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Review: If You Were Mine by Bella Andre

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If You Were Mine (The Sullivans, #5)If You Were Mine by Bella Andre

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes For The Love Of Romance.

Bella Andre continues her Sullivans series with book number five, IF YOU WERE MINE, bringing us the story of Zach Sullivan and Heather Linsey. Zach is the last person who should have been saddled with a rambunctious little puppy, however temporarily, but he couldn’t turn down his brother Gabe, or Gabe’s fianceé’s little girl. But when his good friend Agnes recommends Heather as the perfect dog trainer, Zach’s interest in Heather ensures that he’ll make all the time she needs to help him make Cuddles behave.

Growing up with a father who cheated and a mother who allowed it has made Heather bitter about men and their lack of fidelity, and just because Zach Sullivan is ridiculously handsome doesn’t mean she’ll let down her guard so he can break her heart. But Zach is used to women falling all over him, and sees Heather’s initial rejection as a challenge he is more than willing to accept, even though he already knows he can never offer her more than sex. Amazing, mind-blowing sex, to be sure, but nothing more.

When Heather’s mistrust meets Zach’s fear of commitment, the result is a story where the hero and heroine spend most of their time doing everything they can to work against their own happiness together. And that is the main reason why I did not love this book as much as the others before or after it. Every time it looked like Zach and Heather were making progress in realizing that what they had was something to treasure and nurture, one of them would backslide into their negative presuppositions about love and relationships and push the other one away again. I wanted to smack Heather more than once when she refused to even consider that Zach was a better man than her father, believing that making herself emotionally vulnerable was being stupid in a way she assumed her mother had been. But Zach was just as infuriating with his insistence that he was somehow doomed to follow in his late father’s footsteps in the worst possible way, with no reason to doubt what I considered to be an incredibly irrational belief.

The best parts of IF YOU WERE MINE were when we got to see Zach and Heather allowing themselves to be happy with each other both in and out of the bedroom. The dog training scenes were also fun, as well as any scene involving the extended Sullivan family, and I did enjoy the book when I wasn’t wanting to throw things at the hero and heroine. By the end of the story, it was a relief to see both Zach and Heather get set straight on what was true and real, and figure out that they belonged together for good. It may not have been my favorite in the series, but IF YOU WERE MINE is definitely worth reading for anyone who loves Bella Andre’s Sullivan family.

Favorite Quote:

He was halfway across the living room when he turned and said, “If it weren’t for the puppy of mass destruction over there, I’d invite you to join me.”                                                   Ah, there was the man she could so much more easily fight her attraction to.                    “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”

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Review: Revealing Us by Lisa Renee Jones

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Revealing Us (Inside Out #3)Revealing Us by Lisa Renee Jones

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance.

This review will contain spoilers for IF I WERE YOU and BEING ME, the previous two books in the INSIDE OUT series. REVEALING US should not be considered a stand-alone book.

If you’ve already read all the previous entries in Lisa Renee Jones’ gripping INSIDE OUT series – two full length books and five novellas at last count – you already know what happened to Rebecca, who her Master is/was, and how the delayed revelation of that secret nearly led to Sara being murdered by the woman who wanted Rebecca’s Master for herself. REVEALING US picks up right where we saw Sara last: sitting forlornly on the bed of her missing friend Ella, still recovering from both the attack on her life and the ultimatum Chris gave her before walking out the door. Chris is leaving for Paris that very night and he wants Sara to go with him. The implication is that if she chooses to stay, their relationship is over. But is going away with Chris the right decision? Sara may have been nearly killed only hours before, but she knows that she can’t let Chris go, and decides to join him on the late night flight.

Despite Chris’ assurances that their life in Paris will be wonderful, Sara finds herself in a place where she can’t speak the language, doesn’t like the food and keeps being confronted by various women still angry at being discarded by Chris in the not too distant past. It’s no wonder that Sara worries that she’s made a terrible mistake and that Chris will soon tire of her as he has with every other woman. But ever since she’s started trying to find out what happened after her friend Ella left to be married in Paris, Sara has also had the unsettling feeling that she’s being watched. When the hunt for Ella collides with the remaining secrets in Chris’ past, it’s Sara that gets caught in the crossfire, and there’s no guarantee that she or her relationship with Chris will survive.

