Treasures of the Sun

Treasures of the Sun by Christina Dodd 1204

Katherine Chamberlain left her life in Boston where she acted as servant and legal extraordinaire to her wealthy relatives, to marry adventurer Tobias Maxwell. Damian de la Sola, a native Californian whose Spanish ancestors had come to California years before, sees the beautiful Katherine and knows instantly that she is meant for him but Tobias is his best friend so he makes no move to intercede. Only a few short weeks into the marriage, Tobias is murdered in public and Katherine is left a widow with no one to turn to. Damien takes Katherine into his home and gives her a position in his household so that she will feel like she is doing something worthwhile and decides that the best thing is to let Katherine do her grieving and then step in when she is ready. He is furious when he learns that Katherine intends to leave Monterey and wastes no time in telling her that leaving is impossible because their destiny lies with each other.

Katherine cannot deny the attraction she has for Damien but his life is so far removed from everything familiar to her and she knows she will never be entirely accepted by the proud Californians who have reason to distrust and dislike Americans. She runs away but Damien's family is powerful and they manage to delay her leaving, but in doing so give the person who killed Tobias the opportunity to come after her and reveal that Tobias was killed to try and find the lost treasure of the padres. Damien is able to save Katherine but realizes that she will not really be safe until the treasure is found or proven a myth so he decides to find it; but not before marrying Katherine. Katherine knows that their marriage will be difficult to negotiate because she is a proud American and he is an equally proud and controlling Californian but together they must work to solve a century old mystery to save their lives and give them a chance for a future.

Katherine was very intelligent and proud and I admired that she took control of her life and took a risk and wanted to be self sufficient. I especially liked her realistic look at her relationship with Damien as she realized that it would be very difficult and that it would take massive amounts of compromise on both their parts, including her own. She was willing to work on this and did not accept Damien just being who he was and insisted that he see her for who she was. One of my favorite moments every came when he was trying to run her life and she asked him how he fell in love with her if he doesn't seem to like any of the elements that make her who she is and he realized that he was in the wrong and did not want to change the woman he loved. Damien was not as well developed although there was a definite sense of pride and the knowledge that Katherine was the woman for him and while he was at times frustrating I liked how at the end he realized he would have to compromise in order to love Katherine.

Their relationship progressed nicely and I really like when the characters have a real problem that they need to work out, in this case their pride clashing, and it was handled so brilliantly and really made it clar that they would be able to work through other things in the future. There was some sex between them, not very much, and it was just so-so and kind of swallowed up in the rest of the immense book. The treasure hunting was really the focus of this book and while I wanted to get into it because it was almost California history, I just couldn't and did not like it. This book was incredibly long and sat in my to be read pile for a nearly a year and when I finally did get around to reading it I decided that the easiest way to get through it was to do it in very fast 50 page bursts so it did take me a long time. It was certainly not a fast read, there was not very much dialogue and had lots of descriptions and long narratives and back story, and had no funny moments to break up the monotony.

Rating: Too long and too slow with too much that didn't interest me but what was there in the romance department held my interest and I did enjoy.

Scottish Brides

Scottish Brides 719

Under the Kilt by Christina Dodd

Hadden Fairchild's drive to document the oral history and excentricities of Scotland takes him to the clan MacNachtan where he meets and falls in love with their "leader" Andra. But Andra does not trust men after she has been abandoned by all of them in her life and she forces him to leave. Neither can get the other out of their head and Hadden comes back determined to win her and discover the secrets of the MacNachtan marriage kilt. When the servants take it into their heads to meddle and the two are locked in the attic with the marriage plaid and plenty of fertility figurines to help them work through their problems.

This was quite a short story where a lot of the getting to know you obviously took place before the story really began. I really did miss a lot of that, but the story did get to at least a few meaty issues such as her problem with letting go of responsibility and her issues with men. While the story ended up with a few more issues to be resolved, it worked fairly well. The sex was incredibly hot, like wow, for such a short story, but I did not like that there was a completely random out of the blue reunion between her characters from other stories.

Rose in Bloom by Stephanie Laurens

Duncan, Earl of Strathyre, has known Rose Mackenzie-Craddock her whole life and she has been quite the thorn in his side. When he heads back to his childhood home to introduce the woman who may become his fiance, he runs into Rose and discovers that she continues to push his buttons, but in a completely different way. Rose is also contemplating an engagement to another man, but neither Rose nor Duncan can resist the other. They begin a game of teasing that keeps both of them on their toes and it is not long before they both realize they can't marry someone else.

Remarkable what Laurens can do with 100 pages really as she manages to write some really great chemistry between these two. I liked both of these characters immensely and they worked together so amazingly perfectly. A great deal of the story was told from Duncan's point of view and I really liked getting that perspective in a romance. To go along with the chemistry there was a little bit of really good sex, but not enough to overwhelm such a short story. Really this story boiled down to two great characters who were just great together.

