Amanda Carpenter (1)

As I read this I became pretty sure I've read it before but I didn't remember it well enough to ruin my enjoyment of it this time around. It was a fun romance about lovers who agree to no strings but fall into a committed relationship anyway. Of course the hero denies it to both himself and her and problems ensue. I enjoyed the heroine. She was pretty strong except for her love for him which caused her to roll over for him a bit more than she should have. She was also pretty kind and caring. She tried to help the other girl the hero was thinking about marrying and she genuinely wanted the hero to be happy no matter who he was with. A nice book.… (mais)

This was just okay. I didn't feel that engaged with the characters both of whom were basically idiots. She was scared of her feelings and he expected her to know he loved her even though he'd never had the balls to ask her on a date or god forbid tell her he loved her. And here's something strange. near the end of the book, after they have slept with each other twice over two days, he tells her he can't see her that night then has another woman over, hugs her and keeps her there until 2 a.m. And the hero and heroine are next door neighbors! and he wonders why she gets in a snit and leaves for 2 weeks. And to top off this assinery when she gets back she tells him that the reason she left wasn't because he'd had the girl over but that she was scared of her own misplaced jealousy. WTF? Both of them. Just WTF?… (mais)

Totally awesome story. The heroine was a rich 17 year old on the run from evil relatives. The hero is the private investigator hired to bring the "runaway" home. She was a super smart girl. The type who went to college at 16. So she totally made him work to catch up with her. And once he did she never gave up just kept escaping and he kept running her down and catching her again. Of course during all this they were falling in love.

There were some unexpected bits that totally took me by surprise. And there were some pleasant surprises in the writing too. Even though this was written back when 17 year old heroines were matched up quite often with much older men, (the hero was 29) here the situation was addressed and stressed over. All the love scenes, and there were some, were fade to black. Which considering the time it was written and the age of the heroine was probably just as well.

Strong plotting, good dialog, great characterization although the word choices were sometimes dated. I kept wanting him to call her 'babe' instead of 'dear girl'. Doesn't that last one just make you cringe?

If you're looking for something different you should really give this a try. But you'll have to find your own copy because I'm definitely keeping m9ne.
… (mais)

This was a very different sort of HP. Very will written. The hero was all kinds of wonderful. You clearly see the hero falling in love with the heroine. She was sort of odd in that she was so strong and cynical at the beginning and so clueless and sweet after the hero rescues her from her father. I know she was just reacting to the abuse at first but it seemed a well developed shell and I think it would have been harder to ditch that attitude and be so sweet so quickly. But that was pretty minor for me. The love story was sweet without any great angst or separations and it was fun to see that for a change. I loved the way he stood up for her continually and how he called her Katie-bug. There was a 17 year age difference and it was slightly addressed but I would have welcomed even more angst/thought on the part of the hero.

All in all I loved it.… (mais)