Janet's Keeper List (regularly updated)

This is Janet's list of KEEPERS.  I'm pretty picky about what I consider a keeper.  I've read probably at least 1000 HPs.  The books I list here are ones I highly highly recommend you check out, because I loved them enough to keep them around and re-read, when I hardly ever bother to go back for re-reads, since I have such a steady stream of NEW books I haven't read before.  Most of the books I list here will be HARLEQUIN line books: the lines I most often read (in order) are: Harlequin Presents, Silhouette Desire, Harlequin Blaze

Here you can find my keepers (fully reviewed & described), all in one place.

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Non HP Keepers:

Anything by these authors:

Nina Bangs (Humourous Paranormal Romances)

Angela Knight (Paranormal Romances, especially her "Magiverse" series)

Amanda Ashley (Paranormal Romances, I enjoy AA's books but I do not consider them "can't live without, have to buys")

Come Moonrise
Lucy Monroe
Brava (werewolf / vet)
Amazingly intense passion!  Ty and Cassie are drawn together by a supernatural lust/love.  He's a werewolf and they are both vets with strong animal ties and insights.  He can't be with her though: he only can mate with one person, and if he mates with her and then she leaves him, he can't have sex with anyone.  Pack law is deadly in punishment.  Their connection can't be denied, they come together wildly and intensely in almost a supernatural orgy.  There's wonderful little moments where he haunts her dreams and they had a flashback to a time when she met his wolf form while sunbathing and crying over Ty.  Very passionate.  Happy ending.  Rating: 5/5 stars, pure yummy destined-to-be passion, a KEEPER for me!

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What Are Friends For
Naomi Horton
Silhouette Desire
They have been friends (blood brothers) for 20 years.  They tried sex once when she was 17 or 18, but he married someone else.  He's had two failed marriages.  This book picks up after the second divorce comes through, she's there for him.  They work together, he's her boss.  They get along so smoothly, they are perfect friends and there is this basic attraction between them that just makes them want to touch each other (whether it's sexual or not).  The intimacy between these two people is absolutely amazing.  They are so close, every touch between them made me fall a little in love with love.  Their conflict was good.  I have put this on my list of "my absolute fav books, must re-read sometime".  Rating: 5/5 stars, I'd give it more stars if I could.  Read this book, it will not disappoint!  It's steamy and the love is so strong!  It makes you wish you had a relationship like this.
eBook
* holy steamy batman!  Best friends to lovers book ever!

A Dash of Temptation
Jo Leigh
Harlequin Blaze
Yummy!  He's a celebrity who owns a huge magazine, which he reluctantly is the face of for publicity.  He hates all the parties but is a charming public figure.  He finds out his plant lady needs a date to a party, and he asks her out. She's a funny, open, honest, and sexual person.  They have lots of hot sex. Dash the hero is amazingly real and quirky and sexy.  He touches his nipple and winks at one point, awesome strip tease.  They begin an affair, but he tells her from the start he can't be a typical boyfriend.  Eventually it's not enough for her.  It's not enough for him either.

Anything for You
Sarah Mayberry
Harlequin Blaze
Oh hell yes.  YUM.  Let me start this review by saying how much I love books where friends fall in lust/love.  It's a great foundation for a romance, you have real caring and combine it with sizzling passion… yum.  The heroine is about to turn 30 and she's in love with her best friend and business partner, Sam.  She sees her sister's family and decides that if she doesn't get Sam out of her life (by quitting their partnership at work and moving out of the apartment next to him) then she'll never marry anyone and have babies.  There simply isn't room in her life or heart for anyone else when she has this closeness with Sam.  I really felt for the heroine!  Great person to empathize with.  The hero is adorable in his own way, he's charming and sexy and he's dumbfounded when the heroine starts cutting him out of her liife.  When he starts seeing her in a new sexy light after a makeover, he feels such guilt about lusting after his best friend that he's like a whipped puppy: you can't blame him for not noticing her sooner.  It's a great dynamic between these two.  When they get close, they get GRABBY and throw each other down onto the nearest horizontal surface.  Pure smoking hot.  And she calls him "chicken shit" afterwards.  Their actions/reactions are very believable.  Great book!   Rating: 5/5 stars, kickass friends-become-lovers story.  Kickass!