Gretna Greene by Julia Quinn

Margaret Pennypacker rushes off to Gretna Greene to save her brother Edward after discovering that he has eloped, but on her way she is waylaid by bandits. Angus Greene saves her as he hates bad guys and upon discovering she has been robbed he takes her to an inn and pretends they are married. The two spend the evening discussing Scottish cuisine, their wayward siblings, and trying to avoid ripping each other's clothes off. When morning finally arrives, they've only known each other one day, but in Gretna anything can happen.

I enjoyed the slightly contrived means by which Quinn got both our characters to Gretna as it gave them some common ground and moving on from "protecting" their siblings lent the

ir rashness some realism. At times I did become irritating with their too-cute banter and it seemed more like arguing than fun, but I still liked how well these characters fit. The sex was kind of thrown in rather willy- nilly in the end, but the story definitely still felt complete.

The Glenlyon Bride by Karen Ranney

Lachlan Sinclair is not at all pleased when the local seer predicts he will marry, and he assumes this woman is Harriet, an English lady. Janet MacPhearson is companion to Harriet and she yearns to go back to Scotland. When Lachlan shows up to scope out Harriet, he finds Janet and assumes she is Harriet. At night the two meet out by the water and it is not long before they know they love each other. But with a legend against them and Harriet using her evil influence, it may take a lot for them to find their way to Glenlyon together.

I really liked the plot of this book with the mistaken identity, but there were instances where I thought it was handled poorly. To me it was obvious that Janet was actually the woman from the legend and I wanted them to wake up and go for it. I thought that Janet and Lachlan were perfect for each other and really meshed well, with a lot of common and a lot of ways the two could help each other. Some brief sex was thrown in almost as an afterthought, but overall the story worked fairly well.

In Bed with the Duke

In Bed with the Duke by Christina Dodd 602

Emma Chegwidden is the much abused companion of Lady Lettice as they travel across Moricadia, a sovereign kingdom under France. At a ball, Emma makes the acquaintance of Marcus Durant, the heir to the dukedom of Nevitt who is living there under house arrest since Prince Sandre believes he knows the leaders of a rebellion. The entire population lives under the thumb of the de Guignards, who are ruthless in maintaining their power, however rumors have begun to surface that the ghost of the old prince is haunting the countryside and heralding the coming of a new regime. When Lady Lettice throws Emma out of her employ, Emma runs in to the wilderness and would have died if she had not been saved by the Reaper. She is taken in by Lady Francers, the cousin of Prince Sandre who still believes that Sandre is a good person and that his cruelty is nothing but a myth. She feels as though she owes the Reaper something and decides that she will do a little spying to help him out.

The Reaper begins to sneak in to Emma's rooms at night and, although he does not speak, Emma admires him for his dedication to freeing Moricadia and does not mind his quite intriguing physical attributes. She is led to believe that Michael is merely hiding out in Moricadia and neglecting his duties and she is furious when she discovers the truth about who the Reaper really is. She believes he has been using her and thinks that she can never trust him again. However, Michael already knows that Emma is something special- the kind of woman a man should marry because of her bravery and her integrity. Things in Moricadia are heating up and while Prince Sandre is going mad with the need to find the Reaper and put things to rest, Michael and Emma are doing everything they can to spur things on. It will take a horrible tragedy to bring things to a head and force Michael and Emma to pull out all the steps to bring down a corrupt government and bring their lives together.

I used to read everything Christina Dodd put out, but it's been four years since her last historical and I and I can tell that she has not lost her spark. She writes very well, with internal musings, great details, and it still manages to be fast and fun and not bogged down. I love her characters here, especially Emma. It's always fun to read about a companion who suddenly makes it in the big world. I loved that she was actually able to pretend that she was interested in Sandre- too many heroines just can't lie, but in this case it was necessary so she was able to do. And I liked that she was excited about her new circumstances but she also recognized that there was something more important out there and genuinely felt bad that she had such wealth while others did not. I wish that she had come clean that Michael was the Reaper from the beginning and we'd had more of the story from his point of view. We all knew that he was the ghost so it seemed odd that we were never presented with him thinking about what had gone down between him and Emma while he was the Reaper.

I tend not to be a fan of stories that take place in make believe countries, but in this case I really liked it. It was probably because it was in the back drop of a very necessary and exciting revolution and both of the protagonists were playing such an important role in it. I liked that she didn't try to sugar coat anything and there were definitely some hair raising events in this book. This part of the story really did take over though and I really wish that there had been more time for the actual romance and the development of their relationship. However, I can understand how such an intense experience can bring people together. The few steamy scenes were good, not great, but there were only a couple of them and I would have preferred more. The secondary characters were excellently written, from the spot-on little girl who is trying to help her family, to the rather stupid yet also cannily knowledgeable de Guignard widow, to Sandre's cousin who is trying desperately to believe that her cousin is still a good person.

Rating: I enjoyed the book and liked the characters, but I wish there had been more concentration on the romance. I will be reading the sequel to find out what happens in Moricadia.