Found by Rosalind James

Found is the third in James’ series about Maori multi-millionaire, Hemi Te Mana, and Hope. In the first two books, Hemi had met Hope and fallen for her right away helping her and her younger sister, Karen fight Karen’s health problems. Of course, Hope was attracted to Hemi and they seemed headed toward their own happily ever after. Then, in the second book, problems arose because Hemi couldn’t stop his possessive and domineering behavior as Hope worked to establish some lines of independence. Now we have the third book as Hope has fled New York and Hemi to go to New Zealand and stay with Hemi’s grandfather, Koro. This is one of those books in a series for which you really have to have read the first two books or you won’t understand the dynamic between these two. Hemi is a guy who has to dominate those around him and Hope enjoys that in the bedroom but nowhere else. She has to teach him to treat her as a full partner and discuss things with her and allow her to make her own decisions. This book is about his learning those lessons. Those are lessons worth learning in any relationship and I appreciated James’ efforts to show that what might work sexually doesn’t work in a true, mature relationship. I’m not sure that I buy that the only way to teach Hemi that lesson was for Hope to flee across the globe to stay with his grandfather, but at least that helped make the setting of the book New Zealand. That’s always a plus with one of Rosalind James’ books. I didn’t enjoy this book as much of her other New Zealand books. Maybe it’s a part of being the third book in a trilogy. I found myself not remembering details of what had happened in the first two books. Maybe if I had read them all together instead of as they came out, that would have helped. There is a secondary plot as Hemi must extricate himself from an earlier marriage to an extremely witchy woman who is going after his business and wealth. He (and the readers) know he will win in the end, but Hope (and the readers) have to wait for him to show what happens to someone who tries to get between him and what he wants and owns - both his business and Hope. And then he has to realize that he doesn’t own Hope, but has to respect her sense of self. There was a little too much discussion and internal monologue about their relationship that I just didn't buy that Hemi's character, as he was written in the earlier books, would have engaged in. I found myself more interested in the plot with the ex-wife and the scenes with her more interesting than the ones with Hope. And since, for most of the book, he's in New York while she's in New Zealand unless he's flying in for a couple days of lovemaking and then flying out again, the interactions between them are not as interesting. There's a limit to how much sex and phone sex are interesting to read. That's all fine for a while, but I found myself enjoying the other characters and the descriptions of New Zealand more than the interactions between the H and h. I loved Koro and Hope's sister, Karen, as well as Hemi's Maori relatives. They helped move the novel along. I still enjoyed the book and, if you’ve read the first two, you’ll definitely want to read how it all came out. If you haven’t read any of the series, then you’ll enjoy reading them all one after another without having to try to remember details from the earlier books. Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1733302698 I really enjoyed this book, much more than I expected to from the description. The title character, Alison had married a much older, wealth man when she was 18. He is domineering and has no respect for her and doesn’t allow her to do much to explore being anything else but a decoration for his life. She finally realizes that she wants to be explore her own potential and be more than dependent arm candy. She leaves him and, due to a prenup, takes very little away from the marriage with her. She moves to a small town in North Carolina where she had inherited a small house from her parents. She is determined to make it on her own. And right away she meets the sexy guy who lives across the street, Rob West. He’s immediately attracted to the classy, beautiful woman who is his new neighbor. And he’s a great guy - friendly, sexy, and kind. He wants to help her. He owns the local hardware store so he also knows how to do all sorts of handy things. But she doesn’t want to accept his help because she wants to prove to herself that she can things on her own. These are two nice people who are clearly attracted to each other. They have to overcome their own hang-ups from previous bad marriages. They have to learn to trust each other and trust themselves. I enjoyed seeing the growth in both characters and their deepening love for each other. I’ve read other books with similar sorts of plots and I liked how this book avoided a lot of common tropes about a rich girl suddenly poor and having to make her way in a small town. Several times I thought that book was going to go down one of those rather tired plotlines, but it didn’t. The author stayed true to her characters and let them be the story rather than some artificial plotline. I appreciate the opportunity to receive a copy of this from Netgalley to review in exchange for an honest review.