For the Love of Lilah, by Nora Roberts (The Calhouns #3)

I had excellent memories of this book in Nora Roberts' The Calhoun Women series, For the Love of Lilah.

Mystery and danger still swirled around Lilah Calhoun's ancestral home. The fabled lost emeralds continued to attract treasure hunters--and at least one dangerous criminal. And they had brought a man unlike any Lilah had ever known.

Maxwell Quartermain was a reserved college professor, more at home in the past than in the present. But from the moment Lilah dragged him from the Atlantic, she found he could make her melt with merest glance--and that troubled her deeply. For Lilah wasn't used to needing anyone as much as she needed Maxwell Quartermain...

I think this one will be my favourite in the series. An A-.

Ahh, Max... So sweet and endearing. Shy and strong, bookish and sexy, he's my favourite kind of hero. I loved how he got so flustered by Lilah, and how he was immediately crazy about her. I enjoyed Lilah, too. I liked her personality, how she was the opposite of hyper, but energetic enough when need be. Oh, and comfortable with her own sexuality, and with using it, though she wasn't cruel with it. Their relationship was sweet, and I mean this in a good way.

I confess, though, that I was a bit uncomfortable with the way the men keep "taking charge" and trying to keep "their women" in the dark. I didn't really see the need to give this characteristic to Max. It's as if it was done in order to show he was a strong guy, but for me, sexism isn't a sign of strenght, but of insecurity.

Oh, and I realize that I don't really enjoy the "past" sections, the little flashbacks from Bianca and Christian's journals. I do enjoy the present-day plot about finding the emeralds (except for the fact that it's a bit too much that the villain is a guy who's obsessed with the necklace. I mean, huh? It's the easy way out, no need to provide a plausible motivation, just make the guy obsessed and insane and presto, instant motivation).

Sounds like I disliked more than I liked, right? But no, the actual love story was so incredible that it compensated for those little niggles.