Firefighters are hot sexy thangs, so it’s easy to see why you picked that profession for this installment of the Courage Bay (Code Red) series. Wow, lots of stuff appears to be happening in this small, picturesque SoCal location including two people falling in love while they fight fires, rescue cats and solve an undercover investigation.

Shannon O’Shea is one of only two women in the fire department in Courage Bay, CA. She’s earned her spot though hard work, dedication and being in such top condition that she’s called “Biceps” by her fellow firemen. That and the fact that she arm wrestled, and beat, a fellow probie when his repeated attempts to ask her out annoyed her.

But John Forrester, newly arrived firefighter from NYC, lights her fires and quickly becomes very important to Shannon. She knows there’s something he’s not telling her. Is it related to the two mysterious warehouse fires that occurred? And is what he’s not telling her bad or good?

I love the calls out the squad gets. Some pathos mixed with humans at their hysterical, whacked out best. What people won’t do… The details about the station and the life of the firefighters add depth to the story without becoming a docudrama or dry treatise much less a worshipful kowtowing to the profession. Well done

Shannon’s large and boisterous family take their place in this book rather than taking over this book. Shannon learns some things about her family she never knew and in turn grows up a little. She is smart, a dedicated firefighter and proud of her job. Though entirely human when it comes to enjoying telling stories about the funnier call outs she’s gotten.

The sex is hot – and funny – but with no Bridget Jones pratfalls for humor.

While he was tying his shoes, she went over the routine in her head. Let’s see, she hadn’t done this in a very long while. How did it go again?

You started by saying in a throwaway tone, "Would you like to come in, John? How about some coffee?" And music-’mustn’t forget music. Something slow and moody, with a heavy back beat. Seduction took time, and grace, and deliberation. Did condoms come with an expiration date? The ones she had were probably antiques.

Except John kissed her before he even started the car, and she had trouble getting her breath when he finally revved the engine. She could feel the tension building as they drove the short distance to her house.

She was breathing hard, and she needed to touch him, so she put her hand on his thigh-’lightly, just in case he lost his place-’but she probably wouldn’t have had to. He put his hand on top of hers and moved it farther north. One thing about the guy, he was nothing if not single-minded. And he was wonderfully aroused.

In front of her house, he turned off the car and was kissing her again before the motor even died. They pretty much kissed all the way inside, which made walking hazardous. Shannon had to walk backward and he had to lean forward, which wasn’t up to anybody’s safety standards, especially around corners and on that cursed ramp at the back door, but God, it felt good.

Of course most people don’t have to two-man-heave a St. Bernard out of their bedroom before engaging in sex either. I laughed my head off at the dogs howling and scratching at Shannon’s bedroom door to get in.

John is flummoxed by her family and not too sure he wants a closer acquittance with them. The whole thing scares him to death and his doubts about love, family and babies arises out of the past you’ve constructed for him. I like that he’s honest with Shannon about his expectations from their relationship. His final, bewildered, surrender to it all also seems ‘guy.’ He’s in for the sex, definitely, he likes Shannon’s intelligence, sure, but the rest, maybe he’s not too sure of but in the end is convinced he can’t live without.

Shannon’s woman’s intuition is something that would make me take a second look at John, as it does for her sister in law, but I can see her brother’s point of view that intuition plus a dog’s reactions to the man doesn’t warrant poking into his background. And I love Linda’s advice for Shannon to use her womanly charms to find out more and lure John into a false sense of safety where his identity is concerned.

John thinks he’s in control and in shape and is slightly peeved to be almost outrun and then socked by a woman. The O’Shea women take no prisoners which is something I hope he remembers later on.

The undercover investigation is realistic and something that, frankly, I hadn’t thought about but which seems logical and something that could, and probably does, happen.

Shannon does lose some points when she goes against John’s orders, no matter if she manages to persuade herself that she has a perfect right to. He gives her logical reasons for his instructions and even though she does end up saving the day, I still gotta count off. John is perfectly right to chew her out after the dust settles.

The book is full of fun, subtle humor and exchanges and interchanges between John and Shannon that I had fun reading. Shannon’s mother tells her that there is fast love and slow love and both are okay. Here we’ve got fast love and no one quite sure how they’re going to work their future lives out but I bet it’ll be fun to watch them do it. But I think it’s a good thing that Pepsi is getting a new home!

