Review: The Silk Romance by Helena Fairfax

Title: The Silk Romance
Author: Helena Fairfax
Source: Author Request
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 24, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Sophie Challoner is sensible and hard-working, and a devoted carer of her father. One night her grandmother throws a ball for her in Paris…and Sophie does something reckless that she can never forget. 
Jean-Luc Olivier is not a man to treat lightly. And so when fate takes a hand years after the ball, and reunites him with Sophie in Lyon, he is determined not to let her go a second time.
But it seems the fates are conspiring against their happiness. Jean-Luc has secrets of his own. And when disaster strikes at home in London, Sophie is faced with a choice—stay in this glamorous world with the man she loves, or return to her family to keep a sacred promise she made her mother.

The Silk Romance is a rich and luxurious story about Sophie, the English student, and Jean-Luc Olivier (love that name) the famous French race car driver.  After a disasterous first encounter years ago - neither one has really been able to forget about the other.  When Jean-Luc "arranges" for Sophie to spend time working at his silk factory, he is hoping for answers as to what went wrong the last time they were together.  On the other hand, Sophie is only hoping that her time there will end quickly so she can return home to her brother and her ill father.

Neither one of the expects things to go the way they do.  Helena is excellent at slowly drawing the history and feelings out of the characters.  You discover everything right along with them which really helps to bring the characters to life.  This is no smooth ride either.  They come from two different worlds, and trying to bring them together doesn't always work out as well as they hope.  It was a fantastic and smoothly flowing story that was wonderful to read.

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Review: The Antique Love by Helena Fairfax

Title: The Antique Love
Author: Helena Fairfax
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Author Request
Release Date: August 30, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

One rainy day in London, Wyoming man Kurt Bold walks into an antique shop off the King’s Road and straight into the dreams of its owner, Penny Rosas. Lively, spirited and imaginative, Penny takes this handsome stranger for a romantic cowboy straight from the pages of a book. Kurt certainly looks every inch the hero…but he soon brings Penny’s dreams to earth with a thump. His job is in the City, in the logical world of finance—and as far as Kurt is concerned, romance is just for dreamers. Events in his childhood have shown him just how destructive love can be. Now he’s looking for a wife, right enough, but what he wants is a marriage based on logic and rational decisions. Kurt treats Penny like he would his kid sister, but when he hires her to help refurbish his beautiful Victorian house near Richmond Park, it’s not long before he starts to realise it’s not just his home she’s breathing life into. The logical heart he has guarded so carefully all these years is opening up to new emotions, in a most disturbing way…

"A hopeless romantic."  This is what everyone thinks Penny Rosas is.  Many say it with love, but others say it with disdain.  Penny thinks that passionate love is out there for everyone and when a cowboy walks into her antique shop, her heart skips a beat.  The cowboy, Kurt Bold, isn't as romantic as she hoped.  He's a planner and has his life all laid out in front of him step by step - and it sure doesn't include passion.

I adored Penny.  Her love for antiques and history was present on every page.  I loved having a leading lady with a passion for something other than guys - it really rounded here character out well.  Kurt seemed a little more one dimensional, but towards the end his character really rounded out well, too.  Their romance is an interesting one.  Kurt wants logic and lists, Penny wants passion and romance.  It takes really getting to know Penny - and a chance at losing her - before he rethinks his position.

There was a little bit of a side story that allowed Kurt to be the cowboy on a white horse riding in to save the day.  It was nice to see a lot of background going on around the romance to fill the story without overshadowing our main characters.  This is a great sweet romance, I'm glad it was sent my way.

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Amazon: The Antique Love

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