Sacred Sins by Nora Roberts (Bantam, 1987)

STATS: There’s a killer strangling slender, pretty blondes with the white silk scarf of a priest and Ben Paris is the magnetic police sergeant assigned to the case. 

THE LOOK: “His profile was in shadows, struck intermittently by streetlights.  It was funny how sometimes he looked safe, solid, the kinds of man a woman might run to if it were dark.  Then the light struck his face another way, and the planes and angles were highlighted.  A woman might run from him.” 

LEADING LADY: Tess Court is a shrink who believes “The Priest” is in pain and seeking help.  She’s immediately drawn to Ben despite his resistance to her theories.  He’s immediately drawn to her, struck by her elegance and the cool wash of her violet eyes. 

There’s a particularly funny scene when Ben is trying to romance Tess and he gets a call from one of his lady friends:

“It didn’t take a trained psychiatrist to understand there was a woman on the other end.  Tess smiled into her drink and went back to the view.

‘No, I’ve been tied up.  Look, sugar—“  The minute the word was out, he winced.  Tess kept her back to him.  “I’m on a case, you know?  No, I didn’t forget about..I didn’t forget.  Listen, I’ll have to get back to you when things lighten up.  I don’t know, weeks, maybe months.  You really ought to try that marine.  Sure.  See ya.’  He hung up, cleared his throat, and reached for his drink again.  ‘Wrong number.’

It was so easy to laugh. She turned, leaned against the windowsill, and gave into it.  ‘Oh, really?’

‘Enjoyed that, didn’t you?’

‘Immensely.’

‘If I’d known you’d get such a kick out of it, I’d have invited her up.’”

J  Love Ben.

BOTTOM LINE: Ben is a tough cop who often butts heads with Tess, but he always makes me think of a gentleman.  Just like his description above, he’s a bit of a riddle—gentlemanly but capable of ripping someone’s head off if he needs to protect the public or the woman he loves.  This is probably Nora in my favorite phase, concentrating on just a couple of characters and drawing out the story so we get to really enjoy it.  

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Ever been in an awkward situation and had to laugh your way out of it?  

CONNAL MACNEIL

Charm Stone by Donna Kauffman (Bantam 2002)

If you’re a fan of Karen Marie Moning, consider reading this one!

Connal MacNeil’s spirit has been waiting for his betrothed to show up on Scotland’s roaring shores.  When she does, she’s modern-day surfer Josie Griffin, who, after a tumultuous wipeout, found his clan’s stone and put it on.  Only, she doesn’t know the significance of that act, and even when she does, she’s not willing to accept it. 

STATS: 

Connal has bargained his soul for one last chance to save his clan.  When Josie shows up, his first words are, “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”  When he finds out she’s worn the stone, he informs her she is his, as well.  And when she says she’s not a fan of Fate or Destiny, Connal calmly tells her “I’ll convince ye otherwise.” 

THE LOOK:

“He was tall, ruggedly built, his dark hair pulled back from his face.  Unlike most of the men she’d seen in Scotland, he actually wore a kilt, with the excess tartan tossed over his shoulder like a cloak.  The fabric was worn, the colors faded, like a favorite pair of jeans.  And he looked just as natural in it.  Beneath the plaid was a shirt that might have been linen, but in the growing dusk it was hard to tell.  The shirt wasn’t new and neither were the leather boots laced up his thick calves….Imposing didn’t begin to describe the man.” 

LEADING LADY: 

When she puts a necklace with a huge stone around her neck, the last thing Josie  is expecting is a little kilted man to appear and tell her it is her fate to marry Connal MacNeil and bear him children.  Josie doesn’t quite agree.  She doesn’t like being told she’s a victim of Destiny, or as Connal puts it, that she has “no say in the matter.”   

A lot to learn

Connal has a lot to learn about his modern bride, including that she’s not in danger when she’s surfing and won’t take kindly to being “rescued.”  He thinks her “wave hunting” is ludicrous, and she refuses to believe he’s a ghost.  

BOTTOM LINE:

Josie and Connal have wonderful, spirited banter on the way to some magnificent love scenes.  Connal’s swoon-worthy, because he both appreciates Josie’s spirited nature….

“His jaw chenched.  ‘Dinna test me, lassie.’

‘Dinna test me either…whatever it is you call boys,’ she finished on a lesss-than-authoritative note. 

A jagged bolt of lightning lit up the sky, illuminating his face.  In that split second she swore she saw his expression falter, a brief twitch curve his lips. 

‘Lads,’ he said sternly, making her wonder I fit had been a trick of the light.”

…And knows how to make her knees wobble with unrelentless passion:

“’Now,’” he told her, “’you’d best dispatch of your guests or they’ll be treated to the screams I’ll elicit from you when I make you come apart for me again.’  He stepped closer. ‘And again.’” 

Swooning yet?

