THE DOCTOR NEXT DOOR by Catherine Berlin

THE DOCTOR NEXT DOOR

CATHERINE BERLIN
Contemporary Erotic Romance
Red Sage Publishing
Sensuality Rating: E-rotic
ISBN# Adobe PDF 978-1-60310-160-8
Mobi pocket 978-1-60310-161-5
MS Reader 978-1-60310-162-2
HTML 978-1-60310-163-2
79 pages
$4.50
Available February 2008

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Brandon, who’s very good looking, is an Emergency Room doctor with a busy schedule, but he’s never too busy to notice his lovely neighbor Gen.

Gen is a thirty-year-old virgin. She’s gorgeous and she writes romance novels, in which she uses her hunky neighbor next door as a pattern for her heroes. But she will never date or get to know him because he is a doctor.

Brandon, because of his profession, is ignored by Gen because of a fear she has that all doctors are alike. They are like her father, cold and self-serving. When she finally learns that Brandon is truly a nice guy and lets her guard down, they get together, date, and after she overcomes some of her fears, he asks her to marry him.

Cute! Cute! Cute! This is a darling sensuous love story where two single neighbors who have admired each other from a distance for some time, finally come together. I completely enjoyed the relationship evolvement in this story, it was totally believable, and when Brandon dressed as a highland laird, complete with white billowy shirt and kilt, comes knocking at Gen’s door equipped with a picnic basket, full of traditional Scottish foods, I cracked up. He was just trying to fulfill one of Gen’s fantasies from the latest romance novel she had written, and which he had purchased, to better understand her. The scenario was completely believable as well as darling. This is a cute story and well worth the read, this is a keeper; I will definitely read it again.

Ms. Berlin sang in a band which helped her pay for college where she earned degrees in three languages. She ended up marrying the man who auditioned for drummer in the same band. He won the job and her heart, and they are married to this day. She can be reached at CatherineBerlinAuthor@yahoo.com.


Desiree de Cleves
Enchanting Reviews
February 2008

UNSPOKEN PROMISES by Bonnie Hamre

UNSPOKEN PROMISES

BONNIE HAMRE
Romance – Paranormal/Time Travel
Cerridwen Press
Sensuality Rating: Sexy
ISBN# 9781419909757
278 pages
$7.99
eBook - Available July 2007

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Ford Hunter is following the 1847 California Trail across the Nevada desert. A recent widower, he’s trying to cope with a toddler and a baby while keeping his oxen alive and wagon whole. The last thing he needs is some crazy lady showing up, claiming she’s from the future while wearing clothes not fit for a decent woman to be seen in.

Mollie Andersen has just buried her husband and daughter and is driving back cross-country to her roots in California. At a rest stop, she has a black out caused by a strong wind and wakes up in the middle nowhere. She stumbles across what she thinks is a troop of reenactment enthusiasts and tries to get them to help her back to the interstate. When they refuse to break characters, she is at first annoyed but then grows wary as they seem to resent her mysterious arrival and clothes.

The two main characters are drawn to each other immediately and forced to marry when caught in the compromising position of kissing passionately. Molly eventually realizes that she has somehow stepped back in time and Ford accepts that she is from the future when he sees her flashlight and color photographs. Although extremely attracted to each other, their strong personalities clash, making it hard for the two of them to trust each other and form the alliance necessary to stay alive on the trail. Molly and Ford have to battle lack of water and food, violent Native Americans, and also suspicious and superstitious pioneers.

I loved both of these characters. They are well developed and the sexual tension between them more sizzling than the bacon Mollie learns to fry on Ford’s cast iron skillet. Ms. Hamre’s research is remarkable and I learned more about the pioneer’s trail than any history book has told me. I laughed and cried as this love story developed and ultimately ended with both characters finding the truth about their love within themselves. Reading the book was a fantastic journey and I thank Ms. Hamre for making it so enjoyable and educational.

Ms. Hamre is a multi-published fiction and travel author. To find out more about her, visit http://www.bonniehamre.com/.


