M is for Zee Monodee: Light My World- Review and Mauritius #atozchallenge #newrelease #romance

I’m excited to talk about this gorgeous African island.  I only heard of it last year when my fabulous editor for Midwife To Destiny, Zee Monodee, proudly proclaimed it as her homeland.

Image from Bing.com

Not only is she one of the best editors in the world, but she writes fabulous novels. Her latest book in the Ubuntu line, Light My World, has just been released. I loved this book. Check out my review below.

The Blurb

So what if a girl has to kiss a few frogs to find her prince?

Tired of her Indian-origin mother’s relentless matchmaking, Diya Hemant is determined to find her Prince Charming on her terms. Armed with a definitive list of requirements, she is sure she’ll know her man when she meets him…

But looking and finding are two different things, especially on the tiny island of Mauritius…

When her path crosses surly British widower Trent Garrison’s, it’s hate at first sight. And though fate keeps pitting her against him, she’s certain he can’t be turned into a frog let alone a prince.

Can this modern-day princess overcome her own expectations and see beyond the ogre to the man beneath?

 Buy Links: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Decadent Publishing ~ AllRomance Ebooks

My Review

Ms. Monodee has done it again by creating a captivating, engaging, passion filled romance. I rated the first book in the Island Girls series, The Other Side, as fantastic, but the second one supersedes the first. Not that it's not necessary to read book one before delving into Light My World.

Set on the African island of Mauritius, the setting is gorgeous with beaches, gorgeous sunsets and towns with lovely sounding French names. What impressed me most was the heat between Diya and Trent from the onset. Initially flamed by anger and annoyance, it transitioned into a huge ball of red hot passion. The two moving from enemies of a sort, to friends, then progressing to lovers set the story on a realistic keel.

Diya is a woman after my own heart - Strong, sassy, independent , compassionate, and a gets anything she sets her mind onto done. Trent, is delicious and full of love, if not a little spooked by the past. Best of all he has no fear of Diya. These two had me laughing at their antics, and sighing at their romantic interaction.

A wonderful book that I recommend to romance lovers all over the world.

I give this book 5 out of 5 SUV shaped chocolate bars.

Note: I was given a copy of this book for an honest review.

Here is the first book in the series, but you don't need to have read the first to enjoy the second. See my review here.

Blurb:

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, the homeland of her parents, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

But once there, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking...and certainly not from the man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again. Today, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love again?

Buy links: 
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon CA  ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords ~ Kobo ~AllRomance Ebooks ~ Decadent ~ ~ Kalahari (Paperback)

This is a gigantic blog hop so click here to see what other bloggers are discussing for this letter. Have fun.

Review: The Other Side by Zee Monodee #romance

Blurb:

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, the homeland of her parents, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

But once there, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking...and certainly not from the man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again. Today, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love again?

My Review

 

Ms. Monodee certainly knows how to make the reader step into the character's shoes. After one scene I actually desired a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke, so if you have recently quite smoking you may want to skip that scene.  I learned a great French swear word which I will not share with you here, but it begins with M.

It's only recently that I learned about the island of Mauritius, and through this novel I feel as if I’ve been there and experienced it. Both the glorious beauty of the land and the peculiar behaviours of some of the people and culture as a whole. Some of the things that were said really surprised me. I don’t do spoilers so I won’t mention them but the story had me thinking, which tells a lot about the intensity of the book.

At the heart of the tale is true love. A love that cannot be separated by culture, family, time, marriage, or self preservation. Lara is an interesting character. Not as strong as I like heroines to be, but she grows in strength as the book moves along and this made me really like her. Eric was so patient, understanding, and hot that I loved him from beginning to end. The deep passion they shared made me wonder how things in life can go so badly that they missed out on so much.

A fantastic romance that I highly recommend. I can’t wait for book two which is coming out this month. 

I give this book five out five king size chocolate bars.

I purchased this novel from Amazon.

The Good of #Ghana – A new weekly feature

My contemporary multicultural romance is being released with Decadent Publishing (pause to dance) yearly next year with their Ubuntu line. This line features romance novels that are based in Africa. It aims to expose the ‘real’ Africa to the world rather than the ‘misconceived’ version most people walk around with in their head (anybody think of nearly naked starving people tromping through a jungle?- eh hem).

