About the book:

Beauty is more than skin-deep…

Tattoo artist Raven Smith is blunt and hard, broken and jaded, dark and beautiful. While she doesn’t hide her painful past, she does keep a wall around her heart. She’s free sexually—but no one gets to the real Raven beneath the prickly exterior.

With a voice like smoke, Jonah Warner is a smooth-talking, highly successful attorney, with a body that should never be hidden by a suit. He’s the kind of man who never takes no for an answer and always gets what he wants. And what he wants is Raven. She’s a survivor, and he finds that incredibly alluring.

Jonah gets under her skin in a way Raven has never experienced. He makes her break all her rules—including her no-monogamy rule.

But when a figure from Raven’s past shows up at the tattoo parlor and drops a bomb into her life, their relationship will face the ultimate challenge…

Oh, Raven! I have both loved and loathed her throughout the Brown Family series. She isn’t an easy character to like, but it is because she is just so well written and complex that you can’t help but eventually fall in love with her just like Jonah and everyone else. Raven isn’t at all what she has seemed in the past…actually she is and so much more. She is bitchy, prickly, and blunt, but Raven is also sweet, vulnerable and loving. When she is around children, who don’t expect who to be anything other than who she is, she is a big softy. I love the scenes between her and Erin’s son, Alexander. They are unbelievably sweet and show the real Raven. Raven’s messed up childhood had the power to make her unbelievable screwed up as an adult and at times Raven acts as though she believes that it has done just that, but in reality it has made her strong and capable to owning up to her own stuff or looking for someone/somewhere else to place the blame. Jonah sees the real her almost immediately. He is instantly attracted to her, but from the first Jonah sees something beyond the facade she puts out there. He doesn’t put up with her crap and is strong enough to take a step back when she needs him to. I love that he knows that sometimes she needs he to back the hell off and he does while still staying close enough to take care of her when she needs him. The writing is emotional, sexy, and romantic. There is some light D/s and lots of sexy-times. Several characters from the Brown novels and the Delicious books make appearances – especially Erin, Brody, Daisy, and Levi. After finishing DRAWN TOGETHER Raven and Erin are now tied as my favorite characters in this series (and I had to immediately re-read LAID BARE for the millionth time!)

the book girl gives DRAWN TOGETHER a 5/5

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About the book:

Tanna Barker is a world champion barrel racer. But her personal life has been less of a success, and she’s feeling adrift. After her mother’s unexpected death, her father has remarried, and sold the Texas ranch she called home. Now a rodeo injury has left the restless spitfire holed up in Muddy Gap, unsure what her next move should be.

Until she meets her match in a wild, wild cowboy

Veterinarian August Fletcher has always put his job first. He’s never found a woman who could handle his on-the-road lifestyle. But when sassy, sexy Tanna blows into town, he finally finds the woman of his fantasies. And there’s something between them, but she claims she’s been burned by love ’em and leave ’em road dogs before. How can Fletch prove that he’s in it for the long haul, and that their sizzling relationship is better than winning any rodeo medal? It’ll take some sweet persuasion to convince Tanna that Muddy Gap is where she belongs.

TURN AND BURN is a very hot book featuring two very independent characters – one that I loved and one that I tolerated to get more of the other. First, Fletch – I loved him. He’s a fantastic character – sexy, great with animals, and works hard to get the girl. His whole world is turned upside down when he finds the woman he had an amazing one-night-stand with (and who escaped without giving him her name) at his friend’s ranch. Instead of running from his feelings or ignoring them he goes after Tanna. He worries about how she will feel about his very busy work schedule, but he can’t let her go. I had trouble connecting to Tanna. She’s tough and fiesty, but she constantly push and pulls Fletch in different directions. Her accident has changed everything for her, making her afraid of the one thing that made her happy in the past, and she doesn’t really know how to cope. My biggest problem with her was the lack of emotion – I couldn’t tell at any time how she felt about things. Tanna is very cut off from her feelings and it hampers her recovery from the accident and her relationship with Fletch. The story also moves slowly with not a lot of action to help keep it going – the story is focused solely on Tanna, Fletch, and their relationship. The writing is good and the sex scenes are off the charts.

the book girl gives TURN AND BURN a 3/5

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About the book:

Juliet Lamprey is having the time of her life running her successful bakery, TART, when Gideon Carter comes back into her life. Returning home to help his grandfather run the family farm, Gideon is back for good. When they meet again, the spark between them is immediate, and it isn’t long before the former childhood friends play catch up—in bed.

That’s not good news for local lawyer Cal Whaley. Though the sexually open but strictly monogamous Cal has loved Jules for a long time, he’s hardly ever taken it further than friendship. When he sees her start to fall for Gideon, he knows he has to make his move or risk losing her forever.

Who would have anticipated that all three of them would connect on such an intimate level? The trio’s scalding liaisons take them places they’ve never dreamed. But such an intensely passionate and unusual relationship comes with equally as complicated emotions, and when Jules must suddenly leave town, she wonders if she’ll have a choice to make when she returns…

TART is fantastic on so many levels. I finished the book and had to take a couple of days to think about  what I wanted to write in the review. I really wanted to just write – IT’S FANTASTIC! BUY IT! READ IT! 🙂 Then I started re-reading and got sucked back into the story and read the second half of the book again.

TART is a book about family, both the one you are born to and the one you create with friends and lovers. Juliet doesn’t have a great biological family, but has created an amazing family for herself with the Delicious girls and the Brown family. I loved the scenes where everyone was gathered celebrating Gillian and Adrian’s engagement/wedding. Cal has flirted his way through a few previous books and it was always obvious that he was meant to be with Jules. It was great to finally get to really know his character. Cal is messy, impulsive, impatient, and passionate. Gideon is the newbie in this book, but from the first moment he shows up on the page I loved him. He fits in perfectly with the other characters and with Jules. He is the opposite of Cal – calm, collected, neat, takes things slow, patient – and I believe that’s why their relationship works so well. Cal and Gideon form the perfect man for Jules. There were times this book made me laugh, cry, and blush. I don’t think there is anyone who writes a triad relationship as well as Lauren Dane. You can feel the love between each partner for the other and their struggles to find a way to make the unconventional relationship work feel realistic. I will be counting down the days till the next Delicious novel!

the book girl gives TART a 5/5

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