Minxes Monthly book recommendations

On the last Friday of every month, some of the Minxes are going to share with you a book they have recently read that has impressed them enough to find a place on their keeper shelf. We hope our lovely blog readers will return the favour and recommend some books to add to our TBR piles :-)

From Lorraine:

Being limited to audiobooks following a brain injury has had one positive effect - I've tried new authors I might not otherwise have picked. And at last some Mills and Boon books are available to download from the UK audible site (until recently they were only available in the US). My tastes have always been 'heat' rather than 'sweet' but I decided to listen to Jessica Hart's "Cinderella's Wedding Wish" and absolutely loved it. The heroine prefers dogs to men and her dream is to renovate an old cottage in the middle of nowhere and live in isolation which does sound, um, a little familiar (I have three dogs and recently renovated an old, isolated croft house in the Highlands :-) I loved it not just because the heroine struck a chord but because it was warm, witty and a lovely escapist read/listen! It's always nice to discover a 'new' author to add to your list of favourites and although she most certainly won't be new to most of you, Jessica Hart has definitely made it onto mine.

From Romy:

Late last year I picked up the first of Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld novel because I loved the cover. How shallow is that?!

The Darkest Night hooked me so thoroughly that I rushed out to buy the next three books in the series, and so far not one has disappointed. The stories are darkly sensuous, and the pace is so unremitting the pages practically turn themselves. These books should come with a health warning: explicit, not for the squeamish, and highly addictive.


From Sally:

My pick came out a couple of years ago, but I've been revisiting it, as I had a Mills & Boon editor recommend it to me recently, as a very good example of how to do internal conflict really well. It came out in June, 2009, and isn't currently available on the Mills & Boon site except as a very reasonable (99p!) ebook. It can also be snapped up as a paperback on Amazon for 20p!.
The book, Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal (Mills & Boon Modern Heat) by Heidi Rice does in fact deal with the character's conflicts extremely well. The heroine, Daisy Dean, is bright, sparky, likeable and individualistic. Her hero, Connor Brodie, is totally gorgeous, but scarred, both inside and out.

What Heidi manages to do so well in Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal is draw a very compelling picture of a hero who is living in the now, and yet has unresolved issues that he is carrying around with him, that affect his relationships. There was much discussion in blogland when Riva launched, stating how difficult it could be to write a fun, flirty story, with characters who had real deep internal issues there needed to overcome. In this book, Heidi really nails how to do this, by having Connor's issues very firmly in the past, but the consequences of them very definitely in the present.



From Jo C:

A Doctor, A Nurse: A Christmas Baby by Amy Andrews won a Ruby from the Romance Writers of Australia for this book and when I read it I could certainly see why.

The heroine, Maggie, is considerably older than the hero who is a confirmed bachelor with his eye on his career so he can fulfill a promise he made to his dying sister.

I really enjoyed the vulnerabilities that Maggie had because of her age and her past. Nash is the most delicious hero as he makes Maggie forget all of her concerns and allows her to relax.

This is an incredibly hot read, think Modern Heat passion mixed with the sweetness of family life in a Romance. Absolutely the best of both worlds and this book has made Amy Andrews an auto buy for me. In fact, I'm busy adding back titles to my iPhone as fast as I can read them!