Åsa Maria Bradley
EnchantingReviews
February 2008

THE BEAST WITHIN by Rebecca Goings

THE BEAST WITHIN

REBECCA GOINGS

Paranormal Romance
Champagne Books
Sensuality Rating - Sensual
ISBN# 1897261276
240 pages
$6.00
eBook - Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Let me introduce you to Lanie Erickson. A heroine yearning for a little adventure in her life but never expecting to find more than what she was looking for. She has always been the dutiful daughter, never stepping out of bounds. Until one night in a most unexpected way she meets the man of her dreams; or will he become her nightmare instead? For he is unlike anything she has been prepared for and only her quest for a dream will let her win out.

Now for Noah Carpenter, our hero. A man who does not remember his past, for it was stolen from him. But he is a man who remembers many tormenting hours at the hands of a group of sadistic scientists that will do whatever it takes to make killing machines. Our hero does not want to be that and escapes. But he must discover the truth of his past so that he might have a future with the woman of his dreams.

This is the story of two people brought together in unusual circumstances; you might say a twist of fate. One just going back to a mundane life and the other looking for his past but never expecting to find his future instead and his freedom. But first Noah must escape the enemy that is hunting him and putting in danger the life of the woman who has come to mean more than his own freedom. A predator not unlike himself. Can he save her from a fate worse then death before his enemy changes her and will he have to trade his freedom for hers?

I really liked this story. The interaction between the hero and heroine was intense. The tormenting thoughts of the heroine, wondering if she will be able to stick with him or was he just a man with an overactive imagination, were enthralling. These things just pull you into the story and you cannot help but feel for the tormented hero. This book is a must for the shape shifter fan and I cannot wait for the next installment in this great series.

About Ms. Goings, her first writing love will always be historical novels. She has written a few paranormals and contempary novels. Being a writer has been her dream come true and she cannot think of anything she would rather do. She lives in Oregon with her husband and four children.

Melanie
Enchanting Reviews
February 2008

MISS LONELY HEARTS by Charlene Teglia

MISS LONELY HEARTS

CHARLENE TEGLIA
Romantic Comedy
Samhain Publishing
Sensuality Rating: Spicy
ISBN# 1-59998-031-2
167 Pages
$4.50
eBook – Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

After two failed engagements, Cassandra Adams is sick of looking for love first, hoping it would eventually lead to marriage. Her first fiancé left her the day of the wedding. Her second fiancé broke up with her at work, a month before their planned wedding. The one common denominator in both break-ups was Cassandra's cousin, Riley the Bastard. If Cassandra weds by her 28th birthday, she stood to inherit 3 million dollars, if she was not wed by then, it would revert to her cousin's side of the family. Cassandra decided it was time to look for marriage first, and to hope that love follows. Her first step was to peruse the online dating sites, where she came across a promising candidate in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Someone is pulling a “Miss Lonely Hearts” con on the good male patrons of the Last Chance Saloon, and Jason Alexander is determined to find out who it is, and to trap her at her own game. Jason posted a profile on an online dating site, knowing that he would get the woman, and make her pay back what she had conned his customers out of. Sam, Dwight and Duke- the victims, described her profile as blonde and beautiful, from Seattle.

When Jason and Cassandra start communicating, Cassandra thought she found a man she could spend the rest of her life with in happiness. Jason knows he had found Miss Lonely Hearts. He set the trap, and figured to spring it. Much to his surprise, though not the surprise of Sam, Dwight and Duke, Cassandra is the genuine article, and he cannot wait to get married to her.

This is a very sweet story, I fell in love with the characters - Cassandra, who just wants to find someone who will love her and cynical Jason who was just out to catch a con artist, but finds love instead. I also liked the quirky side characters, as Ms. Teglia made them realistic and funny. I could picture Reverend Moonshine, Rex and Mona as she described them.