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon used or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Fall Fury and Holiday Bound by Jaci Burton
2. REVIEW: Line of Fire by Julie Elizabeth Leto
3. REVIEW: Blame it on Paris by Jennifer Greene

Dear Ms. Higgins,

Jane has done a wonderful review of this book which I will link to so I don’t have to recap the plot. Love it when I can do that ’cause I’m really lazy.

Though I enjoyed it, I think I read it too closely after “Catch of the Day.” So many things were similar – not conventionally pretty “30 some year old” heroine who is (desperately) trying to find Mr. Right right now and who goes through a series of unsuitable men before finding her perfect hero who is right under her nose. A family with long time married parents who are having marital trouble. Siblings who are happy and (usually) married. Small town New England setting. Heroine has a dog. Blue collar workers except for one sibling. Heroine mooning over her nieces and nephews. I felt like I was reading a slightly different version of the same book but would have reacted the same way had I read the books in reverse.

The firefighter, paramedic family Chastity comes from is great. This is a nice change from the high profile professionals who populate so many contemporaries. And as with the lobstermen of “Catch,” you show the ups and downs, the tight bonding among the fraternity as well as the price they pay for doing this work.

I’m kind of with Chastity on blood and gore. I would hope that if I’m ever in a situation to render aid, I wouldn’t faint but who knows. With her EMT training and ability to relate to people, maybe she could work in an ER as a patient advocate. Kudos to her for at least trying to overcome her fear.

Ryan is, of course, not the right man for Chastity. We all know that. But you don’t have him suddenly turn out to be a schmuck. The problems are there all along and, for some wouldn’t be problems at all. This is a nice change. Two stand out parts of this book are the facts that Chastity has the maturity to admit that this isn’t the right man for her and she goes to the one she loves and tells him what’s in her heart. As she says, at least she tried and was honest.

But even at the end of the book, Trevor is still somewhat of an unknown to me. We know about how wonderful a firefighter he is, how kind and decent he is, how angst ridden he is about not losing Chastity and over his dead sister he is but about the man himself? I need more. I tend to agree with the reviews that list him as a cypher

All the Lord of the Rings stuff got to be a bit much though at least Chastity isn’t a fanatical Tolkeinista. Elaina is such a fun person. I guess you use her marriage to Chastity’s brother Mark as another lesson in the pitfalls of marrying a fireman. But I agree with Janine that their reconciliation was a gloss over of their problems.

What’s with the basset hound on the cover? Could this dog be any more different from Buttercup?

I wasn’t sure where you were going to take Mike and Betty. To be honest, I kept thinking, “Nah, she won’t.” But then you did. Though a hard pill to swallow, it again shows the downside to marrying a fireman and adds that extra note of caution to Chastity’s ultimate relationship. Will she end up happier than her mother? At least she goes into her marriage with totally open eyes. What’s with Betty’s sudden culinary skills?

Chastity’s advice from Scorpy is too funny and the mistaken lesbian scene is hilarious. The Proposal Scene is a wonderful payoff, even if I still don’t know Trevor, and their wedding sounds like a blast.

If I had read this book first or with a year between it and “Catch,” my grade would undoubtedly be higher. And make no mistake, I enjoyed reading it even with all my nitpicking. I breezed through it but my advice would be for other readers to space your books apart. I second Jane in wishing that your first book was out in eformat. Are you listening Harlequin? C+/B-

~Jayne

***

Dear Ms. Higgins,

In a post titled, “What is Wrong with the C Review?” Jane mentioned that she adored Just One of the Guys so much that she bought copies of the book for several friends. In the commenting on her post, I said that one person’s C is another’s keeper. Jane and my views on this book prove that point: Just One of the Guys, a C for me, was an A- for Jane.

Here’s the plot summary from Jane’s review:

Chastity is a good hearted soul. Yes, she’s a bit loud and a bit muscular but she comes from big loud stock and with four brothers, you have to speak up to be heard. It’s like life has conspired to keep Chastity single. She’s not a lithe young thing. She’s aggressive. Worse, she’s got four firefighter/rescue brothers and a dad who all could break a guy with a look. What she would really like is to settle down and have a family. She’s surrounded by happiness (except for her one brother’s marriage that fell apart when he cheated on his wife which happens to be Chastity’s best friend) and fecundity and she wants some of that for herself.

