Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Prep (2005) (Quality Paperbacks Direct, by arrangement with Picador)
Curtis Sittenfeld
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own

TBR RBC 2015: A classic YA novel 

When 15-year-old Lee Fiora is offered a scholarship at prestigious boarding school Ault, her parents, though puzzled about why she would choose this education, reluctantly allows their eldest child to move away. But boarding school isn’t quite what Lee envisaged after the glossy brochures and her preconceived ideas about what life and classes would be like. Very much an outsider for her four years at Ault, Prep follows Lee as she establishes a tenuous position in the school’s hierarchy, until one thoughtless mistake throws her life into the balance …

The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz

The Virgin (2015) (Harlequin)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: B
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners: (prequel) Seven Day Loan, (The Red Years): (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress, (The White Years): (5) The Saint, (6) The King, (7) The Virgin

Romance RBC 2015: A book with a writer heroine 

For years, Kingsley had warned Eleanor that there would come a time when she, lover of a Catholic priest, would have to leave for her own good. Twice a year for six years, she and Kingsley ran through his evacuation plan if one of his five scenarios arose and it was time for her to get out … When the time came, there had been no drill, no practice run that would have ever prepared Eleanor for what she was forced to face in 2003, the year that became known as that year …

Knowing that Søren and Kingsley will do all they can to find her and drag her back into their lives, Eleanor escapes and finds some measure of peace in the one place they cannot follow … with Eleanor gone, Kingsley too flees from his kingdom in New York and finds himself on a beach in Haiti. It is there he meets Juliette, the one woman he wants more than anything, and the one woman he cannot have …

A Little on the Wild Side by Robin Kaye

A Little on the Wild Side (2015) (Sourcebooks Casablanca)
Robin Kaye
Grade: C
Genre: contemporary romance
Sex scenes: mild

Source: NetGalley

Bianca Ferrari, former supermodel turned high-flying businesswoman, almost has it all. Brains, beauty and a successful modelling agency, Bianca has built life and career from the ground up after emancipating herself from her parents. When she discovers that she’s pregnant, Bianca has no inclination to contact the father, with whom she’s only shared a handful of nights. By his own admission, Trapper can only maintain a relationship for seventy-two hours and Bianca has no desire to test that limit.

What Bianca didn’t expect was the strength of Trapper’s responsibility when he surprised her with a trip to New York and discovered she was pregnant with his child. Her high blood pressure and inability to keep any food down works against her and before she knows it, Bianca is on a plane out to live with Trapper and be surrounded by his family for the foreseeable future. Bianca slowly comes to realise that Trapper might be just the thing that’s been missing in her life …

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars (2014) (Hot Key Books)
E. Lockhart
Grade: A
Genre: young adult
Source: own 
General RBC 2015: A book without a love triangle

“Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure.”

Cady, Johnny, Mirren and Gat. Gat, Mirren, Johnny and Cady. The family call them the Liars after Gat first arrived on Beechwood Island in summer eight. Though the four lead separate lives during the year, they are utterly inseparable during their summer months on the family island. To the outside world, life for the Sinclair family is privileged, effortless and enviable – that is, until summer fifteen. All Cady knows is that she had an accident on the island and the past two years have been spent in a haze of pain and pills, as her selective amnesia prevents her from remembering much of what happened. Now, Cady is back on Beechwood for summer seventeen, the first time since her accident two years ago and everything has changed irrevocably. What is the truth? What is a lie?

Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt

Duke of Midnight (2013) (Grand Central Publishing)
Elizabeth Hoyt
Grade: A
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own
Maiden Lane: (1) Wicked Intentions, (2) Notorious Pleasures, (3) Scandalous Desires, (4) Thief of Shadows, (5) Lord of Darkness, (6) Duke of Midnight

Romance RBC 2015: A book with a green cover 

Artemis Greaves, lady’s companion to her cousin, Penelope, is more than familiar with Penelope’s odd, whimsical and often outlandish requests. When a wager sees them lurking on the dangerous streets of St Giles after dark, they nearly lose their purses and lives – that is, until the Ghost of St Giles comes to their rescue. The Ghost roams London’s most dangerous streets after dark, ridding the city of its evil gin distilleries, pickpockets, murderers and their ilk. The Ghost leaves an impression on Artemis, as well as a ring which suggests he’s of noble birth …

It doesn’t take long for Artemis to connect the Ghost to Maximus, Duke of Wakefield, currently the object of Penelope’s undivided attention. With her twin brother Apollo wrongly imprisoned in Bedlam for three murders he didn’t commit, Artemis has no qualms about using her knowledge of the Duke’s secret identity to pressurise Maximus into setting Apollo free. As they are brought together under Penelope’s suit and Artemis’ increasingly desperate pleas for help, they learn first-hand just how tempting forbidden fruit can be …

Shameless by Anne Stuart

Shameless (2011) (Mills & Boon)
Anne Stuart
Grade: B-
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own
House of Rohan: (1) Ruthless, (2) Reckless, (3) Breathless, (4) Shameless

Romance RBC 2015: Free Square 

When Benedick Francis Alistair Rohan, Sixth Viscount Rohan arrives in London, he has two items on his agenda: find a proper and eligible wife while seeking another to fulfil his sensual pursuits. He’s mildly distraught to discover that his Mrs Cadbury’s, his previously trusted and favourite establishment has shut up shop, with Lady Melisande Carstairs to blame. Melisande (or ‘Charity Carstairs’ to her condescending neighbours) is the recent widow of Sir Thomas Carstairs and has turned her home into something of a halfway house for Emma Cadbury and her former prostitutes, determined to find them better lives. When one of her girls goes missing, Melisande links her disappearance to the freshly revived Heavenly Host, a shadowy club that has taken its previous debauchery to sadistic measures. Melisande suspects Benedick’s brother of being involved somehow and their efforts in tracking down the masterminds behind the Heavenly Host have dangerous repercussions …

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Story of a Girl (2007) (Little Brown)
Sara Zarr
Grade: C
Genre: young adult
Source: own

TBR RBC 2015: A prize-winning novel 

After being found by her father in the back of Tommy Webber’s Buick aged 13, Deanna Lambert became that girl overnight. Never mind the fact that Tommy was 17 and her brother’s supposed friend. Three years later and Deanna is still known as the ‘school slut’, her father has barely spoken to her since that night and tensions in their house might explode any minute. Deanna wants nothing but a life where one mistake when she was 13 doesn’t precede her. Through confronting the perceptions of the people around her, Deanna begins to realise that starting afresh begins within …

Her Mother's Keeper by Nora Roberts

omnibus cover

Her Mother's Keeper (1983) (Silhouette)
Nora Roberts
Grade: D
Genre: contemporary romance
Source: own

Romance RBC 2015: A book by Nora Roberts 

Gwenivere Lacrosse had left home with an innocent naivety to make a life and career for herself in New York. Two years later and she’s returning to New Orleans for a well-deserved break and to sort out the small problem of her mother’s infuriating lodger … Luke Powers is a celebrated writer who is said to be just as adept with women as he is with words. Gwen has grown up with a houseful of strangers but never one like Luke who has insinuated himself so readily into her mother’s life. When Gwen starts her campaign to get him out of her mother’s house and life, she doesn’t expect her plan to backfire quite so spectacularly …