Quick Reads and Quick Reviews 16

  

• Mr. Darcy's Kiss, Krista Lakes
• Gibraltar, Cristina Bruni
• Delivering Her Secret, Kira Blakely

There were some really good points to this book and some meh points as well. My favorite aspect of this story were the characters. Those the author chose to keep in her version and what roles they played were creative and modern. I enjoyed the small twists with the roles because they were much more applicable to the setting and for the length of the story. A touch of perfection in this relatively short modern take on a classic. What I was not super excited about were the moments that I could see were pretty much taken right out of the Keira Knightley version of the movie. Now, admittedly, those were the best parts but aside from modernizing them they were too close to it and read as cheesy rather than heart-achingly wonderful. I'm sure a ton of people would disagree with me here, but I feel what I feel, what can I say? The epilogue was a little too short for me but the intent and content were spot on. A wonderful ending to a tender story. Overall, the story was a successful modern take, the story flowed really well and read sweetly.  3 stars.

A sweet and tender short romance between two men that have muddled pasts.  One has a past of heartbreak and loss, the other can't remember his.  Between the two of them they search for healing, affection, friendship, love, and even a future.  But will their love and future be together or will their pasts keep them apart?

Benjamin is a captain in the royal navy and lost his male lover during a tragic moment near the West Indies.  Seeing his Jack shot and falling overboard never to be seen again has given Ben nothing but sadness, loneliness, and a recognition of his own cowardice.  A quiet moment in a book store, however, brings his past rushing back to him.  The blonde man has to be his Jack!  After running after him and finding out that his Jack is actually a man named John Walsh, a man who has amnesia, Ben is determined to help John find himself and their mutual past.  Not everything is as it seems, however, and John becomes saddened and yet carries a small flame of hope when he learns the truth.

Watching them come together to find tenderness, understanding, and passion was nice.  The book was a solidly enjoyable read and gave a sense of hope and finality that was fitting for the characters.  3 stars.

I have to be honest, I was expecting something like The Surprise by Alice Ward.  While there were a couple similarities there were enough differences that kept the story fresh and kept me from skimming forward.  The passion was intense and super hot, which is expected from this author, but there was also heart.  Difficulties between the two MC's were pretty formula and the mud-slinging in the town was also expected.  How everything worked out was satisfying and provided closure without unnecessarily drawing out the drama.  The end, though, that epilogue was sweet, tender, hot, and full of feels.  It made getting to the end so very worth it.  Houston's desire to woo rather than fast-forward was noble, admirable, and totally sweet which seemed contrary to his initial personality coming off as immensely volatile.  He was realistic where he could have forced the issue and Charlie would have capitulated.  In a situation where he could have pushed for more he respected her and their future as well as refused to take advantage of her vulnerability and desire.  3 stars.

Prairie Heat: Cowboys of the Flint Hills Book 1, Tessa Layne

I'm a sucker for a nerdy girl and a hot guy who sees her, I mean really sees her for everything that she is and more so for everything she's unaware that she is.  Maddie begins to fill that brief and Blake kind of fits that too.  Completely?  No.  But pretty close.

The story started off pretty good with an unexpected meeting, a significant background event, and the beginnings of some pretty incendiary passion.  Frustration and denial and misunderstandings crept in and slowly took over.  When Maddie's father begins meddling and then collapsing their truncated evening can no longer be relegated to past regrets of unforgettable heat.  Blake and Maddie are thrust together in an unlikely coupling and the secrets are piling up with each chapter we read.

The past can never stay in the past, though, so when things really heat up in more ways than one, the house of sand Blake has built begins to shift and crumble.  With one major confrontation everyone's lives, even those on the periphery, are changed.  Blake's greatest fear has come true and Maddie's heart is crushed.  After the feelings of hurt and betrayal take root, how can they get back the love and life they were building?  It'll take more than Blake and Maddie have ever had to give before.

While there was a ton of drama and passion from the beginning I can't say that I was a fan of all of it.  I was more than frustrated with Blake's pushing.  Maddie needed to be pushed but I felt that there were so many instances of pots calling the kettles black that I had a hard time taking anything seriously.  Maddie needed the push, yes, but she didn't need the callousness and the accusations that went along with it.  Blake needed a wake-up call and it didn't come until almost the end.

Together Blake and Maddie were an ideal pairing.  How things developed from the beginning and well through the middle, though, was difficult to swallow.  Honesty and tender compassion were thin on the ground almost all the way through.  The last third of the story saved the book.  The confessions, the sharing, the forgiving, the feels...they were so great that they made it worth reading through all the rest of the frustration.  When they bare it all they really bare it all.  Each of them find their humility and allow love to come to the surface, softening all the hurt from secrecy, misunderstandings, and history.  The end was wonderful.  Not saying the greatness of the ending validated all the angst through the first two thirds of the book but it finally lived up to its potential.

