Love at First Sight, with a Lord!

The Aristocrat and the Single Mom

By: Michelle Douglas     

The Setting: Modern times, Nelson Bay, Australia 

The Happy Couple:

Kate Petherbridge – a single mum who runs her own tour boat business

Lord Simon Morton-Blake – a proper English Lord, unaccustomed to ‘fun in the sun’

The Set-Up: Lord Simon travels to Australia, planning to bring home his wild child runaway sister. Instead, he falls for Kate, his sister’s beautiful blonde Aussie friend.

The Issue: When Kate meets Lord Simon, its love at first sight. His impeccable accent, his brilliant smile, his hard body. He seems pretty attracted to her too, until he learns she has a seven-year-old son, Jesse. Lord Simon’s aversion to children stems from a traumatic episode in his early teens, and Kate is hard-pressed to convince him he could be a great father.

Happily Ever After: After only two weeks in Australia, and two searing kisses, Simon finds himself hopelessly in love with single mum Kate. And after endless games of cricket on the beach, he even finds himself bonding with Jesse. Maybe he can be a father after all, especially if Kate says yes to his marriage proposal.

Scandalous Scale: Getting Warmer    

The Verdict: Finally, a romance with a strong and independent(ish) female lead! Kate has her life together and is perfectly happy, even before Lord Simon steps into the picture. It’s actually Lord Simon who’s falling apart. Backstories and subplots keep this minimal action story interesting, though if you’re looking for hot n’ heavy sex scenes, keep looking, this one’s relatively tame.

African Sex Safari

Dr. Greg totally looks like one of the
guys from Dream Phone

Her Very Special Boss

By: Anne Fraser   

The Setting: Modern times, Somewhere in Africa  

The Happy Couple:

Dr. Kirsty Boucher – a redheaded first year doctor unsure of her skills

Dr. Greg du Toit – a sexy surgeon who can’t let go of the past

The Set-Up: When Kirsty finds her fiancé in bed with another woman the day before her wedding, she needs to get out of town fast. Heartbroken, she travels to Africa to hone her medical skills in a tiny village hospital. Greg, her now boss, is a gifted surgeon and a total babe. How can she concentrate on medicine with him in the room?

The Issue: Kirsty throws herself into work, trying to erase the image of her cheating fiancé from her mind. A little unsure of her skills, she finds herself making stupid mistakes in front of her boss. Greg is sure Kirsty doesn’t have what it takes to hack it in the African bush. Though he finds her distractingly attractive, he can’t enter into any kind of relationship. Since the tragic death of his wife and daughter, Greg believes he will never love again. 

Happily Ever After: Close proximity and long hours at the hospital draw the pair together. The two finally give in to their lustful urges while on a safari mini-break, but Greg thinks he’s made a dreadful mistake. He can’t possibly offer Kirsty the love she deserves. But when a fire breaks out in the village, catching Kirsty in its wake, Greg realizes he can’t stand to lose another woman he loves. As he pulls her from the flames to safety, he finally tells her how he feels.

Scandalous Scale: Getting Warmer   

The Verdict: Our first medical romance certainly did not disappoint. With decent character development, a fast-paced plotline and an interesting setting, Her Very Special Boss reads like a really good episode of Grey’s Anatomy set inside African Lion Safari.

Sex (with your ex!) in the City

Marrying the Manhattan Millionaire

By: Jackie Braun   

The Setting: Modern times, New York City, USA 

The Happy Couple:

Samantha (Sam) Bradford – drop-dead gorgeous account executive at her father’s midtown advertising agency

Michael Lewis – irresistibly sexy, secret millionaire advertising executive

The Set-Up: Samantha and Michael were hot n’ heavy…seven years ago. Since their intense breakup, Sam’s been channeling her inner Taylor Swift and Michael’s been sexually frustrated on the west coast. 

Now, they’re back in New York, vying for the same multi-million dollar advertising client.

The Issue: It would be so easy for Sam to hate Michael, her biggest business rival and the man who once broke her heart…if she didn’t find him so irresistible after all these years. Michael would love to concentrate fully on work, but he can’t seem to keep Sam out of his mind (or his increasingly erotic dreams).

Happily Ever After: Thrown together in high stakes business meetings, Sam and Michael quickly fall into old patterns. Their fierce competition in the boardroom is no match for their rekindled passion in the bedroom.

After both Sam and Michael fail to land a big account, the pair realizes they’ll work better in business if they’re working together.

Scandalous Scale: Getting Warmer

Italian Stallion to the Rescue

Hired: The Italian’s Bride

By: Donna Alward   

The Setting: Modern times, Banff, Alberta, Canada

The Happy Couple:

Mariella (Mari) Ross: beautiful manager of the Fiori Cascade hotel with a dark and tragic past

Luca Fiori: an Italian Stallion, owner of the Fiori hotel chain 

The Set-Up: When Luca flies to town to renovate and rebrand his newest hotel, he meets resistance at every turn from Mari, the hotel manager. She can’t stand his take-charge attitude; he finds her beautiful but strangely fragile. 

The hours are long as renovations get under way and the attraction between the two deepens with every meeting, every lingering glance.

The Issue: Still smarting from his last relationship that ended in ruin, Luca swears love is just not for him. He’s in Banff for business, and nothing more. Mari is trying to rebuild her life after a past of violent abuse at the hands of her stepfather. She hasn’t let anyone get close to her for years, but something about Luca sets her heart aflutter.

Happily Ever After: When her past comes back to haunt her, Mari turns to Luca—and his strong, muscled shoulder—to cry on. When it comes time for Luca to fly back to Florence, Mari realizes she’s fallen in love with her protector. He’d sworn to never love again, but Luca can’t resist Mari, she’s simply bellissima.

Scandalous Scale: Getting Warmer

A Cougar in the Outback

 

Surprise: Outback Proposal

By: Jennie Adams

The Setting: Modern times, Australian Outback

The Happy Couple:

Jayne Cutter – 35-year-old tourism company executive

Alex MacKay – 25-year-old wholesale gift supplier (Brent MacKay's younger brother)

The Set-Up: One project away from a partnership at her dad’s tourism company, Jayne teams up with super sexy Alex MacKay to create unique souvenirs for visitors touring the Australian Outback.

The Issue: As the pair explores the Outback, their mutual attraction is instant. But Jayne is a decade older than Alex and is afraid of becoming a clichéd cougar. 

Obviously she has yet to watch Cougar Town and is unaware that cougars are staging a comeback. Even Taylor Swift has jumped on the cougar bandwagon a few times.

Happily Ever After: A gusty dust storm strands Alex and Jayne at a pilot’s hangar. Everyone knows how romantic wind can be…think Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient. As the two ride out the storm, things get a little PG13. The pair realizes that age is just a number that their love can most certainly conquer. All ends happily ever after with a proposal under the Australian sun.

Scandalous Scale: Getting Warmer