Bet Me

JENNIFER CRUSIE  

Synopsis from Goodreads: Minerva Dobbs knows that happily-ever-after is a fairy tale, especially with a man who asked her to dinner to win a bet. Even if he is gorgeous and successful Calvin Morrisey. Cal knows commitment is impossible, especially with a woman as cranky as Min Dobbs. Even if she does wear great shoes and keeps him on his toes. When they say good-bye at the end of their evening, they cut their losses and agree never to see each other again.

But Fate has other plans, and it's not long before Min and Cal meet again. Soon, they're dealing with a jealous ex-boyfriend, Krispy Kreme donuts, a determined psychologist, chaos theory, a freakishly intelligent cat, Chicken Marsala, and more risky propositions than either of them ever dreamed of. Including the biggest gamble of all—true love.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback; St. Martin’s Press, 2004

How acquired: Received through Title Trader, of which I used to be a member some eight years ago

First line: Once upon a time, Minerva Dobbs thought as she stood in the middle of the loud yuppie bar, the world was full of good men.

My thoughts: When you pick up a Jennifer Crusie book you know you’re going to get:

- a relatable and realistically flawed heroine

- a charming hero

- a cast of quirky and eccentric supporting characters

- usually a dog but this time it was a cat

- fast paced slapstick humor right out of a Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell era movie

Min has just been dumped by her boyfriend, David, in the middle of a theme bar. They haven’t had sex yet, and he’s tired of waiting for her to put out. Her biggest concern? Now she doesn't have a date to her sister’s wedding in three weeks, and her mother will go ballistic.

David then runs into Cal Morrissey and tries to bet him ten thousand dollars that Cal can’t get Min into bed within one month. Cal isn’t interested, in Min or in a sleazy bet and tries to ignore David’s goading, but when David bets him ten dollars he can’t even get Min to leave with him, he takes that bet just to get away.

Min overhears part of the conversation about the bet-to-get-her-in-bed but not the bet-to-get-her-to-leave-with-Cal, and when Cal hits on her shortly after, she thinks he’s just bet David ten dollars to get her into bed. She’s pissed, but decides to string him along, go out with him, take him to her sister’s wedding, and then dump him and make him lose the bet.

However, when they part company that night, they are both agreed that not seeing the other person ever again is a sound plan. But of course their paths will cross and recross, especially since Min’s two best friends get mixed up with Cal’s two best friends. Min is not a thin girl, and her mother is constantly nagging her about not eating sweets and losing weight. Mom has crushed her self-esteem, and since she thinks Cal is out to win a bet, Min certainly doesn’t think he’s really attracted to her. Some of the sweetest moments in the book were Cal addressing her weight, which he doesn't see as a problem in any way, shape or form. And my favorite passage was Cal defending Min to her family at dinner:

"Look, I don't mind you grilling me about what I do for a living," Cal said. "Your daughter's brought me home and that has some significance. And I don't mind your wife asking about my personal life for the same reason. But Min is an amazing woman, and so far during this meal, you've either ignored her or hassled her about some dumb dress. For the record, she is not too big for the dress. The dress is too small for her. She's perfect." Cal buttered a roll and passed it over to Min. "Eat."

Cal’s family are just as bad as Min’s, albeit in a different way, and later Min gets her chance to sit at their dinner table and watch them belittle him and then tell them off.

As with all of her books, BET ME was a fun, fast, slightly manic, entertaining read. Fluffy chick lit (Min’s passion for silly high heeled shoes was a little ridiculous, but then I'm more into purses than shoes) with a feel great resolution.

Rereadable Lines

"Look, I don't mind you grilling me about what I do for a living," Cal said. "Your daughter's brought me home and that has some significance. And I don't mind your wife asking about my personal life for the same reason. But Min is an amazing woman, and so far during this meal, you've either ignored her or hassled her about some dumb dress. For the record, she is not too big for the dress. The dress is too small for her. She's perfect." Cal buttered a roll and passed it over to Min. "Eat."


BET ME, by Jennifer Crusie

Househusband

AD HUDLER

Synopsis from Goodreads: When his wife, Jo, is offered her dream job, Lincoln Menner leaves his thriving landscape business in Los Angeles and moves to Rochester, New York. This will be his chance to start over, spend a little time with their three-year-old daughter, and finally do things right at home. 

