Eyeliner of the Gods

Title: Eyeliner of the Gods

Author: Katie Maxwell

Genre: YA romance?

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Jan is on an archaeological dig in Egypt. Deprived of air conditioning, makeup, and decent clothes (but wonderfully away from her family!), Jan has one thing to look forward to each day: the hottie working next to her, Seth.

However, people think Seth is the reincarnation of the evil god Set - and thus he gets blamed for everything that goes wrong on the dig, including the theft of several artifacts!

Jan, Seth, and his brother Cy race against time to figure out what is going on - and Jan and Seth try to figure out their relationship through teenage hormones and misunderstandings (oy!).

Eyeliner of the Gods is cute. Jan can be annoying, but in the way of sixteen-year-old girls with (slight) self-esteem issues. If you like Katie Maxwell's (aka Katie MacAlister) other books, you'll probably like this one.

Noble Destiny

Title: Noble Destiny
Author: Katie MacAlister
Genre: Regency Romance
Rating: 4.5 stars

Returning widowed to England five years after an infamous elopement, Charlotte Collins finds herself in a quandary: where once she was the darling of the ton, now she is cut by them. Where once she had no shortage of suitors, now she finds herself in desperate need of a husband - and a rich one at that.

Imagine Charlotte's frustration then, when, after trapping Alasdair McGregor, Lord Carlisle, into marriage, she finds that he has no wealth, few connections, and absolutely no desire to bed her without both parties being in love. And to top it all off, Dare's cousin - long thought drowned at sea - shows up (or at least someone claiming to be this cousin), stripping Dare and Charlotte of the one thing Charlotte thought they had left: their titles.

This was a charming book. It doesn't quite live up to the first in the series, Noble Intentions, however: Charlotte is flighty and sometimes hard to keep up with, and makes the most astounding leaps of "logic". Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable story with a satisfying ending.

I look forward to reading the third in this trilogy, The Trouble with Harry. Having read pretty much all of MacAlister's other work, I have no doubts that it will be just as enjoyable as Noble Intentions and Noble Destiny.

Noble Intentions

Title: Noble Intentions
Author: Katie MacAlister
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Noble Britton (yes, that's his name) has been deeply scarred by his first wife's betrayal, and locks all emotion behind high walls. Gillian Leigh is honest, forthright, and incredibly loving. When these two acknowledge their instant attraction and marry, Gillian, now Lady Wessex, vows to bring down her new husband's emotional barriers, love her new stepson, and have lots of hot sex. Okay, so she doesn't vow the last bit, but it happens anyway.

I loved Katie MacAlister's contemporary romances, but the first time I gave this book a try I had a hard time with it. This time, however, I loved it. I got caught up in the story (a mystery regarding Noble's first wife, Elizabeth, and the circumstances surrounding her death). I laughed out loud throughout the book (which made reading half of it in the library rather difficult). Though the sex scenes aren't as graphic as in her contemporary romances, I understand the difference now - the difference in the attitude of the characters - and I like the book all the better for it.

To anyone who has read any of Katie MacAlister's other novels (either under that name, or under her YA pseudonym Katie Maxwell), I say: you will not be disappointed. Heck, I say that to anyone looking at this book! It's got romance, interesting characters, a (murder) mystery, and plenty of humor.

Hard Day's Knight

Title: Hard Day's Knight
Author: Katie MacAlister
Source: Border's
Rating: (no rating)

This was my first "descent" into romance. Last year a few months after my local Renaissance Faire ended I was going through withdrawal (hey, I'm a Rennie, so what?) and went searching for books involving Faires. I found Hard Day's Knight, and rolled my eyes, thinking "Oh, god, romance. What have I come to, to be reading romance?", and bought it anyway. To my surprise, I enjoyed it. Hard Day's Knightactually has a plotline, and though it has sex, the sex is not the point of the book itself (a fact which relieved me greatly: if I want pr0n there's lots of fanfic on the internet). While I couldn't imagine a Faire being anything like the one depicted in the book, it sated my withdrawal at least a little bit, and got me hooked on the author.

Pure fluff, but loads better than a lot of romances I've seen (mostly my roommate's books, which, I'm sorry Steph, make me cringe). Definitely a nice escape from the Literature I'm supposed to be studying (which makes my brain hurt).

Oh, btw: I'm loving Romance now. *grin*