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Renee Jones’ INSIDE OUT series and was impatiently awaiting this concluding book in what was originally announced as a trilogy. When the trilogy officially became a pentalogy (two more full length books will appear in the series after this one), I was concerned that Chris and Sara’s happy ending would be postponed even further. But the author reassured readers that although more was to come, this third book would still give them closure as a couple. Not only does REVEALING US provide a satisfying culmination for Chris and Sara, it also sheds new light on what may have happened to Ella, with plenty of details to keep us guessing until the fourth book arrives.

Nearly all of REVEALING US takes place in Paris, and although I missed Mark’s presence, it was a good way to focus the story on Chris and Sara without all the chaos of the previous events and the ongoing police investigation taking away from their story. Living with Chris in Paris, Sara had to deal with the full force of his day-to-day life as a famous artist in a way she’d never experienced back in San Francisco. Here she was just his latest girlfriend, and one that apparently nobody expected to stick around for long. It didn’t help that Chris had left so many disgruntled women in his past, and apparently every one of them wanted a piece of her. It got to where I pretty much expected someone to show up and threaten Sara every time she went to the ladies’ room alone.

The best part of REVEALING US is that Chris and Sara did begin to talk more and get to know each other better in a way that would help them handle all the obstacles put in their path during the course of this story. They both learned to trust each other in a way neither had in the previous two books, which had the added benefit of making their intimate moments even more emotionally compelling.

The problem for me in this story was when Sara kept ignoring Chris’ warnings to keep herself safe, constantly rushing headlong into yet another situation that put her in danger. All the while Chris kept saying there was one more big secret to reveal but insisting on waiting until the time was right to tell her. I was worried that the time might never be right if Sara managed to get herself arrested, kidnapped or worse before that could happen. I didn’t expect Sara to just agree to everything Chris wanted (despite their intermittent Dom/sub sexual interplay) but she seemed to lack common sense in a few key situations where I considered her exceptionally fortunate to have survived her poor choices.

This may make it sound like I did not enjoy this book, but that is far from the truth. I devoured REVEALING US in one long uninterrupted read where I simply could not put the book down and had to keep turning each page to find out what was going to happen next. I cheered when Sara followed Chris to Paris, I swooned when their trust and love for each other grew stronger and deeper, and I yelled when events (and evil ex-girlfriends) threatened to tear them apart. I loved the way Chris and Sara finally got to their happy ending (at least for this entry in the series) and I can’t wait to see what Lisa Renee Jones is going to do in the next book to bring Mark back into the story and show us what’s happened to Ella. If the next book is anything like REVEALING US, it’s going to be a heck of a ride.

Favorite Quote:

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this out loud.” I draw a breath and force my chin up. “Right or wrong, I needed her to know I could and would protect what is mine.”
Seconds tick by before he softly asks, “Which is what, Sara?”
The husky quality to his voice gives me courage. “You,” I whisper. “I needed her to know you belong to me now.”

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Review: Christmas on 4th Street by Susan Mallery

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Christmas on 4th Street (Fools Gold #13.5)
This review originally appeared at Romancing Rakes For the Love of Romance

[Michele #Review} Contemporary Romance: Christmas on 4th Street by Susan Mallery

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance.

Rating: ~4 hearts: I loved it

Review:

I discovered the Fool’s Gold series by Susan Mallery about 6 months ago, and since then, I’ve managed to glom through nearly the entire series. Although I enjoyed the full length books more than the novellas, these stories are my comfort reads where I always know what to expect with a HEA that will make me sigh. “Christmas on 4th Street” is number 12.5 in the series, and another winner in the Fool’s Gold series.

