Okay, we cannot be reviewing lesfic without touching the first lesfic writer that we ever became completely mesmerised by. While scouring all the Xena fanfic sites, we came across Melissa Good (aka Missy Good and Merwolf) and were completely captivated by the relationship she built between Xena and Gabrielle. Naturally, we devoured everything we could find by this writer.
I am going to describe this book as a guilty pleasure. There are sorts of problems with the story, naming conventions and dated technology - but I don't care. After thinking about this book again i downgraded my star rating to two, but that seemed too harsh, so it went to three, and now I am re-reading the book giving it a four. Sure they are named "the tall woman," the younger woman" or a reference to their hair color - I don't care. The story moves slowly as does the romance, which I like. This is a good book for the beach, an airplane ride, when one is tired, or just desires something happy.
Nothing like a little (or big) natural disaster to bring out the romance. Well, in the case of hurricanes you are likely to dine by candlelight.
Here are some wonderful Romance Novels featuring Hurricanes, Typhoons and Tropical Storms.
My lists are never in any particular order.
1. The Theory of Attraction by Delphine Dryden $2.99
Camilla can set her watch by her hunky rocket-scientist neighbor who jogs past her window each day. She relishes each glimpse of his shirtless abs, and is dying to see more. But it's hard to connect with a man who doesn't seem to know she exists...
Ivan feels at home in the lab, not in social situations. When he finally approaches his attractive neighbor, it's not for a date—he wants tutoring in how to behave at an important fundraiser. Ivan doesn't expect the chemistry between them to be quite so explosive, and is surprised when Cami actually accepts his proposal to embark on a series of "lessons."
Cami soon discovers Ivan's schedule isn't the only thing he likes to be strict about—he needs to be charge in the bedroom as well. She's shocked at how much she comes to enjoy her submissive side, but wonders if a real relationship is in the equation...
2. Roman Holiday: The Complete Adventure by Ruthie Knox
Ashley Bowman has always been impetuous, but even she is a little shocked when she chains herself to a palm tree in the Florida Keys hours before a hurricane is due to blow in. It’s all with the hope of saving her childhood home from a heartless Miami developer. But the moment she meets Roman Díaz she realizes he does have a heart—it’s just encased in ice. Ashley’s determined to get Roman to crack . . . even if she has to drag him all over the eastern seaboard to do it.
Roman can hardly believe he’s been talked into driving across the country with this brazen wild child in a skimpy bikini. He tells himself he had no choice—Ashley insists he meets the elderly snowbirds whose community will be displaced by his career-making development deal. But in truth he knows that there’s something about Ashley that makes him want to get a little wild himself . . . and the closer they get, the more tempted he becomes.
3. Forecast by Jane Tara
The Shakespeare women were what the locals of Greenwich Village called "gifted."
They did tarot readings and cast spells from their infamous shop Second Site. And each morning, Rowie would perform her popular weather prediction on the pavement outside.
Sure, Rowie's predictions were helpful for forecasting the weather, but when it came to love, her abilities were more like a curse. Why bother dating a guy if you knew at the first kiss he was destined for someone else? And how would she ever meet anyone while she was stuck working at the family shop?
Rowie was resigned to never finding love. Until Drew Henderson, New York's hottest weatherman is injured and the network decides to replace him with a gimmick—the Psychic Weatherwoman.
The very scientific Drew is furious. The witch might light up the TV screen. But how dare the network make a mockery of meteorology.
Now Rowie's overbearing grandmother Gwendolyn won't talk to her. Sixteen generations of Shakespeare women have worked in the family business. How dare she make a mockery of her gift.
But Rowie loves her new job, and won't let anyone ruin it. Until the day Drew Henderson kisses her, and she can't predict his future. In fact she can't predict anything.
4. Hurricane Hannah by Sue Civil-Brown
Her plan?
Ferry a client's plane to Aruba, play a little poker, get some sun…
Not in her plan? An emergency landing on a volcanic island full of lunatics, an approaching hurricane, a dashingly annoying airstrip owner named Buck Shanahan (who seems as fond of poker as she is) and a lonely, lovesick alligator called Buster…
Sassy redheaded pilot Hannah Lamont has no time for back-island bumpkins like Buck and his buddies—until the hurricane bears down, grounding her on tiny Treasure Island. Treasure, ha! Aside from a couple of ratty tiki huts, all this flyspeck can boast is a casino—and it's right in the path of the storm. But as Hannah throws her chips in with Buck and the islanders to save the place, the stakes may be higher than she dreamed…and winning brings rewards she never expected.
5. Hot Intent by Cindy Dees
Katie McCloud just wants to be a mom to Dawn and girlfriend to Dr. Alex Peters. But the violent unrest that brought them all together is once again erupting into their lives. Sent to Cuba to help care for hurricane victims, Katie and Alex are thrust back into the thick of international espionage—this time, on opposite sides.
