So Tough to Tame by Victoria Dahl

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥

Very hot book. Like, super hot. I don't like to do spoilers, and I'm hardly a prude, but I have to say that there is one particular sex scene that is even more raunchy than normal in contemporary romance. It's the thing that nice girls never do ;) It was so interesting that I read my first such scene here in 2013 when its probably been going on since the time of the Greeks and the Kama Sutra. I wonder if this is the beginning of some new trend...Well kudos to Ms. Dahl for pushing the envelope in such a matter of fact way.

I thought this was generally a good read. I didn't love it as much as the others of Ms. Dahl's contemporaries (but to be fair, those were phenomenal) because I thought there wasn't enough real mental connection between the H and h. I mean, yes they had known each other since childhood, and yes they are attracted to one another, and yes they are both nice, kind people, but I didn't feel the reason they were the One for one another. 

Here's the 2-minute summary - 
He: A nice and easygoing cowboy who likes his simple life with horses and people and doesn't really need the complication of a life with too much ambition.

She: A woman who has come home to rebuild her life after a terrible scandal that ruined her professional and personal reputation. She was a security specialist in Las Vegas who got tied up in some bad business (not of her own doing) and spent all her savings trying to defend herself against the accusations. She was acquitted of professional wrongdoing but people keep bringing it back up and she knows she can't afford anything going wrong.

Conflict: They had been friends as kids. In fact, she had tutored him when they had been younger, and knows that he has a learning disability that slowed him down in school work - but not with the girls in high school. She rolls back into town and sees at once that his flirting days are far from behind him and decides, what the heck, she never had a chance with him when they were kids, but she certainly has one with him now. She's more confident and worldly and just goes for it. He's into it, but also harbors the life long insecurity of feeling dumb and inferior. Especially when it comes to her - she of all people, knows exactly how "dumb" he is. The conflict is mainly him working through his inferiority issues so he feels like he is "worthy" of someone like her.

All Out of Love by Lori Wilde

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥

Look at this cover. No, you're not listening - LOOK AT IT. I actually think you don't need to read this or any other review at all to enjoy this book. You may not even have to read the book when it comes down to it... 

The Skinny -

He: The Most Popular Guy in school - football jock, gorgeous, cool AND nice - fulfills his youthful potential by becoming the QB for the Dallas Cowboys but then when everything goes horribly wrong - with his own health as well as his father's - he returns to his hometown and finds that the girl who had had a crush on him all through school is still around and has become pretty, darn hot.

She: Chubby, awkward high school teen gets her deepest secret - an unrequited crush on the school's most popular and out-of-her-league guy - outed in the most mortifying way possible. She spends a lot of the next 10 years or so getting past that and becomes a confident, fun, fulfilled person. But then The Crush rolls back into town and she has to deal with all the small town's commentary as well as his totally of arrogant assumption she would still be into him.

Conflict: Leftover effects of the trauma of teenage embarrassment on her part, and a probable end of his sterling football career mean that they both have a bunch of issues. Plus the fact that even though she's a pretty confident person, she still feels the twinge of insecurity watching all the ladies in town throw themselves at him.

Liked:
1) Both characters were fun and confident and pretty happy with themselves. No one needed "fixing" and both were able to deal with their own emotional lives without acting like asses.

2) The chick was described as cute and hot and a size 14. I am given to understand this is the US average size for a woman, so although the point that she wasn't exactly skinny was made, it wasn't belabored to the point of being annoying. In fact the hero doesn't really remark upon it at all. Nice.

3) The female character had a passion - plant biology of all things! I love it when characters have interests and passions outside of their romantic lives. It just makes me feel like they are people with the capacity for fulfilling their OWN happiness and the fact that they found a partner with whom to share that happiness is just a wonderful bonus. 