But the reality isn’t that everyone is happy. Her mother and father got divorced a few years ago after her mother got tired of being second fiddle to the firehouse. But their divorce has been completely amicable until her mother decides dating. Initially it seems that her mother is just trying to wave the jealousy bone in front of Chastity’s father but when her mother gets serious, questions about love, fulfillment and the happy ever after, don’t seem so concrete and understandable.

Chastity’s heart longs for Trevor Meade, her unofficial fifth brother, good friend, and one time, long long ago lover. But the short love affair ended with Trevor making sure that she understood that they were friends and that they both shouldn’t jeopardize their friendship. Chastity’s heart goes one way but her head goes another. She recognizes that Trevor doesn’t want her that way and so she finds Mr. Perfect, a trauma surgeon who is taller than her and finds her very attractive and one that wants a family. She even enjoys good sex with Mr. Perfect, but in the end, Chastity has to figure out whether being with someone, even if it isn’t the one you love, is better than being alone. Her mother faces the same decision because while she loves Chastity’s father, she’s tired of being the forgotten wife to the firehouse mistress.

I agree with Jane that the narrator’s voice is charming. Your writing style is wonderful and Chastity’s narration buoys the story. I also felt that the setting, a small town in the Adirondacks, was captured really well; there is good description and good dialogue, and the whole book benefits from the polished sheen of your words.

On the downside, though the book is labeled as a romance on the spine, it reads more like a cross between romance, chick lit and women’s fiction. The romantic plot takes a while to get going, and since I was expecting a romance, I was frustrated by that. I wasn’t really caught up in the story until over a hundred pages in. Before that, much of the book did not engage me, partly because I didn’t feel that Trevor had romantic feelings for Chastity in the present day.

As nice as it is to have the hero’s POV, I’m not one of those readers who feels it’s absolutely necessary. If the hero’s feelings are conveyed in his dialogue and his actions, a book can be just as romantic to me. But in this book, Trevor didn’t have much to say about how he felt for Chastity until quite late in the book, and his actions led me to wonder whether his feelings for her were serious.

It wasn’t until Trevor ran alongside Chastity during a race when she was trying to outrun her brother Mark, a scene that took place nearly a third of the way through the book, that I started to feel there might still be something there. I did become more involved in the story at that point, but even then, other things kept me from enjoying it too deeply.

One of the problems for me was that nearly all the characters’ behavior was often exaggerated for humor, to a point where they often stopped being believable, and I found this somewhat distancing. I like for humor to stem from the characters’ flaws and foibles, but without those flaws and foibles being so pronounced that the characters no longer seem real to me. I suspect this is a very difficult balance to strike, and that the point where the characters’ actions are too silly to be believable differs for each reader, so not every reader would have this problem. Several scenes in Just One of the Guys reminded me of sitcoms, which are generally not my cup of tea, but I do think readers who like sitcoms might enjoy them better than I did.

Another problem was a scene that really threw me. Chastity and Trevor both date other people, Ryan and Hayden respectively. I didn’t have a problem with that, or even that much of an issue with the fact that when Ryan and Hayden first met at Chastity’s mother’s house for dinner with the family, Chastity and Trevor spent the whole evening trying to make each other jealous with public displays of affection toward their dates.

No, the scene that threw me was on p.297, when Ryan is giving Chastity a bracelet in front of Trevor and Hayden shows up. Hayden then introduces herself to Ryan, and he says “Nice to meet you, Hayden,” as though they had never met before. I think I must have blinked several times when I read and reread that, trying to figure out if it was a continuity error or a bit of humor that went over my head. I came to the conclusion that it was an error, but it was a very strange moment.

I was also thrown by a scene in which Chastity’s dog Buttercup went into heat, since I would have preferred that some of the details of the physical effects this had on Buttercup be left to my imagination.

A bigger issue for me was the way a few subplots and even an important turning point in the main plot seemed glossed over. The most interesting characters in the book to me were Chastity’s brother Mark and his wife Elaina, so I felt deprived when their reconciliation took place offstage after their estrangement was shown in enough detail to make me care and want to follow the relationship.

Something similar happened with a subplot in which a mysterious someone played mean pranks on Chastity and she feared she was being stalked. When the identity of the prankster was revealed, I was never convinced that this person had sufficient motivation for hating Chastity enough to do all the things he or she did, and I was also frustrated that there was no follow-up — the prankster was neither punished for the cruel actions nor did he or she apologize.

