Reconciled for Easter by Noelle Adams

This is the fourth book in the 'Willow Park' series, each following a different couple. They are stand-alone stories, but the characters crop up as secondary characters in more than one book. This is the story of Abigail and her estranged husband Thomas, who is the brother of Lydia, the heroine of book three, ‘Family for Christmas’. Abigail and Thomas are separated, but have been attempting to reconcile. This hasn’t been going very well and they’ve taken a six-month break from counselling. At the end of the six months they are going to make a final decision whether to get back together or divorce.

Stripping the Billionaire by Noelle Adams

This is the fourth book in the Heirs of Damon series, which follow the four nephews of Cyrus Damon. We were introduced to black sheep of the family, Ben, in the last book, which was ‘Engaging the Boss’ but Ben’s story gets told here. There were originally five Damon nephews – Ben had an older brother, but he died in a car crash years ago. In the past, Ben tried so hard to be everything that his uncle wanted, but he never felt loved in return, and when his uncle tried to control Ben’s life and dictate who Ben could date that was the final straw. Ben’s career would have been compatible with joining his uncle’s business, as he is an architect, but his determination to be successful on his own terms and without using the Damon name has led him to cut himself off from his family, even going so far as to legally change his last name. Ben’s attendance at his cousin Harrison’s wedding was a mistake as far as he was concerned, and he is determined not to be part of the Damon scene again.

Ben is not the most sociable of people – probably the only person he can count as a friend is the tenacious Mandy, who lives across the hallway from him.

'If he'd been smart, eight months ago when he'd returned from his cousin's wedding to discover someone new had moved in across the hall, he never would have opened the door to the pretty, smiling princess on his doorstep. 

She'd kept knocking on his door, asking for help with moving boxes and rearranging furniture, asking if he wanted dinner since she'd made too much. At first, he'd tried to discourage her, but eventually he hadn't even wanted to. 

Now he was stuck with her. 

Now he was starting to miss her when she didn't come over.'

Mandy is an interior designer who is just starting her own business. Her parents were rich and she’s inherited a lot of money from them following their untimely death in an accident when Mandy was just 17. Mandy doesn’t need to work but she wants to. The other thing that Mandy wants is a family of her own. Her guardian did his job financially, but offered nothing emotionally, dealing with business transactions on Mandy’s behalf but not really welcoming her into his family. Mandy is determined to find a husband and not waste her time dating men who aren’t serious about settling down, however, being a friendly and loving type of person she enjoys being on good terms with her neighbour, including Ben, who Mandy feels must be pretty lonely. Ben is decidedly not Mandy’s type. He’s not husband material, he’s not interested in settling down, he’s a little on the slobby side, pretty grumpy, and Mandy laughingly refers to him as a ‘hulking Neanderthal’. Mandy has been starting to have feelings towards Ben which she needs to stifle, as no matter how fond of him she is, he isn’t going to fit into the husband-shaped hole in her life. Ben is also very attracted to Mandy, but she is everything that would fit straight into the world of the Damons, and that’s a life that Ben has left behind him. Since Ben has a history of being a people-pleaser he doesn’t want to take a chance on taking on a partner who wants him to change into something he doesn’t want to be.

When Ben leaves town to do some renovation work on his mother’s house, in his hometown, Mandy begs to go with him to have the experience to add to her design portfolio.  But Ben still wants to keep his identity a secret, and they both need to fight against the attraction they feel as they want different futures.

I thought this was a really enjoyable, easy reading romance. Mandy was a loveable, sweet heroine, who just needed to relax her inflexible requirements. Ben was more of a mess, he had walls that he needed to let down to allow anybody else near him. You would need Mandy’s impressive level of tenacity to stick with him! I liked that he was a little different from a lot of romantic heroes, we need more hairy, grumpy romantic male leads if you ask me, I far prefer Ben to some bossy alpha male!

In this series, each book has led on to the next, like you’d expect in a series. As this was the last book in the series I liked the fact that this book dealt with Ben, whose brother was involved in the accident that caused the fallout that was resolved in book 1 of the series, it felt like the series came full circle.

Please note that there are a number of sex scenes in this book and some swearing, so if those things are not for you, steer clear.

I’ve really enjoyed this series. They have all been entertaining, light reads, perfect to whip you away from reality for a couple of hours without being too taxing. I’d rate this one as 4 stars.

