Sarah Morgan

TBR Challenge – Change of Plans: Reading Note 94

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It is TBR Challenge time again and I am only a week late. This month’s theme is Change of Plans. My choice this month was to read an early 21st century Sarah Morgan novel. She has been a favourite author who used to be an auto-read for me until she moved away from romance fiction to women’s fiction. Sarah Morgan wrote one of my favourite ever Harlequin/Mills & Boon novels Playing by the Greek’s Rules so I was interested to read an earlier iteration of its theme: a gazillionaire power-broking Greek male protagonist, a much poorer though determined (feisty???) English female protagonist, settings that go between an Anglosphere country and a (sometimes made-up) Greek island, dysfunctional family backstories, and the power of lurrrrrve to overcome all the money-mongering, maniacal, master-manipulated machinations by the mercurial and macho main-man (I am LOLing at my stupid alliteration).

Did I approach this novel with a jaded, exhausted soul? Yes, I did. Did the storytelling carry me away, wiping the cynicism far from my heart? Wellll…read on, my friends. You will find out. And turn away if you don’t want any spoilers (seriously, it is a 20 year old book – it’s perfectly fine to reveal all at this point).

Red cover, a couple in bed kissing.

Sarah Morgan’s The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife

“Zander Volakis is a ruthless tycoon who’s used to getting all he desires. Now, in order to secure the Greek island resort he’s always wanted, he needs an image change—fast!

The only person who can help him is the woman who betrayed him five years ago: his wife, Lauranne O’Neill. But Lauranne refuses to work with Zander again. He ruined her life once and he has the power to do it again. The sexual chemistry between them might be sizzling, but Lauranne knows that to play with Zander is to play with fire. As for Zander, her refusal to help leaves him with only one option…”

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TBR challenge – What a Wonderful World (July not September): Reading Notes 78-79

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This month, I have decided to ignore the usual order, and I am backtracking to July’s theme of SuperWendy’s TBR challenge and I am going to post on the theme of What a Wonderful World. I will find a way to catch up on August and September at another time.

July – What a Wonderful World

The cover of Kate Clayborn's The Other Side of Disappearing. It is a deep orange cover with an illustration of a woman with long wavy hair. It looks like the hair is etcheded, pencil drawn with the wind blowing it forward. At the tips of her hair, stars are flying forward. The woman is wearing purple earphones whose wires are tangled in her hair.

Reading Note 78: In July, I found myself reading Kate Clayborn’s The Other Side of Disappearing. This novel is not the focal point of this TBR post but I will discuss it in short.

I am a big fan of Kate Clayborn with several Shallowreader posts proselytising about her books and I waited several months on the library holds list before getting access to this novel. It is a story about two age-gap half-sisters whose shitty mum has abandoned them. Jess has been caring for Tegan for many years, and now that Tegan has come of age, she wants to seek out her mother who ran off with a con-man. With the awkward involvement of two journalists, Adam and (secondary but important character) Salem. The four of them go on a road-trip, following the trail of the few postcards sent by shitty mum. The road-trip allows for the slow reveal of the characters motivations, soul-searching and psyches, as well as their relationships with each other. And of course, it builds up to Jess and Adam’s romance.

I was expecting a wonderful story, however, unlike most of my romance blogger friends, I was left unmoved by the novel. It was an OK story, I could see the complexity of the numerous characters development and their story arcs but it didn’t give me the joy that Claybourn’s other books have given me. If anything, it left me frustrated, as the storytelling felt disjointed which I will attribute to the function of the “he said/she said” structure where each chapter alternated the point-of-view of each protagonist, both of which were told in the first point-of-view and in a mostly linear trajectory.

I personally love two point-of-view/head-jumping romances where you get an insight into each character’s thoughts. The last decade (and more) trend towards a first point-of-view and only from one of the main characters, annoyed me immensely. It was like romance fiction had reverted to the 1970s and 1980s when this was the standard. I loved the 1990s which shifted the storytelling to allow for multiple characters’ perceptions of the relationship build. I am glad that we are now seeing a return to two (or more) perspectives, however it is like a pendulum. The he said/she said style of alternating chapters are jarring to read as they move from one character to the other.

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One Big Huge TBR 2018 post

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I have had a shockingly bad year in the review stakes. And I haven’t posted a single time for SuperWendy’s TBR challenge for 2018. And I think the only way I will be able to get back in her TBR good books so as to take part in TBR 2019 is to do one big TBR post to cover the whole of 2018. So here goes!

January 17 – We Love Short Shorts! (shorter reads)

This is not necessarily a romance, however it is about the love and broken hearts and breakups and wonderful couples separated due to someone dying. The Museum of Broken Relationships: Modern Love in 203 Everyday Objects by Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic. Using one of my favourite writing styles, the epistolary nature of this book with a few pages and photographs of objects held now at two permanent museums – on in Zagreb, Croatia and one in Los Angeles, California. There is also a touring collection. I adored this book. And I really hope that there is a sequel for unbroken relationships.

February 21 – Backlist Glom (author with multiple books in your TBR)

Molly O'Keefe covers with naked headless men showing pecs and abs.