But Linc had no idea what it really meant to be a househusband: to stay home every day, folding laundry, cleaning soap scum, and teaching his little girl to use the potty. To be ignored at parties by his wife’s colleagues who see him as just a homemaker. Though he soon has the house humming, Linc misses the outside world. Most of all he misses Jo, who works too late and barely notices the fabulous dinners he slaves over. Drastic action must be taken to make his efficiently run house truly a home, sweet home. And Linc knows he is just the man for the job!

First line: This is a good day. 

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Ballantine Books, 2004. 

How acquired: Bought. 

My thoughts: I went into this book thinking it was going to be light, amusing chick lit (for lack of a better word) style, even though it’s written by a man. I mean, look at that cartoon cover. But it was actually a deeper, almost depressing look at what it means to be a stay at home parent, losing your own identity in the shadow of your working spouse. 

Staying home starts out as a temporary situation. Jo has gotten a really good executive level job and the family have moved across the country. While Jo settles into her new job, Linc takes care of three year old Violet, and gets the new household up and running. But when he begins looking for a nanny, he can’t find anyone he likes as much as the one they had to leave behind, and staying home with Violet rather than looking for work stretches out longer and longer. 

I didn’t relate to either Linc or Jo, having been a working parent for my daughters’ entire lives, but still being the primary care giver as well since my husband also worked. My older daughter started day care at nine months, and my younger at two weeks, which would have horrified Linc, a controlling snob. Spotless house. Healthy gourmet meals. Violet is not allowed to eat junk food, and when she starts refusing to eat carrots, he cuts them up small, makes a little incision into pieces of tortellini and sticks a piece of carrot inside so she’ll eat them without realizing it. She can watch Pocahontas, a strong female role model with “…knowledge of plant life, awareness of the biosphere and where she fits into it. Respect for her father. Curiosity of things unknown” etc., but she isn’t allowed to watch Rugrats, “one big lesson in how to mock and sneak around authority figures” or The Little Mermaid, “no redeeming traits. Zero. She continually defies her father and wants nothing more than to be some rich hunk’s bride.” I got exhausted just reading about everything Linc does. 

I loved this line:

I tried to tell my clients that flowers were intended to be random, dropped into place by birds and the wind. Flowers should be occasional, visual surprises, like a found conch shell on the beach.

An enjoyable, quick, but unremarkable story. 

Take a Chance on Me

DEBBIE FLINT

Synopsis from Goodreads: When the breakdown of her marriage leaves Sadie Turner a single mum, she vows that she will make it on her own. After all, why would a smart businesswoman with a PhD and the prospect of a life-changing deal on the horizon need a man?

But Sadie’s man-ban is tested to the limit when she travels to Monaco to meet her potential investor. There she encounters Mac, a rough and ready playboy billionaire who lives life in the fast lane – and that’s when the real adventure starts!

But Sadie’s heart isn’t the only thing on the line. There’s also the business she’s worked so hard to make a success; the business that could so easily slip out of her grasp if she doesn’t seal the deal within thirty days …

Published under Hot Choc Lit - slightly raised heat level but not erotica!

Previously self-published as Hawaiian Affair. Revised and edited by Choc Lit March 2015

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, published by Choc Lit, 2015.

How acquired: NetGalley.

My thoughts: This story started out very strong. We meet Sadie, on a business trip to meet with a prospective investor. With some free time on her hands and a borrowed “Open House” invitation, she's at the docks, nervously boarding a yacht under the pretense of being someone posh who might actually want to buy a yacht. After getting thrown off said yacht, she meets Mac, a deckhand on another yacht.

I connected with and loved Sadie right from the beginning. She's a little awkward and self-conscious, she's smart and witty, she's mum to two adolescent daughters, she totters about on her sky high heels, she's got curves, she's a realistic woman. She has a self-imposed rule about no men in her life until her girls are grown. A one night stand with Mac is the perfect way to end a stressful day. Not that she rushes into it. Oh no, she vacillates, and actually walks away, but her libido drags her back. On an impulse she's given him her middle name, and they agree that there will be no talk about their personal or business lives. Just each other's company for one evening.

