Lauren Dane

This is the story of Penelope (PJ) and Asa, who are both involved in the custom auto industry. PJ's family legacy, handed down from her grandfather, is Colman Tires. With both the auto and tire industry being so male-dominated, this book was filled with misogyny, which made an interesting backdrop to the romance.

PJ and her sister, Julie, are not really given their due in the family business because they have a vagina. Watching PJ struggle against this, continuously seeking approval from a show more very cold and arrogant father, made me empathize with her a great deal. She is a creative soul, and I had a good picture of her in my head. I love the pinup style, and having that as her trend fit into this book perfectly. I had taken a break from contemporary romances lately because the heroines were getting on my nerves... but I'm happy to report that did not happen once in this book. Yay! PJ was an appealing character. She had style. She was artistic. She wasn't afraid to engage in, and even excelled at, a male-dominated business where she constantly had to prove herself and deal with the good ol' boy idea that she was less worthy because of what she didn't have between her legs. She stood up for herself and went after what she wanted. And most important of all, she was not a whiny pathetic female when it came to her romantic relationship! She dealt with Ada fairly and like an adult, it was quite refreshing.

As for Asa, he was a hardened alpha male who endured a rough childhood, then enlisted in the military to stay out of trouble and make a future for himself. I admire him for that, but I admired him even more for the way he took care of his family and PJ. I loved that he continually empowered PJ, and took her seriously from the start. Yes, he made some mistakes, but they worked through them like adults instead of either one shutting down, not communicating, and/or throwing a temper tantrum. I never got a great picture of Asa in my head as the septum piercing and hairstyle aren't my thing, but I was totally down with everything else.

It's so nice to read a book that deals with relationship issues using maturity and common sense. I have gotten tired of the ones filled with drama drama drama. I recommend this book to someone who wants to read an adult romance that steams up the sheets. The ages of our characters are outside of the new adult trend, so this one should be popular with the 25-45 crowd. I definitely will be reading more Lauren Dane in the future. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed her characters and writing.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars / 4 flames. show less

Hunter Corp and the Vampire Nation are meeting to amend the treaty between their organisations – and hopefully prevent a war. Except there are members of both the Hunter Corp and the Vampire Nation who are positively itching for a fight

Rowan is the representative of Hunter Corp. And the daughter of the First Vampire. It gives her a unique position in the negotiations and makes her ideally suited to ensuring this treaty passes. She has worked extremely hard to make it happen and now is the show more finally stages – and she’s not letting prima donnas, bloodthirsty vampires or war mongering hunters screw it up. By blessed sword, goddess strength, investigative skills or political wrangling, she will ratify this treaty.

There are a lot of books in the genre, including the book that preceded this one, where we have excellent, powerful female characters who wield weapons, magical power and are combat monsters who can take on all comers. They are lethally dangerous warriors to be feared by even the most deadly creatures in their world – and that’s not a bad thing (so long as they’re not JUST a lethal combatant).

But being a combat monster usually means that is all the character is. Her challenges will be a) sorting out her love life (because combat monster characters are usually socially inept as well) and b) fighting bigger and tougher monsters who are even more lethal!

Then comes Blade to the Keep with this lethal combat monster protagonist who spends the whole book using her brains, intelligence and experience to navigate the shoals of devious political machinations, investigate the shenanigans of various people trying to sabotage the negotiations and generally be clever and cunning and call out a lot of fools for being fools.

And it is EPIC. No, really, a book where she slaps people down for messing with the agenda of meetings and is bustling from meeting to meeting to have discussions about amending a treaty is epic. It’s awesome, it’s amazing and the best parts of this book don’t require her to draw her sword. Yet it still feels exciting, thrilling and action packed. That takes some effort.

Of course, Rowan is the main reason behind this. She’s wonderfully confident – she knows she’s the most qualified for the job. Not because she’s special or shiny or the Chosen One (though, as the vessel of a goddess, she kind of is all those things, but that’s beside the point) – but because of experience. She is the ideal person to be the Hunter’s liaison to the vampires because she was raised by them, by the First himself. She knows vampire etiquette (which is interestingly different from human etiquette as we see wonderfully displayed when Rowan has to slap down her competitor for repeated faux pas) and how a large entourage means “status symbol” to humans and “annoying number of people to house” to vampires. She knows what vampires value, she knows what they’ll not accept, she knows what they will tolerate – she knows what’s negotiable and what’s a deal breaker. She has the knowledge and experience to get this done – so she is in charge, she should be in charge and she knows that.

There’s also the very nature of the debate. The treaty is being challenged in total by a faction of the Hunters who want to scrap it and wipe out the vampires. These Hunters make this decree while sitting behind their desks while expecting hunters like Rowan to go out and fight this war. Those Hunters who are actually active in the field are fully aware of how ridiculous this plan is – and who will be dying for it. It’s a wonderful parallel to who makes the decision to go to war and who actually suffers for that decision that we face in the real world – and how easy it is to be an armchair warrior yelling “kill them all” and talking about “collateral damage” when you’re not going to be the one fighting and dying.