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*We get a good idea of who the hot-headed Brodie is, but do we know him really?

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Out of the Frying Pan
Brodie Sinclaire, the youngest and wildest of the Sinclaire brothers, has just been given an ultimatum. Settle down and run the hunting lodge his brothers have built, or find a new job- on another ranch. His first order of business is to find a cook who will last more than a week. He gets more than he bargained for when the cook he hires turns out to be his sister-in-law’s best friend, fiery redhead and Cordon Bleu trained chef, Jamey O’Neill.

And Into the Fire
In the span of a week Jamey O’Neill has lost everything. Her boyfriend, her restaurant, and her career- thanks to a devastating health diagnosis. Broke, and desperate to make a fresh start, she agrees to help the Sinclaires get their hunting lodge off the ground. The last thing she needs is a deliciously handsome cowboy getting under her skin and bossing her in the kitchen.

Can They Handle the Heat?
They can’t deny their chemistry is explosive, and Brodie sets out to prove himself to the feisty chef. But can they handle the heat when Brodie is forced to face his past and Jamey wrestles with her future?

Hitch: Pierce Securities Book 8, Anne Conley

When two cases collide, so do those working them and the collision of Dex and Amber is nothing short of incendiary.  In the instance of both cases that's actually literal.  Dex Hollerman is trying to nail down a sketchy spouse, Amber Banks is trying to nail someone with a penchant for setting off minor explosives all over the city.  A few chance meetings bring these two into more danger than they were expecting.

Hollerman's story has been a long time coming and I'm glad he was finally given his page time.  Once a stickler for the rules with grudging admiration for the results the Pierce Security team produced, now he's one of the guys.  He's having a little trouble feeling like he's fitting in, though, like he's in some state of liminality, neither one or the other.  His former law enforcement associates are tight-lipped and shun him because he's retired and he's hitting a wall with his investigation.  Because Simon has a hunch that the case is more than it seems he needs some kind of break.

The break he wasn't expecting was a pair of whisky eyes, chestnut hair, and a killer body in a cop uniform.  Distracted and more than a little intrigued he tries his luck with her.  Shot down by former colleagues and the beauty in a uniform he heads home to think of something else.  A commotion, an explosion, and locked out in his underwear he finds himself hiding behind his neighbor's bushes...until he's staring, again, into whiskey eyes and a tight body in blue.  (Well, I think their uniform is blue...I don't remember =].)

Determining that he's hindering her crime scene Amber cuffs Dex and stuffs him into her patrol car.  From that comes a collaboration to find the person who's leading them both on a chase.  Passion, frustration, and denial in spades take them from one moment to the next.  With the attention of a man like Dex Amber can't find her footing.  She wants him and claims she's worth more than a fling but won't give in to his assertion that he wants more.

I find Amber indecisive and skittish to a fault.  While her strength and courage and determination are out in the forefront of her positive traits she undermines herself so often that I don't feel like I can believe her or back her as the right person for Dex.  There's more to them together but I don't know that I fully believe in them as an ideal pairing.  She needed to grow more as a person and I'm not sure she did that by the end.

Overall the story flowed and connections were made in a believable way.  There were a couple outside elements that I thought would become bigger issues or somehow sabotage Dex and Amber's growing relationship or add another element of danger to the story but they were mild and dealt with quickly and mildly.  I was pleased by the direction of the team as a whole, especially when we get a huge insight into Simon and why he's so against deepening relationships with clients.  It has worked out in every case for each of his men so why wouldn't he ease up on that policy?  Well we now know and his story is going to be intense, for sure.  Looking forward to it!

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When Krista catches her boss doing the unthinkable, the only thing she can do is run--straight into the arms of the eye-candy she’s been trying not to flirt with on her lunch break. But whose side is he on?

Ryan’s security firm is having a hard time getting off the ground, and this may be just the job to help the company out. But pseudo-bounty hunter isn’t really what Pierce Securities is trying to get a name for. When he finds out their target is the classy lady from the park, all of Ryan’s senses go on high alert. What do these men want with her?

Krista is forced into Ryan’s sanctuary in the woods, where she realizes just how wild he is, but she doesn’t want to tame him. He may feel his methods of protection endangered her, but without Krista in his life, Ryan is crazed.

