Escorted by Claire Kent

Escorted
Grade-B-
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Genre-contemporary
Reviewed by Kate

Okay, I admit to being intrigued by the premise right off the bat. You just don’t run across too many male escort romances out there.

Lori, a successful romance author, is still a virgin at 26. She hires Anders, a male escort, to take care of that problem for her. Obviously, or it wouldn’t be a romance, they both fall for each other.

This story is told from Lori’s view point. You only hear Ander’s thoughts if he shares them with Lori. I typically don’t care for this style of narrative, but it worked here. I don’t think I could have liked Ander as much as I did if the story included his other “engagements.” There were two things that bothered me about the story:

1. The title. I kept thinking “oooh, you got escorted” in the same line of “you got served,” and

2. the pen name Lori uses in the story is Claire Kent, the name of the author.
Small things, I know, but that’s just me.

Married in Haste by Cathy Maxwell

Married in Haste (Marriage, #1)
Grade-B-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Marriage #1
Genre-historical
Reviewed by Kate

Brenn, the new Earl of Merton, has come to London to find a bride…a rich bride…to help him rebuild his estate. The estate has been in tatters for 200 years and he is currently living in a small cottage.

Tess Hamlin has been the belle of the ball for a few seasons now. But an heiress can afford to be choosy, can’t she? When she finds out her inheritance is gone, she must marry quickly before society finds out about her financial state.

Married within a week, neither Brenn nor Tess knows the other’s secret.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I connected with both characters and couldn’t help but root for them. But the typical “I love him but will be mad at him until he says those three magic words” part went on a bit long for me.

Game of Hearts by Kate Donovan

Game of Hearts  (Happily Ever After Company, #1)
Grade-C+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Happily Ever After Company #1
Genre-historical, mail order bride
Reviewed by Kate

Megan and Suzannah have been best friends since they were little girls. They promised each other that they would get married at the same time and live close enough to each other that their children would be able to play together.

They consult a matchmaker to arrange marriages for them. When they are unable to find two acceptable husbands that live close enough together, they decide Megan will accept a contract with Dennis Riordan. Suzannah will accompany Megan on her journey and then pick a husband at that point. I can’t see anything going wrong, can you?

While on their journey, Megan meets and falls in love with Ben, but she feels unable to marry him due to her marriage contract. Ben follows them to their destination and is there when the girls discover that Dennis is really Aengus Yates.

Suzannah has been in love with Aengus Yates since she was a little girl. But he has broken her heart twice already. Once when, at age 11, she asked him to wait for her to be old enough to marry, but her married someone else instead. The second time, when he left his wife and two young sons and never came back.

Aengus can’t marry Megan, despite their contract, once he sees how much she loves Ben. But can Suzannah marry Aengus after he has already broken her heart?

I think you can tell that the story is a bit involved. Definitely much easier to read than it is to summarize. What I’ve written about above is just the first half of the book. The scond half follows Suzannah as she adjusts to marriage and tries to help Aengus mend the broken relationship with his sons.

While I enjoyed the story, I don’t think I’ll be buying the other books in the series.