GRR Reviews Silver and Bold by Amber Burns

Silver and Bold postulates a billionaire with a secret identity... and a girl fell in love with BOTH the public persona and the secret one. Unfortunately, this just come out as not believable. At least Batman used a voice changer with Selina Kyle. The idea she can't recognize they're the same person for months is just utterly unbelievable. Furthermore, the ending is not believable, but that would involve a spoiler.

To recap, Enya has her own candy shop, but slowly her neighbors are selling out to a development company, Silversson Development. She also celebrated her 31st birthday mostly alone, and had way too many cocktails. She stumbled into the infamous graffitist "Dark L" on the street, and being a bit tipsy and lonely, she allowed him to seduce her on a rooftop. Next day, she was supposed to meet the head of Silversson Development to discuss the fate of her little shop, and a brash, cocky, and panty-melting handsome guy got into her elevator and both charmed and angered her. She was surprised to find out later that he was none other than Thomas L. Silversson, head of Silversson Development. Thomas proceeds to charm Enya, and while Enya was happy that Thomas was interested in her, she won't be dissuaded from saving her candy shop, even as she falls for the rich playboy. What she didn't know that Thomas L. Silversson, the billionaire playboy, is also "Dark L" the graffitist. Thomas didn't want to be rich and famous, but he has obligations to the company and its employees, and graffiti was his only way to let out the anger. Finding Enya... complicated that. Which person did Enya fall for... Thomas the charming and sweet jerk who's about to strangle her dreams, or Dark L the dangerous but compassionate rogue who loved her like no one else?

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

As mentioned before, the two major points in the plot, are simply NOT believable. A girl made love to a man one night, meets the same man (in a different persona) the next day, and did not recognize the same voice and manners? First time, sure. But she met both personas several times over the course of the novel. And apparently even to the end, where she screamed the WRONG NAME, she never quite figured it out until he also answered wrong. At least Batman used a voice changer while in the Batsuit, sheesh.


Also, the MMC was bailed out of jail without giving his name or ID, and where no one recognized him, was also utterly ridiculous. That's NOT how police work!

Yet the novel can only work with these two impossibilities in place. Thus, the novel is non-sensical.

At least the emotional push-pull between Enya and Thomas and Dark L was interesting. That's why this rating wasn't 1/5.  But the personalities? Feels shallow to me.

GRR Review Inked Passions by Amber Burns

Inked Passions is a thorough average romance between a tattoo artist/biker/cage fighter bad boy and an ER nurse / rich / good girl.

Cade likes bikes and tattoos and underground ring fights. When one sore loser jumped in an alley, he met ER nurse Cindy.  Later, when Cade agreed to be his best friend Tommy's best man at the wedding, he found Cindy was the maid of honor. Seeing serendipity, Cade went on to woo Cindy, and work through her disapproving parents...

One will be hard-pressed to find a proper "darkest hour" or much of a grand gesture by either MC to achieve the proper ending. At least the pairing was somewhat fresh, and characters nicely portrayed, but the "smarmy suitor" never was much of a threat, and the family was too much of a drag. It's a romance without the emotional swings other than exasperation, and love never really was under much of a threat.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Tattooed cage fighter meets prim and proper ER nurse with disapproving family

Tropes: MMA, tattoo, clinic, different worlds, kidnapping

Overall Rating:  3/5

GRR Review: Heart of a Hero by Amber Burns

Heart of a Hero by Amber Burns is a military contemporary romance where an ex-military guy came home to Texas Coast and fell for a local resident with her own wounds. There isn't much keeping them apart except their own inadequacies. The overall tone is one of "detachment" and sadness.

Michel Deverroux, broken from losing a best friend in Afghanistan, came home, only to discover he had been left a good amount of money and a beachfront property in Galveston by the uncle that brought him up. He slummed there for a while, slowly put himself back together, and every morning he watched a woman walked past, and even from a distance he could sense the sadness around her. They met by chance in town, he learned her name is Annabelle, and they proceed to fell in love... but the memories of Deverroux won't go away, nor did his connections to the dark side...  

Somehow, the two characters just feels a bit... shallow. Any new obstacles were quashed in a few pages, from Michel's war buddy wanting an end to it all to his estranged mother. Even his connections to the dark side (not to be spoiled) didn't affect him much. The characters seem to be just sad or apathetic all the time. Anna's wounds are even shallower... Let's just say she sulked in town for three years because of a betrayal. There was not even a fight between Michel and Annabelle. It's just... very "detached".

Category: Military / Contemporary

Primary Plot: Guy retired from army and lived on the coast, encountered a sad girl and deal with some life problems

Overall Rating: 3/5 (it's more like 2.5/5)