10th: No Good Duke Goes Unpunished
We began with Victorian London, we might as well end it there too. Sarah MacLean gives us a book that will captivate you right from the start. The book is from the start loaded with eroticism and humor. You might get the feeling that sometimes that it lays on the colors too thickly but you are guaranteed to enjoy reading it. It has mystery and suspense and on top of that it ends in a cliffhanger so it violently convinces you to read the next book of the series.
What`s So Funny About It?
Before I answer that, let me ask you something else. Have you ever done something in your past that you desperately want to take back? Because that`s the case with our protagonist.
Mara Lowe had sworn never to return to the world from which she ran away from but when her brother admits he owes a great deal of money to a vintage casino she decides to do something about it. And who will she ask for help if not the man who we`ll find out turns out to be her soul mate.
However, now starts the tricky part. One of the owners of the casino, Temple has the atrocious reputation of being the killer of his stepmother. How charitable could a person like that be? You should give the book a chance and find out!
Why is It Recommended?
I believe you will enjoy it. It knows how to keep you on pins and needles until the very end when it just decides to troll you and serve you a cliffhanger. The mystery is kept until the very end and you won`t get bored half-way through because you have a slim change of guessing what the big secret it.
What you might also appreciate is that the heroine is not weak little thing spending her time begging on her knees for her brother`s debts to be wiped out. She is headstrong and she has guts – why exactly, you will have to find out by yourselves. If I were to say any more, I` just spoil everything. It is certain that you will not regret granting this particular book a few hours of your time.
9th: Silver Angel
Who`s not curious to hear more about how life is like in a harem? It`s a man`s dream and a feminist`s worst nightmare and since it triggers so many controversial opinions along the time, you can bet on it that it`s a hot topic to read about.
Johanna Lindsey makes another appearance in this top, giving us a one way ticket into the Orient. This cannot necessarily be considered the author`s best work but we`ve always been attracted to the idea of harem and she tried her best to recreate the atmosphere, even if she painted it all in more positive colors than it was, historically speaking.
What`s With the Angel?
Our angel is called Chantelle Burke. Being confronted with an arranged marriage she decides to run away from home – quite a drama, but she ends up being captured by smugglers and sold out as a slave.
I don`t know if this is better than to marry someone your family picked out for you, though since she found her true love, maybe all things work out in the end.
Now what`s the lucky man like? Derek comes to the aid of his brother and ends up spending quite a significant time enjoying the attractions of the Oriental world.
Why is This Book Recommended?
The harem is a most mysterious place. Women bathing and having their bodies rubbed with different scented oils and shrouded in veils and precious stones and all for the delight of one person. This sounds more like the dream of any man and it`s not very hard to bring to life in the outside world too.
On the other hand, this book might prove to be hard to deal with at some points. The female character is so exasperating in her constant refusal that we`re going to lose our patient with her faster than her “boyfriend”, much faster.
Despite this, the book deserves a chance – it`s still pleasant to read, filled with romance, suspense and mystery and to ensure we won`t get too bored, the author made sure to involve a surprise element. Life in the harem isn`t always about expensive gifts, transparent clothes and unheard-of desserts.
8th: Smoke Screen
This book will be a breath of fresh air for you, since all those romance plots can really annoy you at some point – everything seems to be working way too well for all the characters and everyone has their happy ending.
It kind of makes us more unsatisfied with our lives. Sandra Brown is pretty renown for this genre of books and some people might judge her books as unrealistically and boring.
Some of her shorter books tend to get boring with time and you discover an amusing pattern on which she builds her characters, but if you give some of her thicker books a try, you`ll find out that she can do more than just write some boring, sickening sweet love stories with some really doubtful plots.
Plot
Aside from a spice of romance, some of her novels are great examples of detective fiction. She`ll shift the guild between different characters until you have no idea what`s going on anymore. It gets pretty vexing at some point. Now what do we have here? A reporter, Britt Shelly, who has a really bad case of hangover.
Not only she cannot remember what happened the night before, but in addition to that she wakes up to the corpse of her old lover, Jay Burgess – Brown really doesn`t give her characters an easy life.
Naturally she claims to be innocent and she is “helped” by the most unexpected person, Raley Gannon, a man who`s reputation she ruined some years before. Guess being a journalist has it`s disadvantages and you can imagine just how helpful he will be to her.
Why Read It?
This books has some sort of focus on the relationship between the two protagonists but the most interesting part of it is the brain teaser. The book gets so stuffy with intrigues that you can`t even imagine how it will all get solved out.
The romance isn`t given too much attention in the book, true, but we are made aware of the growing sexual tension between the two and the plot keeps us in suspense until the very end when, as usual, the criminal is the last person we would`ve thought as being responsible.
7th: The Raven Prince
We can’t always arrange the time or resources to set in motion some fancy Victorian or royal style fantasy, but this books gives us another idea to tease our imagination.
The action of this book also takes place in the 18th century but we`re not dealing with some idlers of the so called high society, rather just the usual situation where the secretary falls in love with her boss. The title of the book is a bit misleading. Elisabeth Hoyt actually incorporates two different stories in one place – a short fairy tale divided into paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter of our main story.
Plot
The women during that age usually worked only if they had to support themselves or were unmarried. We might consider that the whole secretary – boss idea is a recent one, since the secretary must by all means be wearing a deep cleavage, a skirt with a cut on the side and some high, thin stilettos, glasses optional. But this books gives us a clue that even without all those trade mark items, the whole concept of office romance is possible in all sorts of eras.
Anna Wren is a widow who is forced in the end to accept working as a secretary for the most capricious Edward. Since they`re always working together there`s bound to be certain sparks between them, sparks that he stubbornly resists to, but that`s alright since if he gave up from the start this book would turn out pretty trivial.
We have to depend on the woman to set it all the action in motion. So when she finds out that her employer is going to pay a visit to a famous brothel in London, you can guess who`s the masked lady that will undoubtedly charm him. It`s always interesting to follow women who try get things their way.
Why Should You Read It?
Honestly speaking the book oscillates between less interesting episodes and really spicy ones but it`s the characters who steal the show. Anna is bold and doesn`t back down from doing anything in her power to achieve what she wants and Edwards is trapped between giving in to his passion and resisting it and doing the honorable thing. Wouldn`t you find it flattering to know your boyfriend wants you so ardently but at the same time tries to refrain from any acts that might offend you? Here`s something to think about.