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Just What He Wanted by HelenKay Dimon

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Just What He Wanted (Holloway, #4)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Holloway #4
Reviewed by Kay

This story is a novella for the Holloway series. The main characters are Travis Yardley and Andrea “Andie” Patterson. Travis works with his semi adopted family in their nursery business. He goes through his life thinking he has everything he could need for now, great family and friends, a job he enjoys and female companionship when he wants it. Then he is asked a favor by a friend and when he sees Andie , he is floored by her.

Andie is self described as chubby but I thought of her as full figured not fat. She came to Holloway after her break up with a total jack ass, who tried to make her feel bad about herself. She enjoys her job and her new town, even if the town is small and in her business quite a bit. She’s here to start her life over and not with the hot young thing she just met.

I liked all of the aspects of this book: the full figured heroine, the younger man, the close knit family, the problem Andie had with the age difference and Travis’ total disregard of that difference. He was firm that she was beautiful in his eyes and did not like her putting herself down at all. He really was the perfect hero in my eyes. He know what he wanted and that was all there was to it. And when Andie realized it she was all in too. It took her a while but she came around.  This was a sweet, cute, short and funny read. It has been a long time since I’ve read a book by HelenKay Dimon and I’ve missed her writing. I will end with my favorite line of the book: He was six feet of hello-there-handsome. It still makes me giggle.

The Rebound Girl by Tamara Morgan

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Rebound Girl (Getting Physical, #1)
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Getting Physical #1

Reviewed by Anne
265 pages

I first read Tamara Morgan last year and thought then that she was one of the funniest romance writers I’ve read!  I read Love is a Battlefield and The World is a Stage and enjoyed them.  When I saw Rebound Girl was available I jumped at the chance to read it.  It has great characters who aren’t like every other character you’ve read.  And it’s so funny!   I laughed out loud so many times reading this! Not just smiled, but laughed. I woke my husband up laughing as I read far too late into the night to finish this story.  And because I enjoyed the style of writing so much, I give you a review with lots of quotes:
Whitney is a very self confident plastic surgeon.  She’s no Barbie, though.

“…the thirty extra pounds she carried mostly in her hips didn’t make her a victim of low self-esteem or discounted standards. She liked that weight right where it sat—and she would have been the first to advocate going under the knife if she felt otherwise.”  p.9
 
She and her friends have moved to the burbs, taken out a big loan and are opening the Surgery Center/Spa they’ve always dreamed of.  Whitney has always been a big city girl, but she has no doubts she’ll be fine in the small town she’s moved to.  This is her dream!  Finally coming true.
 
On one of their first nights in town, Whitney and her friends head out to the local bar hoping to hook up with willing partners, or at least have a good time .  Matt’s brother has just talked him into going out for the first time since he split from his ex-wife.  Brother Lincoln is hitting on Whitney’s friend, and Matt approaches Whitney.
 
“Now that she was seeing the man head-on, she could tell she was going to have to take it a little easy on him. He wasn’t bad looking—in fact, the hesitant smile and tousled sandy hair signaled nerd chic at its best, and there was a slight depression in his cheek that she thought might transform into a full-blown dimple if he tried. But the guy wore a corduroy jacket with elbow patches and drank something pink with little bits of fruit floating on the top.
He was obviously clueless.”  p.8
 
The thing is, Matt’s an old fashioned kind of guy.  A kindergarten teacher.  And he’s not really looking to hook up with anyone.  He just wants to start moving on.  And Whitney isn’t really interested in hooking up with Matt either, but when his brother and her friend leave the bar, Matt and Whitney agree that pancakes and bacon would be great and they make their way to a diner.
 
