Bought By Her Latin Lover : Latin Lovers (Presents)

Rating:
Summary: A classic Presents Read
Review: An irresistible Spanish hero, a woman content to be his mistress for as long as he will let her grace his bedroom, until he finds out her "terrible secret"... We all know what will happen next, but that didn't diminish in any way the pleasure I enjoyed in reading Julia James' take on this very classic plot. The last half of the book was a rollercoaster ride that left me breathless and gasping for more. The final scene has a wonderful edgy quality to it but if I said why, well, that would give the game away. The hero is utterly likeable, so we can forgive him even when he is very very bad. All in all, I enjoyed this book tremendously and can't wait to read more from Julia James.

Rating:
Summary: Oh dear another typical Harlequin! Really 2.5 stars.
Review: And I expected so much better from Julia James, darn it! She's written two other Harlequins that I know of, and they were both really good -- but this one falls into the trap of what I'd term "typical" Harlequin:

1. instant & uncontrollable sexual attraction between H/H from the first instant of seeing each other;
2. extreme, unflawed good looks for both;
3. rich hero, poor heroine (the better to have something to help bribe you into sex, my dear -- but to be fair that doesn't happen in this one);
4. no parents around for either of them (they're always killed off in car wrecks, it seems -- when I saw that the hero had lost his parents that way, I knew I was in trouble);
5. noble, self-sacrificing heroine who the hero just has to come after in the end...'cuz there's no one else who can do it for him in the bedroom, and oh yeah, 'cuz he can finally admit he loves her. Meanwhile, she's admitted (to herself) that she's in love with him, about 25 pages prior thereto.

Oh I expected so much more of Julia James!!! I know WHERE she went wrong, I just want to know WHY? Why so sterotypical in the plot & the characterizations when you'd shown so much more imagination before??

All that being said, this isn't a horrible read, and the sex scenes are very sexy if that means alot to you, but, darn it, after reading her two prior books, I was very let down by this one! It definitely can't make my keeper shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Still looking for a GOOD story
Review: The hero buys a car worth 200,000 euros but blows all his gaskets because his lover has 7,000 of debt?!?! A little perspective here, please. I got tired of the author spending so much time on the cost of everything.
I liked the heroine until she decided she had nothing better to do than be pampered and groomed and dressed for her lover's pleasure.