The Desert Virgin

Leanna DeMarcos is kidnapped by sex slavers and sold to an evil despot, who in turns gives her to Cameron Knight. Cameron and Leanna escape and fall in love, yadda yadda yadda.

I had high hopes for this story after seeing it's 5 star rating on Amazon. It was awful, awful, awful. Completely ludicrous. Leanna should be traumatised. She is held in captivity for weeks, sold and stripped naked and mauled in front of a group of male strangers. When Cameron meets her, he tears off her bra (in front of the previously mentioned group of strangers), takes her to his room and ties her to his bed. Then we get one of the biggest cliches in romance novels - he thinks she's a slut, but discovers she's a virgin when they have sex. I really don't like this plot device. It always makes me wonder what would happen if she wasn't a virgin, of if he didn't realise. I would much rather the hero realises the heroine isn't a slut, without having to actually have sex with her first. Anyway, upon discovering her "innocence", Cameron withdraws, to which Leanna responds by seducing him. At the end of the book, Cameron is furious with Leanna because he thinks she doesn't love him (after he has totally rejected her and told her he doesn't love her), sneaks into her room in the dark and holds her against the wall by the throat while he (once again) strips her and feels her up. She of course responds by being ecstatically happy to see him. Ugh. Characters like this are why romance novels have a bad reputation. Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous.

Borghese Bride

Arianna Cabot and Dominic Borghese have an anonymous one-night stand. She gets pregnant, but since they never actually exchanged names, she can't tell him even if she wanted to. 5 years and an interfering grandmother later, they are re-united and married.

This was my first book by Sandra Marton. My complaints:

1. Dominic refuses to call Jonathan (Arianna's son) by his given name, instead calling him Gianni. Names are important; what kind of man goes around giving nicknames to kids he's just met? I think Arianna has every right to be mad about this, and she capitulated on the issue far too easily. There is nothing unreasonable about wanting people to address your son by the name you gave him.

2. The grandmother's manipulation and lies to get Arianna and Dominic to marry were transparent and annoying. No real reason or explanation was ever given for her actions.

Overall however, I did enjoy this book. Arianna is very angry and upset at the way Dominic forced her to marry him, and he does realise that he behaved incorrectly. The resolution of their relationship spans months rather than weeks, which is much more realistic than many romance novels.