Kidnapped and Compromised by Demi Monde - Excerpt and Giveaway

Today I’m pleased to be welcoming Bella Breen (writing as Demi Monde) to the blog with an excerpt of her upcoming Pride & Prejudice novella, Kidnapped and Compromised, which is described as a steamy novella. The book will be released on 26 December. Let’s look at the blurb and then Bella will introduce an excerpt of the book and share a giveaway opportunity with you.

Book Description 

Abducted and facing ruin, can Elizabeth's wits save her from a dastardly plot? And will Mr. Darcy find her in time? 

When a false friend tricks Elizabeth, she is abducted by carriage from Meryton and carried hours away to a bawdy house. If Mr. Darcy does not rescue and pay her ransom, she will be sold to the highest bidder.

Elizabeth must depend on her wits to survive. But the clock is ticking. Will Mr. Darcy choose to risk his life for the woman he secretly loves but who despises him? And if so, can he rescue her before it's too late? 

This 40,000 word steamy Pride and Prejudice variation features kidnapping, compromise, forced marriage, rescue by Mr. Darcy, double wedding, Christmas holiday ball and a happily ever after.

Sense & Sensuality by Alicia Quigley

Last year I read an historical romance called ‘A Duchess Enraged’ which focused on the relationship between Adam, the Duke of Gravesmere and Allegra, the young woman he’d been forced to marry by his father. I didn’t warm much to either of the protagonists, but I enjoyed some of the secondary characters more, notably Adam’s widowed sister Caroline (Lady Eskmaine), and the rake causing mischief between Adam and Allegra, Lord Gresham. There was obviously some sort of spark between Caroline and Lord Gresham (Tristan). Caroline was a far better match for Tristan intellectually, they sparred verbally and also enjoyed outwitting each other where possible. Although Tristan tried to cause problems in the Gravesmeres’ marriage, he began to soften his cynical stance towards the end of the story, and you wondered if there was hope for him to change his dissolute ways. 'Sense & Sensuality' is Caroline and Tristan’s tale. Please note that this story is not in any way related to 'Sense & Sensibility' by Jane Austen.

Green Card by Elizabeth Adams

32-year old British businessman William Harper is a man who has just received a tip off that he may have a problem; his ex-girlfriend, bitter at their breakup, has tipped off the authorities in the US with the lie that he is up to some dodgy dealings. Will is an English businessman, but he has a lot of business interests in the US and he’s never had trouble getting a working visa, but his visa will soon need renewing and this could potentially mean that he’ll be unable to come to the US for some time. Since one of his businesses is going through a merger he is particularly keen not to lose his visa to work in the US. His lawyer has a suggestion, a green card marriage. If Will marries an American he’ll be able to immediately apply for a 2 year green card, and if he’s still married when that one expires he could then apply for a 10 year green card. Will’s lawyer Andrew, who is also a schoolfriend of his, is the one who proposes the solution of a marriage to Will. Andrew also has a bride in mind, the 23 year old sister of Andrew’s girlfriend. The lady in question, Kate, is studying for a masters degree and working 3 jobs to make ends meet so it could be a solution to her financial problems.

Kate will do very well out of this situation financially – her living costs will be covered, tuition paid, she’ll receive a clothing allowance and a generous golden goodbye plus a house at the end of the 2½ years or so that it’d take William to get the 10-year green card. In return, she’ll need to live with him in his apartment, go to a number of functions with him, a date once a week, keep it a secret and she is also not allowed to cheat on him, although he has no physical expectations of her.

I was expecting this to be along the lines of the 1990 film ‘Green Card’ starring Andie Macdowell and Gerard Depardieu, where they feverishly try to learn facts about each other and falsify proof of a relationship but since the reality of getting a green card for a spouse is known to the author (she states this in the preface) the truth of it actually much more prosaic and this story is more about two people would wouldn’t have wanted to spend time together based on their first impressions of one another but who get to know each other over a period of time.  Kate gets to realise that although Will can be spoilt and snobby he has a good heart and genuinely cares for her. William gets used to Kate’s excessive perkiness and doesn’t even seem to notice that she can be a touch ungrateful, as well as being a champion at holding a grudge. I liked how the couple’s relationship grew into a really close, trusting friendship, and from very early on they put each other as a high priority rather than treating the arrangement as purely business.

