Unlocked by Courtney Milan

From the author's website:  "A perpetual wallflower destined for spinsterhood, Lady Elaine Warren is resigned to her position in society. So when Evan Carlton, the powerful, popular Earl of Westfeld, singles her out upon his return to England, she knows what it means. Her former tormenter is up to his old tricks, and she’s his intended victim. This time, though, the earl is going to discover that wallflowers can fight back.

Evan has come to regret his cruel, callow past. At first, he only wants to make up for past wrongs. But when Elaine throws his initial apology in his face, he finds himself wanting more. And this time, what torments him might be love…"

I love to read other book review blogs, and while Dear Author is not my favorite reviewing site (though it is my favorite book news site), I do find that I love Jane's take on books.  When she posted this highly appreciative review of a Regency romance, I wasn't that intrigued until she pointed out the price.  Swoon, it was a buck.  I downloaded the Kindle app for my iPhone, bought the book, and read it that night.

I've reverted, slightly, from my old love of the Regency, but when I do read it done well, I find I still can't resist it.  Milan does Regency well and she makes a character who should be unforgivable all too human.  Evan is a prize and I don't mean that sarcastically.  We know he was a jerk, and that the reason for his actions was petty, but he looks at his actions and he realizes just how wrong he was.  Additionally, though he knows how horrible he was, as he realizes even further how Elaine feels, he recognizes how much worse it is than even he suspected.  He doesn't expect forgiveness though he requests it.  He works at forgiveness.  Like all people who were once bullied, I love a good groveling scene in which a bullied person gets the abject apology of the bullier, but I even more appreciate that it takes more than just a pathetic apology to get past Evan's actions.

Further, though this is a short novella, time passes.  Love doesn't occur overnight.  Elaine at first accepts Evan's apology, but it takes her time to really understand that he means it.  I wish we had gotten a better look at the time that had passed and their developing friendship (and I suspect I'll be searching out Milan's other full length novels to see if she has other novels about developing friendships), but I simply appreciate that these characters don't come to fully love each other within a week's time.

I will issue a caveat and state that two scenes in the novella made me come out of the reader's high I was on, and they were fairly lengthy scenes so it was quite a ding on the score.  Both scenes dealt with the characters in private and were unrealistic to me, which made me a little sad and pulled me out of the story entirely. 

Everything else about this novel, including Evan's relationship with his cousin and Elaine's relationship with her mother, deserves full scores, however.  Those two relationships in particular deserve some high marks.  Evan's cousin though quite petty and evil also shows a human nature at the end which entertains,.  Elaine's feelings toward her mother are fantastic.  We see there a mother daughter relationship which is fraught with problems even though they love each other and are both good people. 

Great work, Milan!

Verdict:  7.  I was leaning on a six here due to the scenes mentioned briefly above, actually, but the price and the strength of all the relationships.  I can't give it anything less than a seven.  In fact, if you factor in the price, it should probably jump to an 8 or a 9.  If only all self-published works were this good.

Thoughts:  A dollar.   If books were normally a dollar or two (e-books or otherwise) I'd probably be living in stacks of books.  In fact, I purposely limit my own visits to used bookstores for this reason.  I'd come home with a pile of books and devour them until I was tired from lack of sleep and my son was whacking my knees with his soccer ball begging, "Play with me!"

Scored By The Boss by Maureen Child

From the author's website: no copy.

From Goodreads: "Shipping tycoon Jefferson Lyon wasn't a man who took no for an answer—from anybody. So when his "faithful" secretary finally had enough of his difficult, demanding ways and quit, he followed her to the tropical resort where she was vacationing. There'd be no relaxing for Jefferson…he was playing at seduction in order to get Caitlyn back to work.


But his ex-assistant was turning out to be more determined, and more desirable, than the arrogant millionaire had ever realized."


Why do I do this to myself?  I go to a library sale, see a pile of Silhouette or Harlequins.  I think to myself, "I shouldn't."  Then I remember the five or six good series romances I've read and look, just in case.  Invariably, I end up with a series romance that takes me an hour to read and a day to dislike enough to get it out of my system.

Jefferson's plan to get his secretary to come back to work for him?  Let me spell it out for you.  He's going to seduce her, then act so horribly that she'll dump him, and then she'll feel bad about dumping him and take her job back.  Supposedly this guy is a genius, and, yet, this is the dumbest plan on Earth. Let's look at its possible points of failure:  (1)  His attempts to seduce will fail, (2) She will not dump him when he treats her badly, (3) she'll feel good about dumping him, and (4) she'll feel bad, but not that bad.

Honestly, I'll give him number one since she's been looking lustfully at him.  But, two?  I've known any number of women to put up with any random amount of shit from guys they love or like and to still keep dating them.  This includes petty theft, cheating, and emotional abuse.  What was he planning to do to make the dumping work?  And then there is me.  I've dumped people.  Here's how sad I am about it.  :D  That's right.  I'm not.  I wasn't at the time.  When I dump people it is to make my life better.  Why should I feel shitty about it?  Why should Caitlyn?