Regular Fool’s Gold readers have already met Noelle Perkins in the previous three books, as each member of her close group of best girlfriends paired off with the man of her dreams. Now all three of those girlfriends are about to get married in a mostly secret triple wedding planned as part of the big Fool’s Gold holiday festivities. Noelle has agreed to be the sole bridesmaid for all three, but part of her still mourns the wedding she never got to have before coming to town. Gabriel Boylan is the fraternal twin brother of Gideon (fiance of Noelle’s best friend Felicia) and nearly as emotionally tortured as Gideon had been when he first arrived in Fool’s Gold. Both Boylan brothers had served overseas in the military, thanks to the implacable will of their unrelenting drill sergeant father, but it was Gabriel who had been forced into the decision more than his brother. Gabriel had spent his whole childhood having his masculinity challenged by his father, and was only able to please him by becoming a trauma surgeon who spent all his time stabilizing severely injured soldiers fresh off the battlefield. But years of trying to save lives under such extreme conditions have finally taken their toll on Gabriel, and he’s forced to take holiday leave back in the US after nearly ending his career with an unsafe move during his attempt to save yet another injured comrade.

It’s inevitable that Noelle and Gabriel will meet, since her best friend is about to marry his twin brother, and this is Fool’s Gold where everybody knows everything about everybody else, and Mayor Marsha knows even more. Both Noelle and Gabriel have faced mortality head on, but each learned something completely different from the other. Noelle now believes in living life to the fullest, because you never know how long it will last. Gabriel believes that there’s no point in love and joy because everything could end in a moment. The beauty of “Christmas on 4th Street” is in seeing how they resolve their differences on the way to their own happy ending.

If you have read more than one Fool’s Gold book, you know exactly what you’re going to get in “Christmas on 4th Street.” It’s all here: the meet cute, the hero thinking the heroine deserves better than him, the heroine willing to take what she can get in the hopes of changing his mind, the supportive girlfriends bringing dessert and alcohol when the hero screws up, and at least one scene where the all-knowing, all-seeing Mayor Marsha tells the hero about some great new development in town for which he is the perfect candidate in an attempt to keep him from leaving town. But this familiarity does not breed contempt; on the contrary, it’s the tried and true elements that make this latest entry in the Fool’s Gold series just as wonderful for me to read as the rest. Just because I know that the hero is going to do something completely stupid near the end (and that the heroine’s girlfriends will immediately know and arrive with a support party) doesn’t mean that I won’t get all misty when he realizes his mistake and returns to grovel at the feet of the understanding heroine. Formula isn’t a dirty word here, and Susan Mallery’s winning formula holds true yet again for “Christmas on 4th Street.”

Favorite Quote:

“You must be exhausted,” Noelle said. “Are you going to go home and get some sleep?”
“No, I want to stay awake and experiment with the deterioration of my cognitive functions due to sleep deprivation. It should be interesting.”
Noelle patted her back. “You really do need to take up a hobby.”

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Review: Kissing Under the Mistletoe by Bella Andre

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Kissing Under The Mistletoe (The Sullivans, #10)

This review originally appeared at Romancing Rakes For the Love of Romance

Review: Kissing Under the Mistletoe by Bella Andre

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at RomancingRakes4TheLuvOfRomance.blogspot.com.

Rating: ~3 hearts: I liked it

Review:

If you’re a fan of Bella Andre’s incredibly successful Sullivans series as I am, you’ll already know about Jack and Mary Sullivan, and how Mary was left alone to raise their six sons and two daughters after Jack died much too young from a brain aneurysm. In the first 8 books of the series, we got to see each of the Sullivan siblings find their one true love. Now in “Kissing Under The Mistletoe” we finally get to see how Jack and Mary met and fell in love so many years before, along with a glimpse of how wonderful being together was in their first year of marriage.

Jack Sullivan is a dedicated and brilliant electrical engineer who along with his two good friends and co-workers, has created a new portable electronic device that he believes will be a top seller for his San Francisco company. But unless he can find a way in the next 24 hours to show that the Pocket Planner has some kind of sex appeal, his boss won’t even consider trying to sell any. A lesser man would be daunted by such a task, but Jack Sullivan refuses to give up. When he and his co-workers head out to Union Square in search of a place to sit and brainstorm, that’s when Jack has the most tremendous stroke of luck. For that’s when he finds both the solution to his marketing problem and the love of his life.

