CAPTURED AND CROWNED (Bride on Approval) Janette Kenny

Author: Janette Kenny
Line: Mills and Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents
Release month: UK: Nov 2010/ North America : Dec 2010
The S-Factor: Sizzling

Back Blurb:

Demetria Andreou has only a few hours of freedom left! Playboy prince Kristo Stanrakis must take his brother's place as King of Angyra—and he's planning to take Demetria, his brother's fiancée, for his queen!

Only Kristo realizes innocent Demetria was his for the taking a year ago when, as strangers, they nearly made love on sun-baked white sand. The arrogant king's contempt for his reluctant bride is only matched by his burning desire to finish what they started….

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Years ago, the King of Angrya made a marriage contract/agreement for his first born son, Crown Prince Gregor. This arranged marriage would be with the lovely Demetria Andreaou who was ten years younger than Demi. From a very young age, she had been groomed to be their future queen. She was not looking forward to this marriage because it was not a love match and she wanted to pursue her fashion design career. So much so, that she mentioned it time and time again to her father.

She was magnificent with her beauty and she was also a very talented fashion designer. She so wanted to be a success and she had only a year to do so before she married the Crown Prince. She tried to encourage her father to speak with the King to see if after she married, she could continue her career. Of course, he refused. On one particular day while in Angrya, Demi went for a walk on a deserted beach and came across the most handsome man she had ever met in her life. Neither of them recognized each other from their childhood, they just sat watching the sea turtles and then somehow it ended in kissing and touching. One can well imagine when they again saw each other later that night at the palace how they both reacted. Prince Kristo was furious because he thought Demi had betrayed his brother.

As second son, Kristo and his younger brother had been sent away to school, while Gregor had been groomed for being the future King. Kristo was some sort of ambassador and rarely returned home. What neither he nor his younger brother counted on a year later was their father dying. Later on they would both learn from Gregor, that he too dying. Kristo would assume the duty as King; he would also need to marry Demi as his father had originally wanted her as Angrya’s Queen. Can you imagine how this prince must have felt not only loosing his beloved brother but also having the same woman who had betrayed his dying brother? The very same woman he lusted after?

Kristo didn’t trust Demi one bit, in fact he locked her in her room in the place. Demi knew his feelings for her but she couldn’t change the fact that she too lusted after him. She was furious she was a prisoner, that she was expected to wear a wedding dress she had no say in and I died laughing because she literally tore it apart with her bare hands. She finally convinced Kristo to allow her to design and make her own dress, with his approval, of course. On every level, they battled, they argued, they agreed to disagree. She was strong, beautiful and not to be trusted, yet Kristo desired her away.

All Demi ever wanted was to be loved and to marry for love. She hoped after sharing some of her life with Kristo, he would understand, especially since he and his younger brother had been passed over and ignored by their parents. They had a lot to face……first the death of their King, the death of Gregor and then of all things, her sister fed a scandal to the press concerning her betrayal of Gregor. On top of that, their royal wedding. However, there was one thing for sure, Kristo was not waiting until their wedding night and he was shocked to find out his future wife and queen was a virgin. I can well imagine he was more like stunned? He realized she was not a schemer, not a flirt and that he had wronged her.

They had the state funeral for his brother to get through, so they postponed their wedding for a month. Demi fully knew she loved Kristo but for him she knew he didn’t and it caused her heart ache. Due to his duties of now being King and with the wedding delay, he suggested Demi return to work with her partner and get involved in the runway shows she had mentioned to him. She was desolate because he also told her being King he could dissolve the arranged marriage contract. However, if she was pregnant, of course, they would marry. King Kristo realized his feelings way too late but this stubborn King learned a valuable lesson. He remembered seeing her that day on the beach and realized she was perfect for him. How he got her back and convinced her he loved her was amazing to read.

Captured and Crowned was part of the Bride On Approval series and a perfect royal romance by author, Janette Kenny!

Hero Hotness Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥
Weepy Factor♥♥
Reviewed by: Marilyn

Behind the Book:

Janette talks about second sons and this book at I(Heart)Presents

INNOCENT IN THE ITALIAN'S POSSESSION - Janette Kenny

Author: Janette Kenny
Line: Harlequin Presents / Mills and Boon Modern
Release month: North America/UK: June 2010
The S-Factor: Sensual and Sizzling

Back Blurb:

When Gemma Cardone's boss is hospitalized and Stefano Marinetti, his estranged son, takes over the family shipyard, she is caught between duty and desire….

Her duty—Gemma's friendship with Stefano's father was steeped in secrecy. But Stefano suspects that she was his father's lover. Gemma can never tell the real truth—it would tear Stefano's family apart.