I honestly didn't mind Caitlyn.  She was a little too good and efficient, but I've read many a series romance and that barely phases me.  I did like her realization about why she got engaged to the man she was engaged with prior to the start of the novel.  It made sense and it made me think she could be intelligent and resist Jefferson's attempts at seductions.

I never actually felt like Jefferson fell in love with Caitlyn though.  I felt he was upset that she didn't fall at his feet with joy right away and I'd snicker every time he noticed lovingly she wasn't a gold digger, but really? That was all it took?

I think I would have to give Maureen Child another read to see if it was the book that was the problem or if she's simply an author that is incompatible with me.

Verdict:  3.  I am literally throwing this book out which is a rarity for me.  But I don't need to keep books I've bought cheap and which bring me little joy.

Thoughts:  My husband looked at the back copy of this book and said, "What an asshole."  I explained to him that is true, but it's a Silhouette Desire book.  The males are almost always assholes.  You just got to hope that this will be the one of the books where the heroine truly shoves him down into the mud and makes him realize that and grovel for forgiveness.

Also, rather oddly, the majority of the novel took place in a tropical getaway location that was clearly super thought out, but rather generically described.  I guess I just never felt like any part of this novel really came together for me.  Yet, to keep Caitlyn's friends in the novel, she kept making phone calls to them.

Just The Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James

From the author's website: "Nothing fazes Taylor Donovan.  In the courtroom she never lets the opposition see her sweat.  In her personal life, she never lets any man rattle her–not even her cheating ex-fiancé.  So when she’s assigned to coach People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for his role in his next big legal thriller, she refuses to fall for the Hollywood heartthrob’s charms.  Even if he is the Jason Andrews.

Jason Andrews is used to having women fall at his feet.  When Taylor Donovan gives him the cold shoulder, he’s thrown for a loop.  She’s unlike any other woman he’s ever met: uninterested in the limelight, seemingly immune to his advances, and shockingly capable of saying no to him.  She’s the perfect challenge.  And the more she rejects him, the more he begins to realize that she may just be his perfect match. . ."

Just the Sexiest Man Alive came so close to getting a spectacular grade from me.  I enjoyed its fast pace, it's 'witty' banter, and the main two characters (mostly).  Ugh, notice how I'm already hedging on a positive review by putting the witty in quotes and the mostly in parenthesis there?  That's not fair to this book, which is a good one.  In fact, I'm half afraid that my low score comes from the fact that I think it could have been so much better with a few changes.

Taylor is a good protagonist.  She's got a career, ambition, friends, and family.  She loves what she does.  She knows who she is.  There is much to love about Taylor, but the book doesn't focus as much on the things to love as it does on who she loves.  Taylor's life appears to fail the Bechdel Test.  Perhaps this is because I was reading a romance, but all her conversations with her closest friends revolve around guys and how she should get over her ex-fiance and how Jason is the total cutest boy ever.  Her friends giggle and shriek over Jason and other actors. 

It's tiring, but possibly a true representation of life.  If my closest friend started to date Brad Pitt or Ryan Reynolds, perhaps I'd shriek and giggle too.  On the other hand, her friends are nothing like me.  They immediately look at Jason as a possible serious relationship even though Taylor has yet to even date him at a point in the book.

Jason comes off better in the book.  He's arrogant and conceited and silly in the beginning, but it allows for him to show more growth and of a more serious kind, as well.  Plus, when things happen to Jason that humiliate him, it both makes him sympathetic while also giving this reader a bit of a thrill to see it happen.  Jason's friend, Jeremy, does better duty as a friend than Taylor's do.  He has a legitimate reason for jumping immediately to the idea that Jason might be serious about Taylor.

The first several meetings between Jason and Taylor are delightful, though I was quickly over the idea that even they seemed to believe their patter was witty. I think one or more less witty conversations might have helped me believe a little more that they knew each other in some way when they started to think so seriously of each other.  However, the story still progressed easily and nicely.  Perhaps too much so.

At this point, the author introduces the OTHER MAN and he is EVIL.  In fact, she realizes this, and throws a mocking jab at it.  I almost wondered if she had been forced to put him in there by an editor or by people who originally read her book.  The other actor is so blatantly and obviously evil that sections containing him ring untrue.  If he had been competitive with Jason, but a good guy, or a decent but dumb man, then it all might have read better, but it doesn't.  He is there only to be a rival to Jason and to suck.

Once the story gets past this section, it picks up once again, going back to Taylor's career and how it does not quite mesh with Jason's career and their feelings for each other and why they each have issues they need to work past.  While I was not happy about the resolution of the story, at least it was cohesive and fast-paced.

Verdict: 6.  So close to true greatness, but not quite there.  (Started with an 8.  Deducted a point for Scott being a tool of a character.  Literally.  And another point for Taylor's resolution to her career storyline.)


Thoughts: I think this book will date itself fairly quickly with some of its pop culture references, which is a terrible shame because I enjoyed the book!