I do believe my favorite line in the book was “...that she'd had a stripper jump out of her wedding cake.” Now if that doesn't set the tone for a comedy, I don't know what will. Cassandra and Jason's wedding was definitely not your ordinary wedding, but it would be a memorable one. There was a steam and chemistry between them that made you want this marriage to work. The sex scenes were very hot, and, I thought, very well written.

This is the first book I've read by Charlene Teglia, but it will not be the last. She spun a tale full of romance and humor, which I loved. To find out more about her and her books you visit her on the web at: www.charleneteglia.com or join her Yahoo!group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wicked_writers/.

Aemelia
Enchanting Reviews
February 2008

BOLD BRIDE by Melany Logen

BOLD BRIDE
MELANY LOGEN

Multicultural Erotic Historical/Western
Loose ID
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
ISBN# 978-1-59632-649-1
86 pages
$4.99
eBook - Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Miguel Ruiz was a half-breed, half Mexican and half White. Why she picked him to be her husband was beyond him, he wasn’t safe, but he WAS attracted to her!!

Abigail Sutton found herself alone when her father left her. She needed a husband and needed one fast! She sought out the only man she was attracted to, Miguel Ruiz. Besides, it was only a business arrangement, right??

This is a short historical romance that starts out as a business arrangement only, but soon blossoms to something much deeper, much more permanent, true love!
This is a great story I totally enjoyed it! The author took a creative idea, a young woman’s aloneness out on the prairie, and wove into the situation , a beautiful passionate love story, that leaves the reader with a warm tingly feeling, and a happily ever after. Great story, great read!!

Once upon a time, two little girls grew up hundreds of miles apart. They lived, they loved and especially, they read. Reading led them to finding each other and discovering a mutual love of writing. They are two lucky people who have found a best friend and a wonderful writing partner online. From that partnership, Melany Logen was born.

Visit Melany on the Web at www.melanylogen.com.


Desiree de Cleves
Enchanting Reviews
April 2008

RATIONAL ANIMALS by K.A. M'Lady

RATIONAL ANIMALS

K.A. M’LADY
Fantasy/suspense
eXtasy Books
Sensuality Rating: 3 flames
ISBN# 1-55410-813-6
68 pages
$2.99
eBook – Available Now


Rating: 5 Enchantments

Toren Crushing is a biologist who has studied the integration of wolves back into Yellowstone National Forest.

Renee Faroque is a beautiful Crow Indian with the knowledge of Crow healing techniques.
This is a tale of suspense and intrigue involving the wolves of the forest, the great white wolf in particular, of the Nez Pierce Pack, and its cunning and leadership regarding man.

The word pictures in this story are phenomenal, example “The slushy crimson crystals of the snow freezing into a burst of red death,” I couldn’t put the story down once I started. It’s a quick read, it took me thirty minutes, but in that amount of time, the imagery was so clear, I could smell the forest, feel the cold, and hear the song of the wolf. This is really excellent work, and the story comes across almost like an Indian mythological tale. Excellent read!!

K.A. M’Lady currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three children. Her love of all things medieval draws her to the past like the last firefly at dusk in late September. She still believes that hope inspires all possibilities; dreams are always within our grasp if we just reach for them and love truly is the strongest warrior in any battle.


Desiree de Cleves
Enchanting Reviews
April 2008

FALLEN by Lauren Kate

FALLEN

LAUREN KATE
Paranormal YA
Delacorte Press
ISBN# 978-0-385-73893-4
452 Pages
$17.99
Hardcover—Available Now

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments
Luce Price has always seen shadows, these terrifying things that appear around her without warning. She's helpless to stop them and the destruction that usually follows their appearances. Thanks to them and the death of the guy she was crushing on, she's found herself at Sword & Cross boarding school, a place for screw-ups and delinquents, something that Luce appears to be—at least to everyone else, including her own parents, who are slightly afraid of her after what happened. But how can Luce explain the shadows without everyone thinking she's crazy?

Daniel Grigori has a secret. He's immortal and he and Luce have had several past lives together before, but every time she's died before things reached a certain point. So when she shows up at Sword & Cross, he vows to stay away from her, that is until she finds herself in real danger and Daniel is forced to intervene.

