Review: Time Dancer by Inez Kelley

Source: a review copy was provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

I’ve been known to really enjoy Ms. Kelley’s Contemporaries, but what you probably don’t know is that I’m also a fan of her Fantasy trilogy of which Time Dancer is the last installment. Each book takes place in the same universe but features a different leading couple, yet they don’t stand alone that well, especially this book. You could read the first two in any order, but this one ties everything together and brings the series to a closure. Maybe this review will tempt you to try the books!

The setting is a fantasy land that somewhat resembles medieval Europe, but with magic. Jana, the heroine, has some magic but it’s fairly useless because it only gives her insight into the past, and even then, she’s not that good at it. But when her best friend, who happens to be the prince and heir to the throne, receives assassination attempt after assassination attempt, she asks the prince’s mother, a powerful sorceress, to create a spell to protect him.

H&H: Contemporary Romance Edition

I have a new post over at Heroes and Heartbreakers. This time I’m talking about my favorite current Contemporary Romance authors, which means that you won’t find Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips on the list. Instead, I mention authors that may not be as famous or whose careers are relatively new, but that I consider some of the best people currently writing Contemporaries. I know I’m leaving lots of people out, because lucky for us, there are many great authors out there, so I would love to hear your thoughts, if you have read any of those authors and who would make your list!

2011, A Year in Books: The Best

This year I read a lot of books, I don’t have an exact number but I think it was over 200 books. Not all of them were published in 2011 and not all of them were good, some of them were huge disappointments (I’m looking at you Susan Elizabeth Phillips), but I think that overall it was a good year for romance novels.

I admit that most of the Contemporary Romances of the year were either mediocre or good, but just a few were truly outstanding, and only two books made my list:

Review: Turn It Up by Inez Kelley

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

Inez Kelley’s books are among some of the best books I have read this year. The first one I read was Sweet as Sin and finding that book was the reader’s equivalent of love at first sight. After that, I have read and enjoyed almost everything she has written so when I saw this book on NetGalley I was very happy; in fact, I was so excited that I bought the book about five minutes before NetGalley approved me because I couldn’t wait.

Turn It Up is a friends-to-lovers story. Bastian and Charlie have been best friends for years, they have been there for one another during good times and bad times and have the easy camaraderie and trust that only comes after years of being together. They also work together as cohost of a radio show about sex.

Review: Sweet as Sin by Inez Kelley

I liked this book a lot, but I was expecting something different based on the cover and the reviews. I was expecting an erotica novel with a tortured hero with an awful past, and what I got was a very steamy novel (but not on the erotica levels of hotness) and a tortured hero with an awful past (but not the levels of awful that some reviews let me to believe). And this is all I’m saying about the hero’s backstory because that’s the big mystery/revelation and I’m not ruining that.


John Murphy, the hero, is a YA writer/illustrator who just moved to a new house and instantly feels attracted to his new neighbor, pastry chef Livvy. They decide to act on the attraction and enter a no strings attached sexual relationship. The thing is, that even though they start the relationship as a temporary fling, they also develop feelings for each other. The Problem is that he doesn’t do commitment and is full of secrets, some of them quite bad if his nightmares are any indication. The rest of the book is about how they deal with that, the feelings, the past and each other. Parallel to this we get parts of the book Jon is currently working on, and is this story within a story, that sheds the most light on his troubled past.