Rachel Gibson

Scandalous Lord Dere by Stephanie Laurens - Scandalous Lord Dere is a tender, sensuous friends-to-lovers, reunion story, two of my favorite themes in romance. Stephanie Laurens seems to have a talent for writing richly descriptive prose that isn't at all boring, but instead draws the reader into the story as through they are actually there watching everything unfold. For a novella, I thought that the characterizations and plot were extremely well-developed. Adrian is a rake to be sure, but show more surprisingly gentle, vulnerable and sympathetic, which is my favorite kind of alpha hero. I loved his possessiveness and his persistence in getting Abby to agree to marry him. Abby was a kind-hearted young woman who had never forgotten her one-time lover, Adrian, but he had also unknowingly broken her heart all those years ago, making her reluctant to accept his proposal now. I thought it was sweet that out of the countless women Adrian had seduced over the years, Abby was the only one he could truly remember in detail even though they had only made love once eight years before. I also like that he had become tired and fed up with his rakish lifestyle and wanted to turn over a new leaf. At the heart of it all, Adrian was a great guy who had simply gotten off track in his wild youth, but what better time for new beginnings than on New Year's Day, the day that he reconnected with Abby, the only woman who had ever truly understood him and that he had ever really cared about.

I found it very endearing that these two were childhood friends who later became more, and was totally enamored of the deep intimacy Adrian and Abby shared. It was often in their quieter moments that this showed through the most. I loved reading about them simply sitting together in Adrian's study while she sketched and he worked. They also had a mutual love of books that I could relate to and their impromptu waltz in the park was very romantic. I just thought these two were completely perfect for one another, and their love scenes absolutely sizzled. Stephanie Laurens is very good at writing varied love scenes that are powerfully passionate and lushly sensual. In general her writing style reminds me a lot of Lisa Kleypas which is a very good thing in my book. It is a rare author who can write a short story and make me feel fully satisfied from beginning to end. This was my first read by Ms. Laurens, and she has impressed me so much, I can say with certainly that it won't be my last. I'm very much looking forward to trying more of her books soon. Star Rating: *****

The Last Love Letter by Victoria Alexander – Considering that The Last Love Letter is a friends-to-lovers, reunion romance, I thought I would really enjoy it, but unfortunately, it didn't quite make the cut for me. I spent a large part of my time reading this novella trying to figure out exactly what wasn't working for me. When I got to the end and read the author's bio, which indicated she used to be a reporter, it finally hit me that the story had seemed more like a news report than a fiction tale in which I could immerse myself and feel the emotions of the characters in a palpable way. In fact, I felt very little connection to the hero and heroine at all. The author also had a tendency toward having the characters ask themselves a few too many rhetorical questions which could get a little annoying.

I think my other issue with this novella is the way in which the plot unfolded and the way that Jason and Rachael responded to those events. They had supposedly known each other for most of their lives, and in my opinion, that should have been the basis of not only a deep love but also a deep trust. In spite of that, they were both overly quick to accept the word of Rachael's father when they knew he was a very hard and callous man who despised the idea of his only daughter being with a penniless untitled gentleman. Then Rachael's first husband, Jason's cousin, George, kept the truth from them for years, and when it finally came out, they weren't even angry with him about it. I don't believe that George was an inherently bad man for doing so, but knowing what they had meant to each other, I thought it was a pretty selfish thing for him to do once he found out. The author did bring some sympathy to the situation with George's illness and all that he had done for, and meant to, Rachael over the years, but still the idea that they wouldn't even be the least bit miffed by his actions was a little hard to swallow. Last but not least, Jason discovered the truth three years before Rachael did and when they saw each other at that time, he tried to tell her the truth, but she stubbornly wouldn't listen. Of course, this led to the dreaded “big misunderstanding” which I definitely don't care for in any romance. When they finally did reunite once and for all and were both privy to the whole truth of how they'd been manipulated ten years earlier, Rachael still held herself at arms length not trusting Jason at all. She was even insisting to herself that she didn't love him and was ready to break all ties until the final few pages which didn't work well for me at all. Everything put together just made it very hard for me to believe that they could finally have an HEA.

