad to have that be such a crucial part of the story but not to delve into her mind and explain what it feels like to live with that condition. When I finished the book I was honestly most disappointed by that. This could have been a really important and eye-opening story. But it wasnt.

Lastly, I don't know if its because I read an advanced copy, but there appeared to be some continuity errors. I hope they were fixed by the time the final copy went to print, because otherwise some of the behavior of these characters would be super random. For example, at the beginning of the story, Didi gets fired from the country club  but after she trips, Amber yells at her, and shes only pretty dumbfounded before throwing her name badge at her manager. Where did she get fired? Where did she have a bipolar episode as she describes it later? There's another big example, but it's so late in the game that it's all spoilers, so I'll spare you that one. This book just made little sense sometimes.

Summing Up:

Honestly, No Love Allowed is nothing special. Fake dating has been done before, and its been done so much better. Romances with a mental health element have been done before, and done infinitely better. The characters here were unremarkable, and though they had some sweet moments, I never had that many feels for them. Even the cute-enough LGBT ship in the background couldn't save it for me.

*An advance review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review.
4220666
Maybe I was expecting too much from a short story, but this just wasn't that great. The story itself was okay, but the whole romance is based on love at first sight and I just can't swallow that bit of tripe. It really could have used just a little more to the story to give the romance a little more foundation and explore the whole magic of the story a bit more.
2553617
While An Inconvenient Ward certainly wasn't bad, it wasn't great, either. My biggest issue was that I just couldn't buy into the romance between Michael and Elizabeth...they didn't really seem like they had a spark. Also, maybe I missed it, but it bothered me not knowing what Michael's rank was. Was he a duke, baron, or someone in between? I am also very tired of heroines wearing "breeches." I could believe some woman in the American West wearing pants, but not Regency England. Again, this wasn't awful, but I found it a little slow overall. Probably won't read more from this author.
3050942
I thought the book was okay but not more. The heroine has some self esteem problems due to a broken engagement and certain comments made by her mother, who to me came across as bi-polar. So when the hero starts pursuing her, she does not believe him or trust him. And she is right at first. The hero appears to be the third son of a duke (we get to meet one older brother, a younger sister and we hear about 2 more younger sisters). He is carefree, just having inherited an estate and a town house, presumably with appropriate funds from his god father. He sees no need to tie himself down and does what most younger sons can't really afford, living the high life. The heroine is considered off limits due to her being the sister of (while not a close) school chum and a good friend of his highly pregnant sister-in-law. He enlists the help of the younger sister, we meet and their interactions are typical of siblings. The hero is quite believable, the heroine could not make up her mind.

There is kidnapping plot thrown in, which I thought was really unnecessary and only seemed to be the platform for the heroine to want to change her mind again.

What I did like, was the age of the hero. In most romance novels we have this thirty something hero; in reality I assume that unless he came into his title late, and then he would likely be married already, people married young.

Now this has little to do with the book and is just my take on the time the story is set in. I don't doubt that most married the "legit" society wife for the legit heir and the pressure to do so was likely real. And marrying young, providing the heir, allowed both, husband and wife to live their own lives while still relatively young. However, many had their "real" families on the side (aptly shown in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/To-Wed-a-Stranger/dp/0060502177/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">To Wed a Stranger</a>). There was a "surplus" of women, because many younger sons died fighting Napoleon. Also, women (girls in today's terms) had to marry young not only because often their families could not afford to give more than one or two "seasons" but also many died in child bed. It was not unusual for a titled man to be widowed more than once.

So with all that in mind, the heroine had good reasons to believe that this younger son who did not have to take the King's coin nor did he have to provide an heir or spare was not marriage material and as she believed herself to be only of interest to fortune hunters, her actions did make some sense. It just went on too long and too often. We do see the hero changing his mind about marriage and once he does, he works towards that goal.
3358217
A little disappointing.  I just read another of Barbara Cartland's books before this one and I feel the same way I did when I finished both--is that it? I don't know if this is her style but the story here is not altogether boring.  A new Duke returns from the war and finds that his distant cousin has been selling his family treasures, which infuriates him, only to discover she was only trying to keep herself and her loyal servants from starving during the Duke's absence.  This could have gone interesting and exciting in all kinds of ways!  Instead, it was a tepid sort of romance, where there is nothing one minute and "my love you are mine forever!" the next, while you are left wondering how did you miss all the romance in between?  All in all not a bad book but sort of a lukewarm romance that left me unsatisfied.