Didn't like:
1) Not that I disliked this exactly, but I do find the corn-fed, salt-of-the-earth, good old boy Texas jock a bit of a tired hero archetype. I guess there's nothing not to like about this hero - he was a nice guy along with being a hot, successful athlete - but I guess I would have liked to see a "twist" in the character somewhere. Something unusual about him that would make him be something more that the other jock heroes I read. Apart from his predisposition to like average-sized woman, that is.

All He Ever Needed by Shannon Stacey

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥

Famous last words: It's just sex, we're not serious or anything.

Why do people even say stuff like that? If I've learned anything from romance novels (and believe me, I've learned PLENTY) saying dumb sh!t like that is like waving a baby mouse in front of a irate cobra. Pretty obvious how that story ends.

Anyway, obvious-sauce aside, I really enjoyed this story. To think I almost gave up on this series! After 3-hearting Yours to Keep, I almost threw in the towel with the Kowalski brothers because it was getting rather same-y same-y. But I guess all I needed was a break because this story, as "standard" as it was, was pretty darn fun.

He: Mitch, the town's favorite bad-boy panty-charmer rides back into town after a long absence and seems to immediately inflame the female population of the small town like a match on dry kindling. The ladies of the town chatter unceasingly about his many feats of sexual prowess so we quickly learn that the man is kind of a big deal bedroom-wise.

She: The owner of the main diner in town who is taking a break from men. She has some history and doesn't want to be the kind of woman her mom turned into - the kind of twists herself into uncomfortable shapes to please a man. Not bedroom-wise, but life-wise.

Conflict: He's just in town for a quick stint to help his brother out, she doesn't want to get into anything to wreck the careful peace she's put together for herself so they agree to just be casual. Yeaaaaah. Then one of them decides that maybe they could have something serious. But then they get their heart broken because the other one hasn't gotten there (yet). I won't say who moved faster in this case because that would be giving it away. But I'll give you a hint. 99.9% of the time it's the chick who moves too fast. And this book wasn't really that original. So...

I don't know why I'm being so mean to this book! I really liked it! It was funny, hot and even managed to be realistic in parts. It was just so regular that I actually amazed myself by not getting annoyed by all the cliches.

Skeptic's last word: At the end of the day the question I ask myself whenever I read a romance was answered: why the heck do these guys like each other? Ms. Stacey showed us clearly why these two characters liked and then loved each other and why we the readers should find them lovable, and ultimately that was all that mattered.

The Return of Rafe McKade by Nora Roberts

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥

I was literally JUST talking about the change in the alpha hero landscape from the Old School variety to this 2.0 modified alpha version. I had this whole argument for the new, more sensitive, nice-guy version and then I re-read this book! I am feeling all nostalgic for the Old School types again...sigh.

Anyway - quick run down of the salient plot points.

He: One of 4 bad-boy brothers in a small town who blazed out of town years ago because he was restless and felt like he needed to get out (or punch something, which he incidentally does, a LOT). Now he's back - still too hot to handle, but also successful and wealthy and too pretty for his own good. 

He takes one look at her and like a roaming African boy wildebeest who sees the glistening hindquarters of his perfect girl wildebeest, he goes - her, I'll take her. And it's on.

She: A recent import to the small town so she didn't know his bad boy self when he was growing up and gets to see it all fresh for the first time when he comes rolling back to his hometown after his self-imposed exile. Lucky ducky. She's running an antique store and he hires her to furnish the property he's restoring now that he's back in town. She's determined not to become her mother (traditional, husband-serving, personality-less) so she's not keen to have him overwhelm her better judgement and tries to keep aloof.

Conflict: He blows hot and strong and it's all a bit much for her so she tells him to dial it back a bit. He obviously does the opposite (because dude, he's a MAN) and pretty soon they're humping like bunnies in the old haunted property he's trying to restore. He spends a lot of time announcing his wicked intentions to her. And warning everyone else to back off of HIS woman. She does an admirable job of keeping him er, civilized, but his manliness and need to protect her finally overwhelms her better sense and she gracefully succumbs. Good old fashioned romance, in other words.

