Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Klepas

Wow.

That's what in my mind after reading Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas. In my previous post, I have mentioned that I kinda skipped this one, as this one is the second installment of Travises Saga. Well, thought about it and why not give this novel a try, though? And it turned out this is one of the best contemporary romance novels that I have ever laid my hands on.

Blue Eyed Devil is the story of Hardy Cates, the villain guy from the first book, Sugar Daddy and Haven Marie Travis, the only daughter of Churchill Travis. And as usual, the story is written from heroine's point of view where the plot starts off at Travis Mansion, celebrating Cage and Liberty's wedding (from Sugar Daddy). The characters are introduced neatly, both old and new, one by one as we get to know the relationship between Haven and Nick, her fiance and of course, our hero, the goddamn sexy Hardy Cates.

And why was I wow-ing this novel? Yeah, this book is also about how a woman, married and alone, deals with domestic, emotional and verbal abuse from her husband, not to mention that she has to deal with the narcissistic authority at her workplace, as well. I would like to say that actually, this novel touches the critical point of narcissism, where the person who has this type of personality disorder tends to think he or she is normal and does what is right, but actually the act itself is beyond norm and cruel. They are not aware of what 'normal' really is. And reading the novel, it was like I am in Haven's shoes, experiencing her suffering, and stuff.

One flaw that I could point out is the romance between Hardy and Haven, is kinda fast-paced and it can be longer, though. I mean, realistically, Haven or any women out there should take a little while to heal and stuff after they had gone through such a pain-in-the-ass experience.

Emm. Other than that, I will rate this novel as 4.5 stars. And seriously, definitely, a keeper. :)

Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

Another contemporary romance novel from Lisa Kleypas, my favorite historical romance novel author ( alongside Julia Quinn, Judith Mcnaught, etc etc) and a third installment of Travises Saga.

Smooth Talking Stranger is a story about yet another Churchill Travis's son, Jack Travis. Jack Travis is the only soft-hearted family member in the Travises and as usual, one of the mega-millionaire in Houston, Texas and one of the family's uncomplicated playboy (oh yeah..). The story is told in Ella Varner's point of view, (Ella Varner is the heroine, here here)..

The plot started with an introduction of Ella Varner's perfect life, her boyfriend Dane, her job as a columnist until one day, Ella is disturbed with her mother's phone call, the flight and the new-born baby of her beautiful sister, Tara Varner. Dane comforts her to go to her mom, Candy Varner to help out and see what she can do about it, but its not easy for her as Candy is her living hell and the source of every single problem of her in the past.

She helps to babysit the new born baby, Luke and it leads to a meeting with Jack Travis, one of the candidates of Luke's father. Jack protests that he did not sleep with Tara, but Ella keeps pushing him to do the DNA test which eventually, he agrees to do it but there is something that Jack really wants from Ella....

I read this novel for 2 days, because I don't want the story to end! Ya, stuff like this happens when I read Lisa Kelypas's novels, and because I have read almost all of her novels, I couldn't bear with the fact that I won't be able to read her new story in a short while... sobs.

By the way, I'm going to quick review the novel (even though I kinda skipped Blue Eyed Devil, the second installment). The characters are well-depicted, and I love how Ms. Kleypas portrays Jack in the novel. The heroine, is quite okay, she's a tough one (yeah, I know I screamed those words in my mind,' WHY THE HELL YOU KEEP PUSHING JACK AWAY EVEN THOUGH HE'S NICE TO YOU!!!'). Ah, forgot to mention, Luke, the baby. Even though he could not talk at all, but every time he's in the scene, I smiled because he acts so cute and I don't think of him as a nuisance for both Ella and Jack, at all. And cameo of familiar characters from previous novels, too ( kinda as a follow up from previous stories).

The plot? hm.. okay, though. Won't tell you much because I can't spoil it for you, you have to spoil it yourself. :P But overall, I will give this book 4/5 stars. Not the best contemporary ever because I have read a better one than this, but you can consider Smooth Talking Stranger as a keeper. :D

The Rose (Qiang Wei Zhi Lian) - SPOILERS AHEAD

The Rose, year 2003 Taiwanese Drama, is an adaptation from Bara no Tameni manga by Yoshimura Akemi. I have reviewed the manga a long time ago.. at first I didn't know that they have made out a drama over this manga. But then, even though after I knew the drama exists, it still didn't manage to provoke me to watch it, no matter how much I love the manga because I don't really like the lead actress, Ella from S.H.E. She played Bai He. But yesterday, while browsing thru mysoju.com, I decided to give The Rose a try, and I was very excited and shocked to see my favorite Taiwanese actor, Joe Cheng is in the drama, as my favorite character in the manga, Aoi-san!

As far as I can remember, this drama is rated as 18+ because of the incest theme, mature issues, homosexual and countless four way pre-rape act done by both male actors (four way = the older bro to sis, the younger bro to sis, the older bro to younger bro, and the younger bro to the older bro. Yeah. Believe me.). But I'm 21 years old and I am a pervert, so I don't really care about it. Both guys were super sexy and super funny when they tried to rape each other. Kinda turned on while watching those two bros, rather than when the sis is involved. Haha.. Ah, he older brother, Han Jin (Chinese equivalent of Sumire) is played by a hunk named Jerry Huang.

I totally root for Han Kui and Bai He (and I am sure that 99.9% viewers and fans root for them too). Btw, in my opinion, Kui is the most pitiful guy in the history of drama and manga because the first woman he really loves is his own long-lost biological sister, Bai He and that explains the incest stuff. He also got tangled up by his homo feelings to Han Jin, and well, that explains the homosexual theme and stuff. In the end, Han Kui lost to his older brother, Han Jin. Tsk tsk tsk.

Joe Cheng as Han Kui (chinese equivalent of Aoi)

Aoi from Bara no Tameni