A Seductive Kiss by Francis Ray: Book Review

Product Details:
Publication Date: January 31, 2012
Received: By Publisher
Mass Market: Paperback: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; First Edition
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031253647X


Synopsis: 
YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON FRIENDS:
Dianna Harrington is known throughout the world as "The Face"-the stunningly beautiful spokesmodel for her family's fashion empire. She could probably have her pick of any man she wants. But Dianna would rather kick back and relax with a good friend-namely Alex Stewart, who she's known, and harbored a crush on, her whole life...


BUT CAN YOU TRUST YOUR HEART?
Ever since they were kids, Alex has been Dianna's protector and pal, a shoulder to cry on. But as the brother of her best friend, Alex always seemed untouchable. Now a handsome, successful New York lawyer, Alex never realized how lonely Dianna's life has been-or how innocent she is in the ways of love. Alex wants more than anything to reach out to her, to heal her heart. But is his desire worth the risk? After a lifetime of longing building up between them, somethings gotta give. Maybe all it takes is just one kiss...


Review:
In the fifth installment of the Grayson Friends and Family series, we see Dianna Harrington, a famous model since she was a teenager. She is the face of her family's modeling house, The House of Harrington. She often believes that her family is using her for their own selfish pursuits. She in turns feels unloved and despite her beauty she has low self-esteem. Dianna's childhood friend, Alex, wants to pursue a relationship, but knowing Dianna's low self-esteem and her feelings of being used by people who supposedly love her, he is hesitant to take their friendship to the next level. But Dianna has a proposition to take their relationship further. Now it's up to Alex to see if he will take the risk of getting the love of his life or lose his longtime friendship with the woman he loves.

What I Liked: The tenderness of their romance. It was delicate and gentle as with all of Francis Ray's novels. You get a sense that the author cares about her characters because she gives them traits and characteristics that readers can relate to. I love her female characters, such as Dianna, have some wits about them. We get to see Dianna come into her own as an independent woman, searching for love and taking risks. At times, she can be a little naive and it was frustrating to read. But once she began to discover who she was as a woman, it was nice to watch her blossom. We also see Alex, an attorney, who is smart, loving and caring, but wants the woman he loves to be happy more than anything. Alex was by far my favorite character in the book. Together, Dianna and Alex tip toe around this romance that lingers in the air and as a reader you know when the match strikes, it's going to be good. This book is also in a series, but you don't need to read the other books, to know what's going on. It definitely stands on its own.

What I Didn't Like: It wasn't much I didn't like, except the romance took too long, as with most of Francis Ray's novels. She loves to have the romance simmer. For me simmer is good, but then it starts to fizzle and I become impatient. I want them to open their eyes, see the love there and get it on. And then perhaps when it's going good, throw in some turmoil. But that's not how Ms. Ray writes. She takes her time. And so with that, you'll have to make up your own mind.

I highly recommend this book.

I give it FOUR STARS


****

Happy New Year! It's 2012!

Hello everyone. I took a slight holiday break. I really needed it. But it's the New Year and I wanted to take time wish everyone a prosperous, safe and healthy year ahead. With that in mind, I thought I'd tell you what I have in store this year. I will start narrowing my focus on my blog. I won't be doing as many book reviews, simply because I just don't have the time with upcoming book releases, conferences, book signing, etc. Not to mention I need to write, and go over edits for my other books due in the summer and the fall. But I will have guest posts from other bloggers and readers who will do some of the book reviews instead. I will focus more on resources for writers and bloggers, and I will have more author interviews and Q&A's. The reason I will focus on more writing and blogging resources is due partly to my own book, If I Had My Way, a collection of short stories being released on the 1st of February. I discovered many resources that writers, aspiring writers or bloggers may find valuable on my literary journey and I would like to share them with everyone else so they can be more productive and more aware on their own blogging or writing journey.

I hope everyone continues to stay with me on this journey. I have some great interviews from some fabulous authors in store in the next few weeks. Also, for those who signed up for my newsletter, be on the lookout this week for an email from me with a Free copy of my short story, Tandrin Drive. I hope you enjoy it. And for anyone that wants an opportunity to guest post for a book review on my blog, just send me an email (blog@lenasledge.com). If you have a book already in mind, that's great too. However, keep in mind, my blog does not write book reviews for children's literature or non-fiction.

Have a happy New Year everyone! Thanks for making it with me to 2012!

P.S. If you would like to receive a free copy of Tandrin Drive, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter.

I have yet to name my newsletter so I thought you all might be able to help me. What do you suggest I call my newsletter?

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Should Book Reviewers Get Paid?

I was thinking the other day about how many books I have sitting and waiting to be reviewed. And now that publishers have begun to send me books, that list continues to grow with each new query. So when a new book arrived yesterday, I plopped it on the fiction shelf and kept going. Later I decided to organize my shelves (I like them to be alphabetized by author), I noticed books on the floor stacked up neatly in piles, I looked at my bookshelf and noticed I ran out of book shelf space once again.

Looking at the near 500 books on my shelves, I said, "Lena, if you got paid for reading every one of those books, you'd have it going on." Which would make me eternally happy and of course I'd spend it all on more books or shoes. It's a disease, an unyielding circle of addiction to books and shoes. Better yet, reading books in pretty shoes....the life. Add a glass of wine and we have perfection.

However, at the same time, I personally would feel less credible as a book reviewer if I did except payment. Yeah, yeah, we get a free book to read as payment and then giveaway if we please, but that's it. Reading books everyday, it's time consuming. Not to mention you have a life already, trying to juggle a writing career, a husband, five kids and a house in the midst of being remodeled after the hurricane hit a couple of months ago. Some sort of payment should be necessary.

Authors and their publishers need us, just like we need them. They need a fair review, we need to have our book fetish needs met. But I think in the world of media and Internet; publishers and authors may need us more. So how can book reviewers get compensated? I have a few ideas of my own.

• If you request a review. You must send your own copy for us to read. No ifs, and, or butts about it.

• If you want an interview for your author, cool beans. But the author needs to come to the blog and answer questions and comments by readers by the end of the day.

• Send out a personal shout to the reviewer or their blog site. Mention the blog in your tweets or your Facebook page. You want us to tweet about your wonderful book right? Give us some love too.

• The book has arrived. I'm sure you think we are excited and overjoyed. Which we may very well be the day it arrives, but once it's read, we give it away. So much for the love huh? We have to keep our readers wanting more, just like you do. So why not include a tote bag or additional swag items, so we can keep the books we really love or better yet, send two books. I'm sure there's lots of books and swag laying around somewhere in a closet, on a shelf, in a box collecting dust. Open it and send it to us. We bloggers want it.

• Recommend our blog to other authors, publicists, agents and media consultants. If we are good enough to do your review, we should be more than capable of doing others in your literary circle. In the end your writer wants notoriety and bloggers are writers too. We may not want to be notoriously famous, but blogger love never hurts.

Now that I've listed five ways I wouldn't mind being compensated, what ways would you like to be compensated or should book reviewers be compensated at all?