Reading Signed & Sealed was like doing a jump in the past, when I was an avid reader of the Diana Palmer’s series Long Tall Texans. In those serial romances, there was always, always the mousy virgin heroine who was stubbornly refusing to accept that the handsome, and very wealthy, ranch owner had fallen in love with her. There was also always a butterfly sister/friend/cousin who was taking all the attention while her shy and plain jane sister/friend/cousin was doing her best imitation of a wallflower. Now even if those romances were more or less the same book after book, nevertheless I was browsing the shelves to find yet another one of them. When I sold all my old romances, Diana Palmer was among the few authors I saved. So yes, I loved them, but I also knew, and still know, that those plots were a little unrealistic, and that, well, the mousy heroine was not so clever after all, since the solution to all her trouble was easy but apparently she was not able to see it.

Will is the wallflower in this case; 24 years old and still virgin (even if he had a boyfriend for 2 years), he is called to rescue his sister, the butterfly, from a trouble she herself caused. She needs to payback 500.000$ to a wealthy rancher, Elijah, or marry his brother Martin; she has few weeks to collect the money and until then Will is playing the collateral asset as honoured guest at Elijah’s ranch. Good coincidence is that Will is gay and also Elijah; plus Elijah doesn’t really want for Katrina to marry his brother Martin, he would prefer for Will to marry him. Of course Elijah has fallen in love at first sight with Will, it was enough for Will to shyly smile to Elijah and the man was taken; good job considering that almost everyone considers Elijah cold-hearted and aloof.

Problem is that Will underestimate the power of his shyness, and he cannot see how irresistible he is to Elijah’s eyes; sure Elijah is attracted to Will since he is docile and kind, Elijah is a natural dominant who wants/needs a submissive companion beside him. Will sometime has a rebellious streak inside him, but his rebellion shows only in arriving late to dinner or forgetting to answer the phone… nothing major, maybe annoying to Elijah, but it’s enough that Will makes a display of that shy smile and everything is forgotten.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2464

Amazon: Signed and Sealed
Amazon Kindle: Signed and Sealed
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (July 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1615819312
ISBN-13: 978-1615819317

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Paul Richmond