The Billionaire’s Stubborn Lover (The Maxfield Brothers Series Book 3) by Leslie North

The Billionaire's Stubborn Lover is the third in a series of books about the Maxfields. I hadn’t read the previous two books and that might have helped. First of all, as romance writers do these days, the title has “billionaire” in the title. Isn’t anyone a millionaire anymore? Well, if I read a billionaire romance, the guy’s level of wealth and position in the world should be part of the story at some point. That’s fine, but don’t try to cash in on the billionaire romance craze by sticking it there in the title. If I didn’t see the title, I wouldn’t have thought that Nathan Maxfield, the hero, was even a millionaire. What he is is an architect who wants to design interesting buildings that use green energy. He’s come to work at his family’s firm and now has the assignment to design a building where there is a series of small businesses for a conservative-minded businessman who isn’t interested in anything besides a functional box. For a billionaire business, the three Maxfield brothers seem to be extraordinarily dependent on getting this contract. That was never made clear why that was, but maybe it was clarified in the earlier books.

Nathan is falling for Carolina, the sister of the wife of his brother. She is working managing her mother’s Mexican restaurant which just happens to be one of the businesses to lose its spot where Nathan’s new project will go up.

Carolina has been married three times and has three small children. And her mother is a pain who resists any changes she wants to make in the restaurant and seems unreasonably hostile which she seems to take with more equanimity than I would have.

Carolina and Nathan fall for each other. There are lots of complications from their families and businesses and romantic histories. Don’t be surprised that they are able to fight through those complications to find their HEA. Maybe I would have enjoyed the book more if I'd read the first two so I could keep the other family members straight, but without that background, the book was just mildly entertaining and occasionally irritating. I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Giving It All by Christi Barth

This is the third in Barth’s Naked Men series. No, the series isn’t about what you might be thinking from its title. It concerns five young men who are in a bad accident in the Alps while in high school and how that one crisis had an impact on all their lives. Now that they’re grown up, they had a blog and then a podcast called Naked Men which was just them discussing guy stuff. I’m not sure how many guys would hang around discussing topics like their relationships, but women probably enjoy thinking that they did.

Giving It All is about Logan who has just flown back from Kazakhstan upon hearing that he has a younger sister he never knew about. That sister is Madison from Wanting It All. Logan works in disaster relief traveling to places where a catastrophe has ruined the lives of so many so that he can help them rebuild their lives. He’s a genuinely good guy with somewhat of a hero complex. On the way back while stopped on a Caribbean island, he happens to run into Brooke Gallagher, the girl he had a crush on in high school. They enjoy a fling during a hurricane because well, who wouldn’t? They bond in that one night together.

They both return to Washington, D.C. where Logan reconnects with his four best friends and gets to know his new sister. And he and Brooke, of course, continue their fling.

Nothing in this book is that surprising. The reader can figure out pretty quickly that these two former friends are going to fall in love instead of just having a fling. And he’s going to want to leave to return to disaster relief, but hate to leave Brooke behind.

The fun is in the journey of following along as Logan and Brooke learn more about themselves and what they need to be happy and fulfilled in their lives.

It was a plus for me that they do this while exploring unexpected sites in Washington, D.C. where I lived for four years and enjoyed revisiting some of these locations. It made me want to follow in their tracks and explore some of those hidden, romantic locations.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Dream Maker: A Nashville Nights Novel by Erin McCarthy

If you can suspend disbelief, Dream Maker is an enjoyable read. Avery O’Leary is a naive Kentucky girl who has just wasted 8 years on a romance with a guy who treats her badly and won’t even sleep with her. And he’s not all that great looking either. They’ve both come to Nashville hoping to break into the country-music business. Avery is an aspiring songwriter and she also wants to find her half-brother who doesn’t know that his father had a brief little affair and abandoned Avery and her mother. As soon as they arrive in Nashville, she finds out that the guy who refuses to make love to her has been sleeping around. She jumps out of his truck in the middle of the night forgetting to bring her purse with her. How clueless is this girl?

But lucky for her, Shane Hart, a successful music manager just happens to be right there to help her out since he can’t leave a young woman alone without money or a phone in the middle of the night in the city. He’s a guy who sleeps around a lot, but refuses to get close to any woman because he fears his own demons.

Of course, they’re attracted to each other and spend an unforgettable night together. They can’t forget the other and when they finally meet up again, the attraction is as strong as ever despite Avery’s reluctance to get involved with such a successful guy because no one will then believe that she made it on her own with her music.