I really enjoyed FALLEN. I thought it was a really unique mixture of paranormal, setting and characters. What better place for fallen angels to hide than a school for delinquents? Ms. Kate does a great job at making the reader not sure of some of the characters intentions, especially the female characters of Gabbe and even Luce's friend, Arriane. The dilapidated conditions of Sword & Cross come to life on the page, especially during the Parents Weekend scene where Luce is seeing things through the eyes of her parents, as she's already gotten used to things in her short stay. The cemetery in the middle of the campus is just plain creepy. As is the fact that detention involved being there before dawn to clean off the statues. I really liked Luce and the rest of the characters, especially Penn. Every character has something different about them, including a secrets that seem to be revealed in due time. Filled with twists and turns, and the deep sense of foreboding as the shadows that follow Luce become darker and more frequent as she gets deeper into the mystery of why Daniel feels so familiar and why it seems like she's able to interact with the shadows more. With an ending that literally had my jaw dropping with a couple dark surprises, FALLEN has quickly become one of my favorite reads of the year. I cannot wait to read the second in the series and see where Ms. Kate takes these characters next. Wherever it is, I doubt it'll be boring.

Lauren Kate recently finished her M.A. in Creative Writing at UC Davis, where she also teaches. She lives and writes in an old farm house in Winters, California.

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
December 2009

POST GRAD by Emily Cassel

POST GRAD

EMILY CASSEL
Women’s Fiction
St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN# 978-0-312-59626-2
256 Pages
$13.99
Trade--Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Ryden Malby’s had her whole life planned out, do well in high school, get a great scholarship and graduate, thereby moving into the next phase of her life, a gorgeous place and her dream job at the city’s best publishing house. Graduating from college was one thing, but when her plans for her life are quickly disintegrating she’s forced to do the unthinkable—move back home with her parents, her crazy grandmother and strange little brother till she can find a job and figure out what to do with her life.

POST GRAD is a hilarious, entertaining read. There wasn’t a single chapter where I didn’t either laugh or lament the thought of having to eventually put the book down. I loved Ryden instantly, it’s hard to not like a girl who’s dealing with a family as crazy as hers, and her nemesis in Jessica Barde, the ‘perfect’ girl who seems to always show up when Ryden would least like her to, especially during one truly horrific moment when working at Luggage World. Her best friend Adam who’s hopelessly crushing on her. Ryden’s family is truly one of the best, most outrageous families I’ve ever come across. Her father is beyond hilarious and her grandmother is a scene stealer. It’s so hard to pick a scene to mention in the review, but the first one that pops to mind is when her grandmother takes them shopping for her own casket and the chaos that ensues. Ryden’s already embarrassed enough at times by her family, but to have her grandmother actually trying out the caskets is enough to give the poor girl a meltdown.

If you’re looking for a great read, POST GRAD is one book you should definitely pick up.

Check out the first chapter online at http://us.macmillan.com/postgrad.


Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
July 2009

FADE OUT (Morganville Vampires #7) by Rachel Caine

FADE OUT (Morganville Vampires Book Seven)

RACHEL CAINE
Paranormal YA
NAL
ISBN# 978-0-451-22866-6
237 Pages
$6.99
Paperback—Available Now

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

With Bishop gone and Eve in the local production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', things around Glass House are about as normal as they've been in a long time. But normal is short lived in Morganville, especially for Claire. She thinks there's something a little odd about Eve's sudden new BFF Kim and it's not just the fact that she hooked up with Shane in the past either, no there's something there that Claire just can't put her finger on. When Kim suddenly goes missing before a rehearsal of the play, Claire and friends can't believe what they uncover about Eve's supposed new friend.

