"Assured that she may wed her onetime fiancé if he consents to have her, the penniless beauty sets out to win Christian's affections once more - unaware that the rogue has been offered a tidy sum to break Jessamine's heart."
Pages: 389 pages
Publisher: Avon Publishing on June 1995
Form: E-book (from tour for an honest review)
Genre: Historical Romance
Amazon: Buy / $4.99 (Kindle)
( EU price, click to see yours )Barnes & Noble: Buy / $4.99 (Nook)
Excerpt: Chapter 1
"Jessamine Stone's brother would marry her off to a covetous boor to salvage an impoverished estate. But Jessamine can love only Christian Haukinge—the handsome lord to whom she was once betrothed. Assured that she may wed her onetime fiancé if he consents to have her, the penniless beauty sets out to win Christian's affections once more— unaware that the rogue has been offered a tidy sum to break Jessamine's heart.
Embittered over past injustices, Christian has good reason to despise the Stone family—and so ruthlessly agrees to the contemptible bargain. But Jessamine's sensuous spirit, her innocent trust, and her melting green- eyed gaze threaten to undermine his resolve for vengeance—and to heal his deep and scarring wounds with the soothing balm of unconditional love." ~ From Goodreads
I absolutely love reading a real good Avon romance! You get the high romance, the willful heroine and the rogue hero who lusts after the woman but finds himself honoring her as well. I love that, and Kissed was perfect example of this. Perfect Historical Romance plot of a virgin, courting gone wrong and a pirate who can't keep his hands of the woman he once lost. Add in the pudgy villain, and we have the perfect scene set for enjoyable Historical Romance!
Gimme a tall, dark and handsome pirate with bad case of lust and love for our heroine! There must be kidnapping of the aforementioned heroine by the sexy pirate. Ah, thank you Ms. Crosby. It's been too long since I read one of these and I was awesome to go back to the bodice rippers. ;) Though if I recall right there wasn't and actual bodice ripped but you get the drift, right?
I loved the title Kissed because it so embodied the book, as we are talking Historical Romance there wasn't premarital sex or even heavy petting so it all starts with a kiss, the romance, the lust, the falling in love. Crosby sure described it perfectly and the kissing kept escalating to more and more intensity until it just had to evolve to touching and that my friends was a hot read!
I truly enjoyed Jessamine's character, she was tough, determined and little bit naive about what happened when it came to lust and a man's reaction to her - which cast Christian to even greater light when he had to bite his lip to not act out of society standards and that made their romance such a fun one to read. Of course when the story developed we got to see Jessamine's scorn of Christian even though she still loved him, she almost slipped so many times with her inability to resist his kiss, priceless. Absolutely love this in a romance novel!
I liked the Kindle cover makeover, it doesn't show much more than something going on in the back alley though, I would have loved a more play with his pirate ways, perhaps a ship and her bit more resistant to her embrace for the cover to really have the book's feel. Or if to go with the couple then there should have a been an estate on the background from the first part of the book for it to click. Gorgeous colors though!
See the Giveaway below the rating!
Rating :
Tanya will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Nook Gift Card (winner's choice)
to a randomly drawn commenter during both this and the Speak No Evil Tour.
So Comment on this Blog on the Review to be eligible for the 50$ Book Cash! Yay, books!