Skeptic's last word: I mean... this is an OLD book (1995s, I think) - but still manages to be a hoot to read. The is PLENTY of sillysauce in the book (he seems to prefer resolving conflict like a hormonal 16 year old - bar fights and gorilla chest-thumping - and channels all sexual frustration into some black, black moods.) But somehow, I didn't mind at all. Nora Roberts entertained and charmed and it was all just a sweet, sometimes hot experience. 

It made me miss the Old School alphas of yore. "Yore" being 1995 apparently. Good times.

Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥

Here's how it went down - H & h meet under less than auspicious circumstances, then for 20% of the book they don't appear on the same page together. Then they meet again and decide they like each other. Then they meet some more and REALLY like each other. Then there's this whole drama with his ex-wife that goes on until the last 10 pages and then H & h live happily ever after. The end.

He: Aiden is a retired ex-navy doctor who is hanging out in the small town of Virgin River while he tries to figure out what he wants to do next in his life. He's a nice guy who's just happy tooling around in the garden and hanging in the great outdoors.

She: Erin is a somewhat uptight lady who's come to "relax" in the isolated town - her first vacation in 25 years. She's an extremely hardworking lawyer who's been responsible for her younger siblings from a really young age. Now that her brother and sister are out of the house and don't really need her anymore, she's suffering a bit of empty nest syndrome.

Conflict: The romance between the Erin and Aiden is actually fairly uncomplicated but there is this whole other story of Aiden's ex-wife who creates a bunch of drama that interferes with the two of them and lends to some of the tension between Erin and Aiden.

What I liked:
1) Robyn Carr writes really NICE people. Her heroes are decent, upstanding, no-games-playing lads, and her ladies are mature and sensible so you never feel like hitting your head against the wall because of some totally stoopid thing either the H or h does. 

What was only "meh":
1) SO slow. So so so slow. I just couldn't keep my mind on the story because it just moved along like molasses in January.

2) Just too much going on at once. This is a weird thing for me to say given my point above about the SLOWNESS with which the story moved. 

Because the main romantic story of Aiden and Erin didn't really have any built-in conflict (except for the psycho stalker ex-wife) it seemed like the author sort of just piled in a bunch of side stories and entanglements that made the whole thing seem a bit too busy and scattered.

For example, one character was dealing with the inability to have more children and she and her husband were trying to work through her difficulty fully coping with that stress. Then there was the H's mother who was in a new relationship and was rediscovering herself and her interests. Then there was some story about a man with Down's syndrome and how he forms a special bond with a lady with some other disabilities. 

Carr deals with each of these relationships really sympathetically and sweetly, but honestly, I didn't see how any of it contributed to the MAIN story, which is why I was reading the book in the first place. Personal preference, I guess, but it felt like a lot of sound and fury.

Skeptic's last word: It was a sweet story, I guess. Just way too slow and I think I prefer Robyn Carr's other stories.

Redwood Bend by Robyn Carr

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥ 

What would it look like if two really sensible people met and fell in love? Also, what if they communicated all there feelings and hopes properly and made sure they avoided gross misunderstanding at every turn in their relationship? 

Well, what would happen is what did happen in Redwood Bend. A nice, sweet romance between two people who fall in love despite not having it All Figured Out in their own lives and who still find a way to make it work. Winner.

He: Ex-movie star, current owner and operator of a small struggling airport

She: A widowed single mother of twin boys who, after suffering through a few tough situations in the last few years, just wants a nice, stable life for her sons.

Conflict: His life is the very definition of unstable, his business is on the brink, he's from a horribly unstable family and was kind of a wild-child super star in his youth - not exactly the best resume for someone she might pick to be with. Also, he doesn't even live in the same state as she does. He even admits (actually, he insists) that he's a terrible bet and that they definitely shouldn't take their fling any further.