One thing I found very refreshing about the book was that it was low on manufactured drama – there were no Machiavellian third parties causing trouble, no giant misunderstandings and no unlikely complications. Aside from the fact that Will was very rich and needed to make a green card marriage it all seemed quite normal and realistic. This is a slow burner of a romance rather than a quick and dramatic story. I felt the book could have been a little bit shorter. It didn’t drag, but things sometimes moved quite slowly. However, my reading mojo has been all off lately, and despite the length of this book (approx 560 pages) I read it pretty quickly, which is testament to how much I enjoyed it. For those who like to know these things, there is hardly any swearing and although there are sex scenes, they aren’t particularly detailed.

Kate is a very keen cook, and she makes various dishes at different points in the book which I couldn’t imagine the taste of (breakfast casserole?!), since I’ve never tried Southern cooking. A few of these recipes are included at the end of the book, which I wasn’t expecting. I was really pleased to see this so I could get a better idea of what they’d taste like. Some of them seemed a bit bizarre to me, and they seemed either more understandable or even more bizarre once I’d seen the recipes! In the interest of a thorough review, I have trialled a recipe, the oatmeal spice cookies, and they were very good, enjoyed by the whole family, although I think I’d try swapping the chocolate chips for raisins next time :)

This author has also written an Austenesque story, ‘The Houseguest’, which is a variation on ‘Pride & Prejudice’ and I’ll definitely try and read it sometime as I really enjoyed the humour and style of this author. I would rate Green Card as 4½ stars.

* I received an e-book of Green Card from the author for my honest review.

The Muse by Jessica Evans

Having seen wonderful reviews for this book I was really excited to read it. It’s an updated version of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ set in the world of ballet. Here, William Darcy is the former principal dancer of the New York Ballet Theater who has come back to the company as a choreographer. He is talented, of New York ‘aristocracy’, rich, gorgeous, and breathtakingly arrogant. Elizabeth Bennet is an insignificant member of the corps de ballet. Her sister, Jane, is a more established member of the corps. Elizabeth has never been as good as Jane – shorter, curvier (neither of which are good for ballet dancers), less beautiful and less of a classic ballerina. She overhears Darcy saying pretty much exactly that to Charles Bingley, artistic director of the ballet company and the boyfriend of Jane. Darcy’s comments flicked on a deeply held feeling, that she’s not as good as Jane, and Elizabeth is very hurt and angry.

Darcy however, has no idea of Elizabeth’s negative feelings towards him. He notices the feeling she infuses into her dance, the expression in her eyes and arm movements. He feels inspired to choreograph by her dancing. Rather than feel appreciation for working with such a talent Elizabeth feeds her resentment towards Darcy, focusing on his arrogance, and constant corrections of her movements. She also resents him for the depth of passion she feels towards him.

‘The dark timbre in Darcy’s voice sent her flesh tingling. She hated herself for it. She hated the way she reacted to him. She hated that Darcy, despicable man though he was, made her quiver in fear, fury and fervor.’

I thought this was an extremely successful update. One thing I thought worked really well was the depth of Darcy’s arrogance, which is quite often reduced significantly in modern updates to help build sympathy for his character – here Elizabeth doesn’t get to see just how arrogant he is, but the reader does as we are privy to his thoughts.

One difference from canon was the change in Elizabeth’s philosophical attitude. It is something that resonated with me as I read ‘Pride & Prejudice’ because I am quite like that myself – there are many things that make me angry but I deal with things by tucking them away or laughing myself out of it, which is very much canon Lizzy’s philosophy too. This Elizabeth, on the other hand is a pretty angry young woman and she nurses her bitter feelings in a way that canon Elizabeth has the sense to laugh off. This makes her a tad less likeable than ‘Pride & Prejudice’s heroine, especially when she takes things out on Jane (who is just as nice as canon Jane, so being mean to her is akin to kicking a puppy!).

However, other things were very close to canon such as the strata of levels of importance in the ballet company mirroring the levels in society that existed in P&P. I loved some of the nods back to Austen’s work too – the Lady Catherine de Bourgh character is a patron of the arts, which is how the character saw herself in P&P, and the Sir William Lucas character is the artistic director, directing the dance as he did in P&P.

This is a very readable and engaging work. Although William and Elizabeth are both very flawed individuals you are rooting for both of them from the first and can see what each of them inspires in the other. They have wonderful passion, whether it is used for loving or hating, and they both spend a lot of effort improving themselves in the light of what they learn from their interactions. There are sex scenes but they are in flashback and not very detailed though they retain their steaminess. There is some swearing but it’s not excessive. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’d really recommend it. It’s a five star read in my book.

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.