“Matt could hardly believe his good luck.
It was officially eight months since he and Laura signed the divorce papers, and most of that time had been spent hiding in his apartment, avoiding women and Lincoln’s single-minded insistence that Matt needed to put himself out there again.
He’d finally caved, and the first woman he’d gathered up the nerve to approach turned out to be this one. Easy to talk to, funny, pretty in a straightforward, no-nonsense way he wasn’t used to. And best of all, she’d already made it abundantly clear she had no intention—or expectation—of sleeping with him. She was like training wheels.
Awesome, bacon-loving training wheels.” p. 19
 
After spending a little time with Matt, Whitney changes her mind about not having sex with him.  And because she’s Whitney, she lets him know, no doubts about it.
 
‘The space between them, infinitesimal as it was, felt thick with promise. “What you need more than anything right now is a rebound girl.”
“I do?” Then, “What’s a rebound girl?”
She smiled brightly. “I am. Here’s how it works. I don’t want you to buy me a ring. I don’t want to bear your children. I don’t even want to be your girlfriend. All I want is you and me and as much sex as we can possibly squeeze into the four hours before dawn.”
Matt’s mouth went dry. “That’s a real thing?”
“Oh, Matt. Poor, sweet Matt. You have no idea.’  p.24
 
So, that’s the set up, and the book takes off from there.  Whitney is brash and independent and out of her element in the small town she’s moved to.  Matt finds her refreshing and wants more than just a rebound with her.  Throw in some great secondary characters and annoying small town politics and you’ve got an interesting story.
 
I really enjoyed what a strong character Whitney was.  She’s almost unlikable, except that you see where she’s coming from and you like her all the more for speaking up.  I’ve always thought it’s nice to have that one really outspoken friend who will say the things you really want to but wouldn’t dream of.  That’s Whitney.  And her mouth and her decisions get her into trouble.  But she takes responsibility and tries to set things right.  She was a refreshing change from the too good and too sweet heroines I read a lot of.
 
Matt is a beta hero, and a wonderful one.  That’s another change from the tried and tried alpha-asshole hero!  But while he is beta, he does know what he wants.  He’s not perfect either, but watching Matt and Whitney work out their issues and their relationship was really fun!
 
The author did such a good job painting Jared, Whitney’s cheating ex, through Whitney’s eyes that I really had a hard time being ok with him when he showed up. I see that there’s a second book coming in this series and it’s about him. Part of me doesn’t want to read it because I still hate him for Whitney’s sake! But the majority part of me wants to see how the author handles him and what his future brings.

Hooray for a strong female character! Hooray for a humorous and sweet romance! This one goes on my Best of 2013 list!

Wolf With Benefits by Shelly Laurenston

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Wolf with Benefits (Pride, #8)
Grade-A+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Pride #8
Reviewed by Kay and Anne

Anne and Kay are both huge Laurenston fans.   This is their joint review.


Kay: Ricky Lee Reed is one of those “Reed Boys”. He’s a wolf shifter from the Smith pack. He has recently relocated from Tennessee to New York to work security for Llewellyn Security, a shifter run company. Oh, he’s also a slow talkin’, swagger walkin’, non blasphemin’ Southern redneck hillbilly.

Antonella Jean-Louise Parker is a jackal shifter and very much a little girl lost in her family of prodigies. She’s the eldest child of her family and has devoted her life up until this point to them. She constantly handles and protects every aspect of their lives. Let’s not forget, these are shifter children, so to say they are handfuls, is an understatement.

This couple’s romance builds slowly. It never boils but it was still precious to read. I was afraid I’d have unanswered questions at the end of the book but I didn’t. I got to find out not only who the culprit was but what kind of shifter Livy was. This book had a little of everything. Romance, mystery and suspense.

Shelly Laurenston is a phenomenal author! This latest edition to her Prides series is a masterpiece. This is writing at its finest. Her best book by far and I say that every time she releases a new one. She has hit her stride and keeps on improving book to book. I am worshipping at the alter of Ms. Laurenston. At a time when I was asking myself who my favorite paranormal author is, I now have my answer. If you have never read a Shelly Laurenston novel yet, what the heck is wrong with you?

