Jackie Manning

When Captain Nicholas Sinclair and few crew are the only survivors of his fighting ship he is proclaimed a hero by King Charles and awarded title and an estate. But Nick wants nothing more than another ship and to go back to sea. First he must find out why the estate is failing before he can sell it to buy his ship. Becky Forester, widow of the former owner is trying to squirrel away enough money from the estate to secure her and her 3 siblings future. Their clash is the theme of the story. Good enough story but the cover image was about as wrong as it could get. Nick's uniform is red instead of the Navy blue. The 3 siblings pictured are all wrong. Supposed to be a 12 year old boy, an 8 year old girl and a 3 year boy. The picture has a 10 year old girl, a 4-5 year old boy and a 1 year old baby boy.… (more)

King Charles awards Captain Nicholas Sinclair the title of baronet and a country manor (Thornwood Hall) because he is a war hero. (The King also wants Nicholas to investigate why Thornwood Hall isn't making a profit.) When Nicholas arrives at the manor he has his work cut out for him with the troublesome crofters and Thornwood's current owner, the pretty and feisty Becky Forester.

This was an entertaining and light Harlequin Historical that also had its serious moments. I liked Becky, she was quite a character. She was very protective of the crofters who were relying on her, and she was a great sister to her siblings. Nicholas was a good hero. He felt guilty because he survived a ship battle in which his whole crew died. So he couldn't wait to get back to the sea to avenge them. Even though I thought he moped a bit too long over this. This book was filled with many humorous moments. I enjoyed the cast of characters and the verbal sparring between Nicholas and Becky, who made a wonderful couple. The book cover looked Christmassy, but Christmas only happened in the epilogue.

A lively and fun read.… (more)

1867 - All Noelle Bellencourt wanted was to get to the only family she had left in this world. Uncle Marcel had written of his great house, his great stake, his great life in Nevada, so when she loses her parents and her father final request is for her to deliver his precious magician props to his brother, there is nothing else to do but make the journey west from her home in New York to Crooked Creek. Tracking the last trail that a dean man had made, Luke Savage found Noelle alone with her possessions waiting for her guide to return with help. Now that he found her, he couldn’t just leave her even though he had important business in Crooked Creek and a time limit to get to it. As a gambler, he had known his risks but never expected to be cheated by his own partner, Blackjack. Now saddled with a stubborn women that would not leave her priceless crates behind or a lost calf that she had found, Luke had to find a way to get them all to Crooked Creek. Arriving just in time, they found that Blackjack / Uncle Marcel was dead. Or at least supposedly dead, Noelle and Luke had to find a way to work together in the Silver Hearts Saloon.

**** A classic Harlequin Historical Western Romance. It had some of the clichés that you would expect. The helpless female - well, not so much helpless as naive to the world, her uncle, and of course men. The rough and rowdy man - Luke did smoke and drink, but not to excess, he did swear a bit, but he also used words like ‘jeezzo’ (new one to me). There were guns - Ike, the piano player seemed to be the one that liked to use them to get peoples attention. There was even Indians - who were more concerned with the health of the chiefs son than causing any real problems for Noelle and Luke. So maybe not so much of the cliché as just a setting (Western). It was slow (not much action) and gentle (even Luke), an all around easy read.… (more)

Liam O’Shea is your typical Irish ex-Special-Operations guy who now works for a security company. Typical? Well, in the world of romantic suspense. Anyway, he’s on his way to the family home for an event in his big Irish family when he almost hits a woman with his car. The woman, a tall, gorgeous red-head, of course, is somewhat beaten-up, somewhat hysterical, and quite incoherent. Liam takes her home where his doctor sister diagnoses a few scrapes and bruises and hysterical amnesia. So maybe something terrible has happened to the woman who turns out to be Sara Regis, or maybe she’s some sort of spy who wants to get information about the security company he works for.

When Sara is almost the victim of a car bomb, and seems to be of on-going interest to two low-level mob types, Liam becomes increasingly convinced that Sara’s plight, and her terror, are genuine.

Although the rest of the story continues in a typical Intrigue fashion, it remains and enjoyable read.… (more)