His desire—Gemma has never met a man as determined or intense as Stefano. In his presence, she melts. Though she knows he despises her, between his sheets it's a different story….

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

I didn’t see it coming, the sadness I would feel for both the hero Stefano and the heroine Gemmna in Janette Kenny’s Innocent In the Italian’s Possession. Betrayal, secrets, loss of family plus sensual tension that literally leaps and sizzles off of the pages of this amazing romance.

Gemma Cardone was a most dedicated personal assistant to Cesare Marinetti. Her boss had lost so much……the death of his wife and his oldest son and years without his younger son Stefano. Add to his the fact he found out he had a love child who was seriously ill in Milan. Plus the fact his business was failing and he had suffered a heart attack. Through out it all. Gemma was devoted to her boss. And now she was forced to work for Stefano Marinetti a well known Italian billionaire and playboy while her boss was in the hospital. Could she keep the secrets from him as she promised Cesare?

Stefano didn’t want to be at Marinetti Shipping, but family was family and he owed the revenge he promised his mother against his father’s PA Gemma because they both believed Gemma to be his father’s mistress. What he didn’t count on was how much he would be immediately attracted to her and want her for himself. Every step of the way Gemma tempts him, stirs him but he’s determined to find out what secrets she’s keeping from him. He’s demanding, he’s arrogant and he’s determined so much so that he demands she work for both his father’s company and his as well.

Gemma shouldered so many responsibilities…..her grandmother and the family Inn, her brother, Rachel who was Casare’s young daughter and on top of that, keeping her promise to her boss about the state of things. Add to that the attraction she felt towards Stefano and the churning emotions she experienced daily. Always doing for others and I began to wonder when would she get her turn at happiness? Could that happiness be in the form of Stefano Marinetti?

Talk about passion exploding off the pages of this rollercoaster romance from the beginning to the end. I began to wonder when some of the secrets would be revealed so this couple could have a chance at happiness. However, even though this arrogant Italian found Gemma irresistible and finally bedded her, he was so dense I wanted to shake him. It was brilliant how author Janette Kenny put up road blocks every step of the way in Innocent in the Italian’s Possession. She made this romance extremely entertaining and also a very emotional read.

Hero Hotness Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥
Weepy Factor♥♥
Reviewed by: Marilyn

Behind the Book
Authors website

PIRATE TYCOON, FORBIDDEN BABY - Janette Kenny

Author: Janette Kenny

Line: Mills and Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents

Release month UK: May 2009/ North America: July 2009

The S-Factor: Sizzling

Back-Blurb:

The pirate tycoon: Brooding, dangerous hotel tycoon André Gauthier has whisked Kira across the Caribbean Sea to his stunning island hideaway. He doesn't just want to bed her with a ruthless passion…he wants revenge!

The kidnapped mistress: One hot touch has Kira desperate to slip back between André's sheets! But first she must tell him that she's having his baby….André is convinced Kira betrayed him with his enemy.

He has to uncover the secret she's hiding—if he's to claim his child!

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Janette Kenny has written a sensual, powerful and real winner with Pirate Tycoon, Forbidden Baby. It has everything Presents fans will want in a romance, revenge, attraction, lust and secrets, lots of them.

The reader learns that Andre Gauthier and Kira Montgomery have a short past as she was sent to negotiate a deal with Andre, and everything was turned upside down when they acted on their attraction one evening and then the press arrived and Andre felt betrayed.

Now Andre has the upper hand and is threatening to take away the only place Kira calls home, a five star hotel Chateau Mystique. There’s been enough scandal and she just wants what’s hers, what was promised to her by her deceased boss (secretly know father) Edouard Bellamy, the majority of his shares. One also learns that she’s never to reveal per parentage nor that Edouard paid for most everything in her life as her mother gave her up. For Kira, she’s led very lonely life and now she has an even bigger secret, she’s pregnant.

Andre is one handsome and successful millionaire and is out for revenge.
A revenge that isn’t revealed until much later. His focus is on a take-over and getting revenge from not only Kira but also Edouard’s son he believes was in on the plans and she was his mistress.

Revenge, secrets, sadness and accusations every step of the way. Not to mention the powerful attraction they both feel for each other as well as the passion they share. Just when I thought they wold have a chance, they would take a step back. However, when he learns she’s expecting, then an accident, everything goes spiraling out of control.

For Kira, the men in her life had used her, Andre, her father, her stepbrother and her attorney. However, in her child she would always have Andre, the man she loved but her could never love her because of who her family was and what they had also caused his family. He had his revenge but she had no closure. You will love how Kira decides to get her closure and when Andre realizes how much he truly wants her the the baby in his life forever. As they say, love heals all!

Hero Hotness Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Humour Factor♥
Weepy Factor♥♥♥

Reviewed by: Marilyn