One Night with Her Boss by Noelle Adams

This is steamy novella in the ‘One Night’ series of novellas by Noelle Adams, which explores how everything can change in just one night. Here, Anne has been working for ex-professional surfer Jake as his personal assistant for the last seven years. For the last two of those years she has been madly in love with him, but sees no reciprocation on his part. Whether he isn’t interested because they work together or he just isn’t interested full stop she doesn’t know.

“She’d worked for him for years, and he’d never showed her the slightest sign of real interest. An intense look now and then didn’t mean anything. Besides, he was her boss, and he would never make a move on her – simply because of that.”

However, today things have changed; Marketing graduate Anne wasn’t able to get a job in Marketing when she graduated because of the downturn in the economy which is how she ended up working for Jake, but now she’s just been offered just the type of job she wants. The only downside for her is not being able to see Jake any more, but she can’t hold back on her career just for that:

“Anne nodded, feeling better and determined now to give notice this afternoon, to make it real, to get it over with. “It’s about me. And a great job. And finding a guy who actually wants me.”

When Anne tells Jake that she’s resigning he seems desperate to keep her as his assistant, which doesn’t bode well for Anne’s feelings towards him. She knows that Jake prioritises his business over everything else and this just underlines her determination to leave. Jake and Anne have to go out of town on business that evening, and she finds that her roommates were correct, Jake does see her as more than just part of the office fixtures and fittings...

I’ve enjoyed all of this series and this one was no exception. Anne was a loveable lead and Jake quite the emotionally repressed alpha male until he realised what he was about to allow to slip through his fingers. This is a quick read, but if you wanted a quick, steamy read then I’d recommend it, and in fact any of the others in the series.

The rest of the One Night novellas can be bought separately or in a combined volume, ‘One Hot Night’:

One Night with her Bodyguard is about Claire's night with her bodyguard. Claire has extreme social problems; she describes herself as shy but I would say it’s more than that. The bodyguard has been part of her life for six years and knows her well, but she barely knows him at all...

One Night in the Ice Storm introduces us to Rachel, who was heartbroken by being dumped with no explanation by David 8 years previously. She's visiting her family and he is still friends with her brother and has dropped by to pick something up. The storm closes in quickly, leaving them trapped overnight, and giving Rachel a dilemma. She is still very attracted to David, despite how he let her down. Can she resist him? Only minor thing re. this one is that I felt that something would have been said between them sooner, although to be fair reasons are given as to why nothing was said by either of them. Of the three stories in the collection this story stayed with me the longest afterwards.

One Night with her Best Friend - This story sees Kate and her best friend Aaron. Kate's early life was chaotic; she hates change and tries to control all aspects her life. Can she come to see that not everything needs to fit into her life plan and try and take a chance on something unexpected?  I really enjoyed this story, both Kate and Aaron are likeable protagonists, although she has been missing what's been right under her nose for years! This is a novella I’ve read quite a few times, I can’t give much higher praise than that.

These three stories are all enjoyable, only thing I would say is that if you read them in one sitting there are some similarities but they are all about the same theme so that makes sense.

Overexposed by Noelle Adams

This book starts five years back with barista/wannabe actress Leah on a dream holiday in the south of France with her friend, Cassie, Cassie’s boyfriend – Hollywood star Kevin Grayson, and Leah’s boyfriend Joey. It’s pretty obvious that Leah has feelings for Kevin and that her relationship with Joey is fizzling out. We come back to the present and find out something has gone badly wrong for Leah. She’s still good friends with Cassie but it’s clear that sometime after the holiday Leah got involved romantically with Kevin and he used her pretty badly. A sex tape scandal involving Leah and Kevin led to his waning career progressing from teen star to a successful serious actor, while Leah was branded as an attention seeker who was responsible for the tapes being leaked.  But Leah is entirely innocent of this.

When the scandal broke Kevin cut off all contact and Leah was left to pick up the pieces of her life with a ruined reputation. Her hopes of an acting career were completely scuppered. Still, all publicity is good publicity and Leah had enough nous to salvage what she could of the situation, making some money which she invested successfully in the coffee house she had been hoping she could leave behind her. Now she is the owner of the business. She fronts up to rude comments from frat boys and sleazy men coming on to her in the humiliating knowledge that they’ve all seen her naked and having sex on the internet. She hasn’t had a boyfriend since the incident, as understandably she is going to have a hard time trusting.

