Grade: C+

I picked up this anthology because I reviewed Notorious by Vicki Lewis Thompson and I liked the interaction between the two leads. In that story, the heroine had a little sister who was getting married to her childhood sweetheart and I wanted to know if she had her own story. Rosario told me that B.J. does have her own story and it’s in this anthology, which, consequently was released to introduce the Blaze line. The two other authors included in this anthology are Stephanie Bond (whose books I’ve enjoyed in the past) and Kimberly Raye, with whom I am not familiar, but her story bored me, so it’s not like I’m going to be seeking out her stuff in the future.
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Grade: C-

I don’t want to be mean, but I think the heroine of this book is mentally retarded. Seriously, her IQ must be like… 60, at most. I’ve mentioned before that Ms. Thompson writes really scrumptious heroes, but when it comes to the heroines, I haven’t been really impressed. Basically, this heroine is like a child that is lead around by the hero, and much like a kid in a candy store who’s been told by a parent that she can only have one treat, she is unable to make up her mind about anything, either. Frankly, I just don’t see what the hero sees in her. First of all, her name is Kate, which is already a strike against her, because that’s almost always the name of the character that Meg Ryan plays (seriously, her name is Kate in five movies), and I hate Meg Ryan with the intensity of ten thousand suns. Plus she’s got short, flippy hair, which a friend actually describes as “Meg Ryan hair”, and there’s just no way I can like this heroine. Why do you do this to me, Ms. Thompson? Why must you always pair up your delicious heroes with brain-dead heroines?

Anyway, before my rant runs away from me, let’s break this sucker down.

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Grade: C+

I’d like to think that I’m one of those forward thinking people who think “Age ain’t nuthin’ but a number”. But I’m not. Look, I’m totally cool with Stella getting her groove back with a younger man, but she’s an older lady and knew what she was doing. I’m not cool with it if you’re R. Kelly and looking to score with Dakota Fanning. The age gap between our two main characters in this story isn’t quite as severe, but it’s bad enough. The hero is thirty and the heroine is twenty. I guess it’s cool in historical romances (what else was there to do back then? No cable, no Internet, no hookin’ up at da club!), but it’s not cool when the heroine is barely out of college, and the hero already owns a house and looking to start a family. I mean, he’d be talking about TJ Hooker and Miami Vice and how Duran Duran used to be awesome, and she’d be looking at him like, “Uh… you lost me. Don Johnson was cool?” Two different generations, you dig? In this story, it’s particularly icky because she knew him when she was eight years old and he was a senior in high school.

Warning: This review ain’t spoiler-free.

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Grade: C+
Have you ever read a book with a truly awesome hero, but the heroine is just so-so and kind of annoyed the crap out of you? Well, this book is it for me. The hero, Matt Davidson is a sweetie, a honey, a cutie-pie, and melt-your-socks-off sexy. There’s a scene in this book where he wants to make a night special for the heroine, so he sprinkles white rose petals all over the bed and orders her favorite dessert and champagne, and I just about died. The heroine, on the other hand, annoyed me so much that I wanted to shake her and scream at her to get a grip. I understood why she acts the way she does, but that didn’t stop me from being annoyed with her. The man is a gem, you nincompoop! But Matt, oh Matt… honey, let me just say that if this man existed outside a romance novel, I would track him down, drag him into a room with me, and not let him out for a week. Because we’d play Scrabble and watch TV and have so much fun that we’d lose track of time. That’s all I meant, Mother! And we won’t close the door all the way so you’ll know that we’re not doing anything bad.

Ahem, on with the review!

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Grade: C-

This book is not horrible, but it’s not good, either. I mean, it didn’t make me want to pitch it into the fireplace or anything, but there were times while I was reading it that I gritted my teeth so hard that my jaw still hurts. This mostly due to a very unpleasant heroine whom I would like to kick in the head several times until whatever little she’s got for brains run out of her ears. I think it’s fair to warn you that this heroine is the type who pushes away the hero, screaming that she’s independent and can take care of herself, only to rush headlong into the jaws of a shark. Moron. The hero, on the other hand, though a tad over-protective and quite presumptuous, is actually very charming. I wouldn’t mind him ordering me around a bit—I’d bite his head off for it, but I bet it would be fun to fight with him, then kiss and make up later on. By “kiss and make up,” I meant “make sweet love by the fire,” of course. And by “make sweet love by the fire,” I meant… oh, forget it.

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