Late in the story, Chastity does something that in my opinion is kind of wrong. Since I like flawed characters, I did not mind this in itself, but it did bother me that she didn’t give much thought to whether or not she should confess her actions. This, along with her determination to view one man as “the one” when he so clearly wasn’t the right person for her for so much of the story, and some other actions that made me feel she lacked self-knowledge, made me wonder if Chastity had really matured enough for the commitment she makes at the end of the book.

I wondered the same thing about Trevor, who had blown so many chances with the person he loved. When he finally professed his feelings, I didn’t completely buy it.

The resolution of the subplot about Chastity’s mom also made me wonder if this character, too, was ready for the commitment that she makes at the end of the book, and if she would be truly happy.

Some of the plot turns in the final quarter of the book were unexpected, and this did give me brief moments of delight, but ultimately so many of the characters seemed like they hadn’t grown up enough by the end of the book, and so many of the plots and subplots felt glossed over, that I wondered if this wasn’t simply a case of there being too many characters and subplots for the length of this book.

Three of my fellow reviewers here at Dear Author, Jane, Jayne and Janet/Robin, all liked this book enough to rate it higher than I did, and I wish I had enjoyed it as much. While there were amusing moments in Just One of the Guys, and the writing was much above average, on the whole I was left dissatisfied. C for Just One of the Guys.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
2. REVIEW: Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
3. Even the Big Guys Do It

Congratulations on winning the RITA for best contemporary. I’ll confess that I’ve been a skeptic of RITA winners in the past, but as I was lost in the world of Eaton Falls, I thought yours was well deserved. Just One of the Guys (link to excerpt) is a book that sells itself. The voice of the narrator is so captivating that no summary could adequately convey the charm of Chastity, tall, broad-shouldered, Amazon of a woman. For example, the story opens with Chastity getting dumped by her latest companion. She asks him for the reason he is breaking up with her.

"Fine," he acquiesces, leaving whatever morsel lurks at the back of his mouth for later enjoyment. "You want to hear the reason? I just don’t find you attractive enough. Sorry."

My mouth drops open yet again. "Not attractive! Not attract-’I’m very attractive!"

Jason rolls his eyes. "Sure. A handsome woman. Whatever. And with shoulders like those, you could find work down on the docks."

"I row!" I protest. "I’m strong! That’s supposed to be sexy."

"Yes, well, proving that you could pick me up didn’t exactly set my libido on fire."

"We were horsing around!" I cry. It was, in fact, the one lighthearted moment in our courtship-we’d been hiking, he complained that he was tired, I took over. End of story.

"You gave me a piggyback ride for a mile and a half, Chastity. That’s something a Sherpa should do, not a girlfriend."

"It wasn’t my fault that you couldn’t manage a measly twelve-mile trail!"

Chastity is a good hearted soul. Yes, she’s a bit loud and a bit muscular but she comes from big loud stock and with four brothers, you have to speak up to be heard. It’s like life has conspired to keep Chastity single. She’s not a lithe young thing. She’s aggressive. Worse, she’s got four firefighter/rescue brothers and a dad who all could break a guy with a look. What she would really like is to settle down and have a family. She’s surrounded by happiness (except for her one brother’s marriage that fell apart when he cheated on his wife which happens to be Chastity’s best friend) and fecundity and she wants some of that for herself.

"Is it from the-’" god "-’man at that table?" I ask, gesturing in his general direction.

"No. From the-person? Over there," the waitress says. "At the bar."

Heart thumping, I crane my neck to see who it is. Trevor does the same.

Sitting at the bar, looking at me with a smile, is a woman. She lifts her beer glass-’I’m guessing Miller-’and salutes me. Because I don’t know what else to do, I wave back weakly. She’s fairly attractive, with short dark hair and a pleasant plumpness to her, and she seems to have a nice face. However, this doesn’t erase the fact that I’m not a lesbian. Trevor covers his eyes with one hand. I suspect he is laughing. His mouth twitches. Yes. Bastard.

"Could you-could you tell her-I-it’s just that-" My face is flaming.

"She’s spoken for," Trevor manages to say somberly. "Thanks anyway. You can take the drink back."

The waitress nods, takes the glass away and undulates her ass inches from Trevor’s shoulder. I put my head on the table.

"Oh, Chas," Trevor laughs. Without lifting my head, I give him the finger.

