Bad Boys Do by Victoria Dahl

Why I read it:  I got an ARC from NetGalley and I really enjoy Dahl's contemporaries in particular.

What it's about: Jamie Donovan is the "family screw-up" and he can't seem to break free from that label.  Each time he tries, he's knocked down but he's determined to give it one more go.  He has plans to turn Donovan Brothers Brewery into a brewpub - serving good food to complement the various beers instead of just the current pretzels and nuts on offer.  He's taking classes at the university to help him put the proposal together before he takes it to siblings and co-owners, Eric and Tessa.  Olivia Bishop is Jamie's instructor (but as she's 35 and he's 29 and the class is an ungraded community class, it's not the least bit icky) and there's instant chemistry between the two.  Olivia has been divorced for a year from one of the professors at the uni and feels dull and boring and she thinks Jamie can help her learn to have fun.  Turns out that Olivia actually is fun - it was her crappy ex-husband who had sucked all the fun out of her.  Jamie does help her though, by taking out for some adventures but also by liking her just as she is.    We also find out more about the Kendalls and in particular, what really happened the night Jamie took Monica Kendall home.  Let me just say - what a cow!

What worked for me: I really loved Jamie and I liked Olivia quite a bit too, but, for me, this was Jamie's story all the way.  I found it quite compelling and I was a little bit heartbroken for Jamie in a few bits. Like most people are, Jamie is more than just one thing and he's far more than just a "screw-up".  I really enjoyed him standing up for himself, the smart changes he made to his life and the way he was with Olivia.   I devoured this one in a day and stayed up late to finish it.  

Also, there's hot tub sex. 

What didn't: I got tired of the fighting between Jamie and Eric.  I gather that by the end of the series, the siblings will largely have made their peace with each other, but I would have liked to have seen more of that in this one.  Really, Eric was a prize asshole in this book.  Because of that, I didn't totally buy his turn around at the end - it was just a little quick for my belief-meter.

Also,  I did think that Olivia's continued belief that her relationship with Jamie was just a no strings "arrangement" was held a bit long; clearly Jamie was really into her. 

What else: I'm actually thinking that the prequel novella helped me quite a bit - if not for it, I would have been totally turned off Eric on account of his asshat behaviour in this book.  However, as I got to know him just a little in the novella, I have enough sympathy for him to want him to get his HEA in Real Men Will (which I'm currently reading). Although, I am hoping that he stops with the asshattedness.  Also, without reading the novella, I wouldn't have got the Eric jokes, so that's a plus.

Overall:  A very good, sexy (oh boy howdy was it sexy!) story with depth and a good man in a kilt.  What's not to love?  

Grade:  B+

September Reads

on Paper/eBook

Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long - A - see my full review here.  It's my **pick of the month**

 I Kissed An Earl by Julie Anne Long - B-/C+  I liked this one in spite of it's flaws.  It's got swash and buckle and a lot of humour but the plot and the characters weren't as well put together as in earlier books.  So far, I've generally enjoyed the "Eversea" books more than the "Redmond" books in this series.  I liked Flint quite a bit the heroine, Violet, was occasionally very nearly TSTL (and I note via Goodreads that many others thought she was actually TSTL).  I liked the melancholy and the doomed lovers and, as mentioned before, the swashbuckling high seas adventure of it but I thought the ending involving Lyon was left dangling. It's my least favourite of the series so far.  Also, what of Fatima?  Since the Surrender is so much better.

Treachery in Death by JD Robb - A - watch for a full review at ARRA.  Suffice to say that this is an excellent instalment in the series.  Loved it.

Lucien's Gamble by Sylvia Day - DNF -  This was a Kindle freebie.  I got halfway through before the eye-rolling got too much for me.  I've loved some things this author has written, but this one didn't work for me.

Untraceable by Laura Griffin - C.  I've been reading wonderful things about this series and I wanted to give it a try.  Even though each book can be read stand alone, I'm the type who likes to read in order when I can so I went and bought the whole series.  It was okay but there were some timeline issues which confused me - one of the characters has a baby and so, logically, she would have either been heavily pregnant at the beginning of the book or just having given birth - in either case - ew!  I found it hard to follow the timeline - there weren't enough clues to tell me how much time had passed.  The heroine, Alex, seemed a lot less competent in actuality than we were told she was.  Even though this is the first Tracers book, Alex and Nathan had met in a previous book so I felt like I was missing something.  I didn't hate it and will try the other books but this one didn't set me on fire.

