Paul is trying to get into gorgeous flight attendant Autumn's pants, but it's clear that she has no real interest and is just flattered by his attention. In the hopes of getting laid by Autumn in the future, Paul agrees to go to a family party with her less gorgeous sister, Gwen. At the party, Paul is shocked by how much fun he ends up having. Days later, he's still thinking about how relaxing it was to hang out with Gwen. So he tracks her down at her favorite bar and starts out on a quest to befriend her.

Paul is the main narrator of this book which was an interesting change of pace. Gwen also has a good chunk told from her perspective, but the story starts and ends with Paul's voice. This made for a really interesting story, because it became less about Gwen's hang ups and more about Paul's quest to transform his life. So instead of the heroine being sucked into the rich and powerful hero's world, its about the hero finding happiness in the heroine's life.In this respect, it was nice to see Paul's transformation with Gwen acting as a kind of guide. Watching them develop a friendship and really get to know each other before diving into a relationship was fantastic and really made them more believable as a couple.

My problem with the book, however, was a pretty big one. The climax of the story was really contrived and the blow-up that happens as a result seemed insignificant. It made Paul and Gwen's time apart look childish because of how small the problem was. The melodramatic cause for their separation made for a really unsatisfying reunion. There was also the smaller problem I had with Gwen's family. They were really cruel towards her for no apparent reason, which made them all seem like a bunch of cartoon villains.

Despite this though, I enjoyed most of the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read.

Wow this book was seriously demented. And not in a good suspense thriller kind of way, but in a disturbing uncomfortable way.

John Miller is an FBI agent who has taken the undercover case to trap a serial killer. His mission is to attract the attention of the black widow killer named Serena. A woman who marries men and then kills them soon after the wedding. A woman I couldn't help but picture looking like the Debbie from Addams Family Values. Anyway, Johns mission is to marry Debbie... I mean Serena and then expose her when she goes in for the kill. Conflicts arise however when he starts falling for Mariah, the woman Serena has manipulated into thinking she's her BFF.

When I say this book was demented I mean that the characters were all unlikable and the hero's actions throughout the entire book are extremely reprehensible. Mariah is such a flat character. She is a pure victim with nothing about her personality that gives her depth. She's also portrayed as a complete angel. She swoops in and fixes all of John's personal problems, builds homes for the poor, and rescues children from trees. In between her acts of saintly-ness Mariah bemoans the fact that she's divorced and is too tall. All this made her not only a dull character, but also pretty annoying to read about.

For his part, John isn't likable either. His whole role in the book is to complain about how he better not do "insert random action" because it'll hurt Mariah and then he goes and does it anyway. Yes, he's undercover but seriously... [spoiler]

He sleeps with Mariah and then a couple hours later marries Serena.[/spoiler]

Yick, whats worse is that he suffers no real consequences from Mariah for his actions. Mariah instantly forgives John for everything and they essentially confess their undying love for each other.

At the end of this book I was just left squicked out. I had the feeling that Mariah was only with John because she saw someone she could fix and John was just a sad sack who put Mariah on a pedestal. Love with the Proper Stranger has seriously made me leery about picking up a full length novel by Brockmann.

This is a fun read, if you're in the mood for a corny 80's romance. And when I say 80's, I mean the time period is extremely apparent. I was having some serious flashbacks with all the pop-culture references and picturing all the characters in typical 80's fashion.

Phillip is a stripper with a heart of gold. No, I'm not kidding. The book features Phillip, a blue blood, who has turned to stripping so he can save nature. The land on which Phillip's family home rests is apparently a hotbed for all kinds of furry creatures and he has made it his life's goal to keep that land out of the hands of evil developers. Even if, to do so, he has to shimmy around naked in front of a lot of women. One night, while shimmying, Phillip spots a woman in the crowd who clearly does not want to be there.

Enter Jennifer, the most timid and annoying character ever. Phillip is immediately intrigued and proceeds to ask her out the next day. Jennifer has a stick up her arse at first about dating a stripper but eventually says yes. Hijinks ensue.

This is a just a fun book. You have to do a lot of overlooking in it though. I had to ignore Jennifer for a lot of the book. She was one of the typical uber-sweet and innocent heroines that often get on my nerves.

Phillip was a fun character even if he was a little pathetic in his own right. I mean, come on, he chose to strip because it was the only open avenue to him? Please. The guy's family was rich, that comes with a certain amount of connections. Plus, he has a freakin PhD. You can't tell me that he couldn't get a job somewhere and just ask one of his friends to make sure no one screwed around with his property while he was away. But like I said, this was an entertaining book. And I'll admit it got some bonus points for Phillip having a pet owl named Chaucer.

Unfortunately this one didn't amuse me as much as The Bellini Bride (A Mediterranean Marriage). There were no down-pourings of out of the blue crazy revelations, which was a bit of a disappointment. But honestly, despite some minor hang-ups, this book was fairly decent.

