Harlequin/Silhouette Challenge 2009 Completed

Well, I officially finished. I was reading Santa and Son which is an older obsolete line by Harlequin (Harlequin Love and Laughter) but just haven't been able to make myself go back to it after starting it almost a month ago. Not sure why. It isn't a bad book. It is fairly short (under 200 pages). But I am just not into it. Anyway, my official list for the completed challenge is....

1) Read 1 book with a holiday theme. Holly and Mistletoe--Susan Mallery (Silhouette Special Edition #1071) 3 Stars 2) Read 1 book by an author you never read before. The Christmas Husband--Mary Anne Wilson (Harlequin American Romance #609) 3 Stars
3) Read 1 book with one of these words in the title - wedding, marriage, husband or wife. The Dream Wedding--MJ Rodgers (Harlequin Intrigue #445) 4 Stars4) Read 1 book set in a place you've never been before. set in France....Lost Calling--Evelyn Vaughn (Silhouette Bombshell #97) 2Stars5) Read 1 book with a body of water in the title (i.e. water, lake, river, island, etc.) Shadows on the Lake--Leona Karr (Harlequin Intrigue #840) 2 Stars

I haven't been very diligent in typing up my reviews so I only have one done but hope to get to the rest soon. All the reviews/post that have to do with the Harlequin/Silhouette Challenge of 2009 are all labled Harlequin/Silhouette Challenge 2009. If you click on that lable it will bring you to the page that has everything.

A big thank you to Yvonne for hosting this challenge and I am looking forward to the 2010 Challenge.

The Dream Wedding by MJ Rodgers

The Dream Wedding by MJ Rodgers

A Harlequin Intrigue #445 Fortune Cookie mini-series.

Decription compliments of Shelfari.com:

Handsome psychiatrist Michael Sands specializes in patients' dreams, but he falls into a dream of his own when he finds beautiful Briana Berry sleeping under the Dream Institute's office Christmas tree late one night. Answers to the many questions that arise from this discovery--how she got there, why she's dressed in an expensive wedding gown, and what her real identity is--pose a giant mystery, one Michael has to solve.

As he struggles to maintain a patient-client relationship with Briana, he's painfully aware that he has fallen in love with the fascinating mystery woman. As Briana searches for the memory that eludes her, she falls more deeply in love with Michael. Why can't Briana remember what she's really like? Why does she remember a childhood far different from the one her mother describes? Why does she feel threatened by the man who insists he is her new husband? 

My Thoughts....

Although when it comes to plotlines in some of the older Intrigues (this one was written 12 or more years ago) have been done to death (amnesiac woman has to depend on a hunka hunka man to try to remember who she is) I thought it was pretty good. It almost lost me at the beginning though when said woman was kissed awake by said man after he found her deep in sleep under his Christmas tree at his office (which happens to be The Institute of Dreams). She had the nerve to kiss him back....um hello....if I fall asleep and wake up with amnesia and a man I probably have never met has me in a tongue wrestling match I would totally come up swinging not kissing.

But anyway....I digress. As I mentioned, this book is pretty good. Connecting with the characters was pretty easy. The author did a great job of giving all her characters depth which is not always easy in category romances because the length of the books tend to not allow for the development. So 3 dimensional characters....check.

Believable storyline....well, maybe half a check. When Briana discovered she didn't know how she got to the institute she said something along the lines of missing 3 hours of her life. Later in the book this was proven to not be the case. It was even worse. So when that little zinger was discovered I had that ominous music playing in my head....dumdumDUUUUUUUUMMMMMM. Even later in the book the new development was proven to not be the case. It was again worse and once again the ominous music played in my head but more of comedic flair (picture the movie Clue with Tim Curry and you'll get what I mean.)

Despite the crazy plotline and a couple other "issues" that are more about personal taste then anything I give it 4 Stars. This author is one I will definitely seek out among my hundreds of Harlequin Intrigues to read sooner rather then later. After all Rodgers did a masterful job of answering the question that I didn't know I had. "What happens when an amnesiac has amnesia about the time she had amnesia but remembers everything else?"

