The Baby Jackpot-Jacqueline Diamond

The Baby Jackpot


Jacqueline Diamond

Harlequin American, Mar 5 2013, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373754472



Following her divorce from Raditch, Safe Harbor Medical Center Nurse Stacy Layne donates her eggs to a needy couple The Barkers. However on her twenty-eighth birthday, Stacy believing she is having her period and intoxicated Dr. Cole Rattigan share a night of intimacy. She learns a side effect of egg donation hormonal therapy is a higher fertility probability as she becomes pregnant carrying triplets.



Cole will do anything for her and their offspring even offering to marry her, but Stacy declines. Having her marriage detonate leaves Stacy believing their children need a home filled with love; an action neither parents wants to do but each wonders if the children will be better off with other people raising them.



The latest Safe Harbor Medical Center romance (see The Baby Dilemma) is an enjoyable baby makes five tale though the premise has been used before (see The Detective's Accidental Baby) made shakier by professionals having unprotected sex. Still, readers will enjoy returning to Safe Harbor, California where unborn triplets prove to be adept matchmakers.



Harriet Klausner

The Princess Predicament-Lisa Childs

The Princess Predicament


Lisa Childs

Harlequin Intrigue, Mar 5 2013, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373696772



Her father King St. Pierre announced at a ball that his daughter Princess Gabriella will wed in a political arrangement. However, an angry Gabriella ends up pregnant after making love with her sire’s bodyguard Whit Howell. Not long afterward, Gabriella vanished in Paris; Whit blamed himself for his indiscretion and vowed to find her Royal Princess.



Six months since she disappeared, Whit locates Gabriella living in poor conditions while working at an orphanage and loving every minute. When an attempted abduction occurs, Whit intervenes. He wants to escort her home, but wonders whether the rival fiancé princes, a royal cousin or Whit’s former partner targets pregnant Gabriella, a woman he loves and would die to keep safe.



The latest Royal Bodyguards romantic suspense is an engaging thriller that builds from the previous tale Protecting the Pregnant Princess. Although the premise is not new (see Roman Holiday), The Princess Predicament is an enjoyable sequel with a nice added twist involving bodyguard Charlotte Greene.



Harriet Klausner

Bungalow Nights-Christie Ridgeway

Bungalow Nights


Christie Ridgeway

Harlequin HQN, Feb 26 2013, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373777457



In Afghanistan dying Colonel Samuel Parker tells combat medic Vance Smith what he wanted to do with his little daughter Layla when he returns to the States. He shows Vance a picture of a little girl and makes him give a deathbed vow to fulfill his helmet list.



His cousin Baxter hires childhood neighbor Addy March to serve as a nanny when Vance takes young Layla to the beach at Crescent Cove, California for a month. However, the only problem with sharing Beach House No. 9 is that cute little Layla is a beautiful twentyish woman. Both feels the heat of attraction, but the late colonel stands between them; as Vance believes a fling would betray his vow and Layla being a military brat learned to control her emotions and fears the medic will open the floodgates of grieving the death of her father.



The second Crescent Cove summer romance (see Beach House No. 9) is an engaging tale starring two nice people brought together by her deceased father. Although the set-up seems highly unlikely, readers who ignore Vance’s misconceptions will enjoy this warm love story as the protagonists learn families matter.



Harriet Klausner

A Shot of Sultry-Macy Beckett

A Shot of Sultry


Macy Beckett

Sourcebooks, Mar 5 2013, $6.99

ISBN 9781402270390



Documentary filmmaker Bobbi Gallagher fled Los Angeles for her hometown of Sultry Springs, Texas when her latest project fell apart due to the lies of a friend she trusted. With her reputation and consequently her career destroyed, she earns a miserable living videotaping weddings, but has a concept to make it back. Her plan is to launch Sex in the Sticks hoping Trey Lewis, a close friend of her older half-brother Luke (see of Sultry with a Twist), and Sheriff Colt Bea will agree to star as the sexy male hicks.



Trey seeks a second chance to overcome his dishonorable discharge by proving his innocence especially to his estrange disappointed parents. He accepts a two year security position in Dubai. When Bobbi enters Luke’s bar, Trey assumes she is another low life. To his shock, instead she is Luke’s sibling as he never knew his pal had a sister. Though he is not a kiss and tell red neck, Trey agrees to do the show because he knows this is the female he plans to have sex with; if he can ever get Bobby from being the camera.