So naturally the next morning when she walks into the meeting with the investor, who is she shocked to come face to face with but a shocked Mac. And Mac has a very firm rule – he does not mix business with pleasure.

This line is from much farther into the book, but it's a good description of Sadie and Mac at this point:

How could a playboy billionaire ever want to be with a small-town single mother of two feisty teenage girls, with a hippy grandma in tow, and a barely-solvent health food store to run.

The banter between Sadie and Mac was just delightful, and I loved watching them get to know each other.

“Thanks so much for rescuing my bag for me. Are you always such a hero?”

“Of course! Drowning handbags, run of the mil. Damsels in distress, a specialty!”

“Well, if I'm ever in distress, I'll give you a call!”

“Dis-dress, dat-dress, you look good whatever,” he said, then cringed.

Mac gets angry that Sadie didn't tell him who she really was, suspicious that she was playing him because he's rich, but at the same time he kept reminding himself that he was also less than honest, pretending to be a deckhand rather than the billionaire owner of the yacht he was on. He has a lot of trust issues when it comes to women, as billionaire playboys do. But his issues never seem melodramatic and we get into his head enough to have some insight and understanding of his reasoning.

At this point in the story, there is a lot of business talk. Sadie has presented Mac's people with a proposed marketing plan for a hydrating water, Frish, in hopes that he will be willing to invest, and join her in vying for distribution rights. If all goes well, and the company that produces the water goes for her plan, she's looking at finally having some financial security, paying off debt, and being able to provide more for her daughters without having to rely on her scummy ex-husband's help.

And frankly, all the business talk bored me. The plot got a little convoluted and very busy. Now that they're contemplating going into business together, Mac is determined to not have any kind of personal relationship with Sadie, and he often disappeared and avoided her and told her he would talk to her later and then didn't. I definitely enjoyed the story much more when they were interacting together, rather than going off in separate directions.

There are several secondary characters, and they mostly remain secondary. Which was fine, since I wanted the focus to be on Sadie and Mac. Eventually there was a revelation about Simon, Mac's business adviser and CFO, which I thought was unnecessary and a little disappointing. But in the end everything wrapped up quite satisfyingly, and I enjoyed more of the book than what I unenjoyed. 

Lara (The World of Hetar, Book 1)

BERTRICE SMALL

Synopsis from back cover: Welcome, dear reader, to the world of Hetar, a realm of Forest Lords, of Shadow Princes and Coastal Kings. A land of passions, both civilized and savage. Where the social classes know their place, but where anyone can, under the right conditions, advance to the highest pinnacle. This is a place where pleasure is never censured, but encouraged, and where deception and desire may be intertwined. The orderly, elegant veneer of refined Hetar can no longer ignore the rebellion brewing in the Outlands, a dangerous place of both magic and mystery.

From the city that is the very center of Hetar, Lara, the beautiful half-faerie daughter of John Swiftsword, ventures forth on a journey that will awaken her, both body and soul, as she learns the true meaning of love that will last an eternity – and a searing passion that will change the destiny of Hetar forever.

Creating Hetar and it's many characters has been a great challenge for me, but a wonderful ad creative endeavor. I hope you will enjoy Lara's tale.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 2005.

How acquired: Received from a Book Mooch member.

First line: She was naked.

My thoughts: While this book was published by Harlequin, I would not classify it as a romance, but rather as fantasy, with a little romance thrown in.

At the age of fourteen, Lara, who is half human, half faerie, is sold into slavery by her father, a mercenary, so that he can afford to outfit himself properly to apply to become a member of the Crusader Knights. Lara is meant to be auctioned off to the Pleasure Houses, but her beauty is so great that the owners of the Pleasure Houses begin to fight amongst themselves and so much dissension is caused, that avenue is forbidden. She winds up being sold to the Head Forester and his brother, who believe that if they can impregnate her and she gives them a child, a curse put on their race by the Queen of the faeries will be lifted. And that's just the beginning of Lara's journey, for she has a destiny to fulfill. She doesn't know what it is or where it will eventually lead her, but follow it she must.

