This SHOULD be the last of the adult romance I have to read, and I'm both happy and upset by this. Happy because there're some fabulous young adult books I'm now feeling in the mood to jump (The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, Sweet Peril, maybe Of Triton), and already feeling nostalgic after this blissful week and a half I've spent reading these fantastic (in their own way) adult contemporaries. Since I finished Three Little Words recently, I couldn't stop there when I had Two of a Kind and Just One Kiss on hand. WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? Anyone but Asher is capable of restraint, so really you shouldn't be surprised.
Now I didn't read these two books in chronological or publication order; I randomly picked up TWO OF A KIND first. In this installment of the Fool's Gold series we get events that happened just before those that took place in THREE LITTLE WORDS. It turns out that Gideon Boylan, a Fool's Gold radio sensation, is another of the mysterious military men that are somehow drawn to this sweet, happy small town. Talk about scarred and messed up. Gideon was held prisoner a few years back and was left for dead for quite a long time, wherein he suffered unimaginable torture and witnessed the deaths of his friends on his team. The man has serious complexes about who he is as a person, what he deserves (or rather, doesn't), and what he can handle.
Then Felicia Swift of the memorable night in Thailand years back relocates to Fool's Gold. She's scarily brilliant, lonely, and desperately hopes to make her mark in the town as a normal woman, one who wants to get married and have a family (though she's scared she'll fail at both). When things heat up between her and Gideon, very fun sexual shenanigans ensue leading them both into a "practice" relationship, where Gideon'll show Felicia the ropes as to what it's like so she can be confident in all future romantic endeavors. As if he's doing her a favor. AS IF.
"I wonder if Patience and Justice will have children." Her voice was wistful. "That would be nice." He fought the need to back away. "You looking for a white picket fence?" "If you mean I want what it represents, then, yes. In reality, I've never found that kind of fencing to be efficient. The upkeep alone would be daunting."
Okay--he didn't know how she did it. One second he wanted to run, and the next he wanted to pull her close and kiss her senseless. She could look him in the eye and tell him the specifics of her sexual interest and yet be nervous about taking a job because of her emotional connection to the town.
"You didn't come for coffee," she said.
"I didn't?"
She shook her head. "You're checking on me. You want to know if I'm okay, which is very sweet considering I'm the one who initiated our sexual encounter."
"Are you?"
"I'm fine. The physicial intimacy was better than I remembered, which is extraordinary. I have an excellent memory. I don't want you to worry. I don't feel that I've bonded with you as a result of my orgasms, but if it starts to happen, I'll handle it myself."
I love this chick! Felicia's differentness, brilliance, and disarming humor are responsible for the slow decimation of Gideon's walls. I loved seeing him scramble to fill in the gaps, then scramble at the hard, unexpected things life throws at him. These two together are fun and great to watch navigate those murky waters familiar to men and women across the ages.
I received an e-galley of this book from Harlequin via Netgalley.
Funnily enough, JUST ONE KISS takes place just before TWO OF A KIND, featuring the love story between Patience McGraw and Justice Garrett, childhood friends and first crushes who were separated very abruptly. As it turns out, all those years ago Justice was actually in the Witness Protection Program (where better to hide than Fool's Gold?) and the day Patience was to tell him of her feelings, he was swept away by the marshals guarding him.
Mallery really seems to have a hang on all my favorite plot lines and romantic ploys in a romance book. That's what makes these books fun, engaging, and sweetly (slightly cheesily) romantic. I don't mind them as books because they're meant to be what they are: happy reads. Even though I wasn't too keen on the scenes where Patience and her girlfriends would gather together--they just weren't as enjoyable to read--I enjoyed the story. I liked the writing better this time around as well.
There's a slight ominous feel to the plot as we're all waiting for one of Justice's ghosts from the past to emerge and make things scarily thrilling. (It's funny to see such huge events take place in such an ordinary town.) Mainly, though, like with the last two books, I loved reading as Patience and Justice tried to figure things out, stumbling over their mutual sexual attraction and becoming more involved in each other's lives.
I love happy endings and these books are the perfect way to get some.
You guys may or may not remember when I dived into THREE SISTERS a couple months back, but it was a revelation for me that I could enjoy adult romance novels NOT written by Nora Roberts and still come out feeling satisfied instead of occupied. So, OF COURSE, I went mad and like a proper psycho I jumped ship to both of Susan Mallery’s lines at BEA to get more of her books. And when I saw a galley of hers up on Netgalley of another new book, WE ALL KNOW what I did. And I feel no shame so if you’re thinking to walk in here wearing your judgey pants, you’d better walk back out and take ‘em off because I WON’T STAND FOR IT.
And, dammit, I can’t help it. They’re just too good. Her books are not, and probably never will be, Jellicoe Road good, or The Sky Is EverywhereThis Song Will Save Your Life good. But they’re not really supposed to be; or rather I don’t anticipate them to be. These are the kind of feel-good romance novels you read when you get home from a crappy day in retail almost wishing you hadn’t left your last job after discovering that you have no strength when it comes to men since being around your first college crush was so painful with his new girlfriend in the next office you had to leave, draining all hope and belief in everlasting love. Yes, dramatic, but may I remind you I’m on that awkward line between teen and adult. I’m entitled.
