I'm over at AudioGals...

with an audiobook review of Everyone Loves a Hero... And That's the Problem by Marie Force, narrated by Tanya Eby.  Actually, the review's been up for nearly a week - I forgot. *ducks*.  Bad Kaetrin.

Anyway, narrator success, story not so much.

Also, definitely not my favourite cover.  I think there's something wrong with his nose...

Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley

Why I read it:  Continuing my glom. I bought the whole series and also the first 4 Rock Chick books.  KA addiction, I have you.  I started with this one because Kati D told me that Tate was a bit like Tack (ie yummy).  I still like Tack better but Tate was pretty special.

What it's about:  (from Goodreads)  Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn’t know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn’t on offer.

So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.

Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.

Tate’s angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn’t want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.

Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn’t a bartender, he’s a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn’t speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.

Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate. As secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, and Lauren tries to find her inner biker babe.

What worked for me (and what didn't): There are some unusual things about this book if you compare it to what's around the place generally in Romancelandia.  Firstly, both the hero and heroine are in their forties.  Next, Lauren, when she first arrives in Carnal, is a bit overweight and almost the first thing Tate (our hero don't forget) says about her (which she overhears) is that she's "fat, old and sorry-ass".  And she kind of is.  Lauren has been driving around for months, trying to find a place to settle after being betrayed by her husband and all of her friends (he was cheating, they all knew it and no-one said anything to her).  While Lauren is close to her sister and parents, she has been distant from them for the past few months while she's been trying to get her head together. She's looking for a place where she can just be but she's not expecting anything special in her life.  Tate's comment (which he later does apologise for, fully realising he was out of line - although he gets impatient that she doesn't forgive him immediately upon apology - something I had quite a bit of sympathy for by the way) spurs Lauren into taking a bit better care of herself.  She doesn't get a makeover to try and attract a man, but rather she realises that she's let herself go a bit and she decides, almost by osmosis, to start looking after herself.  She doesn't ever do it for anyone other than herself.  This is very good.  And, it has to be said, that even upon arrival, when she wasn't at her best, the townsfolk thought she'd be exactly Tate's type - I got the impression that Tate was happy enough with the way she looked all the time, notwithstanding his out of line early comment (which was actually not much to do with Lauren at all).

Law Man by Kirsten Ashley

Why I read it:  Continuing my glom.

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  Four years ago, Mitch Lawson moved across the breezeway from Mara Hanover and she fell in love with the tall, good-looking police detective who had an uncanny ability to dress well even though he’s single. It was not a stalker kind of love; she knows she has no hope since Mitch is way out of her league. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s her dream man.

Then one day Mara’s faucet won’t turn off and she knows nothing about plumbing. Being a good guy, Mitch offers to help then he invites himself over for pizza. Mara gives it a go but finds herself running away from him (literally) on their first date, standing him up their second and then she runs into him (again literally) on her way to save her ne’er do well, criminal cousin’s kids who’d just run away from their ne’er do well, criminal Dad.

Suddenly, Mara finds she has on her hands the guardianship of two kids and a gorgeous police detective who’s willing to do anything to help out… including giving fabulous foot rubs.

But Mara knows who she is and where she came from and she knows Detective Mitch Lawson is better than her. Hot law man Mitch disagrees and his challenge is to convince Mara to let go of her past and he sets about building a family at the same time he finds he also needs to protect them all against known and unknown adversaries that would tear them apart.

What worked for me (and what didn't): The beginning of this book was a bit annoying for me, but once Mitch made his intentions clear, things picked up and I ended up liking this one quite a bit. 

While there are definite similarities to the stories and the main characters, there are also definite differences and I appreciated them here.  Mara is not only shy, she has significant self esteem problems.  Mitch not only cooks and shops and cleans, he is a natural dad - he doesn't bat an eyelid at taking on Mara's cousins - he falls in love with them almost as quickly as he fell in love with Mara in fact.  There is something super sexy and attractive to me about a man who is good with children - who is prepared to step up and care for and protect them.   

Slam! by JL Merrow

Why I read it: I pre-ordered this one from Samhain - JL Merrow is an autobuy for me.  I'm glad I didn't even read the blurb actually because Jude's last name made me laugh out loud when I got to it in the story.

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  Limericks, lies, and puppy-dog eyes...