Anne:  I love Laurenston, too!  Her books suck me in and take me away from my real world!  I love the swearing and violence – though there was a little less swearing in this one due to Ricky Lee’s delicate sensibilities. 🙂  I don’t think I’d call this Laurenston’s best book yet, though.  For me that will probably always be either Irene and Niles’ book (“Miss Congeniality” in When He Was Bad) or Bo and Blayne’s book (Beast Behaving Badly.)  The fact that Wolf With Benefits has Irene AND Bo and Blayne as secondary characters is what pushed it to an A rating for me.

I thought Ricky Lee and Toni’s story was ok.  I wasn’t blown away by it.  I thought the story was more about Toni’s relationship with her family, especially her siblings.  So, on that basis it would have been a B for me, but when you add in the siblings, Bo and Blayne, and Irene…  well I KNOW I’m going to read it again.  So it bumps to an A.
 
What did you think of Toni’s oldest sister, Delilah?  I thought she was horribly creepy!
 

Kay: I agree with you, Anne. She was creepy. She made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Her detachment was chilling. The scene between Olivia and her was scary. I thought the resolution was a little too simple though. What do you think?

Anne: Delilah’s story line made me sad. I really, really was hoping for redemption. I mean, here she was in this wonderful family, and I wanted that to be enough. I didn’t really like the resolution with Delilah either. Oddly, I think it was too complicated for me. There was a very simple ending that I wanted. I understood what they did, and even why they did it that way, but I didn’t like it.

Kay: And what about when they had to go looking for Miki?

 
Anne: While I vaguely remember that they did go see Miki, I don’t really remember it and can’t find it easily on my reader. 
 
Kay: DeeAnn goes to find Miki, who is part of the Magnus Pack. DeeAnn is the only one not afraid to risk the wrath of Sarah, the alpha female of the Magnus Pack. When she came out with the gun on the porch in her long T-shirt, I laughed so hard.
 
Anne:  Oh, yeah!  That was good! I bookmarked some favorite parts.  I LOVED this coversation between Kyle (Toni’s 11 year old artist prodigy brother) and Bo Novikov:
 

(Novikov asks) “So do you play hockey?”

“No, sir.”

“Really, How come?”

“Because I plan to use my brilliance for something real and important, not something petty like sports.”

“Sorry?”

“See, what I like about what you do,” the boy explained, his hands accenting with each word, his voice intense, “is the raw rage and violence. I can use that in my work. And while you’ll probably be forgotten soon after you retire, which is the way of you athletic types whose happiest years are usually when you’re in high school… my legacy will live on for centuries. People will study my work, copy it. My work will start a new art movement, a new wave of creativity born out of blood and violence and rage. And you… youMr. Novikov will be my David.”

“David?”

“Like Michaelangelo’s David? But instead my piece will be called Jean-Louis Parker’s Novikov, and it will be the greatest art anyone has ever seen. And you… you, Mr. Novikov, will be my muse.”
 

This exchange between the two of them, and so many more scenes with Toni’s siblings were just hilarious!  I also really loved Ricky Lee’s wolf patience while pursuing Toni.  He was content to be with her and wait for her (or her family) to provide entertainment.  He saw through to the heart of things with her quickly, but was patient enough to let things play out over time.  I really enjoyed that.  Did you have a favorite part?
  

Kay: I also enjoyed the scenes where people tried to guess what Olivia was.   I was a little irritated with how Blayne was treated and am shocked that Bo put up with it. I love Blayne and Toni being mean to her did not sit sell with me at all.


Anne: Olivia!  She was awesome!  I was so afraid we wouldn’t get to know *what* she was.  And when it was finally revealed, I laughed and laughed! 

I actually kind of appreciated that someone didn’t fall in love with Blayne immediately.  I’ve always thought she was annoying, though in an endearing way. 🙂 It was hilarious that Toni couldn’t remember her name!

Back when we started this review, you said Laurenston just may be your favorite paranormal author.  I think that’s true for me, too.  I really love her books, and this one is one of her best – not so much in the romance for me, but the overall story and humor.  Awesome book!