Harlequin Presents Keepers:

An Obsessive Love
Sarah Holland
Harlequin Presents
Hot hot hot!  Absolutely awesome.  Destined and overwhelming passion between the hero/heroine.  They both love obsessively and fear giving too much of themselves in a relationship.  Here they find their match in each other.  The intense passion is amazing!  They hold back on each other, refusing to admit they are in love, for a long time.  Great story!  Awesome author (is this a nom de plume for Charlotte Lamb?)

Master of Seduction
Sarah Holland
Harlequin Presents
Good god anything by Sarah Holland is pure genius!  This was fast-paced, incredibly sensual, so passionate, witty!  The hero/heroine look at each other and run headlong into lust and chase each other.  It's delicious.  She's a widow who was abused by her husband and father.  He's a widower who was cheated on which made him turn into a hard playboy who used women for pleasure only.  Great how they fight their relationship and see that it's more than just sex. 

340
Savage Interlude
Carole Mortimer
Harlequin Presents
The ultimate love/hate relationship!  Wonderful banter and fighting between the hero/heroine.  He thinks she's a gold digger using sex as a bargaining tool, but she's really innocently waiting for marriage because she was illegitimate and sex-without-marriage scares her.  He's jealous of the other men in her life (James St. Just, her secret brother, who is a movie star and must be kept secret, and Alan the non-threatening guy who wants to marry her).  Jealousy and sexual obsession lead them into marriage.  Awesome thrilling, totally absorbing book that has your heart pounding.  Rating: 5/5 stars, this is a very old HP but it's a keeper for me, it was just incredibly passionate.

1712
Angel of Darkness
Lynne Graham
Harlequin Presents
He thinks she tore apart their parents marriage.  So years after the divorce, when the parents get back together, he takes her away to keep her from interfering with the marriage.  He is a punishing figure: as her stepbrother he did more raising of her than their parents, he was strict and ripped her out of boys arms when she was on dates.  Now he hears her reputation: she was a model who got involved with a married man and has a bad rep of being a tease.  He wants her with an intense passion, to erase any man from her memory.  She hadn't been with anyone though!  He doesn't realize this though: he does say "I'm hurting you" when they make love the first time, but he just thought he was being too passionate.  She needs to get away from him: she has her friend's fiance pretend to be her lover in her appartment.  This makes him furious.  She is pregnant, her mother and his father find out and think Angelos is the father, they hilariously want to take a shotgun to him almost.  Angelos doesn't think he's the father because she told him he wasn't: he's intensely jealous that she's carrying another man's baby.  Once he finds out it's his, they clear up their misunderstandings. Rating: 4.5/5 stars, the alpha male was a little domineering at times, but it took my breath away so much I marked it as a keeper!

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War of Love
Carole Mortimer
Harlequin Presents
Holy crap this was awesome!  I was choking with laughter at times.  Frigging amazing writing.  Hilarious.  Great tension between the hero/heroine, very love/hate!  Loved it.  He thinks she's a trampy "bunny girl" because he saw her dressed in a skimpy bunny suit, while hostessing at his store's party.  He thinks she's bent on seducing his old uncle, but the uncle is in fact in love with her mother!  They have angry passionate sex.  The jealousy that starts to grow is great.  Yum.  Rating: 4.5/5 stars, a little bit 80s, but it's a KEEPER for me because it was SO hilarious and passionate. 