St. Nachos by ZA Maxfield - B This is the first in Maxfield's St. Nacho's series - I think there are 4 now.  I was tooling around on her website the other day reading excepts and got hooked and bought the first 2. Cooper is a drifter and musician who lands in St. Ignacio (called St. Nacho's by the locals) and finds himself stopping at Nacho's Bar, where he meets Shawn, a hot and deaf, busboy. When I think about it, there was plenty that wasn't in this book which I would have liked to be, like details about Shawn's life and Cooper's scars but I liked the mood and I liked Shawn's openhearted love and acceptance of Cooper so I graded on how I felt when I finished the book.  There was almost no conflict in the first half of the book, then the second half took kind of a right turn from where I was expecting it to go.  There were a lot of things about Cooper and Shawn which were left unexplored and I certainly had a lot less sympathy for  Jordan than the characters had (which might be a problem because he's the hero in book 2, Physical Therapy); also, I kept expecting the preacher to turn out to be extra creepy. but I liked it and I believed in the HEA in spite of the book's flaws.

  

The Sweetest Thing (Lucky Harbor #2) by Jill Shalvis - B Sweet, funny and sexy, this is the second instalment of the Lucky Harbor trilogy and features the eldest of the sisters, Tara, and Ford (who is smokin' by the way).  It lacked any real conflict to block the HEA for the characters but I liked Ford so much it was no hardship to read!  I thought the whole contact with adoptive parents thing was glossed over but the parts with the competition between Logan and Ford were fun and I enjoyed the Facebook poll with Twitter updates!
 

Instant Temptation (Wilder #3) by Jill Shalvis - B-This is TJ Wilder and Harley's story - for those of us who had read the earlier books, it was pretty obvious these two were going to get together - their URST was off the charts.  It was a mostly fun sexy story and it was good to see Harley and TJ finally get together but again there wasn't a huge amount of conflict.  There was a mild suspense subplot which didn't go anywhere which I thought was not needed.  It was an enjoyable read, but nothing earth shattering.

The Kowalksi Series (Exclusively Yours, Undeniably Yours and Yours to Keep) by Shannon Stacey - reviewed here  Overall, I'd give this series a B/B-

The Guy Next Door (anthology)

Ready Set Jett by Lori Foster - I read this a while ago and it obviously made a big impression on me - I noted "C - meh".

Just One Taste by Victoria Dahl (Donovan Brothers Brewery 0.5) - Ungraded  I decided to read Dahl's Donovan family series next because I'm in the mood for contemporary and I thought I'd start at the beginning - now that I have all 3 of the novels, I felt happy reading this story which doesn't actually have a HEA - it's more a prequel to the series. While it is the first chronologically in the series, the story between Beth and Eric hasn't been fully told.  I think I would have found this very dissatisfying if I had not had the other 3 books to read immediately after.  However, as I was warned and prepared, there was no harm done.  I plan to grade this story within the grade for Eric's book, Real Men Will.  It's ungraded here because I it's not complete and I can't give a grade til I finish the story!  I will say, that I liked what I read so far however.

I haven't read the Susan Donovan story (Gail's Gone Wild) yet.

Good Girls Don't (Donovan Brothers Brewery #1) by Victoria Dahl- B-  Hot (hot!) sex scenes and a good story but I'm not sure I entirely connected with the heroine, Tessa Donovan.  I quite liked Detective Luke Asher, the hero though!.     Tessa was only 14 when her parents were killed in a car accident and 24 year old Eric stepped in to care for her and Jamie (then 16).  Afraid of those she loves leaving, she goes to extraordinary lengths to try and relieve the constant friction between the two brothers, including increasingly difficult to manage lies. Tessa had her reason for all the lying but as the story went on, it got old very quickly and it was very unattractive. I will say that the lie (to Jamie) about her being a virgin was pretty funny though.   For much of the book, it seems that there is the story of the siblings and their Brewery and there's the story of her relationship with Luke and I wondered at one point why there was so very much focus on the former.  However, toward the end of the book, Ms. Dahl brings the threads together and it made sense.  I enjoyed the book, but I did find it hard to really connect with Tessa's character.
Also, in case you're wondering, the Brewery was named by Tessa's father -  for himself and his brother - so it's not sexist or anything.

