"Almost Perfect" by Julie Ortolon

This is the first of a trilogy about three friends who met during their college years. It begins with their attending the book signing of another former classmate of their's whom they have fallen out of touch with. After buying her new book and beginning to skim the content, they realize that the book is about all three of them and all of their shortcomings. At first they are very angry about this, then start to admit that what she wrote about them was correct, and they make a wager to do something to conquer their fears.

After that, this book focuses on one of the three women and her part of the bet. She is to accept the offer of a summer job by the mother of her former boyfriend from high school, and try to get her artwork accepted by a gallery in Santa Fe.

I love the basic storyline and the characters, I just had trouble with some of the stupid reasons each of the two main characters would fight. I just felt like some of the hang-ups they had were pretty dumb, especially those of the ex-boyfriend. If you can look past that, though, then it turned out to be a really good story.

The end of the book has an epilogue that leads into the following two books, which I have yet to read, but I certainly will, since I would like to know what the other two ladies in the group are going to do to keep their parts of the bet.

Sealed with a Kiss, by Carly Phillips

This is the fourth book in a row that I have read that was written by Carly Phillips. It was pretty good, but I did get a bit frustrated with the characters now and then, in a similar way that I did in the book that precedes it: "Cross My Heart". In both books, the two main characters have a lot of hang-ups that seem really irrational to me, especially once it is obvious that they are crazy about each other. Other than that, they are both good.

The two supporting characters from the last book become the main characters of this one; just as Phillips did in her "Bachelor Blog" series. In this case, those characters are Molly and Hunter, who are both lawyers who originally met in law school, but never dated until years later; as also explained in "Cross My Heart," in which the story ended with Molly leaving Hunter behind to search for her birth father.

So this story begins with describing what Molly had experienced after finding her birth father, which includes his being accused of murdering his best friend and business partner, whom he had discovered was embezzling from their company. Molly knows that her father is innocent, but the odds against her father are not good, so Molly decides that his only chance is to be represented by Hunter, the best criminal lawyer in the state of Connecticut.

Molly is not sure that Hunter will help them, since he had asked her not to leave town without giving what they had started a chance; he even offered to go with her, but she turned him down. She decides to go ask him anyway, hoping that he will not hold a grudge and take the case.

Since Molly had left him behind, Hunter stopped caring about everything, from his appearance to keeping his apartment clean. He got drunk every night and slept with a string of different women. In fact one of them was still in his bed when Molly showed up unannounced at his door one Saturday morning.

It's a bit rocky at first, but Hunter ends up representing Molly's father, and he and Molly spend a lot of time together while working on her father's case together. They of course grow closer over time, and it is not long before they get intimate. The mystery part of the story is equally as compelling, which is what I love best about Phillips' books.

As was the case in the previous book, the love scenes were very detailed and hot, but I found the emotional baggage of the main characters to be overly frustrating, perhaps more so in this book, but other than that, I was pleased with the story in general, especially the ending.

I give it four stars.

The Nerd who Loved Me, by Vicki Lewis Thompson

This is the first book I have read by this author. I will definitely be reading more of them!

"The Nerd who Loved Me" is about a showgirl, Lainie, who had a four-year-old child out of wedlock, who had left her hometown in New Jersey to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend, who was the father of her child.

She ended up working in a casino in Las Vegas. The accountant at the casino, Harry, was secretly attracted to her, and agreed to babysit her son, Dexter, to help her out at work, since her regular babysitter was ill. It is fortunate that he was there at the time, because the child's father shows up unexpectedly, drunk and banging on the door, which begins an exciting adventure.

Harry ends up crawling out the second-floor window of Lainie's apartment, while carrying Dexter on his back, to get them away from the ex-boyfriend before he broke the front door down. After that, he brings her son to the casino to tell her what has happened, and he offers to help her out. He first brings her and Dexter to his mother's house, which turns out to be a great idea. Harry's mother is a retired showgirl who wants to be a grandma, so she just adores Lainie and Dexter. She and her boyfriend devize a plan to help her hide from her ex-boyfriend, while playing match-makers for Harry and Lainie.

The two end up hiding out in a timeshare Harry's mother wanted them to check out, while Harry's mom took care of Dexter. Of course the unlikely pair fall in love, but not without having to overcome some obvious obstacles.

Except for the love scenes, which are quite descriptive I might add, it is non-stop action from beginning to end of this book. Just when you start to relax, it starts all over again. It kind of reminds me of that movie "Knight and Day" with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

Harry is very hot as the unlikely hero, protecting Lainie from harm, and is very sexy during the love scenes as well. Yet he is very patient and understanding with Lainie on her shortcomings.  I give this book 5 stars!

Love Me if you Dare, by Carly Phillips

This is the sequel to "Kiss Me if you Can", which I finished reading last week. Two of the minor characters from the "Kiss Me" book became the main characters for the sequel, and vice versa with the main characters from the previous book. So Coop and Lexie become secondary characters, and the focus shifts to Coop's best friend, Sara; a female cop from the New York Police Department, and her ex-partner, Rafe Mancuso.