Lost Calling by Evelyn Vaughn

Having only read a couple Silhouette Bombshell books and very much liking them I found that this book did share the same good qualities that those did. Almost 300 pages this book felt whole and complete with good character development. Catrina (Cat for short) is a strong independent woman who's love of history has made her passionate in her quest to preserve it. Finding artifacts seem to be her calling and during an extremely rare and unusual event finds herself in a hole in the middle of a Paris street surrounded by decapitated bodies that appear to be over 200 years old. Her first thought was to preserve the sight as a historical landmark but as she touches a small key that looked as if one of the deceased women had swallowed it, she finds herself in the middle of a psychic vision of a group of women who died during the French Revolution.

This is the first book in the Madonna Key mini-series out of seven.

The book has a Da Vinci Code feel to it with a twist of the paranormal. The action will keep you on the edge of your seat and if you enjoy history, peeks into the French Revolution and it's bloody history should keep your interest.

What I personally liked about this book was that the action was enough to keep my attention, Cat was a strong kick butt woman but still only human and didn't necessarily have mass skills, like, a black belt in karate. She did beat off an attacker with her stiletto heels though. Her love interest, Rhys, was also a nice addition to the book. Once a man of God, he left his calling and the priesthood behind long before Cat. Their conflict between each other was compelling. Both characters were very real in their emotions. Both struggled with his faith. Even though he was no longer a priest, many of his decisions were still based on his religious beliefs. Not a bad way to live your life except that Cat couldn't help but feel she was somehow still involved with a priest and not just a man.

I also loved the first line of this book...."That first earthquake was not my fault."

What I didn't like about this book was that I am not a big fan of books that are centered around religion. Past or present. As fascinating as I thought the history of it all was I found myself skipping some paragraphs just to get through it faster and then finding myself a little lost.

Also even though I thought the development of the characters was excellent I just didn't care much for them. I thought Cat was a bit of a bitch and Rhys was, well, attracted to her. Another thing was that there were many references throughout the book about Cat being a thief. It confused me a bit but then I found out after I read this book that there was another mini-series among the Bombshell books called The Grail Keepers which I am pretty sure Cat made an appearance in and her theft was probably in one of them.

Many of the things I found that I didn't like about this book are completely based on personal taste and should not dictate whether you should read this book or not. Even though I didn't rate this book that high I really would recommend this book to those who liked books like The Da Vinci Code.

I gave this book 2 Stars.

The Harlequin/Silhouette Romance Reading Challenge 2009

So I found another reading challenge and thought I would participate. It is a Harlequin/Silhoutte reading challenge. Although I would have liked to have this challenge be a little longer it does have 5 prompts to read 5 different Harlequin/Silhouette books for the year. Since I am not starting this until probably August I guess 5 isn't so bad. The following is what appears on Yvonne's blog here on blogspot.

I loved doing the Harlequin/Silhouette Romance Reading Challenge last year and now it's time to get ready for 2009. This challenge will begin on January 1, 2009 and run through December 31, 2009. The rules are a bit different this year, but not by much. Here are the rules...All of the books have to be from either the Harlequin or Silhouette imprint. It doesn't matter which one. The challenge is...

1) Read 1 book with a holiday theme. Holly and Mistletoe--Susan Mallery

2) Read 1 book by an author you never read before. The Christmas Husband--Mary Anne Wilson

3) Read 1 book with one of these words in the title - wedding, marriage, husband or wife The Dream Wedding--MJ Rodgers

4) Read 1 book set in a place you've never been before. Lost Calling--Evelyn Vaughn (france)

5) Read 1 book with a body of water in the title (i.e. water, lake, river, island, etc.) Shadows on the Lake--Leona Karr

That's a total of 5 books for the year.

A few additional things...

1) You can change books in the middle of the year, nothing is written in stone!

2) Books used in this challenge may be used in other challenges.

3) Books can be in any format - paper, audio, ebook.

4) Please sign up by commenting to this post.

5) Please come back and post your reviews as you read the books for the challenge.

6) Please link us to your blog using one of these buttons...There will be a prize at the end of the challenge. I don't know what it will be yet, but everyone who completes the challenge will be entered into the contest!