Michelle Smart

Hero Benjamin Guillem believes he has been betrayed by his childhood friends (Javier and Luis Casillas). He gets his revenge by stealing away Javier’s fiancée (ballerina heroine Freya Clements) and marrying her himself. What he doesn’t count on is falling hard for lovely Freya.

I really enjoyed this book. Freya was a strong and lively heroine. Benjamin was a pretty good hero. I thought it was sweet how he surprised Freya by creating a beautiful dance studio in his home for her. I liked show more that Freya was a ballerina, it was interesting to read about.

Another entertaining story by Michelle Smart! show less

Princess Isabella Fernandez of Monte Cleure wants to escape from her isolated life at the palace. Her only hope is to ensnare one of the Kalliakis princes. But Isabella's ex-bodyguard Sebastien Duchamp has other ideas... to make her his!

This was a very short and sweet story, only 20 pages and a Harlequin online read. French hero Sebastien was handsome and charming, Princess Isabella was bratty and snooty at times. There were comparisons to her as Rapunzel, in her tower. The story took place show more mostly at the Christmas Ball.

A quick, enjoyable read. show less

I will admit I'm a sucker for fairy tales, even the modern ones. I felt like I was watching everything unfold, like a beautiful high budget Hollywood film. I'm honestly struggling to find the words to describe how much I enjoyed this. A wonderful update on a story that so many know and love, this book proves that everyone can have a chance at a happy ending.

Not What I Was Expecting, Still Good In Its Way. With the title and the description here, I was expecting some kind of boat emergency that left our leading lady stranded on an island where her husband happened to be. Instead, we get the husband essentially imprisoning the wife against her will - and openly bragging about it. I normally try to go wherever for whatever with a book, but this one was pushing even my (more tolerant than many) limits. That noted, if the reader is willing to simply show more go with this set up... the book is a fairly standard second chance romance in an exotic location, pretty well perfectly on brand. And yes, not exactly for the clean/ sweet crowd either - this one has some fairly significant steam, though at least here the husband is much more careful about forcing himself. The epilogue is fairly standard stuff for a romance, and mostly expected given the exact nature of this particular tale - but I personally was hoping for something a bit more courageous and genre bending. Which was probably setting my own expectations a bit too high, given how safely within genre most of the rest of the tale is. :) Still, this is on the shorter side (under 200 pages) and perfectly timed in that week between Christmas and New Year's when no one really knows what they want to do, but everyone knows they should be relaxing and having fun in whatever way they deem. This tale definitely fits that general mood, and is very much recommended. show less