Donovans Series by authors_sort
Donovans #1
Donovans 01 - Amber Beach
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Honor Donovan is a shrewd businesswoman, yet she has been shut out of Donovan International by her father and four brothers. When her favorite brother Kyle vanishes, along with a fortune in stolen amber, Honor's questions are ignored by the Donovan males. Defying them, she heads to the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest in search of answers.Honor needs a guide because she knows nothing about running a boat -- and she knows nothing about Jake Mallory until he answers her ad. One of the things she doesn't know is that Jake is much more than a fishing guide. Until Kyle disappeared, Jake was brokering amber deals in the Baltic for Donovan International. Honor is completely unaware of the old wars, new politics, greed, and stolen amber that have lured ruthless, high-stakes players from around the globe.Jake wants no part of the intrigue, or of a Donovan woman in his life, but he suspects the Donovans have set him up to take the fall for Kyle's treachery. The way Jake sees it, some Donovan is going to pay for his troubles, and it just may turn out to be HonorJake and Honor cast off on a journeys moldering with distrust, betrayal, vengeance... and temptation. A hunger grows between them that is as dangerous as the secrets they keep. Alone at sea, they pursue the stubborn mystery of the Amber Room, flee from relentless enemies, and fight against trusting each other. Yet when Honor and Jake dare to confide in one another, they face a final truth: the penalty for betrayal is death; the reward is a lifetime...together.Amazon.com ReviewWhen her brother Kyle vanishes, along with a fortune in stolen amber, Honor Donovan settles into his cottage in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest and hires fishing guide Jake Mallory to help her search the surrounding islands for him. What Jake doesn't want Honor to know is that, until recently, he brokered amber deals for Donovan International, run by Honor's brothers, and is now suspected by them of having stolen the missing amber, along with a priceless Russian antiquity called the Amber Room. As Honor and Jake search the high seas for Kyle, dodging wily international operatives and mysterious intruders, their smoldering distrust eventually gives way to explosive passion. But there's no guarantee that they'll survive, or that they'll forgive their mutual deceptions and create a future together. Fascinating details about amber, and less fascinating descriptions of boating, lend authenticity to this contemporary romance marked by its edgy repartee, highly charged love scenes, and gorgeous geography. --Ellen EdwardsFrom Kirkus ReviewsA well-made, completely predictable and unchallenging second hardcover from Lowell (Winter Fire, 1996)--a romance that offers all the sexual tension, adventure, and squishy clich‚s that fans of the genre could possibly want. Tough Jake Mallory (Jake being this year's romance-novel nom de choice for soldiers of fortune and macho men) passes himself off as a fishing guide in order to keep tabs on Honor Donovan, a jewelry designer who's searching for her lost brother Kyle in the San Juan Islands. (Honor needs a boat to find Kyle, and she doesn't know how to pilot a boat; in fact, she hates boats, and she hates fishing.) Kyle, it seems, has disappeared from Russia with a million dollars' worth of Baltic amber and, perhaps, a priceless panel from the famous Amber Room, which had been disassembled and taken from a czar's palace by the Nazis. Jake (Been there . . . done that . . . got the T shirt'') is a former government agent who now manages his own international investment company. Like most heroes of his ilk, he comes complete with scars, black stubble, and the requisiteclean fingernails'' (which is typical for the genre: only villains have problems with personal hygiene). Jake believes that Kyle and the Donovans, a colorful family, have framed him for the crime; Kyle's family believes that Jake has set Kyle up; and the CIA is trailing Jake and Honor to get its hands on the Amber Room, as are the Russian mafiya, a Lithuanian freedom fighter, ex-employees of the former KGB, and the Coast Guard. While he strives to clear his name, Jake teaches Honor how to drive a speedboat, catch salmon, and have good sex, which heretofore she'd always found pretty ``boring.'' Some parts of his job are, obviously, more fun than others. Much livelier than Winter Fire, and perhaps the beginning of a series. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Donovans #2
Donovans 02 - Jade Island