Molly O’Keefe’ You Can’t Hurry Love and You Can’t Buy Me Love

I adore Molly O’Keefe but I rarely stumble upon her books so when I do find them, I read them straightaway. Though I don’t consider 2 books a glom, I am sneaking O’Keefe in here.

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Recommended reading and an ever growing library TBR

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It’s Wendy the SuperLibrarian’s Reading TBR Challenge time again and this month the theme is a book that has been recommended to you. Now most of my library loans tend to be the books I have sought out due to someone’s recommendation. I am loathe to spend money on a recommendation unless I have tried it first as I read way too much to purchase books without a thought. I am soooo far away from a One-Click reader but I do end up chasing library copies down constantly and this leaves me with reader anxiety.

A fortnight ago I stood at my shelves looking at my library loans trying to decide what I was going to read next when I was overwhelmed by the number of books I had amassed. With 28 library books to choose from, I knew I had reached that moment of terror that so many avid readers experience – I was about to declare reading bankruptcy and return every single book to the library just to rid myself of the pressure of reading and reviewing each one. And then I realised – I am a shallowreader and I don’t need to engage with my books in a critical manner. I just need to read them. So I embarked on a book-a-day reading bonanza! As of today, my library loan TBR now stands at 18 items! Yay! Of the 10 books that I read recommendations came from that wonderful (and at times scary) space Twitter where I have met so many like-minded readers who have recommended these authors to me such as: Miss Bates and Roz and Anna Campbell and Rachel Bailey and SuperWendy herself as well as probably many other people. And I thank them all! And yes – I will quickly run through all 10 books that I read:

Molly O’Keefe

His Wife for One NightHis Wife for One Night

So this one had a mashup of my favourite tropes: friends-to-lovers, marriage-of-convenience, cowboys (well…cowgirls?). Jack had married his BFF Mia 5 years earlier but he is a bit thick and doesn’t pick up on her “I lurve you” vibes until she asks for a divorce and suddenly they are having hot sex. Mia walks out on him and there is a big bomb blast and lots of damaged characters and lots of healing to be had. It was an angsty read and despite some loose ends that I would have liked to have seen resolved, I enjoyed this book and I particularly liked its ending.

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ShallowreaderBINGO! February edition!

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Congratulations to the ShallowreaderBingo! February winner – Sandra Antonelli. Read about Sandra’s winning reads here: ShallowreaderBINGO–It’s Better Than Winning a Meat Tray!
partyblowergiphy

As for my own Bingo card – here is how I fared:

Jane the VirginJane the Virgin

Bingo Square: Netflix and Chill

I absolutely adore Jane the Virgin. It is currently my favourite show ever. It is like a mash up between Days of Our Lives, Harlequin Presents/Sexy Mills & Boon and Arrested Development. What has this got to do with reading, I hear you ask? Well, my sons are also obsessed with the show and my sons watch everything on TV with closed captions turned on. Everything! It drives me batty! But it does mean I read all my viewing. I have also become somewhat obsessed with every news article and interview I can find on Jane the Virgin’s writer Jennie Snyder Urman. I find it unbelievable that she did not grow up watching soaps and telenovelas as she has hit every single bell that as a watcher I enjoy. I am totally in love with Rafael in the show. He is the ultimate Harlequin Presents Lynne Graham gazillionaire. He’s hot, he’s suave and he wears faded salmon oh-so-well. Swoon with me people! Swoon!

 

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Sarah Morgan’s Playing by the Greek’s Rules

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I had seen Sarah Morgan’s name bandied about on fave author and autobuy lists for quite a while and it was recommended to me by Miss Bates Reads Romance.

I am so absolutely glad that I bought this book. I think that Playing by the Greek’s Rules has got to be one of my favourite category romances in the last 5 years, if not ever. I absolutely adored it.

But first, the blurb:

 It’s time to throw away the rule book… 

Idealistic archaeologist Lily Rose craves a fairy-tale love, but in her experience it always ends in heartbreak. So now Lily’s trying a different approach—a fling with her boss, infamous Greek playboy Nik Zervakis!

Anti-love and anti-family, Nik lives by his own set of rules. There’s no one better to teach Lily how to separate sizzling sex from deep emotions! But while Nik has the world at his feet, he also has dark shadows in his heart… 

It starts as a sensual game, but can Lily stick to Nik’s rules? And what’s more, can he?

*sigh* I hate the word sensual. It just doesn’t work for me. The word makes me think of 80s boudoir photography and this book is far from that.

The story opens with archaeologist Lily angry and despondent having just found out the man she loved was actually married. Lily, who grew up in foster homes, is horrified. Family and marriage is sacrosanct for her. Lily blames herself for she keeps looking for a long term relationship with the wrong men. She swears that she needs to have rebound sex and tuurn her heart to Teflon. Her pursuit for love blinding her to the faults of the men she meets. Lily is a typical 20something year old and works several part time jobs so as to earn money to pay off her student loans so she finds herself cleaning billionaire hero Nik’s house when she gets into a fight with his high-tech power shower and needs to take her sopping wet clothes off. Which, of course, leads to their cute meet. Continue reading →