Highlander Taken by Juliette Miller

Highlander Taken (Clan Mackenzie, #2)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Moderate Kink
Series-Clan Mackenzie #2
Reviewed by Kay

Let me explain the hotness level thing first for this book. Inferno is our hottest rating and for good reason but you generally don’t find it in historical romance. At least, not in the historicals I read. I have very specific guidelines for historical romance and erotica has no place there for me. There were multiple sexual situations in this book but no penetrating sex until the end of the book but scenes of non-penetrating sex were explicit as well as some bondage and spanking with a leather strap. That’s where the inferno rating comes from.

Kade Mackenzie has to wed for an alliance to strengthen his clan’s army and holdings. He is a third son. His oldest brother is widowed and not ready to remarry yet. His second brother was all but betrothed and then met his meant to be bride, so his betrothal to a Morrison daughter had to be broken. In come Kade and Stella Morrison to fill the vacancy spot the broken engagement left. Kade has desired Stella even before he met her because she had a feisty reputation. When he sees her, he falls for her beauty. He accepts the fact they have to get married and looks forward to his marriage bed.

Stella Morrison has been abused by her father or his men physically for years. She looks like her dead mother and her father for some reason takes his grief out on Stella. She doesn’t want the marriage but wants to protect her clan. She has heard her husband is a beast, so she is apprehensive to say the least.

I liked this book but not as much as I wanted to. I wanted to love it. It drug a little in the middle for me. Good story telling otherwise. My big problems with it were no full blown sex until the end of the book and in one sex scene he used a leather strap on her. The later is not my cup of tea. Personal preference but I rate based on what I like and I did not like that part. Good voice of the author and she’ll probably get better as she goes on.

The Daddy Pact by Kristy K. James

The Daddy Pact
Grade: C
Hotness Level: No Sex
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Reviewed by Kate


Dan’s drug addicted brother has done the unthinkable-he’s killed a man just home from his honeymoon.  Dan decides he needs to do whatever he can to try to make things easier for the victim’s widow, Jess.  The news that she is pregnant wakes Jess from the haze of depression she’s been living in since her husband dies over 3 months ago.  When her ex-father-in-law threatens to take the baby from her, Dan offers to marry Jess (in name only, of course) and adopt the baby.

Once the pair are married, the ex-father-in-law ceases to be a threat.  Then the story becomes about dealing with the guilt.  Dan feels responsible because he had seen his brother shortly before the murder.  Jess feels disloyal to her dead husband because she begins having feelings for Dan.  Can Jess and Dan get past the guilt to build a real marriage?

I am an avid reader of the marriage of convenience plot line, but this one fell a little short of my hopes. Perhaps just a bit too much realism for my escape reading.  Well, that and the lack of sex didn’t help either.

A Negotiated Marriage by Noelle Adams

A Negotiated Marriage

Grade – B
Hotness Level – Blaze
Kink Level – No Kink
Genre – Contemporary
Reviewed by Kate


Three years ago Luke and Molly entered into a marriage of convenience… a sexless marriage of convenience. Luke had a playboy reputation that constantly kept him in the tabloids. A stable marriage would be better for his business. Molly made the mistake of falling in love with someone who didn’t return her love. Marrying Luke, who she respected and trusted, was a good way to get back at her ex. Neither Luke nor Molly wanted the complications of emotions in their relationship.

Luke surprises Molly by asking to renegotiate their marriage contract… to include sex. What starts as a weekly commitment quickly turns to more, leaving Molly feeling like she is once again in a one sided relationship.

As both Luke and Molly are comfortable in their marriage, this became a story of two people getting to know each other all over again. I enjoyed this unique approach to a marriage of convenience a lot.