Bad Boys Do (Donovans Brothers Brewery #2) by Victoria Dahl - B+  - I plan to post a full review next week.  It doesn't suffer from "middle book syndrome"!!

 

on Audio

Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue by Stephanie Laurens, narrated by Matthew Brenher - D+  there will be an edited version of my rant in an upcoming AAR Speaking of Audiobooks column and then I will post the full review on Goodreads and, possibly on the blog too (depending on my motivation at the time! :D)

 Die for Me by Karen Rose, narrated by Tavia Gilbert - B+ This is another one I reviewed for AAR - much more successful however!  The review is contained in this column.

Scream for Me by Karen Rose, narrated by Tavia Gilbert - B.  After the enjoyment of Die for Me, I had a mini glom on Karen Rose and picked up this one.  I had read it before (as was the case with DfM) but enjoyed it very much on audio.  Tavia Gilbert is a very good narrator (she did Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series also).  The story isn't quite as strong, IMO as in DfM but it was nevertheless an enjoyable experience.

Kill for Me by Karen Rose, narrated by Tavia Gilbert - C- I've had the paperback on my TBR but hadn't got around to reading it and after the enjoyment of the previous 2 in this trilogy, I was keen to listen to this one and see how it ended.  Unfortunately, this was not so much of a success for me.  The hero in this book is Luke Papadopoulos.  He's from Georgia, with a Greek heritage.  It was hard enough to picture a dark Greek looking man with a Georgian accent but then Ms. Gilbert topped it off with one that was pretty high pitched.  I just couldn't get it to mesh with what I knew of this character.  Also, Susannah Vartanian - she's grown up in Georgia and then moved to New York when she was about 18 or 19 I think.  She has a midwest accent, with no trace of the drawl.  Alex Fallon on the other hand (the heroine in the previous book) had left Georgia when she was 16 and moved to Iowa and still had a strong Southern accent so again, that jarred for me a little (although to a lesser degree).    I could have got around all of that but then there was the story.    The evil villains were so evil they bordered on caricatures and just about all of them conveniently kept seekrit journals (a handy plot device but badly overused here).  Near the end, it was like those monster movies where the zombie won't die - you know, where everyone's breathing a sigh of relief and then the zombie gets up and attacks again?  Well, this book was kind of like that, except it happened more than once.   There was a bit of eye rolling.  Finally, Susannah is a victim of sexual abuse; she was raped by a gang of unknown men when she was 16 and then again (but by one man this time) when she was 23.  Still, after only a few days of knowing Luke, she's having a fairly healthy sexual relationship with him.  The book itself only covers about 2 weeks and it is the longest of the trilogy.  In terms of "page time" it was nearly 3/4 of the way through when they started getting busy but it was only a few days in "real time".  I didn't buy it.  Also, given that Luke spends a lot of his days looking (unwillingly) at kiddie porn (in order to catch the bad guys - he's in internet crime), it seemed a bit incongruous to me that he had "dark" sexual tastes.  Apparently Susannah does too, but their activities in the book were actually quite vanilla, so there were things which didn't add up for me.  I got the impression that the trilogy hadn't been completely planned at the beginning (I have no idea whether this is the case or not) and there were some continuity issues which were pretty obvious when listening back to back but which I probably would have missed if I had just read the books as they were released.

Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison, narrated by Sophie Eastlake - A. This is another I've reviewed for AAR.  My favourite audio for the month.  Great story and great narration.  I'm looking forward to listening to the next books in this series.
ETA - The column is up - you can find the review here

How to Flirt With A Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper, narrated by Amanda Ronconi - B-.   I like Amanda Ronconi's narration but I don't think this story is as strong as the Jane Jameson books.  There's also a little problem with the timeline - it's clear that there were aren't "out" in this book as they are in the JJ books, but all of the books sound like they are set "now".  However, there is a reference in this one to "Specialty Books" from JJ - to make it fit together, this story has to be set some years before the Jane Jameson books, before the were and vampires made their existence public.  The reference to Specialty Books could have been totally deleted and the story would have lost nothing and then I wouldn't have been confused.
The story actually started off a bit "women's fiction-y" for my tastes but I enjoyed it a lot better once Mo's romance with Cooper heated up.  Speaking of heat, I thought this one was a little more spicy than the JJ books, which I quite liked actually.  I'll be happy to listen to another werewolf book but Jane's books are the best so far.

New York To Dallas, by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen - B.  This is the first full length In Death story I have listened to on audio first - usually I read the paper version - but I decided to step out of my usual routine here. I found it to be another enjoyable installment in the series but it wasn't the best that I've read or listened to.  Isaac McQueen has escaped from prison.  Known as "the Collector" at the time of his arrest (by Rookie Officer Eve Dallas), he was responsible for the abduction, rape and torture of some 26 girls and the murder of an unknown number of women.   Isaac wants revenge on Eve and when he escapes he draws her to Dallas where he has nefarious plans.  Eve and Roarke go together to consult with the Dallas police and try and save his recent abductee.  While there, Eve has to further confront her past and makes a stunning discovery.  Roarke, for the first time, feels helpless and at a loss (these were my favourite bits - oh, the angst!).  I have come to realise that I enjoy the parts of the series where Roarke is emotionally tortured however, so I wonder what that says about me!!   Of necessity, this book lacked much of the usual secondary characters like Peabody, McNab, Mavis etc. and I did miss them a bit.  A very good book, but I'd rate Treachery in Death higher for story.  As always, very well narrated by the superb Susan Ericksen.

The Kowalksis by Shannon Stacey

Undeniably Yours (Kowalskis #2) by Shannon Stacey - B- I know, I know.  It's the second book, why, you may ask, did I list it first?  Well, it's because I read it first - I got confused which one was first and I went with the date it landed on my reader - which is actually quite different to publication date, as I got this from NetGalley (I bought it later also because I forgot I had it - but I don't regret it which may tell you something).  Anywho, it didn't really matter that I started in the middle.  The books are all stand alone and even though they feature some recurring characters, I don't think I missed anything by reading book 2 first.  Anywho, this is Kevin's book.  Burned by a cheating spouse, he's nevertheless ready to settle down.  He meets Beth, who gets the idea he's a player, but in spite of that, they have a one night stand anyway - too much chemistry.  Kevin would happily have explored a relationship but Beth rabbits.  Then, she finds out that she's pregnant - condoms aren't 100% effective and they hit the jackpot.  Refreshingly, she goes and tells Kevin straight away and they then set about working out what relationship they will have as the pregnancy progresses.  The conflict in this one is believable enough - does Kevin want to be with Beth because she's pregnant with his child or because she's Beth?  I liked this one quite a but but I found myself getting a little frustrated with Beth being a bit slow on the uptake and so the ending dragged a little for me. I really think I could have used one more love scene too.  The secondary romance between Paulie and her ex felt a little underdone to me.  Also, I kept seeing the King of Queens guy everytime I read Kevin, which kept me from relating to his actual level of hotness!! :)

Exclusively Yours (Kowalksis #1) by Shannon Stacey - B.  I think this is the pick of the bunch for me.  They are all very good but this one just edges out the other 2 IMO.  I enjoyed that the author clearly knew of what she spoke when it came to four wheeling and camping trips and the "tick checks" the adults required away from sensitive children's eyes and ears.  I liked the secondary story with Evan and Terry and the third (thirdary?) story (which was only a little bit but just enough) with Mike and Lisa.  I really like that some of the Kowalskis were already paired up and that the book showed all sorts of relationships in various states of being.    Joe and Keri were not yoru average h/h as they were both "pushing 40" so that was a refreshing change too.  Overall, this was a very enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