The return to Sultry Springs will elate fans of contemporary romance as Bobbi and Trey bring serious backstories (his military experience and her nasty childhood) to their relationship while the support cast (the townsfolk and her crew- the blue haired Asian and Scooby’s Shaggy) add mostly humor to the mix. Breezy, readers will enjoy the escapades of the filmmaker and the rural hunk.



Harriet Klausner

Lord of Darkness-Elizabeth Hoyt

Lord of Darkness


Elizabeth Hoyt

Grand Central, Feb 26 2013, $7.99

ISBN: 9781455508303



In 1740 London, Godric St. John adheres to his pledge he made a few years ago as the Ghost of St. Giles to protect the city’s most innocent, the children. The masked avenger even wed an innocent aristocrat two years ago to keep her from a disgraceful scandal before vanishing on their wedding day.



However, he never expected his spouse Lady Margaret nee Reading to fire two shots at him while he fights footpads trying to accost her. Megs seeks revenge against the Ghost of St. Giles who killed her true love Roger Fraser-Burnsby and forced her to wed someone else. To complicate matters, Megs and her fellow rusticating companion, Godric’s sister Sarah, move into her spouse’s Saint House as she demands an heir, but fails to recognize who the Ghost of St. Giles is. As the married couple fall in love, he fears for her life as many better shooters than her want the death of the Ghost of St. Giles.



The latest Maiden Lane Georgian romance (see Thief of Shadows and Scandalous Desires) is an exciting entry due to the grieving protagonists (he is a widower) finding a second chance at love if they can overcome their distrust and misconceptions. Fast-paced from the first shot until the final confrontation, series fans will appreciate thus engaging historical.



Harriet Klausner

I’ll Stand By You-Wayne Jordon

I’ll Stand By You


Wayne Jordon

Harlequin Kimani, Feb 19 2013, $6.25

ISBN: 9780373862993



The Harrison sisters were children when their parents went to heaven and they were separated but not before pledging to one day be reunited. One of the siblings Eboni became adopted by the Wynter family to include three overly protective brothers.



Now a firefighter on leave, Eboni begins her search for the oldest Aaliyah and the two youngest Keisha and Cyndi. In a condo in Manhattan, Eboni meets Darren Grayson at the pool when he takes down his swimming suit in front of her. She thinks he is a pervert while he thinks he may have found the woman to help him believe in happily ever after for even a reformed former player. As they fall in love, the realtor conceals the facts that he is a divorcee with a child Kenya raised by his mom. Though she accepts his help on her sibling quest, Eboni no longer trusts Darren as she wonders what else of significance he hides from her.



Known for his beautiful Barbados tales (see the Knight saga and To Love You More), Wayne Jordon provides a strong Manhattan romance starring a woman with a mission and a man who may have her love, but has a mission to regain her trust. The character-driven storyline is filled with angst as readers will feel Eboni’s obsessive need though raised in love by the Wynter clan. Although Kenya is too precocious, readers will appreciate this delightful contemporary, which implies up future Harrison stories to come.



Harriet Klausner

One Night With A Cowboy-Cat Johnson

One Night With A Cowboy


Cat Johnson

Kensington Brava, Feb 26 2013, $9.95

ISBN: 9780758285386



Dr. Becca Hart loses her assistant English professor position at Vassar at the same time her boyfriend moves out. A month after the seminar ended she remains unemployed with the only vacancy at Oklahoma State University. She tells her sibling Emma she will not apply. OSU English Department Dean Mark Ross asks Becca to come to Stillwater for an interview. Emma submitted her résumé. The sisters travel to OSU. The sisters attend the rodeo and meet bull riders Tucker Jenkins and Jace Mills. Divorced army sergeant Tucker and Becca are stunned by their attraction. The foursome goes back to the hotel where Becca and Tucker take out a room.



Becca teaches at OSU while Emma returns home. Dean Ross hosts a part welcoming Becca. On the faculty, Tucker attends. Both are stunned to see each other. He is upset as she never told him she interviewed for a job and she with his not mentioning the military. Tucker’s superior officer warns him of the non-fraternization rule. Still each agrees to become friends with benefits until he volunteers to return to Afghanistan so she would not be fired.



The latest Oklahoma Nights Romance (see Two Times as Hot and Three Weeks with a Bull Rider) is a fun military academic romance in which the attraction at first sight is deftly handled as each protagonist is fully developed. The rodeo scoring rules and ROTC training are deftly interwoven into the engaging plot due to a solid support cast. Although his logic for volunteering to serve in Afghanistan seems crazy and affirms the lead couple’s somewhat infantile behavior, readers will enjoy One Night (and many more) With A Cowboy.



Harriet Klausner