Love Down Under Various authors .

 

Love Down Under  Various authors .

 

 Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

 

ROSALIND JAMES, – Just for You (Escape to New Zealand),
TRACEY ALVAREZ, – Melting Into You (Due South),
DIANA FRASER ,– The Playboy’s Redemption (The Mackenzies),
H.Y. HANNA ,– Playing to Win (Summer Beach Vets),
JOANNE HILL, – Falling for Jack ,
KRIS PEARSON ,– The Boat Builder’s Bed (Wicked in Wellington),
ANNIE SEATON, – Beach House (Bondi Beach Love),
SERENITY WOODS, – A Secret Between Friends (Treats to Tempt You),

Genre:  Romance,

Another romance bundle, all stand alone books, at an absolute bargain price. These are a great way to try out new ( to you ) authors without spending more than a small sum. I’d read a couple a while back as individual reads, and have caught up with two more of them since. They’re all fun reads, and give a real flavour of each authors writing style, in a summery, blue sky background. Think beaches, suntan lotion and holidays and you’re there. They are all complete novel, from a decent novellas length to full size reads.  Each have a “heat” label, though the two I’ve just read were labelled steamy they  really contained not much more than a few hot and heavy kisses and some indication of what would follow, so for me they’re not quite what I’d call steamy. If you like a novel where the story is paramount and the sex secondary, these are a great group. I enjoy sexy reads but for me the story always comes first and I’ve had fun with these.

Stars: Five, bargain bundle

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

 

 

Hot Rock. Annie Seaton

 

Hot Rock. Annie Seaton

Review from Jeannie Zelos Book reviews.

Rock Star romance – I do love those and the Bad Boy heroes 🙂 and I know I enjoy Annie’s writing style, so this was a must-have.

So Megan takes the trip of a lifetime from Australia to UK for the Glastonbury festival to reteach empirical evidence for her Doctoral thesis. She’s just left when she discovers a cheating ex has copied her work, and made some spurious accusations about her that threaten her career. Fortunately her sister and brother in law can deal with it, he’s a solicitor so he promises to keep her informed via phone and web. Curious things happen though – she bumps into someone whose the dead spit of her teenage idol 70’s star Davy Morgan, living next to the cottage where she’s staying. He tells her that’s his nephew and he just plays in a local band…then there’s the spotty phone and internet reception, the weird lady in the village store who blames everything on the Solstice…and the curious stones at the rear of the cottage where Davy disappears one day. Thinking he’s injured she rushes after him and …

Yes. I didn’t realise but its a time slip novel ( I love those) so the characters not only have distance to contend with, but time as well. I loved the way Annie let them find each other at the end – it fitted so well, and was really apt with the theme of the novel. I enjoyed the way Megan was desperately trying to convince herself she wasn’t really back in the 70’s ( and who wouldn’t? It defies logic..) and the way Davy was so protective of her. It made for a touching and fun romance. Its not deep, dark drama and probably not one I’d re read but its a fun, shortish read, and a great escape for a couple of hours. I did feel the problems over her thesis and work were really not necessary, and as its a shortish novel that issue would have been better spend on the romance aspect itself. Maybe I missed something? But I didn’t feel that really added to the story. It’s priced at £1.23for 132 pages on kindle.

Stars: Four, good gentle romance, solid plot but not quite enough drama for a five from me.

ARC supplied by Netgalley

Outback Affair Annie Seaton.

 

Outback Affair Annie Seaton.

I love a romance, so dived into this. Its a very straightforward story, I found I could predict coming events almost as I read, so there wasn’t anything that really gripped me with excitement, but it was a fun read. For those who love simple easy to read romances, like the book equivalent of the Hallmark afternoon films Him Indoors loves. ( He sits there with tears in his eyes while I’m snorting at him, with tears for a different reason! “You’ve no heart” he says laughing at me. He loved Little House on the Prairie too – he used to phone a local pub owner when it finished, and they’d compare how they felt…the other guy would never admit to anyone else his secret, kept his tough guy image up but I knew! ) I do have a heart, that’s why I love romances, but I need strong highs and lows to get it racing, and feel the emotions that move me to tears and for me this book didn’t deliver those. Maybe its because I read such a lot that I need something about the norm? Outback Affair is what it says though – made for the Indulgence market, a shortish read for those moments when you just want to slip away into a gentle romance with a HEA. Of course there’s limits to what you can include with length restrictions.
The basic storyline is simple, the characters fun and believable, and I enjoyed the Outback journey details and the snippets of humour that crept in ( the glove compartment that was like Mary Poppins bag – though with vastly different contents!). There were some sensual, spicy sex scenes, but they were very well written, nothing anyone would find offensive and fitted the story and people perfectly.
ARC supplied by publisher.
Stars: well, for many readers I’m sure this would be a five, its certainly well written and deserving on that score but for me personally, the enjoyment I got its a three and half for the reasons I’ve outlined above. That may be just what makes it a five for you though 🙂