1740
Indecent Deception
Lynne Graham
Harlequin Presents
Absolutely hilarious!  This is a laugh out loud book.  I adored the hero: he was an alpha male but he was a good man with such a sense of humour and no moral superiority.  He made a crack about how if he was told Chrissy had cavorted with the whole rugby team, he would just ask her if she had enjoyed it.  Blaize was a great man, completely infatuated and enslaved by his lust, he would take her into his arms, and as soon as he had her there he would put a hand to her chest and flatten her onto her back and keep flattening her if she tried to reason and get off the bed.  He once said he'd give the kid to the housekeeper and pay the builders to leave and told her to go up to bed and warm it for him, he'd be back as quick as possible, he was so endearing in his disbelief that she could consider turning him down!  There's a funny premise to the story: Chrissy is raising her mothers three year old daughter, and she lies and says that the child is Blaize's (to keep her pregnant sister from having an abortion, the sister thinks she has a chance of a future with Blaize herself!).  Awesome book.  Laughed out loud.  Rating: 5/5 stars, this is a KEEPER for me, the hero was someone I could love so easily.

1788
The Sister Swap
Susan Napier
Harlequin Presents
She's a student, pretending to be her sister, and pretending to be the mum of her sister's baby.  The hero is a professor who lives in the apartment beside the heroine.  He meets her, she keeps the baby a secret, he finds out and wants her even though she's a mum, then he thinks she's sleeping with other men, and that drives him to sleep with her himself: surprise, she's a virgin and she ain't a mum!  This was amazing!  Hilarious!  Great use of deception.  I was laughing out loud while reading this book!  I actually spit out a mint I had in my mouth at one point.  Frigging hilarious.  A cop thinks she's a prostitute on two different occasions, the hero hears groaning and sees a parade of male athletes coming in and out of her apartment (for massages), she deliberately makes his mom think they are lovers (because she thinks the mom is the hero's lover and is jealous!).  Awesome book.  Susan Napier is a queen of comedy in romance.  Rating: 4.5/5 stars, this book was slightly dated (80s) but it was a KEEPER for me.  Hilarious!

1864
Prisoner of Passion
Lynne Graham
Harlequin Presents
Awesome book, would read again.  Hilarious moments of confusion where the hero thinks the heroine is a hooker at first. They get kidnapped together and it's intense and funny.  They make love in captivity, then after the kidnapping he pursues her, but she refuses.  Then she gives an interview to the media (to stop them from hounding her), saying how DULL the experience was.  The hero is mad that she called him dull and thinks she sold her story.  She didn't.  Great plucky heroine.  Rating: 4/5 stars, I would definately re-read this book, it's so funny and the love that grows between them is free of ick factors.

2707
The Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride
Lynne Graham
Harlequin Presents
Very good.  She's an innocent and intelligent hardworking cleaner/waitress.  She innocently starts a chess game with someone in the office she cleans (an anonymous game, each making moves while the other is gone).  This captures the hero's interest: he challenges her to a real game and they have sex.  The condom breaks.  She's a virgin.  He throws some accusations, thinking she's trying to trap him.  She finds out she's pregnant, and he finds out she has a criminal record!  She runs away and he finds her 7 months later.  He now offers her marriage, which is a better offer than what he had given her before she ran.  They start to trust each other and bond over the baby.  Great plot, nice love, good passion.  :)  Rating: 5/5 stars, this is a KEEPER for me, the heroine was smart and delightful.

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Purchased by the Billionaire
Helen Bianchin
Harlequin Presents
Absolutely wonderful!  The passion and all-consuming unconditional love in this story is so heart-warming.  He never wavers in his devotion to her, even though pride won't let him say the words right away.  When she comes to him with money problems, he calmly takes over her life and forces her to marry him again (she left him three years ago).  He ties her into his life and they share this incredible closeness: he always makes sure they go to bed together, if they fight and she tries to sleep elsewhere, he finds her and carries her back to bed to hold her in sleep.  Love!   Rating: 5/5 stars, this is a KEEPER for me because it's the most intense story of unconditional love!

2711
Taken by her Greek Boss
Cathy Williams
Harlequin Presents
Delightful!  Fiesty little spitfire of a heroine, so protective of her little sister, putting the rich hero in his place!  She's great at keeping his ego in check. He loves having her around because she's like no one he's met before.  They start having sex and she wants more: marriage eventually.  They break up.  Then he sees her starting to date others and gets jealous, confronts her, and they have unprotected sex.  She shows up 2 months later to tell him she's pregnant.  He's got the fear of god in him once he sees her white face and how scared she looks: he thinks she's ill and he's terrified and realizes he loves her and tells her so.  He's so happy to hear she's pregnant!  She thought he'd be upset, but he GRINS at her!  Lovely story.  Rating: 5/5 stars, a PURE KEEPER.  My absolute favourite Cathy Williams book. 

