Hello, and welcome back! It seems like this may be a very long week here, with not nearly enough reading time for me. Fortunately, the week is off to a good start with one of these new July releases.

Forbidden Pleasures (NAL) by Bertrice Small is up first, though be warned: you'll need the a/c running and plenty of cool beverages handy while you're reading this one. This is the second of her contemporary books to incorporate 'The Channel', and, while I enjoyed the first one, I liked this one far better. Emily Shanski is a famous romance novelist, but when her agent drops a bombshell on her, she's got to make some major changes in her writing, and possibly in her life. Her new editor, Michael Devlin is a major hunk, inspiring her writing to new heights of sensuality. While Private Pleasures was plenty steamy, it wasn't really a romance. I'm very happy to say this one is most definitely a romance, and a hot one. It's earned four of Cupid's five arrows.

Captive of My Desires (Pocket Star) by Johanna Lindsey is next. Being kidnapped by pirates while going to her father wasn't in the plans for Gabrielle Brooks, but, fortunately, it's not as bad an ordeal as it could be. Afterwards, however, Drew Anderson is more than a trial. Until last year's Marriage Most Scandalous, it had been years since I read a Lindsey, and that one left me highly disappointed. This is a vast improvement, though still not enough to make me run out and buy all the books I missed in the interim. Gabrielle does some things that are exceedingly foolish, which doesn't endear her to me. But Lindsey fans should be happier with this one than with last year's book, and that's really all that matters. I'm giving it three arrows.

Look on Amazon.com for Forbidden Pleasures (Pleasures Series)
and Captive of My Desires (Malory Novels)