Yours to Keep (Kowalskis #3) by Shannon Stacey - B/B-. This was a funny, sexy, if slightly improbable story - (fake fiance for a month to save grandma's feelings) charting the romance between Sean, a Kowalski cousin (there are like 4 other single Kowalskis out there now people, so we may have more books in this series!!) and Emma Shaw, a good friend of Lisa Kowalski.  I would have liked a little more about how Evan and Terry were going - there was just a mention that they were continuing with the marriage counselling but that is a small niggle really.  I enjoyed the sweet secondary romance between Emma's grandmother and an older gentleman from the neighbourhood.  So long as you can get past the set up which really, is a bit out there, it's a fun enjoyable book, filled with cute post-it notes from Sean.




In summary:  If you like funny, sexy contemporary romance, you'll probably like this series.  I certainly did!

Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long

Why I read it:  I'm trying to space out my glom, but after reading the first book in the Pennyroyal Green series (The Perils of Pleasure), it was really only a matter of time til I got to this one (which is book 3).

What it's about:  (from Goodreads). A MAN OF ACTION ... Fearless. Loyal. Brilliant. Ruthless. Bold words are always used to describe English war hero Captain Chase Eversea, but another word unfortunately plays a role in every Eversea's destiny: trouble. And trouble for Chase arrives in the form of a mysterious message summoning him to a London rendezvous ... where he encounters the memory of his most wicked indiscretion in the flesh: Rosalind March --- the only woman he could never forget.

A WOMAN OF PASSION ... Five years ago, the reckless, charming beauty craved the formidable Captain's attention. But now Rosalind is a coolly self-possessed woman, and desire is the last thing on her mind: her sister has mysteriously disappeared and she needs Chase's help to find her. But as their search through London's darkest corners re-ignites long-smoldering passion and memories of old battles, Chase and Rosalind are challenged to surrender: to the depths of a wicked desire, and to the possibility of love.

What worked for me: In short, just about everything.  It was funny and romantic and sexy but it also had depth.  With lovely writing and great characters, this book was one of those books you kind of just sigh into - with a combination of relief, anticipation and pleasure.  I really enjoy Long's humour and I had quite a few laugh out loud moments when reading this book.  I am so wishing that they are released as audiobooks (with an excellent narrator of course!) because I think they would translate so well into that medium.  I've made a suggestion to Tantor, so fingers crossed others will join me and there'll be enough interest to make it so.
Chase and Rosalind have somewhat of a history but neither of them were really really bad - just awfully tempted.  This makes it much easier to like each of them and to barrack for their HEA - it would have been much more difficult for me had they crossed that line.
What probably made the book for me was Chase - he (not unlike my husband actually) has a phobia of puppets and those moments were so funny  ("Dear God.  Did everyone like puppets?  What was wrong with the world?")- it was needed because the subject matter - missing sister caught up in nefarious goings had the potential to make this a pretty heavy read (there are more girls than just Rosalind's sister missing).
I was going to write that the dialogue was pretty special in this one but that's not quite right.  The parts that struck me the most were Chase's internal dialogue, like this:

When his brother had urged You ought to marry, Chase! somehow he had never considered the possiblity that he'd be soundly rejected once he'd decided that, yes, indeed, he ought to.  Colin made it sound as though it was something that anyone could do. "You ought to go to Brighton".  That sort of thing.

or this

He suspected he was doomed to see her metaphorically in everything from now on.  Apples. The backs of women in crowds.  The shapes of clouds.  Bad paintings.  The color green.

Probably not marionettes.

While my favourite parts were those that amused, there was depth and poignancy to the story too.   Chase had been lost since Waterloo.  He's got almost constant pain from the leg injury he sustained in the battle and he doesn't know what to do with his life anymore.  He can't be a soldier anymore because of his injury but he doesn't know where he belongs.  While it's not explicitly stated, it seems he suffered from some kind of PTSD/depression following the awful (albeit victorious) events of Waterloo.  Mixed in with that is his very deep guilt for being attracted by the wife of his superior officer.