2525
The Desert Virgin
Sandra Marton
Harlequin Presents
Holy smoking hot, batman!  This goes into the keeper pile, simply because it was such an incredibly passionate ride.  Yowza!  She's been captured by the bad guy, he's a special ops guy investigating the bad guy.  The bad guy offers the heroine as a sexual playtoy to the hero.  The heroine mocks him, and so the hero decides he's not going to be noble and turn her away to focus on business, instead he's going to have her, get the tension over with, so then he can go and focus on business.  The atmosphere between the hero/heroine is so charged and constantly on edge.  They are on the run, trying to escape together.  After they escape, they get separated.  His reaction once he awakes and finds her gone is priceless: the hero is totally whipped and he doesn't realize/admit it yet.  His pursuit of her is so single-minded, it's thrilling.  Rating: 5/5 stars, this is a keeper!

2362
The Salvatore Marriage
Michelle Reid
Harlequin Presents
This book was really gripping and emotional.  The grief, passion, and tenderness just had me jumping!  They were together two years ago, engaged, until he found her cleaning up after another MAN in their apartment.  She tried to tell him it was her sister (who married the hero's brother) but he wouldn't believe her.  They had angry sex and he broke her heart with his cold refusal to speak to her after.  They come back together when their married siblings have a fatal car accident, the hero breaks the news, and they have to deal with the hospitals and their newborn baby niece.  Despite the past, he wants a life with her.  Their coming together is really emotional.  Over the past two years, neither has been able to bring themselves to having sex with other people, so their feelings for each other are all the more special on both sides.  I really enjoyed this book.  I have never had a book with death/grief in my keeper pile, but this is a keeper for me because the passion and tenderness were so amazing.  Rating: 5/5 stars, the best book I've read from Michelle Reid so far.

* The hero/heroine stay faithful and have a tender love even though they broke up under bad circumstances

1195
Sweet Captivity
Kate Proctor
Wow, this one was quite a fun passionate ride!  The hero and heroine were kidnapped (because the hero is rich and from a powerful family).  The heroine accidentally helped get the hero (and herself) kidnapped (she thought it was a college prank).  The hero thinks she's in on it all and mistrusts her.  They get close and are fiercely attracted to each other.  At first they are rational and decide not to have sex because they can't prevent pregnancy, but it soon becomes apparent their lives are seriously in danger here, and they lose their inhibitions about practicalities!  Eventually they escape, and pretend to be engaged to cover up a scandal over the kidnapping.  She is in a rush to leave him and to keep secret the fact that she's pregnant.  The hero is quite determined to chase after her, and he's adorable.  Here's a funny quote from the heroine, as she tries to strip and seduce the hero: "Didn't need your help, did I?" she gloated, triumphantly waving his trousers aloft.  The book is HILARIOUS, full of moments like this where their emotions get so intense they get grabby.  The hero is also adorable for the fact that he drunk dials the heroine TWICE after she leaves him, and impulsively drops his plans to take a flight out to her lawyer's office in an attempt to track her down (he gets drunk and causes a scene at the lawyer's office, which requires the cops).  The hero is a mess without the heroine, and it's adorable.  This book is a keeper for me.  Rating: 5/5 stars, yummity yum, funny and intense, biting humour, a KEEPER.

Back Cover: She was living on the edge of torment

Charlie Graham had come thousands of miles across the world - the Amazon promised excitement, adventure and new hope for her bedraggled soul. But she hadn't counted on being kidnapped by one of Brazil's richest rubber planters, Riago da Santana, and held hostage in his jungle castle!