‘She’d made more money from it than she could have ever hoped to make as an actress, since she probably never would have been a big star. But she would give it all back in an instant if it meant her life and reputation wouldn’t have been trashed four and a half years ago.’

Do you hate Kevin yet? I certainly did by this point! Now Leah’s business manager wants to set up a publicity stunt involving her and Kevin going on a ‘secret’ romantic holiday. Although Leah doesn’t want to see Kevin again she’s about to branch out the business to open a restaurant in addition to the coffee shop and the extra publicity would serve her well.

But then we switch to Kevin’s point of view and we see there is another side to it. He has agreed to do this for some closure, because four and a half years ago when the tapes appeared online he felt completely betrayed by the only woman he had ever loved.

‘He’d been launched into his career.
And he’d give it all up in an instant if it meant his heart hadn’t been trampled into the mud four and a half years ago.’

I usually enjoy Noelle Adams’ books, and this one was no exception. I felt so bad for Leah, the betrayal of being let down, the humiliation of having your most intimate moments exposed and all the mudslinging and character assassination that followed. Afterwards I felt sorry for Kevin too as although he hadn’t had the reputational damage that Leah had lived through the heartbreak was just as real.

Since it’s dual point of view we know that Kevin is telling the truth when he tells Leah that he isn’t responsible for the tapes going online, but she has no idea, and after being so badly let down in the past, it would take a huge leap of faith on her part to allow her to take the risk of trusting him again. She’s not sure she can go back to being the girl that she was, before she had the barriers to hide behind.

There is one thing which I thought was a bit odd; once they accept that neither one of them leaked the tapes they don't really moderate their behaviour or speculate over who it could have been although Kevin sets somebody to investigate. If somebody did something so life-changing to me there's no way I could drop it until I found out who it was.

This author’s works vary, with some containing no sex scenes but this book has quite a lot of sex scenes, and some crude language too, so if you don’t like those then perhaps this is one you should avoid, but if you don’t mind those things and are looking for a spicy sunlounger read then maybe give this one a go!

Heirs of Damon Series 1-3 by Noelle Adams

Last year I read the first of the Heirs of Damon series by Noelle Adams. Businessman Cyrus Damon has no children himself but he has four nephews. Brothers Harrison and Andrew Damon have their stories told in books 1 and 2, Seducing the Enemy and Playing the Playboy. Their cousin Jonathan is the hero of book 3, Engaging the Boss and there is another cousin Benjamin Damon, who I believe will be the hero of book 4, due out in summer 2014. I read books 2 and 3 of the series back to back, which worked really well actually, as some events in book 3 follow on from book 2. Here are my thoughts on the series so far. 

Please note, for those who prefer to avoid them, that all these books contain sex scenes.

Seducing the Enemy begins with Marietta, who has an interesting back-story, having spent a number of years in a wheelchair after being involved in a car crash as a child. Following several surgeries she has now recovered, and after so many years she wants to live her life to the full, and has come to a club to see if she can attract a man...

Harrison is checking the facilities at a club his family owns when a sexy blonde catches his eye. He really shouldn't let himself get distracted, as he'll need to keep his wits about him for the following day, when he'll be meeting to try and agree a settlement for a long-running legal battle with his uncle's former business partner for a long-ago car crash...

Marietta is sweet, genuine, and amusing, although a bit too nice. Harrison is a bit too alpha-male some of the time for my taste, but he seemed nice enough when he wasn't being an arse, either generally, or specifically towards Marietta because of his misinterpretation of her motives. Marietta doesn't appear to hold a grudge at all and she forgives him much more readily than he deserves!

There were a number of instances of behaviour that I didn't really feel was plausible and although the author provides explanation I still didn't see some things as being likely to happen. Also, I'd have liked there to be more of a basis for their feelings for each other, aside from their chemistry, to see their relationship develop, as I felt that it happens too quickly. Aside from these quibbles, I found this book to be an enjoyable quick read.

In Playing the Playboy we meet Laurel who is in a bad situation; she is a widow who didn’t have the best upbringing, and was managing the bar in a seedy strip joint when she met an older man who she fell in love with. After they married he gave her a hotel in Greece. This was about the only good thing he did for her – over the time of their marriage she lost one illusion after another about him and he ended up bankrupt after his debts caught up with him. Now he is dead and the Damons are saying that her hotel belongs to them. Since Cyrus Damon isn’t speaking to his blue eyed boy Harrison, he’s sent Andrew Damon, a notorious playboy, in his brother’s stead to try and sort out the dispute amicably. Laurel has done her homework on Andrew and, desperate not to lose her home and her livelihood, she has decided on a dishonourable course of action, which is to seduce Andrew, get it caught on CCTV and blackmail him with the evidence.