It’s a good sign that you’re enjoying the book if you wish it would be longer. But it can also be a bad sign that the author hasn’t developed the characters and their relationship enough. I liked the set-up, but it all got resolved too quickly and neatly. Once that first night is over, the book goes into overdrive to wind it up. I would have liked more depth and a more leisurely finish. But I still enjoyed the book and would definitely read more in the series.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Top Shelf: An Aces Hockey Novel by Kelly Jamieson

Top Shelf is another in Jamieson’s enjoyable series revolving around hockey players for the fictional Chicago Aces. The hero in this book is Jared Rudd who also owns a restaurant/bar called the Sin Bin. Into the bar walks Sidney Frayne who, without realizing that Jared is the owner, starts criticizing the martini menu. He finds her hot; she finds him hot. You know where this is going, right?

He hires her to revamp his martini menu and they quickly fall into bed together. They both agree that neither wants a romantic relationship; they just want sex. You know what happens to those vows, right?

So the basic plot is pretty predictable. The fun is in seeing their relationship develop, learning about martinis and eavesdropping on Sidney and her friends and Jared and his teammates. Sometimes, it seemed that Jamieson was taking shortcuts as the plot developed. There would be a set-up for the two to do something together and then we’d go to the next chapter and that scene was in the past. It makes the book read faster, but I was enjoying the characters and the dialogue and would have enjoyed reading the anticipated scene play out instead of just being passed over. All this is interspersed with a lot of sex - more than I remembered from her previous books. I would have preferred more character development and less descriptions of her giving him oral sex. I’m not a prude in reading contemporary romances, but I didn’t need to read that more than once.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hard to Fall by Marquita Valentine

There was just too much stuffed into Hard to Fall. There were so many different plot elements going on and it would have been better if the author had done more to build up a few of the plots instead of just introducing new elements and resolving things too quickly.

The hero, Hayden Walker is a hunky firefighter who loves his job and has risen to be a leader of his crew. However, he’s also the oldest son of a North Carolina U.S. senator who wants Hayden to run for office, something Hayden has no interest in doing. He resents his father’s derision for his job, but can’t seem to make his father understand this. Saylor Dean is the only daughter of a world-famous actress and the unacknowledged child of a selfish politician. She has never met her father.

Spoiler Alerts: Add in a drunken, secret marriage, Hayden’s father blackmail that Hayden get married or run for office, Saylor’s meetings with her father and half-sister who just happened to be Hayden’s one-time fiance, a surprise pregnancy, an arson investigation, threats to Hayden’s career, and the need to foil a villain.

All of these plot devices get thrown into the story lickety-split and then get resolved pretty quickly and easily instead of building a more realistic plot. I mean how likely is it that a guy could be so drunk for two days that he has total amnesia about making love with a woman and then marrying her? I just don’t buy that. And the believability declines from there. Since when can a US senator crush the career of a local fireman? Since when does a politician hire an arson investigator to throw the investigation just to get some info on a political rival? And do it all by email on an unsecured private server that is easily hacked? I guess Hillary Clinton’s server woes are now becoming plot devices in romance novels.

The hero and heroine are very likable and I was pulling for them. If only the author had had more faith in her characters to build a plot with a bit more realism in it.

I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Becoming a Legend by Sarah Robinson

Becoming a Legend is another book in the a series about the Kavanaughs who are associated with MMA fighting. The hero is Kane Kavanaugh who is preparing for a national title bout. But he’s distracted by his attraction to Nora, the best friend of his brother’s wife. Their romance was told in the second book in the series, Saving a Legend. The book starts out with Kane and Nora supposedly clashing with each other every time they meet. They get over that very quickly, so quickly that it was rather unbelievable that there had been that antagonistic sexual tension between them. They then start an affair, but Nora blows hot and cold since she has her own problems with her family.

She doesn’t feel loved and is bankrupting herself to give money to her selfish mother so she can go out gambling. Really? I just wanted to shake her and tell her to grow a spine instead of endangering her own education and career possibilities in order to feed her mother’s gambling problems.

There are also some shenanigans involved with the fight Kane is preparing for that are hinted at in the prologue. That intrigued me and kept me reading to find out how that was going to be resolved.

I didn’t read the first book in this series so I missed any explanation of how the Kavanaughs got so very wealthy and influential in their community. They own a gym, but there are hints that the father has mob connections but isn’t a member of the mob himself. There are also references to the plotline from the second book which I had read but didn’t remember very well. I don’t want authors to spend a lot of time rehashing previous books, but it would help to have a few clarifying sentences to help readers who hadn’t read the earlier books.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Dark Corners: A True Heroes Novel by A. M. Madden

Dark Corners was a captivating read. I couldn’t put it down. It started out as a rather standard story as a wealthy woman, Maygen, literally bumps into a super sexy guy and spills coffee all over herself. He’s charming and they end up seeing each other. The hero, David Cavello, is the rather mysterious brother in Madden’s previous book, Glass Ceilings, who had worked to protect his younger sister from the threat from a former lover who is in the mob. We find that David is tormented by PTSD from his time serving in Iraq. Maygen has a rather ill-defined job working for a prominent dress designer. I never could figure out exactly what her job was. She’s the daughter of a prominent PR agent who is super overprotective of Maygen. She rejects his protection and insists on making her own way.