Fitzwilliam Darcy: An Honourable Man by Brenda Webb

This is a Pride & Prejudice variation which varies quite widely from the original book. Aside from the changes unfolding as you read there are a number of changes to past events which aren’t obvious at first, such as a much smaller age gap between Georgiana and Darcy, 3 years instead of 12, and the history of George Wickham is also different – there was no attempted elopement with Georgiana and Wickham never joined the militia, meaning that hasn’t been to Meryton and has never met the Bennets. Following the disastrous Hunsford proposal Darcy informed Bingley that he had been mistaken in his estimation of Jane Bennet’s feelings towards Bingley. Feeling a need to escape for a while Darcy has spent the last two years visiting his estates in Scotland and Ireland. Personal mail wasn’t forwarded at his request. Finally, Darcy feels that he is over his unrequited love for Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and he is ready to marry and produce the requisite heir for Pemberley.

‘It had taken a long time, but he was certain now of one thing – he could meet her as an indifferent and common acquaintance.’

Georgiana is unaware of the reason for her brother’s prolonged absence but is thrilled that he is finally thinking of marrying. Although she and her husband have been unable to have a child of their own she wants her brother to be happy and she looks forward to lavishing love on a niece or nephew. Georgiana has a candidate for a bride too, her husbands’ step-brothers’ widow, a Mrs Preston. She is plain, but aside from that Georgina feels that she might fit Darcy’s personality quite well. Having given up on love Darcy is amenable to considering a marriage with Mrs Preston, who he feels will not expect him to love her.

Meanwhile Bingley is at the end of his tether; though happily married to the former Miss Jane Bennet he is extremely worried about Elizabeth. After Elizabeth’s return from Kent a Count, Stefano, came to Hertfordshire and became besotted with Elizabeth, who showed no interest in him. The Count proposed marriage to Elizabeth but was refused consent by Mr Bennet. Following Mr Bennet’s death soon afterwards, the Count renewed his addresses to Elizabeth, receiving far more encouragement from Mrs Bennet. Then one night Elizabeth disappeared and suddenly Mrs Bennet was in possession of a large sum of money, having sold her daughter’s hand in marriage. News was next heard of Elizabeth having married the Count, presumably against her will. The next contact relating to Elizabeth was via a servant, who informed the Bingleys that Elizabeth had been involved in a violent altercation with her husband in which she witnessed her husband killing her maid, and had herself been grazed by a bullet. Her husband had then set the house on fire. The servants had hidden Elizabeth and put out word that she was dead. A grave in Meryton holds the body of a servant who perished in the fire and the secret of Elizabeth’s survival has been carefully kept from all but a handful of people.

Lizzy is by no means unscathed by her experience. She’s had a breakdown of sorts and barely communicates. If she sees a man she often panics and the need to limit the people in Meryton who know she’s alive means that Elizabeth is cared for by Jane and one servant. She has escaped from the house on more than one occasion and it is purely by good luck that she hasn’t already been discovered. Bingley is praying that his good friend Darcy will assist them with their need to get Lizzy away from Meryton and be assured that she will be cared for by somebody who loves her and will be able to keep her existence a secret. This is obviously asking a huge amount of Darcy – firstly, it is asking him to take on the care of somebody who rejected his offer of marriage and broke his heart, which will be hard enough, but Bingley is also asking Darcy to sacrifice his future. Should Lizzy recover she is married to a dangerous madman so she wouldn’t be free to marry Darcy and the likelihood of Darcy marrying somebody else willing to put up with the care of her husband’s first love seems slim. Darcy sees all the disadvantages of him taking on Elizabeth’s care but once Darcy sees Elizabeth and realises that he is one of the very few people she responds positively to it becomes a very difficult task to walk away from the only woman he’s ever loved in her hour of need.

‘If he took Elizabeth to Pemberley, he would be giving up the prospect of a future with another woman, and there would be no future with Elizabeth as his wife, as she was already married.  

Could I settle for another woman, knowing that Elizabeth is alive? Can I live with the prospect of caring for her a lifetime without being able to marry her?’

Will Darcy succumb to the pressure of his responsibilities to marry and provide an heir for Pemberley? Will Lizzy ever recover? Is there any chance of a happy ever after for our poor couple!?

I thought this was a really inventive and unusual premise. Some elements reminded me of a story by Victorian author Wilkie Collins, called ‘The Woman in White’ which features a villainous Italian Count, sees a character presumed dead and touches on mental illness. It’s certainly very sad to read of the circumstances that Lizzy has found herself forced into due to her mother’s avarice. In some variations Mrs Bennet is shown to be pettily spiteful to Elizabeth but her behaviour here transcends the petty, it’s genuinely evil!