What I liked:

1) Both characters were rational, "with-it" folks. I don't have another good word to describe what I mean. I don't mean that they were tweedy and boring. More that they just communicated properly, both were mature and genuinely nice people whose only real trouble was that they seemed all wrong for one another at first glance. 

2) I am a big fan of characters having to overcome a big source of tension before giving in to their Big Love. Often authors will create this weird, contrived source of tension (evil villain, stalkers, crazy exes, Big Misunderstanding) as if readers won't be able to feel any urgency unless there's a crazysauce baddie to overcome. Here though, there is a great deal of tension and all of it feels totally relatable and REAL. It comes from the fact that both H & h need to decide how they want to create their lives and how they can fit the other person into it. Both end up giving something and getting something (wow! like Real Life, mom!) and it's all really nicely done.

What I thought was meh:

1) *Spoiler!* So it was all nipping along nicely, I was feeling some heart strings being played like a fiddle, everything was nice and realistic and then...dum dum dum daaaaaah! The Ruh-roh Baby Plot emerged. How, in this day and age of birth control technology, are there so many ineffective prophylactics out there!!!?? And I thought we left the Ruh-roh Baby Plot behind in the 90s!! I thought it was actually a totally unnecessary lever to pull to create urgency and tension between the characters - there was enough already without this little excursion down 90s Plot Nostalgia Avenue! Anyway, I thought it was dumb, but the book went on fine and in the end we got our little HEA Epilogue with the bouncing mini-me and Happy Family scenario. *End of Spoiler* 

Skeptic's last word: I really liked Robyn Carr's style. It felt natural and easy to read. The plot wasn't really new or anything but sometimes you just want some easy-readin'.

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥

You know that feeling when you are on your first date with this guy that you're totally into and everything is going fine - he doesn't have gunk in his teeth during dinner, he has good manners, you share a few laughs - but then when it's all over you're like "Huh. That was...nice"? You know that feeling? Well, that's where I am right now.

First, a quick story review and then I will try and explain why I'm not calling my best friend up and giddily rhapsodizing about my hot new date.

He: Josh Kowalski - the youngest brother of the Kowalski clan - is sick of holding the bag of familial responsibility for the running of the Northern Star Lodge. He's been sick of it for ages and is just waiting for the chance to get out of there as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

She: Katie Davis has practically grown up with the Kowalski family and has been best friends with Josh since they were little. She's always been one of the guys and even though she's harbored a secret longing for him to notice her as a girl, they've remained close.

Conflict: He's desperate to get away from what he sees as his "noose" and lack of life choices - running the family-owned lodge himself after the death of his father has meant he hasn't really had the opportunity to build a life for himself anywhere else. He's resentful and frustrated by the smallness of his life and just wants out. Even when he realizes he is attracted to Katie, he still feels like he needs to go out into the world to discover what he really wants.

What I was troubled by:

1) The hero was basically a huge whiny baby

I appreciated that Josh was very rightly resentful that he was the only one in the family who bore the responsibility of running the business, and can easily understand how he would be keen to get out of that rut. But he doesn't really seem to have any other passions to fall back on, so the way I see it, if you don't have a plan to do anything you love, you may as well do something useful. 

He goes on and on about how he needs to break free to go forth and discover what he wants to do, he doesn't want it to be imposed upon him. That sounds like something a whiny 5 year old would say. Everyone has stuff imposed upon them! If you really have some burning desire to DO something - say you want to play professional sports, or you are an artists or writer, or you want to be a doctor or design buildings - wouldn't that desire translate into actions taken from the minute you realize you have them. 

And ok, if you were unlucky enough to never have left the 20 square miles around your hometown for 30 years and didn't have a clue what you wanted to do, and all you knew is you didn't want to be doing THIS, wouldn't you just say, ok guys, I'm taking a gap year. I need to travel and clear my head. It's going to be expensive but you're all going to just have to suck it up and or you guys should just pitch in with a little help.

To do something about his unhappiness that didn't involve categorically rejecting everything would have required maturity that this guy didn't seemed like he possessed. It just seemed like the attitude of someone who was 22 - not really an adult of 30.