Mary Ferrer is a world famous fashion model who just happens to be in Union Square that evening for the final photo shoot in her long and successful career. She’s decided to retire after tonight because although she doesn’t regret having become a model, the day-to-day life just isn’t enjoyable for her any longer, and she’d like the chance to do more than just pose for pictures. Mary feels so completely alone since she left her family behind in their small Italian village and her mother disowned her as a result of that decision. She’s tried relationships within the fashion industry, but the last one ended up leaving her even more disillusioned about men and love than before. Yet when she sees the tall and handsome Jack Sullivan staring at her from the street, Mary can’t help but stare back in return, and it’s then that she decides to take one more chance at happiness and perhaps even love.

“Kissing Under the Mistletoe” does a great job in showing exactly why Jack and Mary were so perfectly matched from the start and provides all the back story about how each of them had gotten to that moment in Union Square when fate brought them together. I loved seeing how Mary had experienced a full and exciting life completely separate from her current identity as the quiet loving matriarch of the Sullivan family, and how finding Jack wasn’t an ending for her but a beginning to a whole new life that she’d already wanted before she’d ever met him. We’d seen through the previous books how much her children are like her, but now we get that same type of recognition for their late father, as Jack comes fully to life in this story and shows us just how much he loves Mary by both his words and actions.

The only thing I didn’t fully enjoy about “Kissing Under the Mistletoe” was how the epilogue detailing the first year of their marriage was more like a series of snapshots than an actual continuation of the complete story. Normally I’m a big fan of epilogues, but in this instance I found the change in writing style to be somewhat jarring by comparison, and I almost would have rather not had it there at all.

In any case, I am still happy to have read the story of the Sullivan parents, and am looking forward to the continuing stories of the Sullivan cousins now that all of Jack and Mary’s children have been paired up and married off. Bella Andre never fails to make me care about her characters and “Kissing Under the Mistletoe” is no exception. It’s a lovely romance, perfect for the holiday season.

Favorite Quote:

“Next time I invite you in,” she said with a small smile as she gave him his coat and walked him to the front door, “I’ll let you drink your coffee.”
He was standing on her front step when he said, “Next time you invite me in, I’m going to make love to you.”

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Review: Always On My Mind by Jill Shalvis

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Always On My Mind (Lucky Harbor, #8)

This review originally appeared at Romancing Rakes For the Love of Romance

{Michele Review} Always On My Mind by Jill Shalvis

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Rating:  5 hearts: Buy it now!

Always On My Mind is the newest entry in the Lucky Harbor small town contemporary series by Jill Shalvis, and a perfect example of why this series stands out in a category filled with so many other excellent competitors. In Always On My Mind, Jill Shalvis employs some of the most familiar romance tropes in such a way that they feel fresh and perfectly chosen to show how the past between its hero and heroine will become their present if they don’t heed the lessons learned this second time around.

Leah Sullivan has returned to her childhood home of Lucky Harbor to help run her grandmother’s bakery while that woman recovers from knee surgery, but doesn’t intend to stay longer than she can help it. In Lucky Harbor, everybody knows everybody else’s business, and the last thing she wants is to be in the middle of all that when her appearance on the reality show competition, Sweet Wars, reaches its final episode.

When Jack Harper finds out that Leah is back in town, he’s not sure if he wants anything to do with her. They had been close friends back when Leah’s family still lived in Lucky Harbor, and only Jack knew how hard her family life had really been. She’d hurt him when she left town and it appeared to him that she’d never really stopped running. Ever since then, Jack had used his dangerous firefighter job as an excuse for never committing to a lasting relationship with anyone. But that didn’t mean that Leah’s return would change anything, no matter what his ideas his mother Dee might have.

