Hello, and welcome back! I hope you´ve all had a great holiday. I spent my weekend finishing up the third of the books I have to review for you this week, and beginning another for next week, and all of these are currently available.

The first book this week is My Dark Prince by Julia Ross, aka Jean Ross Ewing (Jove Historical). In this one, Penny Lindsey must help Prince Nicholas of Glarien to stake his claim on his country and outwit his enemy. Her job: to impersonate his missing bride-to-be. I generally like alpha males, and dark is okay, too, but Nicholas is a bit too dark and too tormented for me. There are perfectly good reasons he is the way he is, but I have to admit not liking it because of that. Penny, though, once I got through the first third of the book was more tolerable. But I´m afraid this one´s not a keeper for me. They spend too much time apart for me, and he is just a bit too alpha (I can´t believe I´m saying that!). Of Cupid´s five arrows, this one earns two and a half.

The next book I read this week was "A Perfect Love" by Sandra Landry (Jove Time Passages). Nadine du Monte falls off a ferry on her way home after her parents´ deaths in the present and arrives on shore eight hundred years in the past, rescued by a man who believes she is the answer to the family prophecy, the woman who is to have his children. And to complicate matters more, Nadine begins having memories of a life in this time. There´s a truly evil villain, an interesting story with hints of reincarnation and intertwining lives throughout time, and a really sexy hero. And I really should have liked it since it´s a time travel, but it was just okay for me. I can´t put my finger on any one thing, just a hint of something a little off. Maybe the more stilted language of the time, or the setting, twelfth century France for part of it. I´m not sure. But this one gets only three of Cupid´s arrows, I´m afraid.

The last book I read this week is "Midsummer Lightning" by Kate Ivers (Jove´s Irish Eyes). Kelly Sullivan is on a mission--to win the coveted V.P. position at work--and to prove herself, she must finish the deal of the purchase of an Irish castle. Conor O´Meara is the interim manager and son of the present owner and none too thrilled with her boss´s ideas for his family´s history. Though Kelly starts off rather brittle, she softens up, and in Conor´s hands, who wouldn´t? There are moments when I just wanted to shake some sense into her where her work and family are concerned, but the love story in this is really good. And Conor´s friend Ghillie just begs for her own book. I´m giving this one four arrows.

Until next week, happy reading!