With a fun plot line we all know and love—fauxmance, anyone?—I couldn’t stop laughing even as I barely resisted audibly sighing at that Hendrix boy. You know sexy, dangerous, ex-SEAL Ford Hendrix of the incredible muscles and make-all-women-melt smile. I’d never read a Fool’s Gold book, so I did worry that I would be a little lost in all that familiar sauce but HAVE NO FEAR. You may not know who every character is nor how they came to be friends, but you can still enjoy them, and they make you want to read previous books to get to know them better. Mostly, I just enjoyed the dual romance in this book, following Isabel and Ford, Consuelo and Kent. THREE LITTLE WORDS is a happy book, so since I’m not an unhappy person, I have no complaints and just basked in all the happy things waiting to hug me. I’ll be smiling all day.
Very rarely do I truly dislike a book. I know you’re probably thinking back to my Duds of the Month So Far post that I threw together this past Thursday for the sake of my blood pressure, but even those books weren’t UTTER and COMPLETE failures, just disappointing. The following books I’m going to mention, however, are even LESS disappointing, and thank Bob on crutches for that. Aaaaand I cannot, in good conscience, leave them entirely review-less when pubs were nice enough to give me ‘em after I so politely and discreetly begged. Without a thought to pride, dignity, or any relevant thing I should’ve tried to maintain.
So, here I find myself in a talking mood. It'll be okay.
Most people like me might be resistant to a life without advanced technology, and wouldn’t willingly throw away all access to it. Imagine a world without cell phones, a world in which we would actually have to write things out, see people face to face to tell them things, wait to get home to have conversations, LEARN TO TELL TIME so clocks eventually become decipherable instead of complex devices designed so that one may realize the extent of their own stupidity. And okay, I did find Mallory’s tech-fasting to be a little dramatic, but all in all a fun sort of hypothetical in Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt. Plus, it helped she was such a down chick, all quirks, fun, humor, and… ingenuity. I enjoyed seeing her reach out, learn a little something about herself, about the past, about family, though I still wanted to sit down with Mallory and be like: okay, you can probably make a rich life without all the junk we bring down on ourselves via cyberspace and whatnot but people still have problems, complex issues that help make time seem an irrelevant factor in human psych development in retrospect. Also: doth need a different ending to be fully satisfying for me, in the sense of INSTANT GRATIFICATION in the romantic corner of things. I’m still growling about that.
Quickly, so that I may get it out of the way: If my eyes were anymore dazzled by this amazebeans front cover, I'd have sequins in them—can ya'll say ouch?
Anyway, I could see, objectively, that this is a deep and meaningful book. Orleans by Sherri L. Smith is written that way, but it didn’t pitch a tent in my heart. It didn’t climb in, bang around, and make me FEEL. On the other hand, I loved the writing, the way each word is strung together to fashion a remarkable picture out of such seemingly simplistic material. The narration is a meld of contrasts, a culmination of tribe-speak and the proper words for things, full of quiet and revelations, conflicting emotions. It’s just simply beautiful. And FEN. Girl, is a mother ducking BAMF to the nth degree. Full-on badassery in combat, strategy, maneuvering. There’s so much compassion to be felt for her even as the admiration kicks in. But because this is dually-narrated, the pacing picks up in Fen’s perspective then rests in Daniel’s perspective, which made it somewhat difficult to get through. Still, I appreciated the levels of the plot, the underlying meaning to everything. But a combination of Daniel’s thoughts and the resulting weird pacing mucked things up a bit.
Normally, I’m not tempted by adult novels while I’m—correction had been—perusing the fine cyber establishment of Netgalley. Some adult romances look downright appealing but I’ve always maintained an almost alarming store of self-control. Not this time. Something about the premise of Three Sisters by Susan Mallery really got to me as I was passing my eyes by. Technically, brothers would be my buzz word. And if they’re sexy that’s a bonus. But I’d like to make a little addendum to that and just come out with siblings. Any complex relationship involving siblings whether by blood or bond or, better, both is one of my biggest bookish turn-ons.
This story features three women who come together while simultaneously overcoming ENORMOUS emotional obstacles in their home lives. And the hint that there was to be sexy romances just topped it off. And I can seriously say I dug an adult romance novel, willingly, that was NOT written by Nora Roberts (her stories obsess me). Call down the marching bands and bring on the floats in commemoration. We have a charming setting, three on-the-surface different women forming a solid bond, and each have their own lovable romances. What more could I ask for? It certainly helps, too, that the story is well-written and, out of this batch of books, I FINALLY GOT MY HAPPY ENDING, GAMMIT. And lots and lots of tasteful sex. Oh, yes, that too.
At this moment, I’m DESPERATELY trying to coerce my easily tempted brain into believing that it’s best that I read through some of the other books I’ve had on standby instead of diving headfirst into Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy. Like, all my willpower is being depleted even at this moment. And, no, I’m not bragging. Much.