He gets out of his seat and comes to sit next to me, putting a brotherly arm around my shoulders. "Don’t be glum, Chas. Things will work out."

"Blah blah bleeping blah," I mutter, resisting the urge to punch him in the kidney. Such platitudes are as about as helpful as tossing a bowling ball to a drowning man. I hate the fact that I put up with the tepid and freckled Jason, even for a few weeks. Hate it that Mr. New York Times is miles out of my league. Hate the fact that I’ve just been mistaken for a lesbian.

It’s not fair. Here’s Trevor, the vagina magnet, able to seduce in ninety seconds. My brothers, ranging in age from thirty-eight to thirty-two, have to fight women off with a Taser and a sturdy chair. Yet somehow, at just past thirty, I’ve become a pariah. Mention my age to a man and he looks stricken, as if I’ve just told him exactly how many viable eggs I have sitting in my ovaries and how very much I’d like them to be fertilized. It’s not fair.

But the reality isn’t that everyone is happy. Her mother and father got divorced a few years ago after her mother got tired of being second fiddle to the firehouse. But their divorce has been completely amicable until her mother decides dating. Initially it seems that her mother is just trying to wave the jealousy bone in front of Chastity’s father but when her mother gets serious, questions about love, fulfillment and the happy ever after, don’t seem so concrete and understandable.

Chastity’s heart longs for Trevor Meade, her unofficial fifth brother, good friend, and one time, long long ago lover. But the short love affair ended with Trevor making sure that she understood that they were friends and that they both shouldn’t jeopardize their friendship. Chastity’s heart goes one way but her head goes another. She recognizes that Trevor doesn’t want her that way and so she finds Mr. Perfect, a trauma surgeon who is taller than her and finds her very attractive and one that wants a family. She even enjoys good sex with Mr. Perfect, but in the end, Chastity has to figure out whether being with someone, even if it isn’t the one you love, is better than being alone. Her mother faces the same decision because while she loves Chastity’s father, she’s tired of being the forgotten wife to the firehouse mistress.

This story made me laugh out loud several times and tear up at the end, and best of all, it made me rush out to buy the backlist. A-

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. Even the Big Guys Do It

The Smart Bitches reported on this yesterday and Nora dropped in to give a couple of updates.

Via SBTB and the tipsters in the email.   Thanks.

Related posts:

1. Nora Roberts Co-Brands with Baseball
2. TV Guide to feature Nora Roberts
3. Nora Roberts One of Times List of 100 Most Influential

You know what made me buy this book? Some people had commented on how closely it paralleled Shiloh Walker’s My Best Friend’s Lover. I had to buy the book myself to see if those accusations were true. See how well controversy sells? Suffice to say that these two books were very dissimilar despite the same plot: Friends to lovers story with a deception overlay. Oh, and in the cover contest area SS wins marginally. What the hell is with huge pager/cell phone on the hero’s pants in MBFL? But then again, what the hell is the expression on the SS hero’s face?

Toni (heroine), Matt (brother), AJ Spinelli and Simon Andrews all live at Matt and Toni’s house and have for several years (which is kind of weird in and of itself but at least it doesn’t feature the three men laying next to each other. IN BED. NAKED. like some other guys we know in romancelandia). Toni decides to move out because she can no longer disguise the strong feelings she has for Simon and because she has a big secret. It’s no spoiler to say that the secret is that Toni is pregnant with Simon’s baby.

How she got pregnant starts my laundry list of problems with this story:

• The heroine gets pregnant during a time when Simon was drunk and emotionally reeling from the loss of his fiance.
• The heroine chooses to confide the situation with a random nobody at the firehouse instead of her brother or close friend (she apparently has no close friends).
• This guy, who is essentially a stranger to her, then agrees to help her snag Simon.
• Toni is another of those smoking hot heroines who just doesn’t know how smoking hot she is but with the help of another man, blossoms into someone the hero can love. Ugh and a half.
• Simon quickly sheds his feelings for his former fiancee (a matter of months) in order to facilitate the HEA. It’s too much baggage for this already complicated situation.

The writing isn’t bad in this story but it isn’t very compelling either. Non compelling writing with trite characters and an overused contrived ending leads this book into C- territory. I wanted to like the book but I just didn’t.

Best regards,

Jane

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Sucks to be You by Sahara Kelly
2. REVIEW: Seducing Sullivan by Julie E Leto
3. REVIEW: To Distraction by Stephanie Laurens