Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Wedding Day--Pretty, flighty Daisy Devreaux can either go to jail or marry the mystery man her father has chosen for her. Arranged marriages don't happen in the modern world, so how did the irrepressible Daisy find herself in this fix? Alex Markov, as humorless as he is deadly handsome, has no intention of playing the loving bridegroom to a spoiled little featherhead with champagne tastes. He drags Daisy from her uptown life to a broken down traveling circus and sets out to tame her to his ways. But this man without a soul has met his match in a woman who's nothing but heart. Before long, passion will send them flying sky high without a safety net...risking it all in search of a love that will last forever.

My thoughts....

Oh my Goodness! I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. After reading 2 of SEP's books and finding them so-so I was beginning to wonder what all her hype was about. After reading this book I know now.

Phillips has an uncanny ability to take a lady who should, by all accounts, be someone the reader can't like and turn her into someone who the reader is standing up whooping for in record time.

Daisy is just this heroine. I didn't want to like her at first. Rich, spoiled, not too bright and annoying was how she started out in this book. I quickly found out that there was a lot more to Daisy then that. I found myself smiling at her antics and fuming when someone treated her with an unkindness.

Alex was the strong alpha male that I really felt was a mystery through most of the book. It wasn't until over half way through the book that I really got to know him and realize that he also wasn't what he seemed either.

Together Daisy and Alex make for an excellent romantic duo. They were completely opposites of each other but yet complimented each other very well. I am now looking forward to more books by Phillips and hoping that the next book I read will have characters like these that stay with me months after finishing their book.

I would recommend any fan of contemporary romance to go out and get this book and read it. You might want to hang on to the book because you will probably want to re-read it over and over.

Born In Ice by Nora Roberts

Description courtesy of Paperbackswap.com....When the harsh storms of winter descended upon western Ireland, the locals stayed indoors - and visitors stayed away. Brianna Concannon's bed-and-breakfast became a cold and empty place. But that was fine with Brianna. She enjoyed the peace and quiet, even when the icy winds howled at her window. But this year she's expecting an unusual guest - myster writer Grayson Thane of America. A restless wanderer with a painful past, he plans to spend the cold winter alone. But sometimes fate has a plan of its own. Sometimes a fire can be born in ice...

The story of modern-day Ireland's Concannon sisters continues with the tale of Brianna--whose cool beauty hides a heart of fiery passion.

My Thoughts....After reading the first in this trilogy I knew that I was in for a treat with the next two books. I am happy to say Roberts delivered an excellent continuation of the Concannon sisters' stories. Sometimes the second book of a trilogy tends to be fluff and filler but I did not get that at all with Bri's story.

I thought that Brianna might be a little mousy and timid to hold her own in a full length book but her character developed nicely into a woman to recon with. Her interaction with her sister Maggie and her mother was wonderful. I was really able to connect with her even though I have nothing in common with her.

Grayson was a very interesting character also. I really enjoyed the process he took while writing his book. From the walks through the Irish countryside to him locking himself in his room for a week at a time to write....all were fascinating to me.

I thought that this book was better then the first probably because we got to see a little more about what made Bri and Maggies mother tick. I even found myself not hating her as much toward the end of the book. I wouldn't have thought that was possible since after reading the first book I found her to be a horrible person and glad she was fictitious and no one really had to deal with her.

I really liked how Roberts helped me "see" what Ireland was like in the first book and in Born In Ice she now showed me what an Irish Winter was like. It sounded bone cold and wet and not at all charming but she somehow still made me want to visit.

I would recommend that anyone who has not read this book/trilogy do so, sooner rather then later.

You Don't Know Jack by Erin McCarthy

Synopsis: Jamie Peters no longer believes in true love. True idiots, true scumbags, true moochers - these she believes in wholeheartedly, and she's got the checkered dating history to prove it. So, she's more than a little skeptical when her cross-dressing psychic tells her she's about to meet her soul mate - during an accident. Yeah, sounds about right. And then it happens. A knight in shining armour steps between her and a mugger on a subway platform. Just a regular, honest, upright Jack. The kind they don't make anymore...

Jonathon Davidson doesn't believe in destiny - or lying to beautiful women as a rule. But now that Jamie thinks he's just an ordinary guy, how can he possibly tell her that he's really, her roommate's brother, a millionaire to boot, and the jerk who's investigating her application to his grandfather's charitable trust because she may be involved in something illegal? Yeah, rhetorical question. He can't. Not until he knows what's going on. Besides, it would require being able to resist Jamie's luscious curves long enough to say, "Hi, my name is Big Liar. Let's get naked." Sometimes, destiny sucks...

Somewhere between truth and flat-out-let's-talk-about-this-waaay-later fiction, between fate and delicious accidental insanity, lies a whole lot of mind-blowing sex, delirious passion, unfortunate sundresses, fighting, deception, big mistakes and small hopes, and two people are about to discover that everything happens for a reason...

My Thoughts: Although I found this book to be somewhat cute it was middle of the road for me. I couldn't find anything that really stood out to me as spectacular nor did I find anything horrible that rubbed me the wrong way.

I found the two main characters to be unremarkable but did like some of the secondary characters. I loved Jack's gramps and really liked Jamie's cross dressing psychic friend. I really liked that they made more then one appearance in the book and I think that is what brought my opinion of this book from a standard 3 Cup of Coffee rating up to 3.5.

I have read several of McCarthy's books and found this one to be weaker then the others and would recommend borrowing this one from the public library or getting it used. I would also recommend that if you are new to Erin McCarthy books you should not start with this one but one of her other ones.