The story unfortunately became a little tiresome after awhile. I didn't find many of the characters very engaging, other than the young slave girl Noss, who Lara takes beneath her wing, and the giant Og, who helps Lara escape the Forest Lands. There wasn't a lot of depth to any of the characters. Lara is just so perfect. Her beauty is apparently due to her faerie heritage, and while traveling she has to hide it, as all the men she meets are mesmerized. That got old also, and I would have liked a little more explanation of why being half faerie made her so enticing. Are the faeries just really so much more beautiful than humans? Does faerie magic make them appear so to humans?

The books spans two years, during which time Lara also becomes a very skilled lover. Which when I thought about her being just sixteen, seemed a little over the top, and even at times a little yucky. Sex between the characters flows pretty freely and without inhibitions, but the sex scenes aren’t very…sexy. They’re more just a non-graphic recitation of what happened between the people involved. There are many mentions of the male characters' “manroots”, an almost quaint term that didn’t particularly bother me - until Lara and the Shadow Prince are watching his horses mate, and reference is made to seeing the stallion’s penis. After that it began to irritate me that on a horse it’s called by what it is, but on a man it’s called a manroot. And then when Lara and the Shadow Prince fall to it themselves, Lara faints from the pleasure. Ugh, please. I had to set the book down and take a break at that point.

What I loved was the world building. Learning about the different races, the different peoples, and the mythologies behind their cultures, particularly the giants and the forest people. And that is why I will eventually read the next book in the series, and hope the plot improves.

Chasing Claire (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club, Book 2)

PAULA MARINARO

Synopsis: Claire Winston knows she’s lucky to be alive—and even luckier to have the love and protection of a man like Prosper, her adoptive father and leader of the Hells Saints Motorcycle Club. Yet, try as she may, she can’t leave yesterday behind. She’s still haunted by Reno, the bad-boy biker her heart loves but her spirit fears. And she can’t seem to escape the terrifying memories of a night filled with blood, bullets, and brutality.

Hells Saints soldier Reno has tried everything with liquor and lace to get Claire off his mind. But he just can’t forget her freckles, her fierce fragility, and her tender heart. He knows he’s the only man who can give her the love she truly deserves.

As Claire and Reno spiral back into each other’s lives, they wonder if happiness is finally in their cards. But when violence once again explodes around them, Claire must decide if she really can trust Reno and commit to life with him—or if she’ll stay chained to her past forever.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, published by Montlake Romance, 2015.

How acquired: NetGalley

My thoughts: Claire is the younger sister of Raine, the heroine of RAINE FALLING. Reno is one of the brothers of the motorcycle club, and is consider by Prosper, the head of the club, to be his nephew in the same way he considers Claire and Raine to be his daughters. Fortunately there is no actual blood relation between any of them (other than the two girls), cuz that would be yuck.

In between the first book and this book, off the page, Reno and Claire had finally come together, and for awhile it had been good. Then came the misunderstanding that drove them apart. The night when Claire opened up and told Reno all about herself and her past. The next morning she slipped away while Reno was sleeping. She “needed a minute” as she put it, to come to terms with and acknowledge that she was in love. But apparently Reno, upon waking, interpreted her being gone to mean she was not coming back. So this was the misunderstanding that drove them apart. It felt like a reach to me. They’d been having sex with each other for months, but had never actually spent an entire night together. I just don’t get why her slipping out while he’s still asleep should be a turning point to break them up. But we learn this story in retrospect, first from Reno’s point of view, then from Claire’s, and the narrative never digs too deep.

There isn’t as much violence as in the first book, and not nearly as many derogatory words for women flying around, which was a relief and made it easer to focus on the story. Raine and Diego are now married with a baby and living in their own home, while Claire and Glory share Prosper’s lake house (I think it was a lake house, I don’t remember exactly now). Glory has started a catering business, and Claire decides to enroll in college. Meanwhile Reno does…whatever members of a motorcycle club do. I never really knew what he was doing most of the time. 

Claire is still suffering PTSD (my diagnosis) over the incident at the end of the second book and her part in it. And while Prosper took the blame – or the credit, which is more how the guys would look at it – serious repercussions are coming that will drastically affect Claire and Reno. 