Katie thought she'd made peace with the secrets locked tight behind Alex's handsome, brooding facade. Back in hostile territory, though, those secrets threaten the very bond that holds them together. And Alex? He's finding out that what he holds most precious—Katie and tiny Dawn—is making him way too vulnerable. He's going to have to make a choice…soon
6. After the Storm by Amy Knupp
With a hurricane heading for the Texas coast, Nadia Hamlin needs to evacuate. Now. Before she can leave, however, there's one more thing she has to do—despite the risk. But that delay lands her trapped in her car in the middle of the storm. Fortunately, firefighter Penn Griffin arrives. Unfortunately, her good-looking rescuer suffers a career-ending injury in the process.
The only way Nadia can think to make amends is to help Penn get back on his feet. Even if he doesn't want anything to do with her, she won't give up. Her determination has an unexpected impact. Because soon he can't seem to get enough of her.
7. Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.
Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.
While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.
To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.
8. A Stranger's Gift by Anna Schmidt
On the heels of a horrific hurricane, Hester Detlef, field director for the Mennonite Disaster Service, blows into the life of self-made, shunned Amish man John Hafner. Will she find a way through his shield and into his heart? Although the hurricane has left John homeless and badly injured, the last thing he wants is some do-gooder Mennonite woman intruding in his life. Will his impatience with her intention of restoring his faith and property keep him from accepting this beguiling stranger’s kindness?
9. One Night in Santiago by Audra North 99 cents!
Lily Stanton's vacation goes from bad to worse when a storm strands her in a foreign country, arguing with an arrogant—and very sexy—stranger over the last available hotel room.
Successful CEO Bruno Komarov wasn't expecting the gorgeous woman checking in at the reception desk to challenge him over a room. Even more surprising, he actually enjoys their exchange.
But when Lily proposes a compromise—she'll take the bed and he can sleep on the couch—Bruno pushes his attraction aside and assures himself that this can remain strictly business. After all, they're both adults capable of keeping their hands to themselves. They'll share the room, get a good night's sleep, and be off to their respective destinations in the morning.
What could possibly happen in just one night?
10. A Dark and Stormy Night by Anne Stuart
The man had secrets…
Blindsided by a hurricane, Katie Flynn was seeking shelter from the storm—but all she found was a moody, broody recluse named O'Neal. Trapped with him in his house on a windswept cliff overlooking the wildly tossed sea, Katie tried to fight the feelings O'Neal awakened in her—both of sensuality and fear. She began to suspect that something haunted the tall, gray-eyed man's domain, something more than the wicked servants or family ghosts… something strange that only O'Neal himself could reveal.
Did I miss your favorite? Let me know!
To vote for the best of the best, go to my Goodreads list: Blow Me Down: Hurricanes in Romance Novels.
reviewed from an e-arc
What tickled my fancy: Good angsty beginning
What ticked me off: Pretty much everything else.
Who might like it: I can't answer this in a sincere way.
I would like to be kind to this book, because I've been in a dreadful reading slump and it not only sparked my interest but even held it for awhile, despite some flawed prose. But eventually the sheer ridiculosity of the characters' behavior overwhelmed everything else.
Jessica, known as Storm, and her new husband Cairo Kane have only one interrupted night together, when she's dragged back home by her wealthy, snobbish parents. When Cairo follows to fetch her, Storm has already been convinced to reject him for his own good. Although she regrets it immediately -- even more so when she realizes she's pregnant -- it takes her seven years to track him down.
So... having gotten the information that her husband is now a hotelier in Jamaica, does Storm contact him, explain the situation, and ask if they can try again? Oh, good one! No, of course she takes her son there -- having gotten up his adorable expectations that Cairo will be his new daddy! -- and tries to seduce Cairo with her maternally-unhampered hotness, while letting him believe that she actually married someone else and had a son with him, for some neurotic reason of her own. That's only the start of Storm's tsunami of lying, which just gets more ludicrous by the chapter. One stupid fear-induced lie per romance novel I can live with, but when you're caught by the person you're trying to have a meaningful relationship with, and you then just keep on lying to him til you're blue in the mouth, I call foul on a happy ending.
The Jamaican paradise setting made me uncomfortable too, especially given that Cairo is white and all the narrative support staff in his life is black. I'm sure this was well intentioned, but it inadvertently plays a lot into racist culture. The narrative flaws were along these lines:
Seemingly unaffected by Shane's weight, Storm watched as strong purposeful strides brought Cairo closer.
Can you tell who is doing what in that sentence? I bet your guess is wrong. *
Cairo is a pretty typical "disappointed in love so cynical" hero/"you must marry me" secret-baby daddy. Then we got to him meeting with his erstwhile mother-in-law and demonstrating how little power she has over him now by pressing his thigh next to hers and playing with her hair. Gag!
The fake conflicts just get worse and worse; I literally only finished this because I felt I had to for grading purposes, and my reward was that it ended with an angry rape. (Okay, that answers the grading question.) That's followed by this conversation:
"Ever since you got here all that you have done is tell a series of lies."
"I never lied to you, Cairo." Storm argued.
Even Captain Picard doesn't have a facepalm big enough for that.
* Answer: Cairo is carrying Shane.
A good book, though sometimes it drags too much for its own good. It'd probably be better all-around if it had fewer pages and the book was more packed instead. 
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