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Wild and restless, Kyle Donovan has freed himself from the constraints of his family's high-powered gem-trading empire to rove the world as a treasure hunter. Now the president of Donovan International has given Kyle an assignment with explosive ramifications. A casehe must take.When one of China's legendary cultural treasures isstolen, Lianne Blakely, a mysterious and beautiful jade expert, is accused of the theft. Its Kyle's job to get to the bottom of what could be a potential disaster for the Donovans as well as Lianne.But Kyle finds himself irresistibly drawn to the exotic beauty and captivated by her fierce claim of innocence. Soon they are in dangerous pursuit of the real thief, drawn deeper into the perils of spiraling power plays, and linked by a passion as powerful as the lore of the ancient culture and as enduring as the splendor of the treasured jade.Amazon.com ReviewElizabeth Lowell's second book in her trilogy featuring the internationally renowned Donovan family pairs youngest brother Kyle, who featured prominently in the previous book Amber Beach, with the illegitimate daughter of a Chinese trading dynasty. Lianne Blakely accepts that she'll never be openly acknowledged as Johnny Tang's daughter, but her expertise in handling the family's extensive jade collection has earned their respect and leads to her realization that someone has substituted inferior replicas for several priceless pieces. Kyle, meanwhile, has been ordered by big brother Archer to investigate Lianne's possible involvement in the sale of jade treasures that may have been stolen from China. With international relations and leadership within the Tang family at stake, Lianne joins Kyle's effort to find the thief and elude some nasty characters, despite the equally dangerous, explosive passion the couple shares. Hot love scenes, relentless suspense, and appearances by the noisy and affectionate Donovan clan keep the reader entertained. --Ellen EdwardsFrom Library JournalWhen Kyle Donovan, adventurer and youngest son of an international trading family, agrees to make the acquaintance of Lianne Blakely, jade expert and bastard daughter of the powerful Tang family, in order to avert a national incident, he has no idea that she has been commanded by her father to do the same, but for quite different reasons. Fast-paced and frankly sensual, this romance is peopled with intelligent, larger-than-life, yet appealing protagonists and a fascinating, well-plotted story that beautifully conveys the legendary mystique and appeal of jade as well as providing an insightful portrait of the overt and subtle differences between Eastern and Western cultures. A sequel to Amber Beach (Avon, 1997), this continues the Donovan family series, and Lowell's many fans will be waiting. Lowell is a best-selling romance writer of both contemporary and historical romances and lives in the Seattle area. She also writes under her own name, Ann Maxwell, and jointly with her husband, Evan, as A.E. Maxwell.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Donovans #3
Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove
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He might help her...if the price is right.Surrounded by potential enemies, Hannah McGarry faces the mystery of her husband's suspicious death, the prospect of bankruptcy...and the disappearance of the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security. Desperate, she calls Archer Donovan, a silent partner in Pear Cove, her late husband's pearl farm venture. He might help her...if the price is right.Archer Donovan would rather forget he'd ever heard of Pearl Cove...its memories of living on the dark side, the soul-numbing certainty that there was no law, no justice, no mercy; just hunters and the hunted. That life taught him to trust no one but family. But when Hannah McGarry calls in an old debt Archer is back in the game. And at his side in pursuit of the stolen fortune is a woman he shouldn't want, yet cannot resist...a woman who may know more than she's telling about her husband's death...and more than is safe to know about the dark and elusive black pearls. With deadly competitors on their tails, Archer and Hannah race through uncharted waters in search of the fabulous Black Trinity. And the closer they come to finding the coveted pearls, the closer they come to danger and death...and to each other.Amazon.com ReviewSetting: Contemporary Seattle, Washington, and Pearl Cove, AustraliaSensuality: 8The eldest brother in one of Seattle's most powerful families, Archer Donovan is handsome, dangerous, and fascinated by pearls. He's also been in love with Hannah McGarry, his half-brother's wife, for the last 10 years. Far away in Australia, Hannah's loveless marriage ends in violence when a cyclone tears apart her pearl farm and her husband, Len, dies. But Len's death wasn't an accident; he was murdered. Desperate for help, Hannah places a call to Archer, who rushes to her side and quickly finds that powerful competitors in the pearl trade are circling Pearl Cove like buzzards.Businessmen, criminals, and government agencies are willing to do whatever it takes to find a fabulous pearl necklace, named the Black Trinity, and to learn Len's secret formula for producing the extraordinary black pearls. Racing against time and tracked by enemies too numerous to count, Archer and Hannah begin a dangerous game of hide and seek to find Len's murderer and recover the Black Trinity. But even if the two lovers survive their adventure, will Archer find a way to convince Hannah that he's a different man from his unbalanced half-brother? And can Hannah find the courage to chance her heart and love again?Readers who have waited impatiently for this third book about the Donovan family won't be disappointed. Lowell combines her trademark sophisticated suspense