I think part of my problem with these books is that the writing feels like it’s aimed at a young adult audience, though the books clearly are not YA. The use of sentences with a period between every word annoys me, such as the second line in Chapter 18: “Oh. Yes. He. Was.” And these lines literally made me laugh out loud: “Reno stood next to his mother. He also stood in front of her and behind her.” 

Despite all the badassery, at the core of the club is a belief in family, and while most of the brothers go from woman to woman to woman, when the right woman comes along our heroes succumb to the notion of hearth and home and fidelity. It’s a long road to get there, but you leave believing they will have their happily ever afters. 

Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club, Book 1)

PAULA MARINARO

Synopsis from Goodreads: After a lifetime of uncertainty, Raine Winston shouldn’t be fazed by anything anymore. But she’s terrified. Terrified that her wayward sister, Claire, has gotten into debt dangerously over her head. Terrified that a muscle-clad biker named Diego doesn’t want payment with money—he wants much more. And terrified of the dizzying desire she feels whenever Diego touches her…

Diego Montesalto spends his days raising hell and his nights in the arms of fast, easy women. Tough, tattooed, and used to taking what he wants, he refuses to get emotionally invested in anyone. But he can’t stop thinking about Raine’s sweet smell, striking blue eyes, and quiet determination. She may have the spirit of a warrior, but she needs someone to guide and protect her.

When Raine has no choice but to go on the run, she falls straight into the Hells Saints’ mayhem-filled world…and into Diego’s strong arms. But in a life filled with hard choices, raw lust, and blood-soaked violence, is there room for loyalty…or love?

Revised edition: Previously published as Game Changer, this edition of Raine Falling includes editorial revisions.

First line: I heard screaming, begging, and crying. 

Stats for my copy: Kindle, published by Montlake Romance, 2014. 

How acquired: Purchased. 

My thoughts: Where to begin? The set up was a little convoluted and confusing to me. We meet Raine, and her junkie sister Claire and Claire’s junkie boyfriend. A group of motorcycle thugs burst into the apartment, demanding thirty thousand dollars, payment for something that Claire and Jamie (yeah, that’s seriously their names) have stolen from them, or not paid them for, or something. Raine just happens to have a little over thirty two thousand dollars saved up and steps in to protect her sister, offering her money to the bikers. The money is hidden in her abusive ex-boyfriend’s garage, and getting it is a huge hassle – I won’t spoil by telling you how that goes down, but she is ultimately successful.

One of the bikers is Diego. He seems like a bad guy, but he’s also the hero so he must really be a good guy. But it takes a bit to get there with the way the plot is laid out.

And here I’ll say that I have not read any MC (or Motorcycle Club in case you’re wondering) books before. Unless Sleazy Rider counts, which I read in September 2013. From what I gather, violence and abuse towards women is pretty standard in them. There’s plenty of both in the beginning of this book, and it didn’t necessarily bother me, but with Diego being one of the big bad bikers it was hard to imagine that I could like him.

Then Raine and Diego go their separate ways, only to inadvertently end up in the same place. And at the point, the real story began, and I became more interested. For awhile. But the constant stream of curse words coming from Diego and the other bikers just got annoying. It seemed like when the bikers talked every other word was the F word, or referring to a woman as one of a multitude of derogatory words. And at one point a couple of racist words for two other biker gangs. Though thankfully none of the men “silently cursed” so kudos to the author for avoiding that cliché. 

In some chapters Raine narrates her story in first person point of view, while other chapters give us Diego’s or another character’s perspective in third person POV. Normally alternating POV doesn't’ bother me, but at times it was a little jarring. 

If I hadn’t already gotten the next book for free from NetGalley, I doubt that I would even bother to read it. 

And one last thing - this might be considered a spoiler, so stop reading if you care about that…..

When the heroine becomes pregnant, she refers to Diego as the “baby daddy”, a term that is just so preciously irritating that I hate it and I cannot take seriously anyone who uses it. 

Bounty Hunter (Loveswept No. 707)

DONNA KAUFFMAN

Synopsis from back cover: “You have something that belongs to me – my heart...”

Hired to locate a runaway wife, he'd blown into her life like a hawk riding he wind, bu when Kane Hawthorne found Elizabeth Lawson, he wanted her for his own! A desperate woman who trusted no one, she tried to keep him from making her enemies his, but Kane insisted on fighting her demons. Could she cherish her savage hero until his own ghosts were silenced?