The Last Love Letter was my first read by Victoria Alexander. In spite of my criticisms, I wouldn't call it bad, but it was just OK. Any readers who can get past a hero and heroine who seem to be easily manipulated by others and all the anger of numerous past misunderstandings may like this one more than I did. As written, it just wasn't entirely my cup of tea. I'm sure I'll give Ms. Alexander's work another try at some point, but I doubt I'll be burning rubber to do so. Star Rating: ***

Now and Forever by Rachel Gibson - Now and Forever is a sweet little friends-to-lovers and reunion romance, two themes I can hardly ever resist. Thomas and Brina have a reunion in the literal sense of the word when they attend their 10th high school class reunion. I loved that they had been lifelong friends throughout childhood. It was rather disappointing that Brina had blown Thomas off for a jock at the end of senior year. It made her seem a little shallow, but given her confidence issues, I guess it made some sense. It's not like she didn't want to remain friends, but Thomas was understandably and deeply hurt. I was glad that during the time since high school, Brina had grown to be comfortable in her own skin and realized what a huge mistake she'd made. Thomas had grown and changed in more way than one too, and seemed to have developed more confidence as well. It might have been nice if he had been a little more settled in his life, but he seemed like a really nice guy.

Even though they hadn't seen or talked to each other in ten years, Thomas and Brina still hadn't stopped thinking of one another. The rekindling of their relationship progressed nicely and had some good sexual tension. I think this novella could have easily been a 5-star read for me except for two small flaws. One is that I wished that Thomas and Brina could have embraced their reunion a little more fully. As written, it felt like they were holding back the whole time, right up until the end. The other is that I felt like the author was sometimes telling a bit more than showing. I think perhaps a little more showing would have improved both the character-to-character and character-to-reader connections. Overall though, Now and Forever was a very solid 4-star story for me that I really enjoyed. It was my first read by Rachel Gibson, but it has definitely left me open to trying her other books. Star Rating: **** show less

I should start this review by saying that I’m a huge fan of Rachel Gibson and I was anxiously anticipating this book. I should continue this review by saying how disappointed I was after reading it. This book didn’t work for me at all; I can honestly say that the only redeeming quality about it was the writing style.

Any Man of Mine is book six in the series about the fictional hockey team the Seattle Chinooks but stands alone quite well so you can read this one first.

The book's leads are show more Sam and Autumn. About six years ago they met in Vegas. 72 hours latter Autumn finds herself left alone in the hotel room after her wedding night (that’s right, they got married). It turns out that Sam, who apparently was drunk the whole time, has realized his mistake and has fled the crime scene. Days later Sam has files for divorce while Autumn finds out she is pregnant. After the birth of the boy, and after the paternity test results come back positive, Sam agrees to take care of him financially, but he is pretty much absent from the boy’s life. Flash forward five years later and Autumn and Sam meet again. This time they try to be more civilized to each other for their son’s sake. Here is where the book begins and you probably can guess what comes next.

This book had an interesting plot, a very crappy hero trying to clean up his act and be a good father. I like books where the characters have layers and are not particularly good or even likeable, but to be honest this book took it too far. Sam is so unlikeable and behaves like such a jerk, that the only thing I could think while reading the book was that he had a lot of hoops to jump in order to redeem himself. It became apparent that those hoops would never come, and why would they? The heroine was an idiot; she forgave him almost magically fast. Sam behaved like a douche the whole book and the only thing that was different by the end was that he now was somewhat present in his son’s life, and he wasn’t sleeping around. I can quote tons of examples for you to get an idea of what a piece of work this guy was, but I’ll just use this conversation they have after he arrives late to drop their son at Autumn’s:

“You said you’d have him here at noon.”

“I said ish.”
“What?”
“I said noon-ish.”
The tick in her eye moved to the center of her forehead.
“What is that? Some sort of special Sam time? While the rest of the world lives and operates in time zones, you’re special and operate in ish?”
He smiled like he thought she was funny. “I wanted to spend a little more time with him, Autumn. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to spend a little time with my son.”
He made it sound so reasonable. “You’re an hour and a half late. I thought something might have happened.”
“Sorry you were worried.”
That wasn’t good enough. Besides, she didn’t believe him. He threw the word around, but he didn’t mean it. Sam was never sorry about anything. “When you didn’t show up, I called.”
He nodded. “I forgot my phone at home. When we got back, I saw that you’d phoned.”
“What? You didn’t think to return my call? To let me know Conner was okay?”
He folded his big arms over his equally big chest.
“It occurred to me, but by the way you blew up the phone with all your calls, I knew you’d chew my ass. Just like you’re dying to do right now. And to tell you the truth, I’m never going to purposely call anyone who’s dying to chew my ass.”
She took a deep breath and glanced up at the big window and Conner’s little face glued to the glass.
Holding on to her control by a thread, she calmly said,
“You’re immature and irresponsible.”
“Well, sweetheart, I’ve never said I wasn’t irresponsible. But you’re too controlling.”
“He’s my son.”
“He’s my son, too.”
“He’s your son when it’s convenient for you.”
“Well, it was convenient today. Get over it.”