For the first half of the book, we’re just riding along as the romance slowly develops between David and Maygen. David has some unspoken reason why he doesn’t want to take the relationship deeper even though he is really attracted to Maygen and finds that being with her helps reduce his PTSD symptoms.

Then suddenly, halfway through the book, there is a surprise plot development that I hadn’t seen coming, though looking back, I could see how she had provided clues for the surprise. Then the story revolves around whether Maygen can forgive David underlaid with a suspense plot.

The book kept me interested all the way through. The sexual attraction is hot, but it did seem that, after they finally consummated their relationship, there were way too many sex scenes. After a while, I just wanted the plot to go forward and find out what was going to happen. THe suspense part of the plot was introduced too quickly and then resolved too quickly. I thought the author could have done more with that part of the plot. I am finding more and more romantic suspense novels where there is a somewhat suspenseful build-up and then it gets resolved in a few pages more quickly than most of the sex scenes.

I had read the previous book, Glass Ceilings, but hadn’t remembered the details. There were quite a few references to that book and I had to go back and read my review of that book to remember what had happened. I enjoyed that book also so I recommend reading both of them.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Catch Me, Cowboy by Jeannie Watt

Catch Me, Cowboy is a first in what will be a series of rodeo-related romances. This story is about a champion rodeo star Ty Harding returning to the town where he grew up and to his first and true love, Shelby O’Connor. She had begged him not to leave, but Ty had felt that he needed to give the rodeo a try to see what he could do before he settled down. His father had settled and gotten married and always regretted it. His father had then channeled his frustrated ambitions into his sons’ rodeo careers. Ty doesn’t want to turn int a bitter man as his father had so he left even though he lost Shelby’s love with his decision.

Now he’s back and Shelby can’t deny what she feels for him. He volunteers to help out her grandfather to fence in some of his ranch land and then, wouldn’t you know it, he and Shelby recover what was between them.

This was a sweet second-chance romance. I was a little irritated with Shelby since she was the one who refused to try to keep their relationship going when he went on the circuit. I don’t have much patience for her all-or-nothing attitude and her refusal to let the man she purportedly loves a chance to pursue his dreams. With some wisdom from her very wise grandfather, she comes to see what she could be giving up.

Of course, everything works out and the two likable protagonists manage to find what they had lost four years ago. It was clear where there was going, but I enjoyed hanging in there for the ride.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Take Me Deeper by Jackie Ashenden

I enjoyed the first book in this series, I enjoyed the first book in this series, Take Me Deeper, about bounty hunters or “fugitive recovery agents.” But this one...not so much. Nora is supposed to be this tough, smart bounty hunter who always brings in her target. Now she’s assigned to go after a biker who is the second in command of a biker gang with an outlaw background. So what does this clever girl decide to do - march into the biker bar and confront a whole crowd of them including the head of the gang, who turns out to be the guy she hung out to dry when she was just 18. And then, when she realizes who the new head of the gang is - because she’s so tough, she didn’t do any research ahead of time - she continues to confront them and him and make her demands like everyone is going to smile and hand over their guy. Come on. What follows is a whole lot of sexual tension and then sexual action and not a lot of plot. We are presented with all the angst about how she did him wrong and then they have sex and then we see how he’s still angry and they have some more sex and she is still getting over her daddy issues and then they have more sex. You get the idea.

The whole set-up of her trying to bring in his best buddy is quickly and easily resolved at the end. I just couldn’t find myself to care about either the H or h and it was irritating to get this whole set up that is basically dropped. Hopefully, the next book in the series will do more to deliver on the promise of the first and not skimp on either plot or character development. I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.">Take Me Deeper, about bounty hunters or “fugitive recovery agents.” But this one...not so much. Nora is supposed to be this tough, smart bounty hunter who always brings in her target. Now she’s assigned to go after a biker who is the second in command of a biker gang with an outlaw background. So what does this clever girl decide to do - march into the biker bar and confront a whole crowd of them including the head of the gang, who turns out to be the guy she hung out to dry when she was just 18. And then, when she realizes who the new head of the gang is - because she’s so tough, she didn’t do any research ahead of time - she continues to confront them and him and make her demands like everyone is going to smile and hand over their guy. Come on.