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Bantam Books,1994

How acquired: Won from the author in a giveaway on her Facebook page.

First line: “Find my wife, and I'll make sure you never want for anything in your life.”

My thoughts: I'm a sucker for an old school category romance, and BOUNTY HUNTER didn't disappoint. A Native American (Shoshone) bounty hunter is hired to track down a rich prick's runaway wife. He claims he cut off her credit cards and she ran off in a snit. But when Kane catches up with Elizabeth (using the name Annie) he immediately senses there's more to the story. So rather than hustle her back to her husband, he convinces her to hire him on for room and board to help out around the falling apart at the seams house and barn where she's trying to start a canning business. And of course, despite wariness and misgivings on both their parts, they fall for each other, while it becomes obvious both their lives are in danger. And then Kane has to come clean and tell Elizabeth the real reason he showed up at her door, and hope she won't hate him.

No need to tell you how it ends, because how else could it?

Favorite lines:

"Shhh. Stop trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders. Let someone hold you. Let me."

Who wouldn't melt at that? 

Rereadable Lines

"Shhh. Stop trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders. Let someone hold you. Let me."


Kane Hawthorne
BOUNTY HUNTER, by Donna Kauffman

Dog Day Wedding

RICH AMOOI 

Synopsis from Goodreads: Giovanni Roma was jilted at the altar. Twice. Meeting Natalie is an enchanting distraction—too bad she’s engaged to another man. To top it off, Giovanni’s mother has a mouth with no filter and is obsessed with finding her son a suitable baby-maker.

Natalie DeMarco is a good cop with one problem. Cold feet. Her fiancé is a decent man, but she’s starting to wonder if decent is good enough. Maybe the doubts could be blamed on Giovanni, that guitar-making Italian hunk next door.

Giovanni knows he must do something, but things get out of hand when he learns he’s not the only one who objects to the wedding.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, published by Season Publishing, 2015; received through Netgalley for review.

First line: “Somebody kill me,” muttered Giovanni Roma, fiddling with his cufflinks.

My thoughts: If I had to describe this book in one word, that word would be Fun. With a capital F.

The story opens with Giovanni being stood up at the altar. As he drives away from the church, he stops to help an elderly woman catch her runaway dog, and almost gets a ticket for leaving his car parked in the middle of the street, but the officer takes pity on him and lets him off with a warning. Later he meets that officer again – turns out she's his neighbor's granddaughter.

Natalie is about to marry Jacks, despite the fact that he seems more interested in his car than in her. He doesn't even know her favorite color or flavor of ice cream. After not giving Giovanni a ticket, she sees him again while at her grandfather's house – outside, in his yard, in his underwear. He certainly gets her attention.

I loved the banter between Giovanni and Natalie, and they seemed to click together right away. Most of the characters in the book were pretty memorable, with their own distinct personalities. Giovanni’s mother isn't very likable, calling her son rude names while obsessively trying to match him up with someone who will quickly produce grandchildren. But his friends Stevie and Danny were welcome additions who I enjoyed. There's also Precious, the runaway dog who Giovanni finds himself dog sitting, and who was the catalyst in putting Natalie and Giovanni into each other's company.

A new character was introduced towards the end of the book, and his appearance came out of left field. His involvement and the direction the story took disconcerted me a bit. I felt like the plot almost went over the top at that point. However it was all resolved very satisfactorily.

It's not a deep character study, but rather a light, frothy, funny story that made me laugh out loud several times. It's refreshing to find a cute romantic comedy written by a man, and I've already bought, and look forward to reading, Mr. Amooi's previous book, FIVE MINUTES LATE.

Against the Law (Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, Book 3)

KAT MARTIN

Synopsis from Goodreads: At thirty-two Dev is "mostly retired" from Raines Investigations, content to run operations from his sprawling Arizona home. But Dev has never been able to say no to a beautiful woman, so when Lark Delaney comes to him for help, the former U.S. Army Ranger from Wind Canyon gets back in the game.

Lark is sexy, successful and dedicated to tracking down the baby girl her sister gave up for adoption. It should be a straightforward case, but it's not long before Dev uncovers a shady adoption ring and worse—the child's parents have been murdered and the little girl has been taken.

