Elizabeth Power (1)

While taking a ride in a balloon Sasha Morgan and her companion Gavin (who is operating the balloon) have to make a crash landing and they end up crashing down in the middle of a marquee. It's a birthday party for Sheila Templeton. Her son (hero Rex Templeton, who is in a wheelchair) insists that Sasha stay at their home for the night since Sasha has some bruises and had fainted earlier. (Sasha refused to go to the hospital.) Sasha reluctantly agrees.

The next day Rex tells Sasha that he and show more his chauffeur can drive Sasha to her car, which is in the English countryside. (Sasha has been on a holiday and has camped out there). When they reach her car she realizes that it has been broken into and a lot of her possessions are stolen, including her passport and travelers checks. Rex offers to help her out. Knowing that she is an artist (she paints and she's a children's book illustrator) he suggests that if she can paint a fresco by his fireplace she can have free room and board at his home for the remainder of her holiday. Sasha agrees and begins to work on the fresco.

Sasha discovers that Rex has been in a wheelchair since he was in a car accident two years ago. He is very angry and resentful over this and is quite abrupt with Sasha at times. Sasha is also finding herself attracted to Rex, much to her dismay. She really doesn't want to get involved with anyone because she still feels guilty over the death of her fiancé Ben, who died a while ago, but Sasha has fallen in love with Rex. (Ben had a serious heart ailment, but Sasha thinks his death was her fault because she was getting pre-wedding jitters before the wedding and she thinks that caused some stress to Ben, which could have eventually killed him.)

One day, during a romantic dinner, Rex asks Sasha to marry him and she says yes. But later Sasha wonders if Rex just asked her to marry him to get back at his ex-girlfriend (who dumped him after his accident) who is back in town...

I really enjoyed this lovely romance. I liked Rex, especially when he was jealous when Sasha was with Gavin. (I love jealous, smitten heroes!) I also liked Rex's romantic dinner where he proposed to Sasha. Sasha was a likable and nice heroine. I thought her career was interesting. Rex and Sasha had great chemistry.

A good read by Elizabeth Power. show less

There I was happily reading along about some of my favorite HP tropes. There was even a soap opera esque twist that was fun, when it all went suddenly south. The end of this book was just plain bad. It didn't make sense according to the story as laid out, it was too short and too easy. Mostly though the book was full of misunderstandings and a hero and heroine who were too afraid to admit their love because they knew the other one didn't love them back. So the way the hero approached the show more heroine at the end made no sense. Just so odd. Bah. show less

Blackmailed for Her Baby
3 Stars

At the behest of her former brother-in-law, Romano Vincenzo, supermodel Libby Vincent returns to Italy to confront the shadows of her past and perhaps to find the happiness once denied her.

Similar to book #1 in this Harlequin mini-series, the hero is domineering and belligerent while the heroine is overly passive. In the first half, Romano is verbally and even physically abusive in his attitude toward Libby, who constantly fails to stand up for herself. show more Thankfully, the second half improves once Libby reveals the truth of past events and Romano acknowledges his own shortcomings.

The book also contains a couple of other problematic tropes, i.e., Libby was previously married to Romano's brother and gave birth to his child.. However, she was sexually attracted to Romano at the time, which is rather cringeworthy. While these tropes are not a deal-breaker, they do undermine the romance to a certain extent.

Despite these issues, the book is well-written and enjoyable overall. show less

pretty typical of many harlequins. Silly misunderstandings and motivations that don't quite make sense. Pretty big age difference between hero and heroine. Hero thought poorly of the heroine until he finds out she had been flying as a rescue pilot in Peru then he immediately wants her and takes her to bed. I wish these books had a stronger plot.