While I am waiting for my book to be released I had the bright idea to share the good aspects of Ghana, leaving out the bad and the ugly.

Ghana is a wonderful country and I'm sure you'll enjoy your journey with me every Thursday for the next few months. 

In the meantime I’ll leave you with some of the fantastic books that have been published on the Ubuntu line. Buy one or two, heck buy all of them and enjoy Africa from a romantic perspective.

The Blurb

When Christy Inemi-Spiff discovers that the man she vowed to love and honor has no such feelings for her, she is determined to cut her losses and move on with her life. A quick, quiet divorce is all she wishes….

However, Joshua has other ideas. He’s not ready to walk away yet, especially when he doesn’t understand why Christy wants out of their marriage. So he demands she agree to spend a quiet Christmas on a remote African Island with him, hoping they can salvage their relationship. If she still wants a divorce after these two weeks, he will let her go. But not before he’s had his fill of her.

But with the sparking tension between them, and the secrets behind the disintegration of their marriage threatening to explode, will either of them get their wish? Or will this season of good will show them what really lies at the bottom of their hearts?

The Blurb

A young woman’s first love walks back into her life at the worst time possible—she is about to start a family with another man. But when her dreams begin to crumble, which one will be there to help her pick up the pieces?

Seven years earlier, at university, Tessa Calitz wrote a letter to Ryan le Roux promising her undying love. As time passed, she forgot about that letter...but not Ryan, who clung to the hope that she would wait for him.

Such is not the case when he walks back into her life. Tessa is in a serious relationship, and is busy setting up her art gallery in Johannesburg. She has plans to start a family, and the arrival of Ryan into her life throws her for a spin.

He is the worst thing that could happen to her dream of stability and starting a family...or is he?

Because when her relationship and everything she clung to starts to crumble, Ryan is right beside her to inspire her to greater things.

But her obsession for having her own child pushes Ryan away when she falls in love with an orphaned HIV-positive baby.

What can Ryan do to make Tessa realize that being with him is what her heart has longed for all along?

The Blurb

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, her parents' homeland, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

But once here, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking...and certainly not from the man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again.
Today, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love again?

(Okay, this next  book isn't from Ubuntu, or even Decadent, but I had to add her, she's my Paddy from Black Opal Books, and it's set in Ghana)

The Blurb

HE DIDN’T DO SHORT TERM RELATIONSHIPS…

American ad exec, Thane Aleksander, doesn’t date co-workers either—until business takes him to Ghana, West Africa, and he meets Naaki. Now he’s at risk of breaking all the rules. Can he stop this headlong fall before it’s too late?

UNTIL HE MET HER!

Naaki Tabika has a burning need to prove, to herself and to others, that she’s more than wife and mother material. To do so, she’s prepared to give up everything for her job. Meeting Thane, however, makes her want to get personal. But falling for her boss could destroy her career. Will she be willing to risk it all for the one thing that can make her truly happy?

Two divergent cultures, two different races, two career-driven professionals, only one chance at true love—will they find the faith to take it, or will their hearts be sacrificed on the altar of financial success?

Book Spotlight: The Other Side by Zee Monodee

The amazing Zee Monodee has a brand new book out with Decadent Publishing and I can't wait to read it.

Title: The Other Side

Series: Book #1 in the Island Girls Trilogy

Author: Zee Monodee

Line: Ubuntu (geared to African Romance)

Publisher: Decadent Publishing, LLC

Release date: July 30, 2013

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Comedy/ Interracial Multicultural Romance/ Bollywood

Length: 272 pages

Heat Level: Sensual/ 2 flames

Cover Image: Attached (300x450 size compressed for easy loading on web pages)

Blurb:

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, the homeland of her parents, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

But once there, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking...and certainly not from the man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again. Today, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love again?

