Grade-B-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Marriage #1
Genre-historical
Reviewed by Kate
Kate
Game of Hearts by Kate Donovan
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.
Worth the Scandal by Karen Erickson
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Series-Worth It #1
Genre-contemporary
Reviewed by Kate
When Tessa started as CEO Alex Worth’s assistant, she was instantly attracted to him. When he asks her to accompany him on a ten day business trip in Europe, she knows she will have to work hard to resist temptation. What she doesn’t know is that Alex is attracted to her as well.
The story is pretty formulaic. They spend a few days trying to ignore their attraction to each other, they give in, he fires her when they get back to the office, she ends up pregnant and avoids him for a year, she gives in too easily when he finds her, they live happily ever after.
Because it reminded me a bit of the older Harlequins, I would rename it “The Tycoon’s Ex-Assisstant’s Secret Baby.”
Dirty Girls' Good Books 
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.