There really is something for everyone in this book.  There's humour (including the puerile - there's a group of men who give themselves nicknames like O. McCaucus-Bigg - say it out loud and you'll get it), there's action, there's some smokin' hot scenes where Chase describes certain acts to Rosalind (he's not even doing them - not yet anyway - but oh my!) and there is a well deserved happy ending.  And there's puppets.

What didn't: To be honest, I can't recall anything specific that I didn't like about the book.  It was a couple of weeks ago that I read it but I didn't note anything down at the time.  I'm sure there was some little thing but, overall, I thought this was pretty wonderful.

What else? It's a rare and wonderful thing when an author can make a love scene both sexy and funny.  And, because I can't resist another quote:-

She did momentarily graceless battle with the furlongs of his linen shirt, and it began to feel like a cruel magician's trick, the one where scarves were pulled for an eternity ot of a false-bottomed had, and he choked out a laugh."

Grade: A

Amor en Retrogrado by AM Riley

Why I read it:   It was recommended by various other m/m readers and I wanted to give this author a try.

What it's about: (here's the blurb from Goodreads) In the year since JD Ryan, Robert Lemos's life partner, packed his bags and moved out, Robert has been in a painful daze, anesthetizing himself with work. Then one rainy night, he gets a call that his ex has been beaten and shot in a parking lot outside a gay dance club. JD is in critical condition and the man who was with him is dead. Robert rushes to JD's bedside to find him recovering from the gunshot wound but suffering from retrograde amnesia. As JD slowly regains his memories, he recalls everything except the circumstances of the murder, and the reasons why he left Robert. He remembers their love, and seems determined to reconcile. It's the miracle Robert's been hoping for.Interference comes from all sides. Detective Bill Turner, who seems to have too personal an interest in JD, pegs Robert as the primary suspect in the shooting. Robert's best friend, police Captain Gabe Lara, seems to feel that Robert is better off without JD. Even JD's returning memory seems to conspire against Robert. And as the detectives track down the killer, Robert helplessly waits for JD to recall the truth of their relationship and leave him yet again. But if they survive the investigation, they just might find love in retrograde.

What worked for me: It's probably best if I start with what didn't work and then backtrack.

What didn't:  On Goodreads, next to the title is (Bill Turner #1).  I guess, seeing that, I thought that the book was about Bill Turner.  But, it isn't, not really. He's a character in it but the male leads are JD and Robert.  The book starts with Bill being called to a crime scene where JD has been injured.  There is a minor romance (kind of) in the book about Bill - he's in an on again/off again and extremely closeted relationship with someone called Christopher - but it's more filling in the story and not the point of it.  I wondered why Bill was made so significant.   Maybe it's me, but this threw me a bit - I spent the first part of the book trying to fit Bill into a relationship with one of the other main characters and I couldn't and then it turned out I didn't have to.  

There were some editing problems within the story (eg Bill is alternatively called Bill Turner or Bill Tanner) and some strange formatting which was a bit offputting also.  But mostly, I just had trouble working out exactly where Bill fit into the story.  The suspense element of the story wasn't entirely clear to me either.  Perhaps I was supposed to be wondering whether one of the secondary characters was a good guy or a bad guy but in the end, I didn't quite follow exactly what he ended up being.

What else?: That said, the relationship between JD and Robert, told as it was, in a series of flashbacks, was emotional and compelling in its intensity.  There was an air of melancholy throughout their narrative which was like crack to me.  Those were the parts of the book I enjoyed best.  The writing is beautiful here and the flawed desperation of these characters is engrossing.   The flashbacks were told from Robert's POV and it was for him I had the most sympathy - right up until the end, where JD makes a stunning revelation which completely changed my picture of Robert and I then lost most (if not all) of my sympathy for him. As a reader, I felt a bit betrayed by this, I must admit.

What then, am I left with?  There were things about the book which bothered me but there were other parts of the book which were just to beautiful and... compelling to me.  I loved some of it, was annoyed and occasionally confused by other bits and in the end, I felt let down because I had thought Robert was... not quite so flawed.  I guess because I cared that much about it, that the essential love story was a success but the extraneous bits were mostly just distracting.   I will definitely read this author again because the good parts were oh so good, but in the end, after vacilating quite a bit on the grade, I'm going with:-


Grade: C+