REVIEW for Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger AND Molly Cooper's Dream Date

Thank you! thank you to the wonderful people at Mills & Boon who recently contacted me and sent me a great goodie bag full of gifts.  Included:  a very practical tote bag (which I am using every day), a chocolate bar (yum!) a mud pack for my face and two paperback books - both of which I am reviewing here.  Love, love this company!!!!

TITLE:                         Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger

AUTHOR:                    Heidi Rice

GENRE:                        Romance

RATING:                       4 Stars


As you know, I am a huge fan of chick lit which, of course, has its own brand of romance.  Having said this, I have tried to stay away from the more "romantic/romance" type of novels because I feel they have been, in the past, kind of silly and unrealistic.  However, I have to say that I was immediately attracted to the Mills & Boon books for a few reasons.  The first one - I loved the covers - they felt "chick litty" (yes, I make up my own words) to me.  Secondly, I started reading a few lines and felt as though I was reading a chick lit novel and not one of those sappy romance novels.  I was hooked.  Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger is a great read (although very short).  I loved the basic premise - a  wounded (both physically and emotionally) rich boy gets saved by a sexy, yet hard nosed woman - who has had her share of pain, but finds herself attracted to this wounded man.

Ryan, the main character is a very interesting character and not one dimensional at all.  The author took great pains to make him very real, with his own insecurities and drama and this worked well for me.  It created a wonderful tension filled - toe to toe type of relationship between Ryan and Maddy (the other main character) - providing lots of great dialogue and, while, of course, these books can be predictable up to a point, I found myself completely involved in the back and forth between these two.  I loved that Maddy is a strong female character who does not expect Ryan to be "her prince and save her from the world".  Great read.

TITLE:               Molly Cooper's Dream Date

AUTHOR:         Barbara Hannay

GENRE:            Romance

RATING:          4 Stars

This book was interesting to me because the two main characters - Patrick and Molly, don't actually really get together for a while.  I loved that this book, while obviously a romance, also has, in my opinion, subtext - mainly that a) destiny is always present and, while you may not see the big picture, it is working for you and making sure that you get to where you need to be  and b) you may "think" you know what is best for you, but you don't really.
Through a series of emails exchange between Patrick and Molly, we get to discover who these two are and what it is that they are hoping for in their lives, which I thought was a very clever way of creating and building a storyline that I felt quite engaged in.  It worked because it is gradual without feeling too rushed.

The "little twist" was also a nice touch and kind of made me stop for a second and consider that what I was thinking wasn't actually the truth (sorry, don't want to give away any spoilers).

The author does a wonderful job of creating two interesting characters, as well as a premise that offers up alot of possibilities.  I really liked this one as well.