"Just the Sexiest Man Alive" - Julie James - 2008



For some reason, I haven't been reading much lately. I fall asleep after reading a few pages, and even books I'm enjoying knock me right out. It took quite a few tries, but I finally finished, boy, am I glad I did. I usually can't stand books with uber-rich leads, but Jason, a larger than life Hollywood bigshot (think Tom Crusie before he went crazy) and a well-off Chicago lawyer, Taylor, no stranger to a six-figure income herself felt pretty damn genuine. There were even a few scenes where I felt honest to god tears welling up. I enjoyed this novel so much, even the constant joking about the title didn't phase me!

"The Butler Did It" - Kasey Michaels - 2004


I had high hopes for this one based on the introduction, but unfortunately everything went downhill from there. I thought the plot seemed really original (apparently it isn't for those better read in the Regency genre, according to the Pandora's Box feature on All About Romance) the butler rents out his absent masters' townhouse while he's trying to find some inner peace in the country, master comes back to London unexpectedly, falls for the daughter of a family who is renting it. There's a wacky cast of characters, Michaels dedicates many pages to them, I found myself skipping ahead to the H/H scenes, then shutting the book altogether. This couple never seemed to really like each other. They fought and fell to the floor with passion, blah, blah, blah. I'm not buying it.