The Future Mrs. Winter by Sally Quilford

Reviewed by Maria

When Carey Ashmore arrived at Manishi, the imposing residence of the Winter family, she could have been forgiven for thinking that she'd just stepped into the pages of a Daphne Du Maurier novel.  The family head was called Max Winter and his girlfriend was a flirtatious, sarcastic woman by the name of Rebecca.  It all reminded Carey of a certain classic romantic suspense novel she'd just been teaching in her adult education evening class. 

Carey had been recently upset by a difficult break up with her overpowering ex-boyfriend and had needed to get away from it all.  So when her trusted friend and colleague Jake had suggested she pose as his fiancee and attend a family wedding with him in exchange for a holiday in Cornwall, she'd agreed.  Jake had explained that the deception was necessary in order to pressurie his domineering elder brother to allow him access to his share of the family fortunes.  When a dowager aunt (after a couple of gins!) lets it slip that elder brother Max is not a tightwad, but is in fact supporting a bunch of freeloading relatives, Carey knows that something is not quite right.  There's also the fact that the prospective in laws are extremely hostile towards each other for no apparent reason.  Not to mention the fact that Jake keeps on disappearing with Max's lady, Rebecca.  Carey can't understand that woman cheating on Max!  He's gorgeous and Carey is having trouble keeping up the deception of being Jake's fiancee because she finds Max so attractive.  Then a certain surprise guest joins the party!

A fine piece of romantic suspense from Sally Quilford.  It has enough mystery to send a few delicious chills up your spine.  It has enough humour to make you smile.  And it has enough romance to make you sigh.  I couldn't get enough of the dialogue, it was absolutely sparkling.  A little gem of a book.  You won't go wrong to add this to your summer reading list.

Five out of five stars.

Available here at Bookstrand.  Coming soon to Amazon.

Let Me Be Your Hero by Elise Hart

Reviewed by Maria

LET ME BE YOUR HERO is the debut novel from Elise Hart. But Elise has been writing books for several years now and is one of my favourite authors. She writes cosy crime and sweet romance (well, sweet but you could say sexy as well) as Sally Quilford. Sally's a bit like Julie Andrews in her THE SOUND OF MUSIC days - wholesome and family orientated. I can share Sally's books with my children. Elise? Well, now, that's a horse of a different colour. Elise is more Shirley MacLaine in SWEET CHARITY (think 'Hey, Big Spender' and you'll get the idea). To tell you the truth, I enjoy both Julie Andrews and Shirley MacLaine. It just depends on mood. Elise's stories are a bit naughtier than Sally's. To get to the point, Elise writes erotic romance.

It's erotic romance, but it's still romance, right? So there's a hero, a heroine and love scenes. And, hopefully, a happy ever after ending. But we have to go through a lot of difficult stuff before the HEA and it's the writer's job to convince us that the HEA is absolutely the right (write?) thing.

Well, all the right ingredients are there. There's a hero, Aden, a heroine, Georgia and a problem. Problem? Yes. Georgia is a compulsive liar. She tells outrageous, far fetched lies. Yet, for some reason, even when Aden catches her out, he's still intrigued by her. Call it curiosity, or his enquiring, medical mind, but Aden can't turn his back on this enigmatic girl. Her care and concern when a passenger on the train she's travelling on has a fatal heart attack touches Aden's heart and he gets involved. He knows she's a caring, loving girl who got a bad break in life when her father died and her mother remarried.

In many ways, this is a very dark story for a romance. Georgia's problems are very serious indeed. As the story progresses, we learn more about her. But, eternal optimist that I am, I have faith in the healing power of love. Aden's love is something that can rescue Georgia from her life of hell. But does he have enough faith in her? Does he love her enough to go down into the dark with her and still have faith in her? Or is she just a passing fancy, like others who have gone before?

Now as to the sex scenes. They are really not much stronger than in some of the contemporary romances going around, labelled as 'spicy'. The difference is in the language used. It's very strong. But in fairness, it's a mere substitution of words. The love scenes are straight, nothing kinky or deviant. Moroever, it is very definitely sex for the sake of love, not sex for the sake of sex. This is a love story. For sure. The ending is satisfying, but there's no way of predicting it unless you read it through to the end. Elise/Sally is an able writer and always delivers.

It has all the qualities of a Sally Quilford novel. The intriguing storyline, the flowing quality of the language, the excellent use of words and phrases and the attractive characters. For a piece of erotica, it's a story dominated work, not a sex dominated one. Yes, the sex is an intrinsic part of it, but then human life is like that, isn't it? If anything, the sexual explicitness of the story made the characters more realistic.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. It lived up to everything I could expect from a book by Sally Quilford. I look forward to reading more work from Elise Hart in the future. I don't see it in terms of the amount of sex that appears on the pages, I see it as a literary work in which all human life is there.

This book is published by Siren Publishing.

You can get your copy of this book here. Or if you are in the UK, here.

Command Performance by Sally Quilford

Reviewed by Maria

Anyone who reads my reviews regularly would know that I am a fan of Sally Quilford's work.  So if you're expecting me to give this book a glowing review, well, you'd be absolutely right.

What I love about Sally's work is that she is simply a joy to read.  Her writing flows so beautifully that I tend to find myself finishing chapters before I know it. It's a bit like television - effortless entertainment.  Her storylines are compulsive.

This book was written with Mills and Boon in mind but apparently, they turned it down.  It's their loss.  She is such an original writer.  She took what is  a sort of romance novel 'formula'  i.e. an English rose and a handsome Italian. With her original approach, she made something completely different of it.  I enjoyed reading about Belinda's awakening and self discovery - okay, she had this tall, dark, handsome hero helping her find her way, but who's complaining?  I'm sure the readers won't anyway.  I know I didn't.

Incidentally, this is the first time I've read anything by Sally with overtly sexual content in it.  Her pocket novels usually steer clear of the dark side of life.  They're the kind of books you could safely give to your kids to read without any worry about having their morals corrupted, so to speak.  This story, Command Performance, is written with an adult readership in mind.  Now me, while I like to read romantic fiction (provided it's good quality stuff) I'm one of those people who would prefer to leave the sexual details on the cutting room floor.  I enjoy the spark, sizzle and chemistry when reading about a romancing couple.  I have no desire whatsoever to get into bed with them.  However, times have changed and many publishers demand that stuff nowadays.  So if an author has to do what an author has to do, they should grasp the nettle bravely and this is exactly what Sally does.  I've said it before about this writer and I'll say it this time too.  She gets straight to the heart of the matter, no mucking about.  She delivers her scene frankly and even with a sense of humour which I found rather endearing.  Well done, Sally.  I know I couldn't do that myself!

I'm rather a slow reader nowadays, but I finished this one within twenty four hours.  That, in my opinion, says it all.  Definitely paisa vasool (that's a  phrase we have in India, which means 'value for money').

You can grab a copy of this ebook  here.  Or if you live in the UK, here.


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