This all combines to a wonderful strength and confidence in Rowan. She knows her skills. She knows her experience. She knows her worth – there’s no doubt to her, no constant self-recrimination, and a solid certainty in the things she’s certain of and in her own abilities which is wonderful to see. She KNOWS when she is better suited to the role – and is not shy about telling people that. She’s also put a lot of work into making this work – months of effort arranging schedules and agendas and meetings – and she demands that work be acknowledged. She isn’t going to let people derail the process now because they have whims when they couldn’t be bothered to involve themselves in the long, gruelling preparation work. They have an objection? They can post that back to 2 months ago when it was relevant – now they will suck it up and deal

Ok, let me grudgingly insert some potential negative here. Yes she dishes out some epic slap down… but the people she slaps down? Kinda set her up. Her opponents are fairly excessive in their incompetence – not to the point of utter unrealism or anything like that – it’s not story breaking. But while I love and adore these scenes and re-read several of them just to bask in the glory of some of the best, epic slapdowns I have ever read – I do have to insert that little caveat. I still loved them though.

It is possible that Rowan will come off as arrogant in this book because she is so confident, she shoots down her opponents so brutally and because she won’t bend and makes her skills and experience abundantly clear (and her opponent’s lack equally exposed). But she doesn’t feel that way. She never shouts her skills in passing, she doesn’t wave a flag of her won awesomeness all the time. But she’s a busy woman and she has zero tolerance for foolishness and no time for it – she’s not going to clear her schedule – planned weeks in advance – for a random, pointless meeting to stroke their ego and she’s not going to tell them why in a nice fashion. They don’t deserve it. More, they should know better, they’re professional people with a job to do that and she doesn’t have time for their shenanigans.

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This is a bit of a departure from my usual reviewing fare but I requested it from Harlequin so here we go. I’m actually a big fan of contemporary romance, though I usually read more contemporary romantic suspense, and I’ve heard good things about Dane’s contemporary work so I wanted to give her a shot. What better than a steamy novella from Harlequin’s new Cosmo Red-Hot Reads line?

“Red hot” is definitely a good descriptor for this novella. There is sexual tension and sex galore show more in CAKE. Wren and Gregori have a really intense connection that’s been simmering for a year when they finally act on their mutual attraction. Dane writes sex scenes well but, as always, I’m much more interested in the emotional connections between the two lead characters, which they have in spades. Wren and Gregori get each other in ways other folks don’t, thanks to mutual interests and general interest in one another. Gregori is tempermental, autocratic, and obscenely talented but Wren respects his talent and gets where the moods come from. For his part, Gregori is incredibly supportive of Wren’s ambitions, even if he doesn’t understand all of her actions. Dane’s done a wonderful job of showing how two very different personalities can come together and start to fall for each other even before they hit the sheets.

I don’t much care for the cover but the content is great if you’re in the mood for a sexy novella with smart characters. CAKE is a perfect read for that lazy afternoon that’s hopefully in your future!

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Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

Note: This is a republished novel that has been refreshed by the author, but retains the earlier writing style to maintain the flavor.

I’m a sucker for a small-town romance because the focus is usually on the connections between folks. I chose this to read as a candy bar book: a sweet, easy read that would make me smile. I couldn’t have been more wrong–or more right–about that.

Making Chase brings Matt, the product of a loving and show more well-respected family, together with Tate, a woman from the wrong side of the tracks who has made it her mission to keep her brothers and sisters safe from an abusive father and neglectful mother.

Matt has rarely been challenged. He’s smart, handsome, and laid-back. Things come easy for him, so much so he doesn’t realize that isn’t the way for most people.

Tate has been challenged every day of her life whether it’s money troubles, physical and verbal abuse, or strategic issues with giving her siblings a shot at a decent life.

This book goes far beyond the sugarcoated image of small towns. It’s not just nasty gossip the Murphy family has to contend with, and Tate is a special target. She doesn’t look like her brothers and sisters. She’s short where they’re tall, she’s blonde to their redheads, and unlike any of her family, she’s curvaceous, something she’s been convinced makes her dumpy and while not ugly, at least no competition to the other women in Matt’s life.

The story is about Tate coming to understand her own worth when she’s used all her considerable strength of character to protect her family but never really stood up for herself. But that’s not all it is. Matt and Tate have an almost instant connection. She’s different from any of the women he’s dated, not only in shape but in how she thinks, her approach to life, and most importantly, her unwavering commitment to her family. She’s everything he’s been missing, only she can’t believe it.

The above sounds rather one-sided until you consider Matt has never been in a situation where the person he’s with defaults to distrust rather than trust, where she interprets his every action as pulling away. Sure, it’s frustrating, and he doesn’t respond well, but it’s not until he grasps the world through her eyes that he is able to meet her distrust with a stronger love than she can dismiss.

The character development on both sides was beautifully conveyed while their commitment to family, extended, immediate, and actively in both their lives resonated with me.

I wasn’t expecting the story to become so real, but I appreciate how it did, taking a deep look at the impact not just of physical abuse but the insidious aspects of mental abuse, especially in terms of body image. More than just touching on the topics, Making Chase demonstrates ways to help the healing and the struggle to overcome that background.

Making Chase has all the traditional elements of contemporary romance, lots of detailed sex and some swearing. It also has the kind of strong female characters I like to see, ones who find their strength in family and who move mountains to protect those they love. Which is far from saying Tate and the other leading women were in any way invulnerable. They were all too human in the costs of their strength and even their stumbles. Matt is much the same, coming across as bumbling at times because Tate doesn’t fall into his arms like all the others. He knows what he wants, and until he learns better, tries to trample everything in his way, including Tate.

This is a strong, worthwhile story, living up to its potential and even going beyond.

P.S. I received this ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. show less