Ms. Caine does a great job with FADE OUT, the seventh installment in this entertaining paranormal series. With Bishop gone in the last book, I wasn't quite sure what would happen next in Morganville with Amelie seemingly back in charge, but things just keep on escalating. When the truth about Kim is found out, suddenly Claire, Eve, Michael and Shane are forced to save her from the Vamps punishment, even if she may actually deserve what she could get. Even with that going on, Ada is still out for blood—namely Claire's—and she really will do anything to get rid of her, making things between the two reach a climatic and chilling head in FADE OUT, where Myrnin gets caught in the middle of deadly game Ada's playing. I never imagined a character who's usually nothing more than a computer generated image of her former self can be so evil and devious. I love how we see Myrnin evolving from his crazed character in the earlier books in the series, even if he still retains a bit of his dark side, which shows up here and there. What I like best about the Morganville series is what I love best about this book, things just keep getting more complicated and the unexpected keeps popping up around every corner. I can't wait to see what's in store for Claire in the next book!

Rachel Caine is the internationally bestselling author of thirty novels, including the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Morganville Vampires young adult series: Glass Houses, The Dead Girls’ Dance, Midnight Alley, Feast of Fools, Lord of Misrule, Carpe Corpus, and Fade Out, with five more to follow in 2009-2011. Visit her online at www.rachelcaine.com

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
November 2009

THE SPLENDOR FALLS by Rosemary Clement-Moore

THE SPLENDOR FALLS
ROSEMARY CLEMENT-MOORE
Paranormal YA
Delacorte Books
ISBN# 978-0-385-73690-9
513 Pages
$17.99
Hardcover--Available Now

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Sylvie Davis' promising career as a ballet dancer is over before it really even has a chance to begin. Thanks to a fluke, she fell and broke her leg and is unable to dance again. To top things off, her mother just remarried and while her and the step-shrink go off on a honeymoon, Sylvie's been shipped south to visit a cousin of her father's she barely remembers meeting once to stay at a house she's never seen. But once she arrives in Alabama, Sylvie finds herself in what seems like a different world.

Cousin Paula's remodelling the family estate into a bed and breakfast, and the whole town seems to think she's something special just because she's a Davis, something she just doesn't understand at all. Add in the weird vibe she's getting from some of the locals, including Paula's business partner's daughter and the fact there's strange rumours about the house and things people have seen there, things maybe Sylvie's sorta seen for herself and things are way too complicated too quick for her liking.

One of the best things about Ms. Clement-Moore's writing is her characters. No two are ever alike, but they're as real as real can be. Sylvie is no exception to the rule and neither are those around her in Alabama. I especially loved the relationships between Sylvie and both Rhys, the mysterious stranger staying at the unfinished bed and breakfast with his father and Shawn Maddox, the local good boy, who seems to like Sylvie a little too much, too quickly. The house itself quickly becomes a character of its own, unfamiliar and at times slightly menacing, Sylvie isn't sure what to make of it—or Alabama as a whole. Her father never talked about the place, and maybe she can see why. But when she finds away to seek solace and time on her own, recreating what used to be a magical garden, the secrets of the past begin to be unleashed, something that puts her directly in danger.

THE SPLENDOR FALLS is one of my favorite reads of the year. Sylvie's a great character, I loved her voice, her weariness at where she was and what her future holds now that her dream of being a prima ballerina is shattered. Faced with that and what seems like an unpleasant stay in Alabama—Cousin Paula won't even let her take her beloved little dog up to her room, she soon finds herself involved in something more mysterious and supernatural than she'd ever expected. It all seems to start when she sneaks out with the dog to the back of the house and she sees a figure watching from one of the upstairs windows. But it's not Rhys or his father or even Cousin Paula. Who could it be? And what's their connection to the house? There were so many scenes I loved it's hard to pick one to highlight, but when Sylvie runs into Shawn in town and he takes her to the local coffee shop. All the locals are so excited to see the two of them together, Sylvie begins to wonder what exactly is going on.

Rosemary Clement-Moore lives and writes in Arlington, Texas. THE SPLENDOR FALLS is her fourth book for young readers. Visit Rosemary online at www.readrosemary.com

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
September 2009