Never Enough by Lauren Dane

Why I read it: I've read all the other Brown Sibling books and finally took the plunge and bought this one.

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  ALL THE RIGHT NOTES…

Gillian Forrester spent most of her life running from who and what she came from. Until Miles came along. From the moment she held the tiny newborn her older sister didn't want, Gillian stopped running and began to build a life for herself and her adopted son. Now, thirteen years later, as Gillian's sister lay dying, she reveals the father's identity and makes Gillian promise to find him.

Adrian Brown is the epitome of the successful rock star. He's seen and done it all, with few regrets. It takes a lot to shock him but the bombshell that he has a thirteen-year-old son rocks his world. And Adrian is even more surprised when the buttoned-up, elegant woman who's raising Miles snags his erotic and romantic attention.

The last thing Gillian expected was to find herself getting hot and heavy with a person like Adrian. But as much as she wants to open up and give herself fully to this amazing man, she's afraid the secrets of her past and Adrian's problems with trusting people may keep them apart for good. If love isn't enough can they find the trust they need?

What worked for me (and what didn't): Lauren Dane writes hot dirty sex scenes and the ones in Never Enough are no exception but there were other issues in the book which ultimately left me feeling unsatisfied.

Gillian is an ex-pat Brit.  Even though she has been in the US for many years, she still speaks in a British accent and uses a lot of British idiom.  Unfortunately, I wasn't convinced that the author had a complete grasp on British idiom.  It felt to me a bit like someone had a grab bag of British words and phrases and inserted them into the text at random.  I'm not English, but Australian idiom borrows heavily from the UK and as my husband was born in London, I have many British relatives.  I know what they sound like when they speak.  It felt authentic in the book only about half the time and it was something which I found constantly jarring.

"He was base and dirty and she was right chuffed to have him in her bed."

Maybe it's different in the UK nowadays but "chuffed" was a word my father used occasionally.  It means pleased in a surprised kind of way.  I associate it with old people and never with sex (and not just because dad used it).  Perhaps the American audience won't notice this quite as much but it was something which didn't work well for me.  Contrast that with my experience in Beautiful Mess by Lucy V. Morgan (who is British I gather so she does have a head start here) where the British idiom was flawless.

The other thing which bothered me in this book was that everyone was so treacly-good.  With few exceptions, everyone was loving and kind and generous and wonderful and amazing.  I felt a bit smothered in all the goodness and it felt unrealistic to me.  Some of the conversations between Adrian and Brody didn't feel like "guy" conversations to me.

I like the Brown siblings and I felt that the balance of the main protagonists and the secondary characters was a lot better in this book than the previous one (where I felt that the rest of the family overwhelmed the story).  Miles was a perfect 13 year old boy and I found him a little too good to be true though.  I did like Gillian and Adrian.  I initially thought that the conflict in the story was a bit on the tame side - but in the end, I changed my mind about that aspect.  Adrian has serious trust issues and Gillian is very reserved - so what seemed simple on the surface was actually a fairly big deal between them.

I still think Laid Bare is the book of the series, this one was just okay for me.

What else?  There were a number of editing issues.  This book is a trade paperback (so, expensive - here it would retail for about $35) and at the Book Depository it's $13.52. Even the ebook, if you can get it, is $9.99.  Published by Penguin, I'd expect that it would have had a professional editor go over it a few times, so to find so many errors was disapointing to say the least.

Grade:  C-