I wasn’t sure about the behaviour of some of the characters, Caroline Bingley in particular does something that I can’t see her doing, as any shame on the Bennets is also shame on her, via her brother’s family connection. Also, many of the characters are quite demonstrative, which surprised me a tad. For those who prefer to avoid them there are some sex scenes although they are not especially graphic.

There are some strong gothic elements in this story – madness, violence, villains, peril and high drama. The characters tend to be either good or entirely bad and every female who Darcy meets in society is abhorrent, they are either trying to catch his hand in marriage or secure him as a lover. This is certainly a gripping story, not the type of thing you pick up if you have 10 minutes here and there to fill, you need a good stint of reading time because I needed to know what happened next to the characters but was almost afraid to read on and find out! There is no need to worry too much as eventually no bad deed goes unpunished, rapturous happiness awaits the deserving and best of all, we see a victim become a victor. I would recommend this as an extremely romantic, extremely entertaining read but not for the Austen purist, as I felt this story had a more gothic romance feel than Austen feel to it.

*I received a copy of this book from the author for my honest review

Edited to add: Brenda has very kindly offered a giveaway of this book, to three lucky commenters. Please see giveaway post for details!

Blog Tour - Review - Longbourn to London by Linda Beutler

I'm so pleased to be part of the Longbourn to London blog tour celebrating Linda Beutler's latest book release. Today I am sharing with you my review of the book. At the bottom of the post you can find links to other stops on the tour where you can read more about the book and the author, and even win yourself a copy. There are both ebook and paperback versions up for grabs. 

Longbourn to London isn’t a variation or a sequel per se, but instead looks at a part of the story that Austen skims over pretty quickly, the betrothal period of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. This book picks up a week into the betrothal of our beloved couple and follows them through to the first week or so of their marriage, so it spans around 6 weeks:

“...which to some might appear uneventful. These weeks were, in fact, full of countless small adjustments to their understanding of each other.”

I’d read a book by this author before, The Red Chrysanthemum (you can see my review of that here), which is an Austenesque variation where we see a different type of courtship between the couple, followed by their married life with a particular focus on Elizabeth’s sexual awakening, so I was expecting a sexual element to the book, but it’s actually the key theme of this book. Here Elizabeth grapples with the feelings that Darcy incites within her, and frets about her ignorance of marital relations, a fear which is fuelled by vulgar Aunt Phillips:

“I do feel especially sorry for you Lizzy, as I think Mr. Bingley can be managed, but how you are to control a man who looks at you as Mr. Darcy does, well I am sure I do not know.”

There are a number of additional social engagements due to the betrothals and Elizabeth and Jane find themselves beset by local matrons trying to frighten them with stories of how the marital bed will be for them. After one of these events, where Mrs Bennet does nothing to protect them, Lizzy is unable to sleep. Realising the source of her distress was a lack of knowledge, Lizzy wonders how she can learn of the facts rather than continue to worry in her ignorance and remembers some books she found, years ago in a drawer in her father’s study that she was forbidden to look into. Creeping down to study the books in the middle of the night she is found, but luckily only by Jane, who decides that she is going to try not to worry about things and trust that Mr Bingley will be kind to her. Unfortunately that passive course of action doesn’t recommend itself to Elizabeth, and she decides that she will make a study of the books. She even frankly informs Mr Darcy of her fears, and the books’ existence the next day. Unable to dissuade her, Mr Darcy instead informs Mr Bennet of the issue and Mrs Gardiner finds herself in receipt of several letters all asking for help with Lizzy.

Due to an argument with her husband, Mrs Bennet practically washes her hands of Elizabeth and is pretty unkind to her at every opportunity. This is a fairly harsh portrayal of her, which I always think is a shame, as in Pride and Prejudice I always got the impression that although Lizzy challenged her mother and was her least favourite child I never doubted Mrs Bennet’s love for all her children. I also think that since Lizzy had made a stellar match that Mrs Bennet would be anxious to stay in her good books, as Lizzy would be in a better position than Jane to save Mrs Bennet and any unmarried daughters should Mr Collins turn them out into the hedgerows! I enjoyed the portrayal of Mr Bennet in this story as a loving father to his Lizzy, telling Darcy tales of her childhood, and watching them together to reassure himself of their compatibility.

Although the change from maiden to wife is a big jump Elizabeth is not only going to be doing different things physically, but will be expected to take on the role of being mistress to Darcy’s country estate and town house, both of which would be much larger than what she was used to. In addition to this, she would be changing her social circle not only because she is going to live in a different area, but also in a different social sphere, knowing that some people will be less than welcoming to her. Although I don’t see Lizzy as a character particularly prone to worrying I think it’s likely that if she were to worry about the unknown she would have worried about or at least considered all of this, but in this book her focus is solely on the upcoming changes to their physical relationship, it seemed a little imbalanced to me.