I really wondered if I could like Laurel at all after an introduction like that but it really is desperation that has brought her to this point and she isn’t anywhere near as heartless as her plan suggests. Andrew ends up staying at the hotel and it brings Laurel some conflict because she keeps feeling like she should be manipulating the situation to her advantage but she genuinely likes Andrew and is very strongly attracted to him. Andrew is similarly conflicted – he really wants to prove his mettle to his uncle and close out this situation advantageously for the company while on the other hand he finds himself believing that Laurel may have been dealt a bad hand here and feeling sympathetic towards her.

Both Andrew and Laurel are likeable protagonists and they fit together very nicely. Both of them feel unworthy to an extent, her because of her background (although she has done nothing wrong, just tried to make the best of the hand that life has dealt her) and him because he doesn’t knuckle down to anything and doesn’t feel respected. She is very bad at allowing people to help her, but she is forced to accept his help on more than one occasion which is good for them both, as she comes to see that she doesn’t need to only rely on herself, and he finds himself in the novel position of having somebody trust in him.  This story is set largely on a Greek island and I thought a few times while I read it that it would make an excellent holiday sun-lounger read. It’s a very easy to read romance and I enjoyed it very much.  This is book 2 in the Heirs of Damon series and though Harrison and Marietta from Seducing the Enemy play a part in this story you could read this one as stand alone.

Engaging the Boss is book 3 in the Heirs of Damon series and tells the story of Harrison and Andrew’s cousin, Jonathan Damon, who is a genetic scientist. His uncle, Cyrus, has funded Jonathan’s research lab, which has been of huge advantage to Jonathan, meaning that he’s been able to do the research purely independently rather than having to worry about commercial bias and keeping the sponsors happy. However, Cyrus has decided that Jonathan needs to settle down and the lab is taking too much of his focus, so he makes the despotic decision to cut the funding unless Jonathan pays more attention to his personal life. Panicked, Jonathan blurts out that he has recently become engaged. He is overheard in this phonecall by his assistant Sarah, who is devastated by this news because she’s been madly in love with him for some time. Jonathan confesses his lie to Sarah, and she offers to pose as his fiancée for a week-long visit to his family and to attend his cousin Harrison’s wedding.

I love, love, love the fake fiancée trope, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine, and I really enjoyed this book; it’s probably my favourite of this series so far. Of course we know from the outset what is likely to happen between the protagonists, but the fun is in the journey. Sarah is a really nice heroine. She has worked closely with Jonathan for the past few years, but she knows that somebody that gorgeous couldn’t be interested in her because she doesn’t feel that she’s attractive enough to tempt him. She also doesn’t want to endanger her job, which she loves. Jonathan was such a loveable male lead, most definitely not the alpha male type, but a sweet geek who doesn’t believe that people will love him as he is, but that he has to earn their love. His parents were very disinterested in him, and he found the only way he could get positive attention from them was through achieving well in school. His parents died when he was still a child and he was put under the guardianship of Cyrus. He never felt like he fitted in with his cousins and uncle, and feels like he doesn’t matter to his family.

Jonathan is very much the type of person who shows his love rather than expresses it, for example he does thoughtful things for Sarah such as keeps her desk stocked with mints he knows she likes and fixing her chair after hours without expecting thanks.  However when he tries to express things with words he just clams up:

“You look...” She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He swallowed. “Fine.”

Sarah obviously finds this very frustrating!

She wanted to hit him and take care of him both. It was a very disorienting feeling.

I could completely understand where she was coming from. To secure his lady Jonathan must first understand that he wants her, that he is worthy of her love, and be willing to get out of his comfort zone to make sure she knows it before it’s too late. 

This is book 3 of the series and although the couples from books 1 and 2, Seducing the Enemy and Playing the Playboy appear, the story is stand alone. I think you’d probably get more from it if you’ve read the others too, but you wouldn’t be lost by any means if you just read this one. We have a very interesting introduction to the other heir of Damon, the black sheep of the family, Benjamin Damon, who I think will have his story told in the next book, due out in summer 2014, and I’m certainly intrigued to read it.