Jude Biggerstaff is all the way out and loving it - mostly. The Anglo-Japanese university graduate is a carnivore working in a vegan cafe, an amateur poet with only one man in his life. His dog, Bubbles.

Then there's "Karate Crumpet", a man who regularly runs past the cafe with a martial arts class. Jude can only yearn from afar, until the object of his affection rescues him from muggers. And he learns that not only does this calm, competent hunk of muscle have a name - David - but that he s gay.

Jude should have known the universe wouldn't simply let love fall into place. First, David has only one foot out of the closet. Then there's Jude's mother, who lies about her age to the point Jude could be mistaken for jailbait.

With a maze of stories to keep straight, a potential stepfather in the picture, ex-boyfriends who keep spoiling his dates with David, and a friend with a dangerous secret, Jude is beginning to wonder if his and David's lives will ever start to rhyme.

What worked for me (and what didn't): This book is so funny. I was laughing out loud throughout a lot of it and my husband got treated to highlights because some humour just has to be shared.  Told from Jude's first person POV, he is hilarious, taking himself not very seriously at all (nor most other things in fact).  He works in a vegan cafe (he's not a vegan and refers to it as "rabbit food") and every Saturday, watches the jim-jam parade as the local karate club does their run right past the cafe's front window.  His friend Keisha (who is a vegan) visits the cafe regularly and has all but been adopted by the owners, Vince and Lesley. Which is just as well, because Keisha is unemployed, desperate to find work and has a father who just got out of prison and is very bad news.  Lesley has MS and there are glimpses of the  the effect it has on both Jude and Keisha because they love her, as well as on Vince and Lesley themselves.  It isn't overdone, but these touches make Jude a more well rounded character - and give the book depth.  Jude and Keisha don't only talk about their love lives with each other - they met at a poetry slam and since then have made a close bond.  Their banter, which is mostly snark and insults, reveals a deep affection.

Wild Man by Kristen Ashley

Why I read it:  Continuing my glom...  (Really, the books are priced so as to make it very easy to go on a spree.)

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  While filling her display case in her bakery, the bell over the door sounds and Tessa O’Hara looks up and sees the man of her dreams. Within thirty seconds he asks her out for a beer. Thirty seconds later, she says yes. But after four months of falling in love, she discovers he’s an undercover DEA Agent investigating the possibility she’s involved in her ex-husband’s drug business.

Obviously Tess decides this means it’s over.

But DEA Agent Brock Lucas disagrees. A man on a mission who’s really committed to his job, he’s spent years in the underbelly of Denver with the dregs of society. And spending four months with Tess who’s as sweet as her cupcakes, he seriously enjoyed his job. But during Tess’s interrogation, Brock learns the devastating secret Tess is carrying and he’s determined to be the man who helps her heal as well as take her back as she walks on the wild side.

As wild and sweet mix, they face challenge after challenge of family struggling with history and terminal illness. Not to mention, Tess’s ex-husband, the drug lord and Brock’s ex-wife, who has a very big playbook are scheming to tear them apart.

But Brock Lucas has wild in him and once in his past on the trail of vengeance he let that wild loose, making a mistake that he would have no idea years later will put his sweet Tess in the position to pay his penance.

What worked for me (and what didn't): This was my third Ashley book.  I've noticed quite a few similarities; the heroines are funny and a little bit screwball (in a good way, IMO), the heroes are uber-alpha protector types who like the dirty talk and have a bit of a rough edge, even though they are devoted to their ladies once they find them.  That might sound a bit like I have been reading the same book. But I have noticed some differences too.  It may be that they are too subtle for some people to enjoy however.  It's not a problem I'm having however.  Out of the three heroines I have read so far, Gwen (Mystery Man) is the funniest, Tyra is the gutsiest (Motorcycle Man) and Tess (Wild Man) is the sweetest.  Her version of screwball is a little toned down as compared to Tyra and Gwen.   In term of the narrative arc, Wild Man is, I think, much different to the two MMs.  Even though the title is "Wild" Man, the book has a long period in the middle of courtship and relationship development without a hail of bullets.  There are issues that the couple deal with - a lot of family drama involving Brock's father and Brock's ex-wife and two sons but, unlike the other two books, there is a large section of calm.  That's not to say boring.  Just, as compared to the rollercoaster that was the other two books.