UNTAMEABLE ROGUE – Kelly Hunter

Author: Kelly Hunter
Line: Mills and Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents Extra
Release month: UK: March 2010 North America: November 2010
The S-Factor: Sizzling and Sensual

Back Blurb:

Businesswoman Madeline Delacourte has no time and no need for a man in her life; after all, her late husband left her independently wealthy. But then she meets Luke Bennett. With his hard body and even harder attitude to life he poses a challenge, and awakens a hunger she didn’t know she had…

Luke is only visiting Singapore for a week, and Madeline knows she’s playing with fire. He is as roguish as he is seductive, and if she unleashes this bad boy’s passion she’d better learn how
to tame it – otherwise it’s her who’ll end up getting burnt…

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Untameable Rogue was a most unusual romance set in Singapore with a heroine that sincerely tugged at my heart strings thanks to author Kelly Hunter.

Madeline Delacourte was a interesting heroine who by her shear strength managed to survive a tragic childhood and lost so much but was in the end, a survivor. She married an extremely wealthy man 30 years older, did not love him but was faithful to him and now she was a widow. Maddy built up her husbands company with determination but what I adored about her was that she took street kids to her friend Jacob Bennett’s dojo which if they worked hard and didn’t steel they would get housing and food. Please the fact these children were saved.

On one particular day while taking a child to the dojo she met Jacob’s brother, Luke and all I can say is the sparks fly and for Maddy, he’s the first man in years that makes her ache with need to get to know him in a most personal way. It’s the very same for Luke, this proud “warrior” who for a living flies all over the world with the dangerous occupation of detonating bombs.

Luke Bennett couldn’t stop thinking about Maddy, so they began seeing other, sleeping with each other and everything became complicated because they sincerely started caring for each other. They somehow became a team and they complimented each other. Top it off, Luke’s brother was there in Singapore, Maddy’s housekeeper adored him, Po the boy who was now residing at the dojo loved him and there were times they all spent time together and became in a strange sort of way a family.

Then their balanced lives changed when Luke kept being called away in the middle of the night and went to another corner of the world. And then the worst happened, he was shot and it scared Maddy to death because she realized she loved Luke. But would he love her back and give up his dangerous job and settle down with her in Singapore? She knew Luke was a warrior with “honour, soul deep and absolute. Duty-bound, forsaking all else”. As much as she admired him, she loved him and wanted him safe!

Most people in Maddy’s social circle gossiped about her, said horrible things about her, trashing her and when they overheard someone saying she sold herself on a street corner she felt the need to explain that those remarks weren’t true. She felt she didn’t fit in Luke’s honorable life, they fought and Luke was angry because he wanted her to believe in him like he believed in her. It was hard for Luke to accept why she married a wealthy husband she didn’t love and the money also bothered him. As for Maddy, she was afraid of getting hurt because most of her life had been full of that emotion. However, in the end this couple get their happy ending in a most glorious way. When I emailed Kelly to see if there was a behind the book story, you can see her answer. I can’t wait to read another Bennett story.

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

Behind the Book:

“When I wrote my very first hmb 'Wife For A Week' and introduced my heroine, Hallie, I made the newbie mistake of giving her four completely over the top overprotective big brothers, all with ridiculously alpha occupations that I knew nothing about. They were wanderers, these brothers. Thrill seekers not inclined to settle down. And then I had to write them”. K. Hunter

REVEALED: A PRINCE AND A PREGNANCY – Kelly Hunter (Hot Bed of Scandal)

Author: Kelly Hunter
Line: Harlequin Presents / Mills and Boon Modern

Release month:
Nov 09 in the UK
Jan 2010 in Aus/NZ
April 2010 in North America

The S-Factor: Sexy

Back Blurb:

When heiress Simone Duvalier sashays back into Rafael Alexander's life, Rafe can't wait for her to head back home and leave him to his empire-building in Australia. They once shared so much, but all that remains are memories and the desire to bed her….

Simone has never forgotten fiercely ambitious, achingly sexy Rafael—and neither has her traitorous body! But when a princely secret and an unplanned pregnancy threaten to change everything…can this dark-hearted bad boy become a prince and a father?

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Kelly Hunter wrapped up her Hot Bed of Scandal in a spectacular way with Revealed: A Prince and A Pregnancy. The two book series has been an exceptional one to read.

In the first book we learned that the children of Chateau des Caverness took care of each other. The Duvalier’s were Luc and Simone of aristocracy and the housekeeper’s children Gabrielle and Rafael. Luc and Gabrielle had a history and were caught in a grotto acting on their sexual attraction., the result having Gabrielle banished and sent to Australia at age sixteen. However, Rafael and Simone, actually fell in love and Rafe asked her to leave France and go to Australia and marry him. However, she refused and stayed to help her father and brother because she felt she was too young to leave, and had nothing to offer Rafe. Of course all romances come with secrets and one is left to know Rafe’s world will certainly be turned upside down because a King is claiming that Rafe is his son, he’s dying and wishes to meet him. So the father Rafe has known as Harrison Alexander is not actually his biological father. But Rafe definitely loves and respects Harrison.

This is Simone’s and Rafe’s story and a lovely one as all four will be reunited in Australia for Luc and Gabrielle’s wedding. However, so many years have passed and the reunion is not a pleasant one for Rafe. For Simone there has been no other man and for Rafe he can’t seem to over the past. However, they agree for the sake of their siblings to make the the wedding special, they work together along with the bride, groom, catering staff and it’s a wonderful wedding. Simone is very direct with her feelings to Rafe and Rafe keeps turning away from her until two of the wedding staff plot to have Rafe walk her back to her room and then neither of them can take it longer. They act on their passion and Rafe invites Simone to travel with him to Sydney because he has a meeting with King Etienne, a meeting his sister and bother-in-law tried to talk him out of because they new the secret! However Rafe is curious because it involved a subject he loved, wine and the King had vineyards he wanted to discuss with Rafe.