Wire: Pierce Security Book 2, Anne Conley

Hero worship, one night, unforgettable passion, and an instant connection.  This kind of encounter could go either toward building something multi-faceted and wonderful and lasting or it could become a moment of regret built on imaginings.  Paige chose neither when she walked out on a sleeping Evan.  Until a murdering AI brings them together.

Evan is shocked and excited seeing Sandra again.  The woman who he searched and pined for for months after he woke up alone is right in front of him.  Nothing could be a brighter omen for this new job he's working.  Except she's cagey and avoiding him and he doesn't know why.  When he sees her directing the staff meeting and realizes she's not Sandra but Paige, his client and pseudo boss?  Anger and hurt swirl in equal measure inside.

Neither one of the them were able to shake off their one night six months ago but neither of them are able to articulate that to one another either.  Misunderstandings, frustrations, and unknown players are all thrown together and their situation becomes a volatile mix of entanglements that keeps everyone on their toes.  Evan isn't sure he can trust Paige, Paige seems to trust everyone.  Evan can't stay away from her, Paige can't stay away from him.  So where will this road take them?

Evan is a 4 star man and Paige is a 3 star woman for me.  I enjoy Evan quite a lot.  He's wicked smart, focused, intense, devoted, passionate, has a sense of humor, and pays attention to hunches and cues, most of the time, so I feel like I can believe him and his capability.  I also believe that he's more than attracted to Paige and the future they could have together.  He's just about the perfect package.

Paige, on the other hand, I have a harder time believing.  She's smart, driven, and good.  Her goodness allows her to see the best in people.  Her pride keeps her from seeing the truth.  She's so contrary so often and fights instinct and evidence with no concrete reason except to defy Evan's strong personality.  I have a hard time when someone so smart willfully ignores reason.  She also goes from hero worship to something deeper without a lot in-between.  Well, the insanity and danger surrounding her is between but that's not really something you can build on to last.  Evan's devotion and affection is her saving grace, really.

The story overall is actually pretty good.  With getting clues and hints about who the villain is we see it from a vocal outside observer position.  We have moments where we're shouting in our minds about "how can they not see?!" and "no, no, no, why would you do that?!" and other things like that.  It builds anxiety for the showdown part.  The showdown was super mild but what the villain caused that diminished the hero/villain confrontation was much more intense.  Evan got to play hero for real, not just by figuring out what was going on but by physically rescuing his client and lover.  I was suitably satisfied by the outcome.  The epilogue was humorous, sexy, and sweet at the same time.  It was a really good segue from all the intensity into something hinting at a more settled and happy future for our MC's.  I'll be looking forward to seeing their future from the periphery of Miriam's story in Click, the next book in the Pierce Security series.

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When Krista catches her boss doing the unthinkable, the only thing she can do is run--straight into the arms of the eye-candy she’s been trying not to flirt with on her lunch break. But whose side is he on?

Ryan’s security firm is having a hard time getting off the ground, and this may be just the job to help the company out. But pseudo-bounty hunter isn’t really what Pierce Securities is trying to get a name for. When he finds out their target is the classy lady from the park, all of Ryan’s senses go on high alert. What do these men want with her?

Krista is forced into Ryan’s sanctuary in the woods, where she realizes just how wild he is, but she doesn’t want to tame him. He may feel his methods of protection endangered her, but without Krista in his life, Ryan is crazed.

Craze: Pierce Security Book 1, Anne Conley

Ryan (aka Eye Candy) draws Krista in with his looks, fierce protectiveness, and sly tenderness. It starts off as physical for both of them but evolved to something much deeper. With crazy amounts of drama getting in the way they do their best to navigate it all...until it gets worse. Getting through the rest is the real test. And Krista isn't sure if they can pass it with so much against them.

Krista is class, light, and a whole lots of sweetness in a great looking package and Ryan can't help but fantasize about the impossible. Then she's stuck with him in a way he couldn't predict and he finds himself at war with what he desires versus what he's responsible for. Once he makes up his mind though, something happens to put that on hold...maybe indefinitely.

There's a ton of drama in this book and a few things I wish had been addressed. Guilt issues (more Krista's than Ryan's) should have been dealt with and I feel like they were swept along in the rush of media attention, injuries, and avoidance. The highs of the end were short and sweet and I wish they we're longer to truly do them justice since they were the awesome outcome of all the bad that happened. There's a lot of angst and a serious lack of communication from beginning to end that I wasn't a fan of, but the happiness coming from Ryan nearly made me forgive that.

Overall, there's tons of sexiness, drama, and feels. An amazing family and an incredible team of men I am excited to get to know throughout the series.

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