Be ready to cry too.  When Bagan, Connal’s short sidekick, tosses the stone into the sea (thinking Josie is not the one for  Connal), angering the gods so they call Connal home, you’ll feel Josie’s pain.  And even when she thinks he’s gone forever, she takes it upon herself to do—in the present day—what Connal had always wanted.  Save his clan’s future.  And that’s what saves Connal and their love.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Have you ever felt like you’ve fought Destiny, only to have to accept it in the end and been thankful that you have? 

Present Danger by Susan Anderson (Zebra, 1993)

STATS:

Landlord of the building that Aunie Franklin chooses to make her home after leaving her abusive husband. James wants to stay away from any woman with problems and looking to be saved. The moment he meets Aunie he knows she’s in need of a hero, but no matter how hard he tries to stay away, he can’t resist this tiny, big on-attitude Southerner he calls “Magnolia Blossom.”

THE LOOK:

“He had the go-to-hell eyes of someone who’d seen it all and soft, pale blond hair that receded slightly from his high forehead and was pulled straight back into a short ponytail…the style seemed to suit this one’s face, which was all strong planes and angles….His cheekbones were flat and angular, his teeth were white, and slashing lines cut from the corners of those rebel eyes clear into his lean cheeks.”

LEADING LADY:

All her life, Aunie has been coveted for her good looks. Now she wants to prove there’s more to her than that. She’s left her abusive husband, is going back to school, and isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty. 

One Favorite Scene:

There are tons of sexy love scenes in this book, but one of my favorites is when Aunie and James are pushed to their emotional breaking point:

““What did you call me?” His hands wrapped around her hips and picked her up and stood her on the couch so their eyes were on a more even level.

If he thought she was going to back down, he was crazy. Aunie’s chin jutted toward the ceiling. “A lily-livered…”

“No, after that.” His eyes ran over her from head to foot, taking in everything, missing nothing: her bright eyes, her flushed cheeks, the long, white neck, that T-shirt that had taunted him all afternoon….”Say it to my face.”

“I said it to your face the first time, you big blond baboon. You think you’re a stud, but you’re only a…umm…”

James’s long fingers had tangled in her hair and his mouth cut off her words. He wanted to force her to eat her words, literally, but then he tasted her mouth under his, felt her bare arms wrap around his neck, felt her body plaster itself up against his, and his brain short-circuited, all coherent thought erased.”

BOTTOM LINE:

James and Aunie are complete opposites in background, personality, and physical characteristics. The journey they take before realizing they are meant to be with one another is one of the sexiest and most heart-warming stories I’ve read.

When Aunie is threatened by the return of her ex-husband, James decides he’s going to “take her in hand”—by installing a security system in her apartment and teaching her how to take care of herself. The whole time, he tries to keep his hands off her, afraid that he’s not good enough for her. Aunie has other ideas. She taunts him until he can’t resist her, but when he wakes in the morning to find her covered with hickeys and splotchy red scrapes from his heavy morning beard, he’s sure it proves he’s “a slum-born animal, incapable of the finer graces she no doubt expected from a man.” The beauty of Anderson’s characters is that each one is capable of so much more than they think they are, and it’s through their relationship they discover this.

QUESTION OF THE DAY?

What do you think of hickeys? Tacky or sexy?

Sullivan’s Miracle by Lindsay Longford (SIL IM, October 1993)

STATS:

At the beginning of the book, Sullivan Barnett is a reporter in love with a woman who is sick of body and sick of heart, resigned to the fact that she won’t be able to stay with him and regretting that a part of her had always been too afraid to trust their love. Her refusal to lean on him makes him furious and grief-stricken—as he says to her “When you turn away…I don’t exist anymore….It’s never been like this for me. I never knew I could be so lonely until you came into my life. When you’re not with me…there’s nothing.” But Mary Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) asks something terrible of the man who loves her—to leave her—because she thinks it’s what is best for them. Sullivan refuses, telling her he’ll settle for the time they have left. When he has to leave for work, he’s sure he can convince her to let him stay, but he never gets the chance.

THE LOOK:

Shaggy hair, angular face, cantankerous reporter too thin for his height, “unnerving emptiness in his blue eyes.”

LEADING LADY:

As different from his “Lizzie” as two women can be, cop Maggie Webster pushes Sullivan over the edge. He fights his attraction to her but it’s too strong to ignore for long. When he realizes that Maggie might be Lizzie reincarnated, he must struggle with his conscience—does he want her simply because of who she was, or who she is? And what will he do when she’s shot and would rather stay in a coma than come back to a man who wants a woman she can never be?

BOTTOM LINE:

This is a super-charged emotional book that is beautifully written and with characters that come alive. Sullivan is the classic lost soul, a tortured hero who Longford expertly manages to make likable and redeemable.  To tell you how good it is, I tore my library apart when I couldn’t find my copy and immediately went online to buy another one.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Sullivan calls Maggie “honeybuns” even though he knows it drives her crazy. Secretly, she likes it. Do you have a “secret” pleasure you indulge on the sly?