Simone knew immediately when she looked into the King’s eyes that she needed to get Rafe out of the meeting. As soon as she saw the eyes she understood why Gabrielle didn’t want her brother to meet with the King because this was Rafe’s father. She tried everything and then the worst thing happened, the King told Rafe he was his father, Rafe felt betrayed and had harsh words with Simone, sending her away. Simone returns home to France and has an unexpected surprise, she’s pregnant with Rafe’s baby but she doesn’t tell him, his sister does. So many complications in their relationship but I just kept believing they would finally be together because of Simone’s deep love for Rafael and her determination to love him unconditionally.

“He was her angel, so lost and wounded, so thoroughly prepared for rejection.” Never under estimate the power of love because Simone agrees to stay with Rafael while he restores the vineyard leaving her beloved home in France. However, in the end when Rafe realizes what she means to him, he puts his past behind him and does so many incredible things to give her the same happiness Simone has given him.

Kelly Hunter made the last ending chapters magnificent to read as all of the children of Chateau des Caverness were reunited, living and working together for the good of each other and their families and erasing all of the bad from their pasts and only looking forward to the good and their futures. The Hot5 Bed of Scandal series had it all, romance, tension, secrets, scandal.....a wonderful family saga.

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

Kelly Hunter website

EXPOSED: MISBEHAVING WITH THE MAGNATE – Kelly Hunter (Hot Bed of Scandal)

Author: Kelly Hunter
Line: Harlequin Presents / Mills and Boon Modern
Release month:
July 09 in the UK
Sept 09 in Aus/NZ
March 2010 in North America

The S-Factor: Sizzling

Back Blurb:
Forbidden desire…..

Seven years ago Gabrielle was the housekeeper's daughter, and Luc Duvalier, as the heir to a vast fortune, was forbidden! One hot kiss got Gaby banished, but she's returned home determined to face Luc as an equal—in every way!

Unleashed passion!

The heat between them is all-consuming, and they both know it is only a matter of time before they give in—despite the scandal this will cause. But this maverick magnate doesn't care—he aims to keep Gaby so busy that she never leaves again!

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

Gabrielle Alexander had been sixteen when she’d been sent away by her cold mother to Australia and all because of a kiss! Author Kelly Hunter blew me away with that opening statement and from that moment on I was transfixed and riveted to Exposed: Misbehaving With The Magnate, the first book in Kelly’s Hot Bed of Scandal series.

Gabrielle Alexander had spent most of her life trying to please her mother and now by her childhood friend she’s been summoned back to France because her mother was ill. Back at the Chateau her first encounter is with Luc Duvalier the very man who was forbidden to her. And now facing each other after seven years, it’s overwhelming for her plus again, she’s rejected by her ailing mother. Then the most interesting thing happens, Luc tells her mother if she doesn’t shape up, he’ll ship her out and Luc and Gabrielle have a conversation about their past, one that I was quite sure was not over for either of them.

It was still there, the sensual tension, wanting her, desire soaring through Luc Duvalier and she was simply driving him crazy from want and need. He also felt his protective side because he always felt because of him she lost her home in France because they were caught acting out their passion for each other seven years earlier. Luke wants to find out her plans and he does when they discuss Gabrielle’s and her brother’s Rafe’s Australian wine business. Rafe is a long time friend of Luc’s and has become a very successful vintner. Gaby wants to look into taking their wines to a different level by finding a new distributor and possibly purchasing an old run down vineyard and house for their business. This would allow her to return home to France, the place she loves so much. Luc and Gaby can’t seem to stop their banter nor their mutual feeling of sexual attraction so Luc takes it a step further when he tells her he wants more and she accepts.

The Duvalier’s and the Alexander’s have so much history as Luc and his sister Simone and Gaby and her brother Rafe were childhood friends. They also had more than childhood history, Luc and Gaby the sexual attraction and Rafe and Simone actually fell in-love and Rafe asked her to leave with him and move to Australia. However, she refused because she was young and he really had not come into his own, so it caused heart ache for them both. Throughout Exposed: Misbehaving with the Magnate their history is exposed, along with secrets and the abuse that Gaby suffered under the hands of her mother. It made for an incredible story and it also set the pace for Rafe and Simone’s story which is part of Ms. Hunters Hot Bed of Scandal series.

What was so amazing about this particular love story was reading about Gabrielle’s learning to understand herself and not falling back on her mother’s harsh and hurtful comments about Luc when she told her daughter Luc would never want to marry her because she wasn’t good enough. Even with all of the abuse from her mother I felt it made her stronger plus she strength and determination due to the love of her brother and father. In the end, she realized she can have it all and that Luc loved her for who she was and being the housekeepers daughter didn’t matter. As for Luc, I’m sure he always loved her and being with her, seeing her as an adult woman, her beauty, her passion, made him want to spend the rest of his life with her, so much so he gives them both a fresh start. It was a beautiful second chance romance one so special I read it from cover to cover thanks to the very talented Kelly Hunter.

Hero Hotness Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Weepy Factor♥♥
Reviewed by: Marilyn
A USA Today Best Seller

Behind the Book at I(heart)presents

Kelly’s Website

Look for Book 2, Revealed; a Prince and a Pregnancy in April 2010, the second book in the series.