The last few weeks I’ve been consuming other people’s stories like a literary black hole, but it’s priming my writer (I’ve actually cracked open several stories and tentatively started working on them). Here are three more great free stories (all romances in various genres). The links take you to the books on Barnes and Noble, but they can be found elsewhere (I found them on iBooks).
Not Dreaming of You by Nina Cordoba
This is well written very funny chick-lit that had me laughing all through the book. Set in present L.A. California, the heroine is American/Argentinian who has come to stay with her cousin (who is like a brother). She has personal reasons for being in L.A. we don’t learn until farther into the story, but the first day she’s there she sees an add for an on line dating agency and decides impulsively (she’s very impulsive – and she has moments of psychic feelings – and she feels she must sign up so she does). The hero is a political journalist who is on a Dr’s prescribed “holiday”. Being a work o holic he’s agreed to do a light article for a celebrity mag about on-line daters with the premise that the people who use them are either lunatics or Idiots (for the record I’d just like to say I met my husband on line nearly eighteen years ago – he’d put his money on “lunatic”). I digress…anyway.. The hero is this dye in the wool cynic whose heart is like a dry well (which is reflected in his non-existent love life). She agrees to let him interview her and accompany her for three of her assigned “dates”. He tags along (seriously wishing he could date her), but infuriated that at their first meeting he ruined his own chance of having a shot by being his typical cynical self. However – suffering endless miscommunications they come to realise they have a mutual attraction. I love the snappy dialogue, the funny characters and story that underneath is about family love. Some of the reviewers didn’t like the hero, but I thought he was lovely (but then my caustic hero, Lord Cranston, is the one I’d probably choose to wed – if I had to choose).
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Some Like it Ruthless by Megan Bryce
This is a modern romance set in Texas (Dallas area) about second chance love. The hero and heroine (both ruthless people) were childhood friends and then for reasons you don’t fully understand till farther into the book they were also briefly teenage lovers (the situation exploded their friendship and broke both their hearts, but you don’t know why until later). The heroine’s family have long been part of the Dallas social scene after generations of money. The hero was new money, the only child of a cruel ruthless man who enjoyed ruining people. The hero has grown up a social pariah who has loved the heroine since they were young. A few years before the story begins the hero found himself facing bankruptcy so he swallowed his pride and went to the heroine begging her to help him – all he needed was a fake engagement to take his creditors off his back to give him time to retrench, but she told him to go to hell. And then she finds herself in the exact situation and she’s facing losing everything including her family home which is mortgaged. Her sister persuades her to go to the hero and see if he’s willing to do for her what she refused to do for him…give her a fake engagement. I loved the snappy dialogue and fast moving plot that centres almost exclusively on the rebuilding relationship of the two main characters. If you enjoy this book there are three others in the series by the same author. I thought this one was the best, but if you enjoy it I’d recommend Some Like it Perfect and Some Like it Charming.
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The Chef’s Choice by Josephine Kent
This is a short modern romance (more a novella than a novel). The hero and heroine have been friends for fifteen years. The heroine is a very tall woman (at 6ft 2), but the hero is 6ft 5 and he loves tall curvy women. He’s secretly been lusting after her since their first meeting but he felt frozen into the friend zone so he’s continued dating models. Over the years the heroine has gained a lot of weight and has become very self conscious and depressed. The hero is an engineer who invested in property when young so retired to work insane hours as a chef (he cooks for her). The story unfolds as things happen that disrupt their comfortable friendship/routine and forces both to see each other a new. If you enjoy it the author has a number of other free novels that I enjoyed (though this one was my favorite).
Happy Reading!