Buy Links:

Decadent Publishing http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=817&osCsid=uk690a1muqacdt8v6csmtuo7d2

Amazon (available at the discounted price of $2.99) http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Island-Girls-ebook/dp/B00E77XHG6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375035073&sr=8-1&keywords=the+other+side+zee+monodee

About the author 

Zee Monodee

Stories about love, life, relationships... in a melting-pot of culture

Zee is an author who grew up on a fence – on one side there was modernity and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she'd stand tall on her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing – her heroines all sit 'on a fence', whether cultural or societal, in today's world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is a head-over-heels wife, in-over-her-head mum to a tween son, best-buddy-stepmum to a teenage lad, an incompetent domestic goddess, eternal dreamer, and an absolute, shameless bookholic. When she isn’t penning more stories and/or managing the Ubuntu line at Decadent Publishing, you can bet you’ll find her with her nose in her tablet, ‘drinking in’ a good book.

Tidbits about this book 

• The theme of Second Chances is very prominent in Zee’s stories, because she herself, as a divorcee, found a second chance with a wonderful man she has now called her husband for over a decade.

• The Other Side is Zee’s first-ever penned novel, written in the year 2005, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and thus decided to live her dream of writing a book. She drafted this book mostly during sleepless nights between chemotherapy sessions, the outpouring of this tale becoming her therapy to cope with her treatments.

Excerpt

“You’ll never guess who I met the other day,” she said.

Sam stopped crying and dried her tears with a delicate stroke of her finger. Lara couldn’t resist a frown at how the perfect face was not marred by crying. Trust her perfectionist BFF to use only waterproof makeup.

Better get back on the topic. Her throat closed for a second, refusing to allow her vocal chords to utter the sound of his name, because saying it aloud would change everything.

But she was doing this for Sam. So she leaned forward and dropped her voice to a low, conspiratorial tone to share the confidence. “I saw Eric.”

Sam’s eyes grew wide as she bolted upright in her seat. “Get out of here! You met him? And is it the same person I’m thinking of?”

Lara smiled, happy to see the mood back to friendly chatter. She nodded. Sam was the only person who knew of her past with Eric.

“Well, are you just gonna sport such a dumb smile? Come on, out with it. I want all the details.”

Sam’s voice thrummed with excitement. Lara laughed, and recounted the meeting at the clinic.

“Okay, the real question I want you to answer. Was he wearing a wedding ring?” Sam asked as Lara finished her tale.

The elation of sharing the confidence crashed, the shards wrapping around her like tendrils of choking agony. “He had a ring on his right hand.”

“So he’s not married.”

“You’ve forgotten how European, and especially French men wear wedding rings on the right hand.”

“No, but this convention means squat in Mauritius. If it’s not on the left hand, the ring means nothing.”

Damn it all to hell—could there be hope? Could Eric be unattached, after everything that had happened?

And where on earth would such confirmation get her? Eric was out of her league, always had been. The sooner she reinforced that in her mind, the better.

“Come on, Lara. So this means he could be free, and what you saw could’ve been a misunderstanding—”

She shot to her feet. “I know what I saw, Sam. The photo didn’t lie, and the paper said he and his French floozie named Sophie de-whatever-bollocks were expecting their first child.”

“Still, it doesn’t sound like Eric,” Sam said in a soft tone.

Lara whirled around to stare at her friend. “Excuse me? I remember thinking you’re the one who wanted to lead a mob to rip the skin off his spine when you found out.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Don’t I recall that.”

“Then what the heck are you talking about today, giving him the benefit of the doubt?”

“Because life is short, you idiot. And we’re all older and wiser today.” Sam paused. “Tell me, sincerely, would you refuse if you were given a second chance?”

The slow burn of anger, combined with the bite of disappointment and the sharp rips of crushed dreams, slashed their way through her. “You know what? If that happened, I definitely wouldn’t care.”

“The more fool you, then,” Sam said.

“Oh, bugger off, you sanctimonious cow.”

Sam snorted. “Trust me, we are so not done with this topic.”

And that’s exactly what has me worried. Lara turned her head the other way. She couldn’t bear for Sam, the woman who’d always read through her like an open book, to see how a senseless part of her would grab on to the mere hope of another chance with Eric if one ever came within a hundred miles of her.