It’s clear from how Jack and Leah cautiously circle around each other in public that there’s more to their past than just a close childhood friendship, but it’s only when Leah claims a real relationship with Jack in an attempt to cheer up Dee that all hell breaks loose. The fake/pretend relationship romance trope is one of my favorites, and the way Jill Shalvis executes it in this story is something I haven’t seen very often. Because for both Jack and Leah, pretending they are dating and in love is genuinely painful, and it stirs up emotions that they both had thought were buried for good.

The town of Lucky Harbor with all its familiar characters and goings-on is the perfect setting for Jack and Leah’s story, providing a genuine sense of why each of them made the life choices which first kept them apart and now might finally bring them back together for good. But what I loved best about Always On My Mind was how Jill Shalvis neatly side-stepped the various plot devices that might have been used by a less sure-handed writer. Just because we all know there will be a Happily Ever After ending doesn’t mean that the route there has to be simplistic or obvious. There were several points during the book where I thought something specific was definitely going to happen as the various subplots wound down, yet I was happy to be wrong every time.

It’s rare for a writer with a long-running series to hit it out of the park every single time. But Jill Shalvis has done exactly that with Always On My Mind. I highly recommend it to both longtime fans of the series and new readers, as it’s now officially my favorite Lucky Harbor book.

Favorite Quote:

Leah stopped at the foot of the stage and looked up at Jack. “I was wrong,” she said.
Jack curled a hand around his ear, like he hadn’t caught her words.
“I was wrong,” she repeated.
“Oh, I heard you.” He smiled. “I just like the sound of the words on your lips.”

Review: Turn and Burn by Lorelei James

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Turn and Burn (Blacktop Cowboys, #5)
This review originally appeared at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance:

{Michele Review} Turn and Burn by Lorelei James

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Rating: 4 hearts: I loved it

Lorelei James’ Blacktop Cowboys series is one of my personal favorites and one that doesn’t seem to get as much publicity as her more well-known Rough Riders series about the McKay family. It’s the residents of Muddy Gap, Wyoming, who are the real family in this series, and the stories are about the relationships they form with each other and with those lucky newcomers who happen to stumble onto this small but caring community. “Turn and Burn” is the fifth book in the series and the second to feature a couple that we already know from previous books.

Both Tanna Barker and August “Fletch” Fletcher are known and loved secondary characters to those familiar with the Blacktop Cowboys. Tanna is the wildly successful barrel racer from Texas who was a good friend and sounding board to Lainie and Celia earlier in the series. Fletch has lived in Muddy Gap all his life and is now the dedicated but severely overworked large animal veterinarian on whom the whole town depends for the care of their ranch animals.

These two have never met in person until the night when they hook up for some hot anonymous sex in a honky tonk just outside Muddy Gap. Tanna is having the worst year of her life after a tragic rodeo accident just after the loss of both her mother and her childhood home. Fletch is looking for some out-of-town female companionship before returning to his lonely home. When he sees Tanna at the bar, and hears the wild stories she’s telling each man who approaches, he knows this is no ordinary woman and that he must have her for as long as he can. Their amazing night together convinces Fletch that what they have goes beyond mere sex. Now if he could only convince Tanna.

I’m a huge fan of the Blacktop Cowboys series and returning to Muddy Gap is like coming home for me with each new book. I have great affection for all of the characters and was so happy to see Tanna and Fletch find each other and that part of their lives that was missing until then. After all the betrayals and disappointments she’s experienced over the past year, it takes everything she’s got for Tanna to trust in both Fletch and herself, as she finally faces what she needs to do to “get back on the horse”, both figuratively and literally. Fletch has to learn how to cope with his unfamiliar possessive feelings for Tanna and wanting to be the one who heals Tanna from her hurt when all that does is make her want to run from him. Throughout the story, we get to catch up with all the previous characters and see how all the people who have been helped by Tanna and Fletch in the past now get to return that favor with interest. “Turn and Burn” is a wonderful addition to the Blacktop Cowboys series and I’m looking forward to seeing who Lorelei James manages to pair off next in the tiny town of Muddy Gap, Wyoming.

Favorite Quote:

“You’re awful bossy for the one who ain’t in charge.”
“Who says I’m not in charge?”

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