It starts out overlapping with an event near the end of the first book. Sara and Rafe are working an off-duty job, handling Security at a Jewelry Auction that is also in the first book. The same turn of events happen, only this time it is from the perspective of Sara and Rafe, which is somewhat different from the previous description.

In both books, Lexie is briefly taken hostage at knife-point by a thief disguised as a waiter. Coop tries to talk the thief into letting Lexie go, without any luck. The theif let's her go just before escaping the building, however, and Sara and Rafe take off after the perp, whom they end up capturing, but not without injury. Rafe was stabbed in the chest while fighting with the thief, and Sara re-injured her knee while running after him.

They both end up on medical leave to recover, only Sara is told that she may not heal adequately to return to active duty at the NYPD, which is very upsetting to her, since she defined herself by her work. She was single, and liked it that way, never committing to long-term relationships, due to the many failed marriages in her family, including her dad, who raised her alone.

As mentioned earlier, Sara and Rafe used to be partners at work, but Rafe requested to be re-assigned, since they had become very close, and he had become attracted to her, in spite of the fact that he was engaged. Not wanting to be tempted to cheat, as his father had done to his mother, he removed the temptation by leaving. Sara was also attracted to him, though never said so, since he was engaged. Since being reassigned, Rafe and his fiance' had parted ways, but Rafe never pursued Sara, because of her attitude about marriage.

The turn of events that follow change all of that, though it is a very bumpy road. Personally I think it was way too bumpy, and I got pretty frustrated about it a few times. I think it shouldn't have been THAT hard! The main obstacle was her fear of failure, thinking that there was no way things could last between them, no matter how happy she was to be with him and his family. Stupid!

I won't tell you anymore, but I enjoyed it a lot, in spite of the frustrating parts. I give this book 5 starts as well.

Kiss Me if you Can, by Carly Phillips

I am not normally a fan of Romance novels, but I have always loved a good mystery story. To my surprise, this novel has both, and mixes the two quite well. I do have to say, though, that at first I was shocked by the highly descriptive love scenes, but I also have to say that they were done very well, and woke something in me that I had hit the snooze button on way too many times. In fact, I was so disappointed it was all over when I finished the book. Luckily, I have located the sequel (so to speak)and am currently reading it now.

The story begins with the main male character (Coop) foiling a jewelry store robbery, which makes him a relectant hero, and the target for some criminals, as well as a city full of single women, after he is featured in the local "Bachelor Blog".

Add to the mix a beautiful world traveler (Lexie), who simply wants to buy the ring the hero chose as a reward from the jewelry store owner's daughter, and VIOLA!...Romance is sparked.

The duo soon works together to discover the mystery behind the ring, which Coop soon discovers was stolen in the 1950's. Thus the mystery begins.

I had a hard time putting this book down, and as I mentioned earlier, I was sad when it was over. Also as mentioned above, I have started reading the sequel, "Love Me if you Dare", which features two of the secondary characters from this book. We shall see if it is as good as the first book. It is too bad that these two are the only books in this series by this author, but I will try some of her other series as well.

I am rating this book with 5 stars, as a definite page-turner!

True Love (and other Lies), by Whitney Gaskell

I finished reading this novel last Friday afternoon. I really enjoyed this book, for a number of reasons.

First of all, the story is about a beautiful, full-figured woman that suffers from low-self esteem, thanks to her parents’ divorce during her childhood and the pressures by current society to be thin (all of which I can personally relate to). As a result, she has not had much luck in the love department, and is a skeptic that true love even exists in a world full of indecisive and commitment-phobe men (which I have also personally experienced in the past).

In spite of this, love finds her during a business trip to London, though she is overly-skeptical throughout the following months of the long-distance relationship, just waiting for a "bomb" to drop. To make matters more complicated, shortly after falling for this man, she discovers that he recently broke up with her best friend, who also lives in London, and does not know how to handle this complex situation. In fact, she handles it quite badly.

The book is written in a very modern style, including text of e-mails exchanged between the characters, which I found to be particularly interesting and amusing. The main character, Claire Spencer, is a representation of the current generation: sarcastic in nature and working at a loathsome dead-end job, at which she revels in torturing her most hated co-workers.

The plot is well laid-out and easy to follow, and is wrapped up nicely with a happy ending for all of the characters, though I did find one part near the end an unnecessary detour.

The appropriate audience for this book is, of course, women, though this time appropriate for any woman aged 23 or higher, I would think, since it is a reflection of modern dating and relationship issues.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to any woman over the age of 23. As stated above in my own experience, it is very relatable to many women, and it was very entertaining and funny. It would make an excellent movie! I give this book 5 stars!

My Rating Scale

*= Don't waste your time!,
**= Better than doing housework. 
***= Maybe worth missing your favorite show.
****= Definitely worth taking to work to read during breaks.
*****= Worth staying up late and stealing any moment you can!