M. J. Rodgers

Two movie critics, Belle Breeze and Max Wilde, who are known to have opposing viewpoints, are paired together to do movie reviews in the movie review segment of the news show at KALA in Hollywood, hoping to boost ratings. While the ratings are better than ever, it seems that Belle has also attracted some unwanted attention from a sadistic Santa who is sending her disturbing gifts and messages based on “Santa’s” revised lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas song. Each day another gift arrives with more threats to Belle. Even though Max and Belle’s opinions may differ, Max is there every step of the way for Belle to help her uncover who her secret Santa is.

This was a super fun romantic suspense story. I loved the Hollywood setting and the television studio where Belle and Max worked. The cast of characters, secondary cast included, were quite interesting, entertaining, and well-fleshed out. Belle’s and Max’s opposing viewpoints in their movie reviews were amusing. I got a kick out of the fashion sense of the two leads—Max with his open vests, no shirt included, and formfitting jeans; Belle covered up from her neck down, sometimes with gloves included. The suspense was really good; I changed my mind so many times on who I thought the villain was. Great descriptions as well, both with places and with the characters. Just a lot of fun all the way around.… (mere)

Although when it comes to plotlines in some of the older Intrigues (this one was written 12 or more years ago) have been done to death (amnesiac woman has to depend on a hunka hunka man to try to remember who she is) I thought it was pretty good. It almost lost me at the beginning though when said woman was kissed awake by said man after he found her deep in sleep under his Christmas tree at his office (which happens to be The Institute of Dreams). She had the nerve to kiss him back....um hello....if I fall asleep and wake up with amnesia and a man I probably have never met has me in a tongue wrestling match I would totally come up swinging not kissing.

But anyway....I digress. As I mentioned, this book is pretty good. Connecting with the characters was pretty easy. The author did a great job of giving all her characters depth which is not always easy in category romances because the length of the books tend to not allow for the development. So 3 dimensional characters....check.

Believable storyline....well, maybe half a check. When Briana discovered she didn't know how she got to the institute she said something along the lines of missing 3 hours of her life. Later in the book this was proven to not be the case. It was even worse. So when that little zinger was discovered I had that ominous music playing in my head....dumdumDUUUUUUUUMMMMMM. Even later in the book the new development was proven to not be the case. It was again worse and once again the ominous music played in my head but more of comedic flair (picture the movie Clue with Tim Curry and you'll get what I mean.)

Despite the crazy plotline and a couple other "issues" that are more about personal taste then anything I give it 4 Stars. This author is one I will definitely seek out among my hundreds of Harlequin Intrigues to read sooner rather then later. After all Rodgers did a masterful job of answering the question that I didn't know I had. "What happens when an amnesiac has amnesia about the time she had amnesia but remembers everything else?"… (mere)

WARNING: COntains SPoilers

THis is a legal thriller romance and it features a man named Nilton Morebug who is accused of murdering a Warren Beaver. Graham Knight is the defense attorney and Rosalind Hart is the prosecutor. A romantic relationship develops between these two lawyers as one would expect from Mill & Boon. There is one scene which implies sexual intercourse but it is really poorly written so the reader is unsure whether they have or have not. Other scenes are written very well, one if the issues was not resolved too. ONe of the underlying messages of this novel is that if a woman wants a certain man, alterations to her appearance where deemed necessary do much help. Not really helpful for the feminist cause!… (mere)