Review: The Price of Innocence by Susan Sizemore

Publisher: TKA Distribution
Imprint: None
Publication Date: December 12, 2011
ISBN: 9781937776091
Genre: Historical Romance
Received via NetGalley


The Blurb:


Sherrie Hamilton is a woman with a scandalous secret past. When she travels to London for a Season of helping to launch her cousins on the marriage mart, she runs into her past. Literally. In the one place she never expected to find a pirate, she encounters the sensuous rogue who kept her as his lover years before.

Jack PenMartyn, Earl of PenMartyn, seeks to put his wicked past raiding the China Sea behind him. One thing he can't forget is the young woman whose pure innocence he stole; the woman who is the mother of the child he never knew he had.

He knows that with one false word, Sherrie will expose the secrets of his past. But does he dare to hope that she will give in to the temptation of their reckless passion for a future together?


My Take:


I have mixed feelings as I write this review. I'm not sure what I think about it or the characters. It's a mixture of feelings I guess. On the one hand I couldn't stop turning the pages, Ms. Sizemore definitely had me captivated, on the other hand the hero is constantly man-handling the heroine. There's, what appears to be to be forced seduction of the sort that yes she enjoys it but she says "no" and tries to stop him and then there's the revelation at the end that even though the hero, Jack has been beating himself up because of his repeated raping of Sherrie when she was his concubine nine years ago and the one time he raped her in present day, that Sherrie did not believe she had been raped at all and that Jack is mistaken. Rather, all her resisting was foreplay. I'm not sure if I believe that it's true and that Sherrie really believes this or if I believe Sherrie is clearly confused about what defines rape etc. 


I'm mostly confused because it both bothers me and doesn't bother me. I have a feeling a lot of people will not like this story and hate the hero and at times I did too. I particularly didn't like how toward the beginning of the book he called Sherrie a bitch (not to her face and more as internalization) but I feel it uncalled for, regardless of whether he was jealous or not. 


To me, as long as you get past it, you get to see Jack's good qualities particularly with the daughter he never knew he had. You can see his immediate love and caring for the girl and he has these moments when you clearly can tell he loves Sherrie and things do make a little more sense once he reveals some truths toward the end of the novel. Like I said, my mind keeps flip flopping on my feeling for this book. I really liked it and I would read it again, but a lot of it made me mad. Not sure what that says about me :-/ 


All I can say is that clearly, the pair have a very complicated relationship and that while they love each other, I'm not sure that it's a healthy relationship. At least not through most of the book. The ending seemed to clean some things up so that they were able to get a past a lot of their history that was hurting each other and ultimately I did find myself rooting for the couple to make it and so that they could have their little family and make it a bigger family and I adored their daughter and loved that he hardly even questioned whether the child was his when he found out. He just accepted it and started playing the role of father as though he was meant to all along which for me was a big redeeming quality for him. Also, his need to protect Sherri and Minnie redeemed him quite a bit. There were also a lot of small "sweet" moments, mainly of dialogue, toward the end that I very much enjoyed.


I did feel the whole suspense portion of the story with Lord Summer's fell a little flat to me. It could have been amped up to be more action oriented, but I did like how he was ultimately dealt with. 


I guess, even though the book made me mad in parts, it did keep me reading and I did enjoy it and found myself rooting for the couple and I would honestly read the story again so confused on my feelings or not, I think that basically says it all. I just want to warn some readers that they may not be as forgiving on the forced seduction as I was.


My Rating: 3 Lattes 





All My Best,


Kayla

Review: Double Heart Diner by Annie Jones

Publisher: TKA Distribution
Publication Date: December 11, 2011
ISBN: 9781937776046
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Received via Net Galley from TKA Distribution


The Blurb:


It was a little piece of heaven on Route 66. True, the famed Double Heart Diner had seen better days. But it was still such a special place for so many people. And Georgia Darling wasn’t going to let some city-slicker shut it down, no matter how handsome and sweet-talking the stranger might be.

It was a precious piece of land on the Texas panhandle, and it belonged to him. So why was businessman Jett Murphy letting some cute, fiery redhead try to talk him out of bulldozing the entire building? If Miss Darling thought she could beat him when it came to being headstrong...well, maybe he had met his match.

Route 66 Romance: Come along for the fun on the rocky road to love.


My Take:


First, I must say that this was a very cute read that had me smiling the entire time. Our heroine, Georgia Darling, is as zany as can be and channels I Love Lucy in the best of times. She has one thing that she cares about more than anything, saving her "home" the Double Heart Diner. Set in the midst of Old Route 66, the Double Heart Diner is scheduled to be bought out and sold to land developers, but Georgia won't have any of it so she decides to go to the press regarding her ex-employers plans to destroy the diner. 


Enter Jett Murphey. Our hero, a recluse who loves staying out of the spotlight during both business and personal dealing, is about to have a handful of problems when an ex employee threatens to go to the media with his intentions to buy and sell the Double Heart Diner. He has to figure out a way to stop her from doing so, but finds himself on a wacky adventure to save the Diner while traveling down the heart of America on Old Route 66 with none other than Ms. Georgia Darling herself.


Our hero and heroine are complete opposites, and as such are perfect together. Creating a yin and yang type relationship that balances each other. Georgia has an extremely playful attitude, that for the most part is cute and funny, but at some points (such as when Jett was on an important phone call) I found her to be a little immature. After all, even in stories, there is a time and a place for playfulness/humor. 


Regardless, it was fun uncovering everything the two of them had up their sleeves as they tried to outrace the media to save the Double Heart and in the process find themselves and love. As the Double Heart Diner saying goes: "If you've lost your love or lost your way, you'll find them at the Double Heart Diner."


The only main issue I had really, (and I'm not sure if it's because of the type of e-reader I was using) was some formatting constraints. There were scene breaks that didn't actually have the break so it would take me a second to realize we weren't on the same scene anymore. Other than that and the brief comment of how at certain time the humorous, fun and quirky attitude of Georgia came across as immature, I have no complaints and very much enjoyed it. 


These two characters brought out each others best qualities and as such created memorable characters that I look forward to visiting again. 


It's a sweet romance, only a few non-explicit kisses, and we all know how I tend to like my romances nice and steamy, however the sweetness of this fit the tone of the book well and it was such a quick read at just around 180 pages, that I do believe I may find myself reading it again at some point.


Great job on a great story, Ms. Jones.


My Rating: 4/5 Lattes




All My Best,


Kayla