The Rebel King by Kathleen Creighton

The Rebel King is the sixth installment for a Harlequin series “Capturing the Crown” about a bounty hunter, Rhia De Hayes who was on a mission to bring back the missing prince, Nikolas back to his country. Nikolas Donovan was one of the idealist in his country who wanted a change in the system, however his ideals was used in various anarchy agenda that initially he was suspected of plotting the murder of Prince Reginald, the fake prince whom Nikolas had switched places with as an infant.

The story is a continuation from the past series which can be disconcerting as the plot had been promising in the beginning when Nikolas caught Rhia trespassing his apartment and realizing that he had met her years before when she dropped on him from a balcony and they shared a kiss before she disappeared. However, soon the story started to go into predictable lengthy detail of their attraction between another and the subsequent mystery of how he was kidnapped as a child. Weirdly enough, there were too much metaphors in its romance scene that was very outdated and very historical-romance like that made reading a bit of amusement and chore for a novel said to be published in 2006.

Its a short read to waste time to and very tame despite promising storyline. I was watching The Dark Knight Rises while reading this. Nikolas was like Bruce Wayne and Rhia was Selina Kyle, its entertaining, but there are better reading. Another miss for me.

The Prince’s Second Chance by Brenda Harlen

The Prince’s Second Chance is a romance drama about Cameron, a reformed prince (he’s the villian in the past books series) who focused his work on diplomatic relations ofor his country was again involved with a scandal whem a picture of him dancing with a diplomat’s teenager daughter that ruined a trade agreement. To avoid further damage, he contacted the newspaper that carry the article and found it was covered by his old flame, Gabriella. Seventeen years ago, he broke her heart after spending a short summer together and she had been carrying a grudge eversince but with a good reason. Gabriella have been hiding a secret, she had a grown teenage daughter,Sierra, and kept her daughter’s birth father a secret until Cameron came into her life again.

Gabriella is a much older character who is a successful columnist for a newspaper, have a beautiful teenage daughter, a supporting mother and a boyfriend who was intending to propose her. Somehow she found herself with the man who broke her heart and left her as a single mother at 19. Seeking to reconcile their relationship, he unexpectedly found out that he had a grown daughter which even Cameron’s mother kept a secret from him, fearing Sierra’s presence in his life would complicate her plans for Cameron. Determined to know his daughter, he kept on contact with Gabrielle while actively pursuing for his old love’s heart.

The character’s interactions are interesting enough that are natural and linear. Since the book depend on each of the character’s plight, youl’ll notice it does contribute to the bulk that made the book uncheesy unlike most of Harlequin usually publish. The main female character in this book is a strong character who had been hurt badly in the past that she was afraid to let herself to be in love again. The hero is a flawed character who had done many bad things in his life and intend to redeem himself through the eyes of his loved ones. The book could have been easily predictable had the author not made the characters complicated or the basis of the story cheesy as other type of books. There are some forgivable plot holes but as a whole, its not a bad book to waste a couple of hours to and especially if you’re tired with damsel in distress or sheikh stories or duke stories. Plus I can’t always generalize Harlequin books as badly written, they do come with good authors and good reading, on random days.

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Update (11/7/12) : 5 minutes before 4am. I can get into this site again. Oh gosh, tablet blogging is hard when you’re typing a lot of words.

….12 hours later… oh finally I can upload some pics…sigh

Note (10/7/12) : I dont know why these past two days, I cant browse wordpress on my ISP, but i can while using the tablet. Writing on tablet suck.

Why wordpress… Why???

The Tycoon’s Secret Daughter by Susan Meier

The Tycoon’s Secret Daughter is a simple novel about Max, an ex-alcoholic man who found his ex-wife, Kate, in a hospital with Trisha, a daughter he had never known. Apparently Kate left Max after witnessing his drunken rage and was pregnant the whole time and Max didn’t know about it for years. The  majority of the plot is about Max wanting to know his daughter and subsequent asking for Kate’s forgiveness and reconcile their relationship.

The plot (the girl have a baby and later the guy find out) have been overused in so many Harlequin books and in its entirety, it was disappointing for something that was just written and published recently. But eventually I finished the book yesterday in its predictable glory. Some reviewers have low threshold on the predictability range, me on the other hand need to read hundred books with the same plot to endure the unexciting nature of it. Its very sad since I really like the plot with the main male character having a drinking problem and struggling to undo his past but the way the author try to play it up weakened the entire storyline. Since its a average romance, we all know they’ll be together, but the problem is, Kate gave up to him so easily and Max remained unconvincing in his emotive state. I do read books with characters with serious addiction problems but the author decided to focus the romance aspect of the book instead of Max’s problem on psychological level. Besides, he was an ex-drunkard who is destructive, that can be enhanced into a better character progression instead of mellowing the matter. Harlequin authors need to be decisive and creative with their plots when they have a good start to begin with.

I never intended to review this book because I read through it and only notice several parts until I finish with it. But if you wanted the “secret child” storyline in Harlequin, this book is not for you even if you wanted some light readings.