Not hot.

2) The heroine was more like his mom than his partner.

There was a lot about how Josh and Katie had been bffs since childhood. But their entire relationship seems to be based on talking about football and hockey and her fielding grunted, emotionally constipated responses from him and then cracking a joke to neutralize the tension so he wouldn't get too wound up. Poor baby.

He just comes across as a child and she as a mature adult who constantly needs to give him space, and time, and whatever else kids in a funk need.

Also, not hot.

3) Guy Sees Outline of Cold Nipple and Gets An Epic Hard-on That Just Won't Go Away. 

It MUST be love.

Have you guys seen this before? Guy feels nothing but chummy brotherhood with this girl - his best pal, like forever, but then one day, he gets an eyeful of cold nips and ba-BOOM, he's 30 floors up Erection Tower in Lust City in the express elevator. Puhleese. 

First of all, if he's a guy and they've been friends through his hormonal adolescence, even if nothing happened, he'd have noticed the outline of her parts waaaaay before now. And secondly, there is this out-sized reaction to a dress that makes him want to rip it off her post haste and have his way with her over a table NOW. Sure. She's one of the guys and you never see her like that, and now she looks feminine and nice and it's INEVITABLE that you'll feel an interest, right? Julia Roberts wore that hooker dress that was arguably ASKING to be ripped off but Richard Gere managed to keep it in his pants the entire evening. Are you asking me to believe that this woman looks SO amazing in a basic black number than this guy gets an unmanageable woody that can not be held back unless he has sex with her Right. This. Second. That he basically spends like 30 pages (like days) of the book "distracted' and in a state of semi-arousal? 

I love stories of guys being hilarious dummies as much as the next girl, but if this condition could even be physically possible, I shudder to think how little blood flow was being directed to the poor man's brain. No wonder he was irritable and moody all the time.

What was nice:

1) Just the right dollop of torturous anguish

Weirdly, I thought the most romantic part of the story - and basically what saved the whole thing for me - was their phone conversations when they "break up". By this point they know they love each other, and they understand why the other is doing what they're doing, and they know they're just prolonging their anguish by keeping in touch, but they do it anyway because they can't help it. That was so sweet.

2) No cheapo plot device to raise the stakes 

Often, when the characters need to be made to See The Light, the author will introduce a new entanglement like a second male character who makes the hero jealous and drives him back to her like a raging papa bear protecting his mating rights. Luckily, Ms. Stacey is too smart for that. Because those are super lame.

Skeptic's last word: So yeah... would I do on a date with this again? Nah. Not a re-read or anything. But it was a nice way to spend a few hours.

Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥
Romantical Skeptic survives story and kinda even enjoys it despite getting stuck in a gaping plot hole and almost losing foot.

She: Independent woman who owns her own landscaping business who lies to her grandmother about having a live-in fiance so that the old lady doesn't worry about her being alone

He: Ex-army dude who comes back to the States and must now figure out what to do with the rest of his life.

Conflict: The h lies to her grandmother about the H being her fiance (she knows his family and decides to keep things as specific and close to the "truth" as possible). When he comes back, she asks him to join her in the charade because her grandmother is visiting from Florida. She needs to convince dear old Gram that she is really fine so that her grandmother will agree to sell her the old house she has been living in. He agrees to go along with the drama of pretending to be affianced while Gram is around but doesn't want anything permanent since he wants to experience life (travel, check out the lady talent Stateside, hang out with his family) after having been deployed overseas for so long. 

Goods:

1) SS is a good writer. There were amusing one-liners that I definitely enjoyed 

“I’m a guy. I like guy stuff. Steak. Football. Beer. Women.” 

“One woman, singular. At least for the next month, and then you can go back to your wild pluralizing ways."

