The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman by Katherine Garbera

Light yet enjoyable romance

3 stars

Heiress Kara deMontaine has always been self-conscious about her weight and body image – so she is the most stunned when delicious international playboy, Count Guillermo de la Cruz, announces their engagement just moments after the pair first meet. Unfortunately the man of her dreams has only offered marriage as an act of revenge against his former lover.

Kara should have stopped the charade before it began, but the way that Gui looked at her made her believe she was a beautiful woman. But could she really manage to tame the playboy and convince him they could have a happily ever after together?

This was a light, quick read with enjoyable characters and a very readable storyline. Kara’s insecurities made her a character that you could identify with and root for while Gui was definitely someone to fall in love with as he genuinely couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t find Kara attractive.

However, there were some negative points of the book and these reason that I only gave it 3 stars. The first, and biggest was that I couldn’t understand the motivations of the characters, particularly Gui. We also very rarely scratched the surface of the emotions of the characters and it just wasn’t deep enough for my liking. The story was also wrapped up too neatly for me to really believe in it.

It was still a light, interesting read but not one of the best stories I have read. However, if you like a sexy Spanish hero and a shy heroine then you still might really enjoy this book. 3 stars.

One Hot Weekend by Katherine Garbera

Readable and entertaining romance

3 stars

Assistant District Attorney Sophia Deltonio is determined to work her way to the top and earn the promotion that the office is abuzz about. To do so, she needs to win a high profile case that is the talk of the town. And she’s squaring off against hotshot lawyer and ex-lover Mitch Halloran.

Ten years ago, Sophia broke Mitch’s heart when she betrayed him in order to get into a prestigious law firm. Now, not only does Mitch want to win the case, he desperately wants revenge against Sophia.

So the pair make a bet – whoever wins the case gets the other as a sex slave for a whole weekend. But the pair will soon find out that it’s not revenge that’s so sweet and perhaps one hot weekend isn’t nearly enough.

This was essentially a fun, interesting story that starts off as a quest for revenge but quickly turns into one of love. Both Sophia and Mitch were interesting characters and both were believable and relatable. The chemistry was perhaps not scorching hot but still produced a good sizzle.

The reason I gave this book 3 stars was that it didn’t really grip me or thrill me. It was interesting, very readable and easy to finish but it didn’t really have that emotional oomph that would have made it a great story. Fine for a lazy afternoon read, this isn’t a keeper for me but I will still look for other books by Katherine Garbera in the future.