As the case grows dangerous and Lark needs him more than ever, Dev can't ignore his growing attraction for her. He also can't trust his judgment with women or the emotions he's long-since buried. But there's a chance, if he gets this right and saves Lark's niece, that he'll end up saving himself, too.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Mira Books, 2011.

How acquired: Through Book Mooch.

First line: He had everything he ever wanted.

My thoughts: I went into this book with a little trepidation, knowing that the heroine was going to hire Dev to help her track down the child her sister had placed for adoption four years earlier. Knowing, from the synopsis, that the adoption probably was not conducted legally. This is one of my hangups. I work in the adoption field, and I hate seeing stories, on film or in print, that give adoption a bad name. And lines like this, nineteen pages in, did not help:

Once they located the adoption agency, the address of the adoptive parents should be easy enough to find. Assuming the agency people could be persuaded to give up the information.

The only thing that would persuade the staff at our agency to divulge a family's address would be a warrant. Well, maybe a gun to the head would do it for some of our staff. But we would never just hand that information over to anyone who wanted it.

Several pages later, after talking to another girl who also placed a child, and was currently pregnant and placing that child as well, albeit with a different agency, Lark wonders how much the girl earned, and Dev speculates:

“She's blonde and blue-eyed. Caucasian babies are in high demand. Twenty thousand, maybe more. It isn't against the law – not if the agency is licensed and following all the state mandates.”

Maybe that's not illegal in Arizona, but it sure is in my state. We can pay a birth mother's living expenses – within reason and with a judge's signature on a court order – but we can't give her money, and she does not get paid to place the child.

And now I'm probably just being a little nitpicky, but a few pages later they walk into a daycare center, and while Dev approaches the receptionist desk, Lark wanders around the play area, and then talks to a little boy. I cannot imagine any daycare in the country where a person can just walk in off the street and roam around among the children.

Anyway, after it was stressed a couple of times that Lark only wanted to be sure her sister's child was in a safe and loving home, and had no intention of disrupting that, I began to relax a little and enjoy the story. And then when they finally went to that home, just in time to see masked men fleeing after having gunned down the adoptive parents and the household staff, while terrified little Chrissy was hiding in a closet, I was completely hooked. And after that, it wasn't about adoption (other than Lark of course eventually adopting Chrissy). It was about drug cartels, and Mexican criminals, and lives being in danger, and me turning pages faster and faster.

I loved Dev and Lark together. Lark is a successful businesswoman, running her own company and making and selling designer handbags. Now that she has Chrissy to raise, the last thing she needs is a relationship. Dev is the youngest of the Raines brothers, and after his fiancee broke up with him days before their wedding several years ago, he doesn't trust women and is determined to never fall in love again. They may say they love you, but how can you know if they really mean it? The answer is to have fun with pretty women but never get serious with them. The attraction between Dev and Lark is palpable, but Lark is Dev's client, and he doesn't mix business with pleasure, so she's off limits as one of his flings. When they do finally give in to the chemistry between them, it was pretty sizzling.

We meet several men who work for Dev, or who served with him in the military and are called upon now to help out. The action never lets up as Dev, Lark, Chrissy, and other men are thrown into one intense situation after another. Of the three books about the Raines brothers, this one is definitely my favorite. The next three books in the Against Series feature three of the other men involved in this one, and I am eager to read all of them. So eager in fact, that I've already placed an order through Barnes & Noble for the next book, along with two other books in the Against series, and the first book in the Brodies of Alaska series.

So despite my initial misgivings, this was a very good suspenseful story with a complex plot. There were lots of scenes that made me either laugh out loud or grin like an idiot, and when the danger was over and Lark and Dev were coming to grips with their feelings for each other, there were some scenes that literally made me cry. I can't get the next book quick enough. 

Protective Custody

NATASHA KNIGHT

Synopsis from Goodreads: When Skye Madden is caught trespassing at an exclusive ski resort while trying to support herself as a tabloid photographer, she is stunned to discover that her childhood crush, Aidan Hastings, is the head of security. More shocking still, Aidan tells her in no uncertain terms that if she is found snooping around the resort again, he’ll take her over his knee and give her a spanking she’ll never forget.