2) The h was a tough-girl, did her own manual labor and was generally un-squeamish about things like getting her hands in mulch

3) The H was a decent dude - not too nice but not a douche. Except for the part where he doesn't let her drive HER OWN TRUCK because he feels less manly sitting in the passenger seat somehow. 

Mehs:

1) The plot, I am sorry to say, was really contrived. 

Please pretend to be my fiance so that my grandma will think here's a big strapping penis-wielding caveman around to help wittle old me if something in the house breaks and I can't pay someone to fix it because I don't have any money because I don't really have a job or run my own business? 

Sigh. 

This entire confusion could have been solved in one phone call to Florida - hey grandma, I know you worry and I want to assure you that I have been living here penis-free for the past few months and have been quite able to take care of matters on my own. In fact, I have built a successful landscaping business where I am able to do a lot of the manual work too. I hear where you're coming from, but I really, really want you to consider selling me the house - I can handle it. And to prove to you that I can handle it, why don't you come visit and see how things are around here? There. Done.

2) Since they have to pretend to be almost married they sleep in the same room when granny's visiting to help perpetrate the fiction. Obviously there is the requisite sexual tension that is produced by such an arrangement. Efforts are made to remain chaste (she on couch, he on bed due to larger frame and the fact that he's doing her a solid). I thought the whole I-can't-sleep-in-the-same-room-as-a-pretty-girl-without-boinking-her was a bit 12th grade, but I guess I kind of get it. He's hot, she's hot, they both sleep in the same room* - by the laws of Romance Novel Plot Thickeners, they're going to get it on.

That's all really. It was generally well executed but it was like my leg got stuck in a cavernous plot hole and I couldn't dislodge it the whole time so my enjoyment was somewhat lessened.

*Can I just ask the obvious question here - when there is a scene like this in a romance novel - h & H for some contrived reason have to spend a night together and must do it platonically - why, WHY?? does the dude always insist of tempting the fates by sleeping in the buff?

I get that this may be his preferred bedchamber apparel, but for modesty's sake - she is a stranger after all - would he not think of throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt? I mean, it is PHYSICALLY possible for him to sleep entirely clothed, right? On a red-eye from NY to LA, he wouldn't take off all his clothes so that it becomes possible for him to get a little shut-eye, right? Surely, while in serving in Afghanistan, he didn't strip to his undies every night because that would put him in a jam if surprised by an enemy in the wee hours, no? Well, it happens A LOT in romance novels and I begin to think these dudes are kinda slutty exhibitionists. Which, come to think of it, is fine by me.

Exclusively Yours by Shannon Stacey

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥♥

Because kick-@ass career women CAN have it all.

Excellent! I found a new fave author! Yay.

She: Career-oriented tabloid journalist trying to get an exclusive interview with H at the behest of her rabid bitch boss.

He: A famous writer whose horror fiction is being made into a movie. He eschews publicity and never gives interviews.

Conflict: H&h had been high school sweethearts and the h breaks his heart when she hightails out of their small cozy town to make a name for herself in LA. He loves the small town life and wants to be near his family and desperately wishes she would stay back.

What I liked:

1) I liked that the h, while career-minded, didn't come across as an iron bitch. Too many times we see the bitch/career personality pairing and its unfair to career women everywhere

2) Holy sexual tension, Batman!

3) The minor characters in the extended family scenes were sympathetically portrayed and didn't come across as cliched small town hayseeds

What I didn't like:

1) I never understand why things are so all or nothing. Why does it HAVE to be LA vs small town in New Hampshire? She can't find a job in Boston, Connecticut, NY and he, as a rich and famous writer, can't bloody move to ANY city with an Internet connection?

2) They really don't meet for 20 years even though their families are friends with each other and she's come back to visit since leaving? They were never even curious enough to look for each other on Facebook? She never wrote him a "congrats on your success" note that whole time after having been each others best friend in high school?

I get why a writer would use these devices to create real separation and longing between the characters. But I just wish it was a little more realistic. But in the end, I didn't even care because the story was sweet and fun and hot.