Sunday, 13 July 2008

Trying Times...

... ok so things in the household are a little on the hell-on-wheels side and not showing signs of imminent improvement... interestingly, at times of stress my mind goes into 'escape' mode and voila, a couple of characters and a whole new book idea arrived from the deep, dark recesses on Friday. I found a minute to scribble it in a notebook which was great because I've forgotten it already. Trying to wrok thru a minor hiccup in the current wip when I have a few mins... which I don't seem to have at all right now...
HOWEVER - what's guaranteed to brighten a stressed out/frustrated writer's day?!?!
A nice review of course - what else?!
And I've had two recently :)

Marilyn - who reviews for the PHS, loved HIS MISTRESS BY ARRANGEMENT giving it 5 Hearts/Stars and had this to say:

His Mistress by Arrangement was a beautiful love story, it’ was the chase, their attraction for each other and how everything backfired for both of them. It touched me deeply as the book is actually a journey in self discovery for Emma and the realization of how she had put her dreams and
hidden them from everyone especially those who meant the most to her, her family and all because they wanted her to be successful so they could brag. As for Jake, this incredible man wanted only the best for Emma, he wanted her to have those dreams, trying to teach her to take a risk and if she wasn’t the best, he would still love and support her. As for Emma, could she fight that fear and ask for what she wanted? You are going to want to read this wonderfully written love story by Natalie Anderson as it is so moving, emotional and the happy ending spectacular!


And meanwhile, over at All About Romance - one of those notoriously hard to please reviewers had this to say:

I usually avoid the Harlequin Presents romances at the bookstore because the titles make me cringe, which means I would have missed Natalie Anderson's His Mistress by Arrangement and that would have been a shame, for I really liked the way the author told the story. In the future, I will have to remind myself "not to judge a book by its title" because I don't know what I may be missing...
The awakening of Emma's newfound passions is very well handled. The love
scenes are well done, and even though the author describes a weekend of lovemaking, it is not overkill for there is a nice balance between the romance and sex...
The story is set in New Zealand, and I learned some Kiwi slang when reading it; "stuffed up" means "goofed up" (I hope I am translating correctly). So, even though I feel the title was stuffed up, the story is well worth the read.

The titles of the Harlequin Presents books are often up for discussion - they definitely seem to be a love-hate thing! What do you think of them???

HIS MISTRESS BY ARRANGEMENT is no longer on the shelves in the US but you can still get a copy from Amazon or an electronic copy from Harlequin!

2 comments:

Annie said...

Ugh - titles like "The Spanish Count's innocent virgin bride's secret baby" leave me feeling totally cold. I have to say I liked the old days when the titles were things like "Witches Harvest" (first M&B I ever read) and "Tiger Eyes", way more poetic and romantic, and intriguing....

They just seem to be getting longer and longer these days, and more descriptive – as though it were necessary to get every single plot element into the title. Are they trying to save the readers from actually having to look at the blurb before deciding on a book?

Great reviews! Love how you're managing to teach the world some Kiwi slang as well - that's hilarious!

Natalie Anderson said...

Yes Annie, some of those old titles were fab weren't they? I remember 'They Met In Zanzibar" very well - and you know, I WENT to Zanzibar because of that book!!!

The slang thing WAS funny eh?!
CHOICE - must try to get that one in sometime ;)