and sexual intensity with a plot rich in the fascinating lore of cultured pearls and full of Australian atmosphere and the sights and sounds of Seattle. --Lois Faye DyerFrom Publishers WeeklyFormulaic but fun, Lowell's latest romantic suspense novel returns to the glamorous Donovan family she created in Amber Beach and Jade Island. When wheelchair-bound pearl harvester Len McGarry turns up dead on an Australian beach with an oyster shell sticking out of his chest, his beautiful widow, Hannah, knows that Len was murdered for his $3 million rainbow pearl necklace, the Black Trinity, now missing. Feeling herself in danger, Hannah seeks help from Len's partner and half-brother, the ruthless but hunky Archer Donovan. Archer fell for Hannah 10 years ago, when she was Len's teenage bride, and he's only too happy to help her track down both Len's killer and the necklace. Archer uses his family's resources, his inside knowledge of the pearl trade and his U.S. government connections to find the (rather predictable) bad guys. True love turns out to be harder to locate. As soon as they fall into bed, Archer knows he wants Hannah to have his baby. But Len was a cruel, unworthy husband, and Hannah, still recovering from her marriage, has trouble committing to Archer. Lowell uses the double search as backdrop for the push-and-pull between a reticent heroine and an oddly insistent, "elementally masculine" hero. Neither her plotting nor her airy prose take the romance genre anywhere new. Lowell does, however, infuse the minutiae of pearl diving and of international gem sales into a racy light read. (June) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Donovans #4
Donovans 04 - Midnight in Ruby Bayou
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The dangerous task of acquiring rare and fabulous gems for the uniquely exquisite jewelry she crafts has taught Faith Donovan to be wary of anyone outside her own family. A man like Owen Walker is particularly suspect—a handsome and daring adventurer with an intimate knowledge of the ruby trade. Yet Owen is the one person Faith needs to trust as they venture together into the shadowy world of the wealthy and mysterious Montegeaus—a powerful Georgia clan descended from pirates and said to possess a staggering fortune in gems. A web of corruption and betrayal spreads out from historic Ruby Bayou, ensnaring two outsiders who have learned too much. Suddenly Faith and Walker are targets—endangered by the yearning of their hearts . . . and by the dark secrets of the legendary Blessing Chest. From Publishers WeeklyA close-knit family in the jewelry business, a clan of Southern aristocrats descended from smugglers, the FBI and a Russian assassin clash in this juicy final episode in Lowell's Donovan series (Pearl Cove, etc.). When Seattle-based jewelry designer Faith Donovan is commissioned by Davis MontegeauAher best friend Mel's future father-in-lawAto design a necklace using 13 priceless rubies of uncertain origin, she becomes the target of an assassin trying to recover jewels stolen from the fabled Hermitage in Leningrad. To protect Faith, her brothers assign Owen Walker, dashing troubleshooter and gem expert, to accompany her and the necklace to a jewelry show in Savannah and then on to the wedding on Hilton Head Island. From the moment Faith and Walker start out, the fate of the rubies becomes entwined with their budding romance. As Faith and Walker learn when they come to stay at Ruby Bayou, the Montegeau family's crumbling old plantation on Hilton Head, the alcoholic Davis has mortgaged the place to keep a failed land deal afloat, and as a result he's now mixed up with a New Jersey crime family. Davis's sister, Tiga, hasn't been right in the head for years, ever since her father, who had forced her into incest, was blasted with a shotgun by parties unknown. That same night, the Blessing Chest, filled with all the family gems, disappeared, and only Tiga knows where it might be. Though constantly shifting points of view and a few gratuitous sex scenesAeven by genre standardsAdetract from the tale, Lowell wraps things up neatly as all parties converge on the Bayou, and Faith and Walker contrive to save the day. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalJewelry designer Faith Donovan has created a peerless necklace containing $1 million in rubies. Her plan is to exhibit the necklace and turn it over to the owners. Unfortunately, the gems appear to have dubious ownership. Owen Walker, ruby expert, works for Faith's brother Archer, who is insuring the rubies in transit; he also makes an excellent bodyguard. Faith is torn between resentment and attraction; Walker is simply torn. He wants Faith but doesn't believe he's in the same class as the Donovans. When mysterious accidents begin dogging the designer, social classes take a backseat to staying alive. Laural Merlington is a good match for Lowell's often emotionally charged story. Although her male voices and Southern drawl could use work, she effectively manages to keep the characters distinct and the pace lively. This is the latest Donovan family sequel; public libraries should expect demand. Recommended. Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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