I think Jennie Lucas might give Lynne Graham a run for her money with the sweet, naive heroine theme. Josie is as sweet as they come. She really seems out of her league with Kasimir. It seems like shooting fish in the barrel. But Kasimir never knew what hit him. Before he knew it, his plans for revenge that involved Josie were flying away like birdies, and he was stone cold in love.

Jennie Lucas understands the appeal of escapist fantasy romance and she delivers it. While most of the readers of this genre won't know what it's like to swept off our feet by a ruthless billionaire, and probably don't want it in real life, Lucas gives us a 2 hour read that allows us to explore the possibilities. That's why I like this series of books so much. It's a different world and I like that I can spend two hours in that world.

Kasimir is a very bad man. Well, at least he was. I mean, he wants to be. But I think deep down, he's a decent fellow who forgot what was important in life. He lost everything, and when you lose everything, you have nothing to lose. Josie teaches him what it means to love and to sacrifice for love. She teaches him what it means to be a genuine person. And she teaches him to follow his heart and love passionately.

I really liked the first book, Dealing Her Final Card, but I think I liked this one even more. It felt more like Princess fantasy. I liked that they are actually married, and she's not just a mistress. And I think the change in Kasimir is more dramatic than in Vladimir. I also think it's because this was not a reunion romance. The feelings between Josie and Kasimir develop on the page before my mesmerized eyes, and I enjoyed every page of it.

Plus the ending was so sweetly romantic, it made me sigh.

I have to give this one 4.5/5.0 stars

Oh, Jan Irving has once again sucked me into the vortex of crazy that is her books. I pretty much read anything that Irving writes even though I know it is like writing a prescription for insanity. Irving hadn't come out with anything new in a while, so when I saw this book was out I could not hit the buy now button fast enough. 

Basically, Shade is a homicide detective who also does some contract killing on the side. He's some sort of clone or something. Well, one step ahead of a clones...maybe...I don't know. This confusion bled out into just about every part of the story. So, yeah, there's been a murder and Shade is called onto the scene where he meets legal rent boy, Nick. Nick is beautiful and delicate and Shade, much to his digest, wants the little blond prostitute. There are a few reasons why Nick is pissed off about this. 

1.) Nick is a suspect in the murder.

2.) Nick is in a relationship...though Shade kinda doesn't give a damn.

3.) Shade is all "I don't have FEELINGS" but Nick makes him feel all kinds of things.

Shade is all kinds of anti-hero. He's crazy mean and I'm not quite sure why he had a thing for a Nick. I mean, Nick is sweet and whatnot but there wasn't anything that made me think he'd transformed Shade with all his ummm...delicateness....and blondness...and velvety skin....and stuff. Plus, these two didn't have a moment or anything and if two people needed a moment to make me believe in their attraction it was Shade and Nick.

Shade seems like he hates Nick most of time except when he's doing creepy things like paying for sex with Nick and creating clones of Nick to fuck even though creating a clone is super illegal. Nick keeps protesting that he has a boyfriend but in the end that doesn't matter because Shade's super sex pheromones are all but suffocating and Nick's dick can't help but get hard every time Shade's all mean and, yanno, shady. Why do these two reach a happy ending? I have. No. Damn. Idea.

So, this story made pretty much no sense when a person really thinks about it BUT like with most Jan Irving books you just have to not think about it. At all. No, seriously, just don't pick it apart. That's only asking for problems.

As per usual, I'm not going to say I'll never read another Irving. It doesn't even matter what she writes at this point. I'm going to buy it, I'm going to read it, and I'm going to like it even if it's against my better judgment.