Since first publishing in January 1996, Lori Foster has become a USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and New York Times bestselling author. Lori has published through a variety of houses, including Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin, Silhouette, Samhain, and Berkley/Jove. She is currently published with HQN.
Lori hosts a very special annual “Reader & Author” event in West Chester, Ohio. Proceeds from the event have benefited many worthy causes, including the Hamilton County YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter, the Animal Adoption Foundation, The Conductive Learning Center for children with spina bifida and cerebral palsy, and The One Way Farm, Children’s Home.
Four stories that were a bit risque for me. I prefer a less obvious romance. The first one had a male protagonist who was a complete pig until almost the end. I have a hard time figuring out why any man would want to change a woman so much, only in the end he was the one who changed. I had a hard time finishing it. The others were okay but still a little over the top.
"Unbuttoning Emmalina" / Suzanne Forster: 1-2 stars. Boring & repressed. liked least "Tangled Images" / Lori Foster: 2 stars. Like that guy was the one in the lingerie. 3nd best "Sinderella" / Kimberly Raye: 3 1/2 -4 stars. Emotive & believeable characters/story line. liked most "Leather and Lace" / Maggie Shayne: 2 stars. Fairly typical M&B. 2nd best
Review is for 'Leather and Lace' by Maggie Shayne.
This story is part of the Sinful anthology that came out several years ago but I only have this one individual story on my Kindle. I absolutely loved it! Martha Jane lost her secretary job a month ago. Her sexy boss, Richard, fired her to hire a blonde bimbo, his supposed girlfriend, and he never knew plain Martha Jane was in love with him. Martha Jane and her best friend Kayla has started a lingerie line and their model falls sick on the night of their first ever fashion show so prim and proper Martha Jane has to fill in the stilettos with a mask to boot! This is a hilarious, heart-warming story about secret love, old hurts and mystery on Valentine’s Day. Richard and Martha Jane’s relationship starts fast but believable. Though they’ve know each other for about a year, he pretends to not know who the mystery woman is behind the sexy mask and she won’t tell him. I love their banter, the way she gets her revenge on Richard for him ignoring her when she worked for him and for him showing off all his girlfriends in front of her. He gets his comeuppance and the book shows that everyone can change. 5 Stars
Disclaimer – I bought this book for my own enjoyment. I am a reader. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.
This anthology includes 4 novellas I am rating the two that I read.
I'm going with a very generous 2 stars for Lori Foster Tangled Images. I just didn't like it. As Romeo would say What's in a name? Well everything for me. And Mack really didn't live up to his name. I thought he would be much more rugged and tough guy and super hot but he was just ehhh I could take him or leave him.
The story was the same. My vote is leave it.
I'm giving Suzanne Forster Unbuttoning Emmaline 3 stars for a few reasons.
Jeff's assistant Gretchen is a riot!
Love the name Emmalina!
This one reminds me of the Meg Ryan/Hugh Jackman movie Kate and Leopold minus the time travel.
It's cute and gave me a few giggles.
Novella's are tough the author really has to be spot on building the character and weaving a believable plot in such a short time. Unfortunately the two I have reviewed fell "short".
First short story,"Unbuttoning Emmaline " was such an unbelievable disaster of a plot that I couldn't get past page 17. Zero stars.
Luckily, I skipped to the next story, "Tangled Images" by Lori Foster, whose books I immensely enjoy. This one, about Mack Winston (one of the yummy Winston brothers) did not disappoint. 4 stars.
"Sinderella" by Kimberly Randall was a fun little story of hidden identity & making a move on one's crush of many years. 3 stars
I've enjoyed several of Maggie Shayne's books, and this one didn't disappoint. "Leather and Lace" was a nice little number that included a mask, some pretty sexy lingerie and a boss who never noticed his secretary was more than just an efficient, smart woman. 4 stars.
An average of 2.75 stars. Just do yourself a favor & skip the first story...
a good, solid anthology. Sweet, sometimes a little too innocent considering the topic - lingerie, and too many b;ushing virgins in contemporary for my taste. But worth the read.