Of course, the kidnapping was a misunderstanding, and nobody could have predicted the torrential rains that flooded the river, stranding everybody. But that hadn't stopped the black sheep of the Santana family from sweeping Charlie away. He'd taken her body and devastated her mind and her senses. And then he demanded she become his bride!    My Review: The heroine thinks she's being kidnapped, but it's really a case of mistaken identity.  The hero is pretty surprised when the wrong woman shows up, he'd expected a rendezvous with an old lover.  He's been without women for a long time though and gets a little drunk and makes a pass at the heroine.  She gives in half out of curiousity, half out of desire.  It causes a scandal in his household that the heroine was a virgin and the hero "took advantage of her", the only way to make it right in his family's eyes is marriage.  The heroine fights this upcoming marriage, but the hero has got into his mind that he wants her and never will let her go.  (Yum, I love when a hero decides he can "never let her go" and stubbornly does all he can to bind his love to him, before he even admits to himself that he's fallen in love)  She fights with herself about what she wants, and worries over an ex-lover of his making a re-appearance.  This was a really good read, very intensely passionate, from page 30 onward!  I love how the heroine stays with the hero while he's ill and loves him back to health.  Rating: 5/5 stars, all around good book, KEEPER!

2590
Pregnancy of Passion
Lucy Monroe
Harlequin Presents
Back Cover:  It was a year since their tempestuous affair had ended. So why was he back? Elisa trusted Salvatore di Vitale as far as she could throw him. And, as the wealthy Sicilian was over six feet tall, that wasn't very far.
Salvatore told Elisa he had come to protect her. And if their close proximity led to passion...and if passion should lead to pregnancy...all the better! Because then Elisa would have to marry him, which was Salvatore's plan all along.
  My Review:  I loved Pregnancy of Passion.  The hero and heroine were lovers who broke up a year ago because of a miscarriage (and him stupidly thinking he wasn't the father).  The hero said that from the moment she told him about the baby, he considered them married in his eyes, and he acted accordingly.  He chased her, he watched over her, he felt she was his, he was faithful, he valued her as his and put her safety above everything else.  *sigh*  That was a strong warm love that just made me feel real good.  He'd watched over her since she walked out, from afar, but stepped in to shadow her when her safety was threatened at the jewelry store she worked at.  He was constantly at her side, determined to get her to the altar, and he told her very clearly that he deliberately intended not to use protection when they had sex because he WANTED her pregnant (for her own good and because he wanted their family).  I liked that he knew what he wanted so well: HER, and that he had made up his mind 100% and was 110% committed to getting it.  Rating: 4.5/5 stars, a very emotional story about loss with a very determined hero in pursuit of his woman, who he intends to wrangle to the altar.  Very loving.  I'm going to label this a KEEPER.

2638
The Italian's Wedding Ultimatum
Kim Lawrence
Harlequin Presents
Back Cover: Alessandro Di Livio is fiercely protective of his family, and he's determined to keep gold-digging Sam Maguire away from his sister's husband…even if it means seducing her himself!

Sam is no femme fatale—in fact she's a virgin! But under Alessandro's expert touch she succumbs to one night in his arms. And when passion leads to pregnancy, Sam knows that Alessandro will do whatever it takes to have her as his wife and their baby as his heir!
   My Review: Mmmm.  I really liked the dynamic between the hero/heroine, it was combatative, sparks flew, insults hit the air, and they got grabby!  The hero was a man you could like and respect, yet he was also sexy and had an in-your-face aggressive side (which I enjoyed).  Case in point: the hero didn't enjoy being hidden away in the heroine's bedroom when she had guests, so he unbuckled his belt and unbottoned his pants and swanned in mid conversation complaining about her leaving him in bed.  *grin*  I liked how the hero reacted to the heroine's feelings for another man, he was possessive but determined to have the heroine, even if that meant letting himself be used by the heroine for sex.  There were many moments where I just felt the warmth in the hero's feelings for her.  Nice innocent heroine: she was the type who only had sex if she was in love, so it made sense for her to have avoided experimentation.  Great read!  Rating: 4.5/5 stars, very good.  I'd mark this a KEEPER.  (the only somewhat negative thing is that there were "lulls" where plot development took precedence over passion/intensity for a few minutes.)