When her boss sends her back to the same resort a year later on another assignment, Skye can’t help but remember Aidan’s warning, but a spanking quickly becomes the least of her worries after she gets lost on the mountain. While trying to find her way back, things go from bad to worse when she witnesses a cold-blooded murder, and she is left with no choice but to confess everything to Aidan. Worst of all, it appears that the murder is connected to the Russian mob. 

Aidan decides he’s taking no chances with his best friend’s little sister, a girl he’s never been able to forget. As a former special agent, he is more than ready to do whatever is needed to keep her safe, even if that means taking her into hiding in an isolated cabin, whether she likes it or not. But Skye Madden has grown even more stubborn and headstrong than he remembered, and he soon realizes it will take quite a bit more than just a bare-bottom spanking to bring her in line. 

Even with her world collapsing around her, Skye wonders how she can let this man—someone who has a place called a “punishment room” in his house, on top of everything else—start to claim her heart again. Can she learn to trust her firm protector, or will she take matters into her own hands and put her life in even greater danger? 

Publisher’s Note: Protective Custody is an erotic novel that includes spankings, sexual scenes, anal play, elements of BDSM, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, published by Stormy Night Publications, 2015.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Skye Madden sat in the holding cell along with her colleague, Barb Smith, at the Blue Piste Ski Resort in Aspen, Colorado.

My thoughts: Skye is a photographer for a tabloid paper, a job she’s not necessarily proud of but it’s a job and puts food on the table. She and a colleague are caught trespassing on the grounds of a posh mountain resort, where the head of the security team turns out to be Aidan, who was her older brother’s best friend years ago, and who kissed her on her 18th birthday and then disappeared. He lets her go, with a warning that if he catches her sneaking around his mountain again, he’ll spank her.

A year later, and she is again sneaking around the resort, trying to get pictures of a celebrity rumored to be there with his mistress. But this time she witnesses a murder before getting caught by security, who once again deliver her to Aidan.

Given that two Russian mob families are involved, and Skye’s life would be in danger if they ever found out she’d taken pictures of them, Aidan makes Skye stay with him so he can protect her. And punish her.

I was drawn into the story very quickly. A tabloid photographer is definitely a sleazy profession, but Skye is a very likable character, though seeming younger than her age and pretty naive. Even while doing her job her conscience pricks her and she has misgivings, but a girl’s got to eat, right? It’s been ten years since Aidan, who is quite a bit older than her, kissed her, and she’s been angry at him ever since for just leaving and disappearing completely. Aidan has never forgotten that kiss either, but he believed at the time he was too old for her, and then he went undercover and couldn’t contact her or her brother if he’d wanted to.

The relationship between them develops quickly, which is expected given their history and the current circumstances, so it didn’t feel too rushed. The plot line with the Russian mob families at first felt a little unrealistic to me, but then quickly became suspenseful. In the middle of the heaviest action though the narrative sort of jumped over the action, so that events happened but were not described. For instance, Aidan leaves Skye at a hidden cabin, and she locks the door behind him:

But before she ever had a chance to unzip her bag and take out the blanket she’d packed, there was a muffled sound of something she wasn’t sure she recognized at the door and within a few moments, two men were inside, one reaching for her, silencing her with a hand over her mouth before she could even scream.

What happened during those “few moments”? How did the men actually get inside? Did they pick the lock? Break down the door? Jimmy it open? Too much was left out there. In another scene, Aidan is sitting in a chair, with a man standing behind him, holding a gun to his head:

Aidan jumped up from his seat while taking out his own hidden revolver and knocking the guard over the head.

With that sentence and the next one, the fight with the guard is over, and I felt like it should have lasted for several sentences. 

Other than that, the story is pretty mesmerizing. The characters are fairly well written, and the sex was sizzling. Natasha Knight specializes in erotic stories filled with spanking and other BDSM elements, and she's very good at it. For Skye, this is completely new territory, and her emotions are all over the place, as she tries to process and understand why Aidan's treatment of her embarrasses and humiliates her, yet thrills and arouses her at the same time. In addition to spanking, there is bondage and anal play. But there's also a sweet love story at the core, with a satisfying resolution.