Do I need to say more? Because the only reason I didn’t stop reading right there was because I still had hope that Rachel would manage to redeem Sam.

I think it was good for Sam to realize that he was hurting his son, and I get that he was immature when he had him. I can even believe that he loved the boy, I just think that he was a self-centered bastard who loved himself more. He had a crappy father, he knew how was like to have an absent parent and to be disappointed and brokenhearted. Then why was he doing the same exact thing to his own son?

Now, don’t get me wrong, the hero wasn’t the only one who ruined the book for me, the heroine was responsible for that too. Here we have a woman who goes to Vegas, gets married two days after meeting a guy, falls in love, or thinks she falls in love, then gets dumped, gets slapped with a divorce order, finds out she’s pregnant, gets slapped with a paternity test, the father only shows up after the baby is born, he then proceeds to broke promise after promise he made to the kid, and what does she do? Nothing. She doesn’t get on with her life; she says she hates him passionately, but can’t move on! Once the guy is back claiming to be a better person, she just takes him back? Like that? We are talking about the same guy whose own coworkers, the guys who are his family, his friends, don’t know he has a son! Come on, they deserve each other! This is the first time I read a romance novel where I’m absolutely positive that the leads won’t stay together happily ever after. I just hope their son will grow up to be a happy and well-adjusted man, but with parents like those I seriously doubt it.

Let me tell you how this book should have ended: Sam steps up to the plate and becomes a good dad, but he doesn’t get together with Autumn again. She finds someone different, and Sam matures more in time as a consequence of his newfound responsibility, and then he finds a woman he can love and respect and be happy with. The book ends with both leads finding their HEA away from each other. Sadly that ending is only in my head.

What really happens is that Sam becomes a good dad but keeps on being unlikeable, which is fair enough I guess, and Autumn remarries him. By the end of the book I was more annoyed at her than at him.

I’m really glad this is not the first time I read something by Rachel Gibson, because otherwise it would have been my last. I really don’t know what happened because I have enjoyed all of her books and she is on my auto-buy list. I am going to forget about this book and hope the next one is better.

I won’t recommend this book to you, I will recommend Rachel though. If you are a fan of sport player heroes she is the one for you, just skip this one, because there is not even any hockey on it. show less

I don't read many romance novels and I'm incredibly picky about what I do read. I can't stand anything resembling Fifty Shades of Grey and I'm not big on the classic mass-market romance novel writers like Nora Roberts or Danielle Steele. I picked up Rachel Gibson many years ago and since then, I've read everything she's ever written, usually multiple times. Gibson writes for the younger adult woman who likes a little plot, a little disaster, and a little fun. I love that Rachel Gibson has show more written several mini-series and connected some of the characters in her many different books. What's more, is Rachel Gibson writes a fantastic mini-series about a group of good-looking Canadian hockey players. Any Man of Mine is a part of the Chinooks hockey series and not only do I feel it's the best in the series, but it's the best of everything she's written.

Sam is a famous hockey player for the Chinooks. He met Autumn at a very low point in his life and the end result of their fling is their young son, Connor. Autumn is a strong, confident, and sometimes stubborn single mom who has yet to get over Sam abandoning her. The story that unravels is one of making a choice to forgive and forget, and one of being able to accept someone truly being able to change.

I love the interactions between father and son and the way that Autumn cannot help but fall back in love with Sam. Is he not the Canadian woman's dream: a sexy, rich hockey player who is a good father, and undeniably, utterly and completely in love with an average woman?

There are some familiar faces from the other Chinooks books, as well as some NHL player name-dropping. Rachel Gibson is a perfect summer read. The intimacy of the characters is important, but not the central focus of the novel. There's something substantial in the plot to appreciate and her books are fun, witty, and leave you with a very sweet happily-ever-after. show less

First, let me start by telling you that I'm a nurse in a nursing home. The synopsis of this book screamed at me "read me, read me" and I'm glad that I did!

Lou Ann, aka Lulu aka Lulu the Love Guru, is having to put her business aside to care for her mother who is suffering with dementia. This is real life and happens all too often in my world. The mother, spunky and hilarious on her own, is no longer able to live in her assisted living facility and moves with Lulu to Sutton Hall in show more Louisiana.

Lulu, someone who enjoys the finer things in life, is not eager about moving nor is she happy with the living arrangements, but she persists. It's the man she hires to fix the place up... You'll have to read to find out what happens.

This brilliantly bright book was such a pleasure. I was able to read it quickly and found myself laughing and relating to it. Well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery books for allowing me to read this and give my honest opinion. show less