Ann Bruce (1)

Well, you certainly get your bang for the buck worth with this one! All together, it's looong (450 pages), even if the stories are short or novellas.


COWBOY JACKPOT: CHRISTMAS - Randi Alexander
Cowboy up. College student/buckle bunny meets rodeo star in Vegas; together they hit the jackpot. Much smexy fun here, although I am REALLY not a fan of insta-love, even if (hero insists) THIS time it's different. Also, there are SO many sex scenes that it seems to avoid repetitiveness, some phrasing is show more a little awkward - when it says "her insides shifted," for example, I don't think hot, I am hoping she doesn't have an embarrassing accident.

A NAUGHTY NOELLE - Ann Bruce
Cop undercover, in all sense of the word. Set in NY; he saves her from a mugging/rape; later she saves him from an ambush and hides him in a luxury hotel. Short story, includes anal scene without much prep either for the reader or the heroine.

HOLIDAY SURPRISE: UNWRAPPED - Aliyah Burke
Interracial love in cold snowy Boston; she's supposed to be housesitting; he's crashing at her cousin's pad. This girl is REALLY bitchy the first couple of pages, making it hard to want to read on.


CHRISTMAS ANGEL - Opal (Amber) Carew
Magical realism. The Berringers are cursed to find love, only to lose it, and the heirloom angel on the top of the tree is human, but trapped in that for for the last two hundred years. If she can seduce the last Berringer into loving her in 36 hours (or so), she can stay human - but what if SHE falls in love, too? This was emotionally sweet and full of conflict, as well as steamy.

A HIGHLANDER FOR THE HOLIDAYS - Dawn Halliday (Jennifer Haymore)
A sweet Scotland historical kilted up nicely. Two teen friends/sweethearts have been separated for years; her married to a wifebeating jerk, and him sent to serve her brother on other lands. Now they've been brought together again, and can steal a few sweet moments in bed, before she is married off again, to a brute even worse than the first. This is a novella and possibly the longest in this collection, but I savored every minute of it. The conflict feels real, not contrived; loved the references to Hogmanay and the Yule log, and the characters' agony and helplessness felt very real, making the HEA that much tastier.

ILLICIT CHRISTMAS - Yvette Hines
All I Wanna Do Is Run Over, oops, Make Love To You. Interracial After bumping into a strange (but hot-looking) pedestrian, the heroine, who's just moving into this small town, invites him to her hotel room for a ONS. Turns out she's just accepted a position teaching at the same school where HE teaches, too, and he's determined not to let one night be all there is.

HER XMAS PRESENT - Christin Lovell
Plus-sized heroine. Two best friends take it to the next level. Big girls deserve love too, and there are really hot guys who prefer them, in fact, the heroine was SO negative on herself most of the way through it got annoying. And it was a little unbelievable that they would BOTH have secret feelings for each other, and know each other so well, yet NO hint of those feelings ever slipped out?

ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS - Paige Tyler
It's a spanking good time, if you're into a spanking good time. At the holiday Xmas party, the girlfriends share their spanking stories - they've ALL got one, and they all liked it, except for the hostess who's afraid to tell her hubs that THIS is what she wants for Christmas. I know this is fantasy, but IRL, no, not ALL women in a group of 6-7 will have tried AND loved spanking.

I enjoyed this as a collection, and an opportunity to "meet" several authors I hadn't sampled before, but in all honesty, I kept putting the book down and MAKING myself go back to it. It's good, really good in some places, but not great, and several of the stories just didn't hit the spot for me. show less

When I read a review of this book, the main objection seemed to be that the heroine was alternately drawn to and repelled by the hero because she thought he had got her sister pregnant and then abandoned her. I agree with Wendy, that that was a bit squicky. It wasn’t until fairly late in the story, after Dean and Parker had become intimate that she finally breaks down and tells him why she has run so hot and cold. I have two younger sisters and to me that’s a big no no. You don’t sleep show more with someone your sister has slept with.

BUT

Damn but I love her writing. Although I thought Parker was wrong in what she did, keeping to herself what she thought Dean did, the story kept me fully engaged. And the love scenes – wowzers – very well written. I left a comment on Wendy’s review that I would probably love the hero and she was right. I did really think Dean was mighty fine. He really took charge of Parker, but in a good way, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Since he didn’t know what she seemed to have against him, he didn’t know why she was holding him off, but he was very good at accepting and respecting her boundaries, even if she did seem to run hot and cold.

In fact, I had no sooner finished this book, then I went searching for more books she’s written and luckily I've found a couple I plan on getting. show less

After being shot and nearly dying during his last mission, Jake Duquesne is done with women and his job. Hiding out in his cousin's cabin up in the mountains seems like a good idea, until someone tries to sneak up on him, gun drawn. Jake tackles the intruder and is surprised to find a woman beneath him.

Katarzyna Delaney is 28, a cop, has been jilted three times and she's still a virgin. She regains consciousness handcuffed to a bed with a gorgeous male standing over her. A phone call clears show more up that the man before her is the cousin of her superior's wife, Ella. Apparently she thought it was a good idea to set the two up. Remembering a conversation Kat had with Ella, she knows that Jake's lifestyle isn't conducive to relationships. Would it be wrong to soothe her broken heart and maybe lose her virginity to this man who is looking at her with need and desire burning in his eyes?

Fourteen days of no strings attached, hot and wild sex is how they decide to spend their "vacation", until someone from Jake's past shows up with the intent to finish him off once and for all. Unfortunately Kat gets caught in the crossfire.

This was my first read by this author, thanks to the free ebook offered by Amazon. Since this was a novella, I expected the hero and heroine to get down to brass tacks pretty quickly – and they certainly did. Ms Bruce sure knows how to write some very steamy scenes and they were surprisingly and thankfully not all the same. I wish this had been a longer story, mainly to develop the h/h further. Also, I never quite figured out what Jake actually did for a living - was he a mercenary? Spec Ops? I would have loved to find out what happened next for them. The suspense aspect of this story wasn't bad either, but I would have also liked more of that. She seems to have quite a few books out, so I will definitely be checking those out. Perhaps some of them will be full length novels that I can get lost in. show less

Parker's Price will keep you engaged in the story with conflict, and sexy love scenes. Parker's Price will have you turning the pages, but also questioning the motives of the characters.

I loved the conflict surrounding Dean when Parker finds out his name. She founds him attractive and would like to know him more, but he is the wealthy business man that her sister claims is the father of her niece, but refuses to be part of her niece's life. Parker's warm attraction turns to ice when she show more realizes who he is.

Dean was interesting. He was puzzled by the change in Parker's attitude, and offers $40,000 to go on a date with her. There were times in Parker's Price that I found Dean to be somewhat pushy and too demanding. Sometimes he crossed the line for me, and though he was very sexy, he lost his appeal to me.

After only two days of knowing Dean, he whisks her away to a private island. I just couldn't see this. Being very close to my sister, I had a hard time believing that Parker wouldn't first address the subject of Dean being the father of her niece, before she had a fling with him. Another problem I had was once she brings up the subject and Dean denies that he is the father, Parker automatically assumes her sister is a liar. How do you go from believing your sister, to taking Dean's word over your sister who you are so close to. I would have thought she would have settled for a more gray area, until it was figured out.

Parker's Price was true to Ann Bruce's other works, and had some very hot scenes. I really wanted to like Parker more. I loved how she worked hard to keep her family together, but in the end when she chooses a man over family she lost some of my respect. show less