Lizzy and Darcy’s relationship grew really nicely in this book, it was lovely to see how close they were. From the beginning Lizzy was confiding in him, and he was open with her as well. This is just how I see them as a couple, they had already had experience of sharing their secrets regarding Wickham so they had already shown a high level of trust in one another and I think that they would have been very close. The author makes the argument in her foreword that Mr Darcy is just as much of a tease as Lizzy, as evidenced by their repartee when Elizabeth was staying at Netherfield, amongst other times. It also seems likely that he had a good sense of humour, as a humourless man wouldn’t have been attracted to Elizabeth unless he was entirely oblivious to her character, like Collins! I really liked Darcy’s humour in this book, as we got to know him better:

“It makes proposing much easier, I find, if one’s aunt has revealed that one will be accepted in advance of taking the risk.”

If you prefer your Austenesque reading without sex scenes I think you may struggle with this one. The sex scenes are not that graphic, but there are quite a few of them, and there is a level of sensuality though the book, even the parts with no sex scenes. I would say the main theme of the book is the transformation of maiden to bride in an emotional but also in a physical sense which is the type of thing that some readers prefer to avoid. However, if you don’t mind sex scenes and the heavy emphasis on the sensual side of Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship then perhaps you should give this one a go. I find this author’s style is very readable, and I enjoyed the book, although I would have preferred it to focus on a wider range of the changes to Elizabeth’s life rather than just in the bedroom (or in several of the bedrooms as it turns out!).

I received a copy of this book (which by the way is a gorgeous slinky matte version) from Meryton Press via Leatherbound Reviews for my honest review as part of the Longbourn to London blog tour. Thank you so much for letting me take part!

Would you like to win a copy of Longbourn to London or read an excerpt or guest post more from the author, Linda Beutler? Of course you would! So make sure you check out the other stops on the blog tour.

Past Stops:

• Interview and double giveaway - My Jane Austen Book Club
• Excerpt and giveaway - More Agreeably Engaged
• Guest post - Laughing with Lizzie
• Review - Wings of Paper
• Interview - Little Munchkin Reader
• Excerpt and giveaway - The Calico Critic
• Review - Diary of an Eccentric
• Guest post and double giveaway - My Kids Led me Back to Pride and Prejudice
• Interview and giveaway - The Darcy Obsession

Upcoming:

• Guest post - My Love for Jane Austen
• Review - Songs and Stories

Would you like more info on this author? You can connect with Linda Beutler here:

Author Blog - Facebook - Twitter

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.

The Red Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler

This is a 'what if' variation on Pride and Prejudice.  The story begins at Lambton when Mr Darcy goes to see Lizzy.  In P&P she's just finished reading a very distressing letter from Jane, but in this book the letter doesn't contain any alarming news and Mr Darcy gets the opportunity to speak to Elizabeth. She and the Gardiners are invited to Pemberley, get to know Mr Darcy and Georgiana better and Mr Bingley is made aware of Jane's feelings towards him.

One of the big themes in this book is the language of flowers.  Each flower has a meaning, and Darcy and Georginana prepare a nosegay for Lizzy that would hint to Darcy's continuing feelings for her.  In return, Lizzy leaves a floral message for Mr Darcy which is a bit more coy, but the centre of it is a red chrysanthemum, which means 'I love'.  Unfortunately, the stem is cut too short and it falls out of the arrangement so he doesn't see it at the time. Lizzy knows that Darcy has feelings for her but feels that she can't expect a man she rejected so vehemently to propose again, and Darcy knows her feelings have softened somewhat towards him but can't trust that they've changed enough to risk a second proposal. Some things are too important to leave to the language of flowers...

I enjoyed this romance although I felt that the characters were more open with each other than I felt was likely - Georgiana's near elopement was known by pretty much everybody rather than being the closely-guarded secret that it was in Pride and Prejudice, and the characters were also more touchy-feely than I felt was likely. I also felt that it was unlikely that after so much encouragement on both sides that either Elizabeth or Darcy would have doubts in relation to the other's feelings. Aside from these quibbles I found the characters amusing and engaging.

I would add in a warning for those people who don't like sex scenes, the last section of the book following the wedding deals with Darcy's lustful thoughts and Elizabeth's sexual awakening in some detail, so for those people I'd advise skipping the last 60 pages or so and going straight to the epilogue.