21 | February | 2014 | Rebeccabookreview

The ninth book I finished in 2014 was Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins. I finished this book on 2/8/14. I rated this book 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Higgins’ books are those rare kind of stories that are able to make you laugh out loud and cry your eyes out. Her stories draw emotions so easily from the reader and its impossible not to get swept up in the tension and the heartaches of the characters. This novel definitely didn’t disappoint as I found myself lost in the characters and the journey of our heroine as she falls in love with her hero.
And in this story hero is the right word for it as our lead male character, and most of the other male characters in the book come to think of it, are firefighters. Chastity is the only girl in a family of 5 siblings, who falls in love with a family friend, Trevor Meade. The only thing that bugged me about this story was that if they could’ve just communicated better they probably could’ve gotten together a long time ago. Of course, realistically men and women don’t communicate well at all so it probably makes more sense than if the guy could magically know what the girl was thinking all the time.

The family in this story reminded me a lot of my family. Chastity had 4 brothers who were all married with small children and many times in the story it talks about her interacting with the little kids. And while I am an only child, my family is very close and I see my cousins, who are all married with small children, quite often. The way Chastity described her family dinners at her mother’s house reminded me a lot of family dinners at my grandfather’s house, kids running around screaming and what-not. What the author was describing was a house full of love and it made the story all the more wonderful to read.

Overall this was a very sweet and touching love story and I would highly recommend. As I said in my earlier post on another of Higgins’ books, if you’re looking for steamy you’re not in the right place. But if you’re looking for a reminder of what being vulnerable to love and what real love is, you’ll find it.

Link to author site: http://www.kristanhiggins.com/

Link to Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Just-One-Guys-Kristan-Higgins/dp/0373777035/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393023904&sr=8-2&keywords=just+one+of+the+guys

The eighth book I finished in 2014 was No Longer A Gentleman by Mary Jo Putney. I finished this book on 2/2/14. It is the fourth book in the Lost Lord series by this author (the third was discussed in an earlier post this year – 2014 Book #3). I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. The book is about a French woman working as a spy for England (Cassie) who goes in search of one of the Lost Lords who disappeared in France after the Treaty of Amiens.

This actually leads me to one of the main reasons I like historical romance novels. I’ve never been a big history fan, I always found it very boring and dry and impossible to remember all the dates and the facts. But I’ve discovered that reading historical romance novels gives me just the right dose of history and honestly gives it to me in a concept I can remember – a love story. This book was a perfect example. I doubt that I’ve ever even heard of the Treaty of Amiens (though to be honest I may have learned about it in high school and just have no memory of it), but after reading this fictional novel I can now tell you that the Treaty of Amiens was in the early 1800’s (no one really needs to remember exact years) and that it granted a temporary peace between England and France during the French Revolutionary War. I can also tell you that the French used to call the English “goddams” and that after the Treaty of Amiens ended, all the English men who were partying it up in France were captured and held in France so that they could not fight with English forces against the French in the war. Point is, historical romance novels are slowly helping me learn little bits of history and I find it fascinating. If you’d like to learn more about the Treaty of Amiens, you can read about the subject on a variety of websites. The easiest for me to link here though is wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amiens

So back to the story. Cassie, the French woman working as a spy for England, travels to France to find Lord Wyndham, who has been a prisoner in France for the past 10 years following the end of the Treaty of Amiens. While rescuing him and transporting him carefully back to England, they fall in love obviously. Its hard to see how they couldn’t fall in love, Wyndham (“Grey”) has been imprisoned for 10 years and then gets rescued b a female, I can definitely see how he would grow attached. But anyways, they fall in love and when they get back to England they receive a message from Grey’s captor that makes them return to France and Grey is finally able to face his captor and save one of his friends. Carrie and Grey’s story was filled with vulnerabilities and insecurities, as many true life love stories are.

Overall was a very good book, one of the better ones in the Lost Lords series I think. I would recommend!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjoputney.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Longer-Gentleman-The-Lost-Lords/dp/1420117238/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392923198&sr=8-1&keywords=no+longer+a+gentleman