This novel is Pembroke's first Harlequin, after a few romances for a smaller press. It started out promisingly. Lucinda (Luce) is a university lecturer who runs into an old acquaintance from college when she's attending a conference in Chester. The hotel has lost her reservation, but Ben is providentially standing by when it happens. This is providential because Ben's company owns the hotel, and he just happens to be booked into a suite with two bedrooms. He offers, she accepts, and they spend a chaste night together, and he gives Luce a lift to her home in Cardiff the next day. But a snowstorm requires them to divert to Ben's cozy cottage in the Brecon Beacons.

Luce is academic, uptight, and the rock of her family. Ben is carefree, never spends two nights together with a woman, and does his hotel job well but it's just a job. Opposites attract indeed. But Pembroke's writing is smooth and she does the familiar with just enough individual touches to make it a good read.

I was really enjoying this until the last quarter. The academic parts didn't ring quite true, but they were close enough that it wasn't a big deal. Luce and Ben's will-they-won't-they was augmented with plenty of scenes that brought them to life as individuals. I enjoyed when they finally got together (mostly fade to black, since the book is in Harlequin's Sweet line), and I was glad Luce made it home to make a slapdash but well-received Christmas Eve dinner for her family.

And then there was a plot development that made me stop reading. Completely. Luce is a committed researcher. She's good at her job. She's single and always has been. Ben has participated in many a short-term encounter. But we're supposed to believe that not only did Luce not care about contraceptives, she was unfazed by the outcome of not caring.

Not buying it. Not buying it at all. This is 2015. Career women are not stupid about contraception. I don't care if it's a fantasy category romance. That plot point jerked me right out of the fantasy.

I DNF'd at that point. I am so, so annoyed. Reading romance has been touch and go for me lately as it is. Categories are my comfort reads. I guess I should expect this kind of plot twist in a Harlequin, but come ON. Don't give me chapters about how much Luce cares about her book and its subject, to the extent of visiting an important site, and then tell me she's fine with something that completely upends her life. Maybe she works it all out, maybe it gives her a concrete deadline (that's certainly happened). But I just couldn't reconcile the sudden change with what had gone before. I didn't believe it. ( )

I received Stranded with the Tycoon as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

Due to a scheduling mishap at an academic conference the week before Christmas, historian Luce finds herself literally without a room at the inn. A fortuitous meeting with the hotel's co-owner (who also happens to be the former boyfriend of her college roommate) Ben leads to the offer of his suite for the night. Desperate to get home the following day but hampered by an unexpected snowstorm, Luce convinces Ben to drive her to her home in Cardiff. Mother Nature gets the best of the two, ultimately stranding them at Ben's cottage. There, they begin to reconsider their earlier impressions of one another--Ben as a carefree, careless rich boy and Luce as a buttoned up, cool academic.

When it comes to romance, I usually read historicals, so this was a nice change of pace. The two main characters were well-drawn without resorting to alpha-male/innocent virgin stereotypes and the pacing was good. All in all, an enjoyable plot, very light in terms of explicit sexual content.

The characterization of Luce's family seemed to develop fairly late. You heard a lot about how she was put upon, but without any examples. When you finally "met" them, they were a bit too over-the-top for my taste, seemingly a bit like caricatures. The development of Luce's sister Dolly as a major part of the book at the end also seemed to come out of left field--she was only mentioned by name, no identifying details--in the first 75% of the book.

All in all, I'd probably rate SwtT as a 2.5/5. A nice, sweet holiday romance. ( )