PLEASURE ME by Monica Burns

This Monica Burns novel is published by Berkley and is due to be released on March 1, 2011.

FROM PUBLISHER: Youth and beauty are a courtesan’s greatest assets. At forty-one, Lady Ruth Attwood appears to have lost both, as her latest lover just abandoned her for a younger mistress. Struggling with the knowledge that she’s no longer considered desirable, she’s uncertain whether to be offended or flattered when a younger man makes her an unusual offer. In need of funds, she agrees. But then she does the unthinkable. She falls in love.

Despite his reputation as a man’s man, Baron Garrick Stratfield has never been with a woman. His physical impairment is such that he knows not even a whore will touch him, and he needs a mistress who’s willing to be kept without sharing his bed. But passion is just a delicious kiss away because his new mistress is wreaking havoc with his senses. Worse yet, someone is not only out to ruin his reputation, but frame him for murder.

MY THOUGHTS: The hero is twenty-nine years old. He’s hiding, what he believes, is a terrible personal defect. Only a couple of people know about it and he’s determined to not let any woman find out what it is. Garrick is a bit emotionally crippled by it. His uncle is partly to blame for Garrick’s insecurities. They have a terrible relationship with each other, always have.

Ruth, the heroine, is really hung up on the fact that she’s forty-one and is about to ‘retire’ from being a courtesan when she meets Garrick. They become friends before they’re lovers. They have running an orphanage in common and the orphanage plays a big roll in the story.

I was very disappointed in this novel. It wasn’t really about anything except Ruth thinking she’s too old for Garrick, who is twelve years younger than her. She made such a big deal about it, as did others. Garrick’s secret is a bit unique for a romance book but took over the whole storyline, along with Ruth’s age.

There are a couple spicy sex scenes that don’t disappoint but it wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of a plotline. I rate this novel 3 stars/C.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

KISMET by Monica Burns

These are my thoughts on the Monica Burns historical romance novel Kismet. It was published by Berkley in January 2010. Synopsis can be found here. I didn't enjoy this story at all and rate it 2 stars out of 5, or a D.

The story takes place in Morocco and England in 1893 and spans three months. The heroine is Allegra, 30ish with dark red hair and green eyes. She ends up getting abducted. The hero, Shaheen, aka Robert Camden, Viscount of Newcastle, who's got dark hair and brown eyes, goes to find her and buys her from her kidnapper. The rest of the entire novel, to me, is just very boring. There's some serious drama involving Allegra and a whipping. I didn't paticularly like either one of them. After they're back in England towards the end, Shaheen goes to Allegra's home and confesses his love to her. She tells him she feels the same way but it just doesn't seem believeable to me. Then he asks her to marry him and she tells him she's pregnant. That's how the story ends.

MY THOUGHTS: This is another newer romance book where I've found myself not really caring about either the heroine or hero. Both are wounded; the heroine was sold into prostitution by her own mother, the hero witnessed the suicide of his brother James years before. The suicide was the only interesting part of the story and I wish it hadn't taken place in the past. I found this story completely uninteresting and unromantic. I never warmed up to it or the setting. I feel as though both the hero and heroine's characters were underdeveloped, especially Allegra's. We know next to nothing about her. 

I've wanted to read this since I'd heard about it earlier this year when there were a few blogs that were having contests for it. I feel the overly-bright, old school book cover doesn't fit the story one bit. I was totally unsatisfied with this story.


I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.