What follows is a whole lot of sexual tension and then sexual action and not a lot of plot. We are presented with all the angst about how she did him wrong and then they have sex and then we see how he’s still angry and they have some more sex and she is still getting over her daddy issues and then they have more sex. You get the idea. The whole set-up of her trying to bring in his best buddy is quickly and easily resolved at the end.

I just couldn’t find myself to care about either the H or h and it was irritating to get this whole set up that is basically dropped. Hopefully, the next book in the series will do more to deliver on the promise of the first and not skimp on either plot or character development.

I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lured In: A Fishing for Trouble Novel by Laura Drewry

Lured In is the second book in Drewry’s series about a small, remote fishing vacation lodge, the Buoys, owned by the O’Donnell brothers. In this story, the heroine, Jessie, has lived there since she was 17 and has almost single-handedly kept the place running. The only problem is that she is terrified of water so she lives a pretty isolated life in this remote location that is accessible only by boat and helijet. The youngest O’Donnell brother, Finn, has long had a crush on Jessie, but he’s afraid of making any move on her so he just is her very good friend. When the star of a popular fishing program who once had an affair with Jessie decides to come film at the Buoys, she decides that it’s time that she learn to overcome her terror of the water and Finn is just the guy to help her. What I liked about this book is that the romance between Jessie and Finn develops on a realistic trajectory. They’ve been friends for years and, in the process of helping her to overcome her fear of the water, they realize they love each other. There are a few complications, but nothing that is unrealistic to the characters or impossible to overcome. The O’Donnell brothers truly love each other, but they relate to each other the way guys seem to do in romance novels with lots of jokes and playful physical abuse. I always enjoy friends-to-lovers romances, maybe because that’s how it developed between me and my husband, but also because I find that the most realistic way to understand romance instead of these novels where the two meet each other and immediately feel some sort of physical electric connection. I really liked Finn - he’s just a good guy. Both he and Jessie have complicated personal histories and hang-ups, but he’s more open than she is and was willing to open up to her about his past and then to express his feelings to her. The setting is interesting - this remote fishing lodge in the Pacific Northwest. There is no one else there except the family, the love interest of one brother, Jessie, and the cook. It sounds pretty bare as far as modern conveniences. You either like to fish or you’d have very little to do there. It doesn’t appeal to me and I find it hard to believe that they could make a financial go of it, plus I can’t imagine the logistics of bringing everything in to run their lodge and feed guests by boat. It’s obvious that the next book will be about the oldest brother. I wonder how Drewry will bring in some female character for him to fall in love with. I know I’ll be reading it to find out. The story follows an arc of build-up of the romance which is then consummated and they’re a match a little past the midpoint. There are then some financial complications introduced that shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. That all gets resolved very quickly and easily with somewhat of a deus ex machina development by the end of the book. I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Always Be True: Tino by Alexis Morgan

Always Be True is the second in Morgan’s series of Sergeant Joe’s Boys about three boys adopted by Joe and his wife and the men they grew to being. All three went into the military in honor of the man who taught them what it means to be honorable men. Now Joe is dead and they’re one-by-one returning home to help out their adopted mother. The first book, Always for You, was about the oldest son, Jack. This book is about the second son, Tino, and is similar to the first in that it is sensitively written about quite likable people.

Tino has returned from ten years serving around the world in the Military Police. His life is at a crossroads and he just can’t decide what he wants to do with the rest of his life. His mother sends him to volunteer at a local community center seeking volunteers to help in remodeling. There he meets Natalie who is in charge of the community center remodel. She and Tino are attracted to each other and start dating. He is surprised to find out that she is very wealthy and the head of the charitable foundation funding the center’s remodel. As a blue-collar guy who has been through the foster-care system, he’s uncomfortable with the disparities in their backgrounds, but he’s willing to give their growing relationship a try.

So many romances just tell us that the couple are attracted to each other. This novel shows us by including the witty banter between them as they first meet and then expanding the scope of their conversations as they grow to know each other better. Tino is just the nicest guy. Sure he’s hunky and a bit alpha, but he’s also working hard to fit into Natalie’s world. The scenes with Natalie’s grandfather are quite charming. And Natalie is a lovely woman who is dedicated to using her family’s money to help others. She’s not concerned with where people are from, but who they are. The only questionable aspect is why such a delightful and kind woman would have ever been engaged to the jerk who was her ex-fiance. I found that unbelievable, but he provided a bit of tension in what is really a gentle, love story about two fine and admirable people.

I was also glad to see Jack and his adopted son Ricky from the first book. This is a really enjoyable series and I’m looking forward to reading about the third brother, Mikhail.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.