Rachel is a 30-something personal trainer who only works at that job so she can supplement her lack of income from the security business she co-owns with her dead fiancée’s brother. (Take a minute to wrap your mind around that.) She also has a 15 year old daughter who she adopted out to her older sister because the kid was a result of a rape when Rachel was 15 herself. After so kindly helping a rich guy, Matthew, out of his wet clothes at a party where she was working guard duty, Rachel is outraged when incriminating photos show up on her doorstep with a harassing letter from Matthew.

Matthew, of course, was the original person the photos were addressed to, but instead of thinking rationally about who could've sent them, he immediately jumps to the conclusion that it was Rachel. Thus resulting in the harassing letter and photos making their way to her. This leads to some loaded barbs getting traded back and forth between them until the misunderstanding is cleared up and the two decide to work together. That happens around the half-way point and quite frankly its where the story started to lag for me. The villain was painfully obvious and descriptions of Rachel and Matthew's newly found bliss with each other got old kind of quick. Of course, there's one more misunderstanding that gets tossed in near the end for some needless melodrama between the two, but its quickly resolved.

What this book did that racked up some serious points with me was subvert some of the tropes that are typical to the genre. For instance, Matthew is the unbelievably old virgin and Matthew's the one sticking his nose in an investigation that the heroine is more qualified and able to properly handle. The only way this could've made me happier is if Rachel would've had a scene where she got to rescue Matthew. But unfortunately, the big confrontation with the villain was rather lack luster. In fact, they basically just talk it out which was a little lame after having such a huge build up. Dude doesn't even get a slap on the wrist.

All in all, a fairly enjoyable read. Kudos to Napier for shaking things up a bit.

I'm in one of those moods where all I want to do is sit around watching campy 1950's horror movies, like Them!, and reading ridiculous melodramatic serial romances. It’s why I spent close to two hours trolling for Harlequin Presents titles that tickled my fancy. (Even though I'm convinced that nothing can beat Lightning That Lingers which featured a male stripper with a heart of gold who owned a pet owl and used his g-string dollars to fund a nature preserve.) However, The Bellini Bride managed to stray spectacularly into crazy soap-opera territory mid-way through the story.

Antonia once posed nude for a painting that became famous and brought billionaire Marco Bellini to her door. When the book opens it’s been a little over a year since they got together and things look to be going a little sour. Marco's father is dying and wants to see his son married before he kicks the bucket, so Marco is trying to work up the courage to either break things off with Antonia or grow a pair of balls and marry her.

Marco, of course, is a douche nugget. The way he handles the stress coming from family and society is to verbally lash out at Antonia. His favorite barb is to constantly remind her that everyone thinks she's a big ole' ho-bag because she's naked in some fine art painting drawn by her ex-lover. His other favorite thing to throw out is that pretty women are a dime a dozen and he can replace her with a snap of his fingers. Such a dreamboat, eh?

For the first half of the book I didn't find Marco's ass-y behavior all that infuriating because Antonia bit back just as hard and made him apologize for being a dick. And for a terrifying moment I thought that I had accidentally stumbled across a Presents title that lacked the wonderful flavor of absurdity that I had been looking for. After all, I had an awesome heroine who was experienced and unashamed of her past despite the fact that everyone around her seemed to want to shame her, including the hero. That was until I hit the halfway point and Reid pulled the rug out from under Antonia’s character.

The crazy hits the fan when Antonia and Marco attend her ex-lover's newest art exhibition. Suddenly it’s revealed that Antonia is not actually the female model in the famous painting it’s really her mother who looks exactly like Antonia. And that ex-lover that Marco has been blowing a jealous gasket over for the whole book? Never Antonia’s lover. He was actually her dead mother's lover and is Antonia's father-ish figure, which adds a lovely creepy tone to an earlier scene where Antonia is practically feeling him up at a party to piss Marco off. Oh and by the way, all that sexual experience Antonia supposedly has is all in your imagination. Marco is the only lover she's ever had. And the ridiculous doesn't end there. Oh no. Antonia's real father magically pops-up at the art showing and its revealed that he's a billionaire (they must grow on trees in Italy) who had her mother as his mistress but cut things off with her when he found out she was pregnant. OH! And even better, Antonia is apparently the one who painted the famous painting and she's been working on one of a nude Marco without his knowledge.

After the craziness that was this art exhibition, Antonia turns into a wishy-washy mess of a woman who can’t seem to dredge up any self-respect and leave Marco’s ass. Even though she does think about it frequently and manages to get to an airport before having a breakdown and fleeing back to him. After this, the plot is basically all about Antonia groveling for Marco’s forgiveness for not trusting him and for making an aborted attempt at leaving him. Seriously? Marco’s sense of entitlement knows no bounds. I love how we’re supposed to believe that Marco deserves Antonia’s trust and commitment despite him never having done anything to earn it. At one point Antonia is close to leaving Marco when she thinks this: “He wanted her. What more could she ask of him, for goodness’ sake?” Uhhh… maybe his respect or, you know, love? But nah, she’ll settle for him just wanting her around. Girl needs to find that self-esteem she lost somewhere around the halfway point.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this one. I was in the right mood for the ridiculousness that this book managed to dish out in spades. The only thing that could’ve made this book better is if Reid had decided to pursue the melodrama that Marco’s catty ex-lover could’ve dished out.