Lick by Kylie Scott

Why I read it: I received a review copy from the publisher.  But (wait for it) this was also a part of my prize for winning the "name the band" competition.  (Actually, the name wasn't terribly original, the series was already called Stage Dive - I just piped up and said that would be an awesome band name).  The other part of my prize was that a secondary character in the book was named after me.  Kaetrin is an (awesome) (slightly slutty - but in a sex positive way) groupie with an AMAZING rack. LOLOLOL!    The author very kindly asked me to pick her hair colour and the colour of her dress for her second appearance in the book.  We had a lot of fun on Twitter with it.  I told her to go for broke - but please just make me hot!  (And she did, so: thank you Kylie!). She's not in the book very much and while I was tickled to see my name in print, that wasn't the reason I liked the book.  Fortunately, it turned out that it's a book I'm very happy to have my name in, even if Book Kaetrin is a bit of a skank (I say that with love).

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  Waking up in Vegas was never meant to be like this.

Evelyn Thomas’s plans for celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas were big. Huge. But she sure as hell never meant to wake up on the bathroom floor with a hangover to rival the black plague, a very attractive half-naked tattooed man, and a diamond on her finger large enough to scare King Kong. Now if she could just remember how it all happened.

One thing is for certain, being married to rock and roll’s favourite son is sure to be a wild ride.

What worked for me (and what didn't): I'm a hero-centric reader but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate a good heroine.  I was actually pretty impressed with Evelyn.  She holds her own against celebrities and rock stars when she's out of her depth and in unfamiliar territory.  There was a certain feistiness to her which appealed very much to me.

Wife for A Week by Kelly Hunter

Why I read it:  I was browsing through my reader and this one jumped out and said "read me".  I picked it up in a Harlequin sale a while back.

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  Nicholas Cooper must produce a wife for his business deal, and Hallie Bennett is beautiful and intelligent enough to pull it off. She needs the money, and Nicholas has determined some strict rules for their week together. Rule No. 1: Displays of affection in public only

Keeping their hands on each other in public turns out to be surprisingly easy. It's keeping them "off" in private that's the problem. Hallie is falling for Nicholas, but will Nicholas make his contract wife his real-life bride?

What worked for me (and what didn't): This was so much fun! It's short, only 120 pages or so but the author manages to create a believable, amusing and sexy romance, not only in a short word count but in a short space of time also - the whole book takes place in just over a week.  

Hallie and Nick meet when Nick's mother is searching for shoes in a shop Hallie is working in and the witty banter and consensual double entendres begin between the two protagonists, egged on by Clea (Nick's mother), who is outrageous but huge fun.

‘No, they met at a birthday party. Clea was in the cake. I try not to think about it.’

Nick is heading to Hong Kong the following week to cement a business deal which has been months in the making.  His potential business partners is widower John Tey, who has a nineteen year old daughter, Jasmine.  Last time Nick was in Hong Kong Jasmine put the moves on him and to let her down gently, he told her he was married.  Now he feels like he has to keep up the pretense of risk the deal and the feelings of both John and his daughter, neither of which he wants to do.  He also doesn't want to set up unrealistic expectations, as he's not in the market for a serious relationship, let alone marriage, so paying someone to pretend seems like the best solution.  After Clea quite outrageously (also shamelessly matchmaking) suggests Nick hire Hallie for the job, things quickly progress to offer and acceptance.

Short Soup by Coleen Kwan

Why I read it:  I received a review copy from the author.

What it's about:  (from Goodreads)  A story about best friends, childhood dreams, and the healing power of Chinese food…

Toni Lau and Dion Chan were connected from birth — first via their parents’ jointly-owned restaurant, then via their bone-deep friendship. But children grow up, and Toni leaves their sleepy hometown looking for more than it can offer.

Now Toni is back, raw with the knowledge that not all childhood dreams come true. Dion is on the brink of realising that both his own ambitions and his childhood friend have the power to derail all of his hard work. But loving Toni — and winning her love in return — has always been on his wish list. Can Dion really put her on the back burner while frying up his chef dreams? Or is it possible that together they can come up with a recipe for happiness?

What worked for me (and what didn't): I liked this little book.  The style was engaging and fun and, at just over 100 pages, it was an easy evening's read.  Toni and Dion are both Australians of Asian descent and the mix of Australian culture and Chinese culture was a bonus in the book.

I really enjoyed that no attempt was made to "Americanise" the text - I don't think US readers would have a problem with understanding it and it made me feel more at home.  It was after all, an Australian romance, set in Australia.  It should sound Australian don't you think?

Addition by Toni Jordan

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Why I read it: I picked this one up from the library after seeing the author's post on Anna Cowan's blog.  Happily it also qualifies for the Australian Women Writer's Challenge 2013.

What it's about:  (from Goodreads)  Grace Vandenburg orders her world with numbers: how many bananas she buys, how many steps to the café, how many poppy seeds on her daily piece of orange cake.

She always sits at the first available table, starting from the top left-hand corner and proceeding around the room and inwards in a clockwise direction.

Every morning she brushes her hair 100 times, brushes her teeth with 160 strokes of her toothbrush. She can remember the day she started to count, how she used numbers to organise her adolescence, her career, even the men she went out with.

But something has gone wrong. Grace used to be a teacher, but now she is living on sickness benefits; as the parent of one of her students put it, ‘she’s mad’. Her father is dead, her mother a mystery to her, her sister sympathetic but not finally able to understand.

Only her niece Hilly can connect with her. And Grace can only connect with Nikola—Nikola Tesla, the turn-of-the-century inventor whose portrait sits on her bedside table and who rescues her in her dreams. Then one day all the tables at the café are full. As she hesitates in the doorway a stranger invites her to sit with him.

What worked for me (and what didn't): You might want to get a cup of tea because this is going to be long.  Don't say you weren't warned!

Usually when I struggle to finish a book, it is because the book isn't very good.  But that wasn't the case here.  I struggled because I found Grace's situation so sad.  The author did such a good job of setting up her character that I felt increasingly pessimistic that there could be an HEA.   I took a break about half way through and read some other books - light sexy contemporaries as a bit of a palate cleanser.  I picked the book up last night, thinking that I'd sneak in a couple of chapters and then take another break, but I found myself powering through to the end.