I’ve been reading your books for so many years and have enjoyed enough of them that when I hear a new one is coming out, I automatically make room in my reading schedule to at least look at it. And since the books with sports heroes are usually ones I like, the fact that this book features a hockey hero got me excited.

Sam LeClaire knew that he’d see his ex-wife Autumn Haven at the wedding she helped to arrange for Ty and Chinooks team owner Faith. He expected fireworks since the two hadn’t gotten along in years, not since their quickie hookup and marriage in Las Vegas six years ago, but surprisingly things went well between them. A baby sitting snafu ends up with their son Conner staying with Sam while Autumn finishes overseeing the wedding. Sam begins musing on how little he’s been in his son’s life but it takes a comment from Autumn, about how hurt Conner has been in the past when Sam has canceled at the last minute, to get Sam to think about his own absentee father and how he never wanted to be like that.

With that in mind, Sam starts to see Conner, and Autumn, more. And both remember back to how they first met in Vegas and began a whirlwind affair which led to a wedding. Then had to pick up the pieces after Sam fled from their hotel room the morning after. Can Sam prove to Autumn that he’s changed? And does he have a chance to win back the woman he never understood why he fell for in the first place?

It is part of the Chinooks series and a few past characters show up. Ty and Faith marry. Chelsea and Bo are planning their weddings through Autumn’s business but they neither take over this book nor, I think, would irritate newbies who don’t know them from Adam’s housecat.

The book has a sports hero but the ice action is peripheral to the romance relationship. It shows a part of who Sam is but doesn’t influence Autumn that much since she doesn’t know or follow the sport and didn’t know he was a hockey player when she met him. The actual sports stuff seems okay but since I don’t follow hockey passionately, I could be wrong. If readers don’t know/follow it, it’ll probably do but if hockey is their life – I honestly don’t know if they’d find it accurate or annoying.

We see Sam doing a little of his hockey thing as well as Autumn running her business. Instead of sitting around waiting for the child support checks, she’s built security for herself and Conner which I and Sam both like. She’s usually a great mother, good friend and all around somebody who is moving forward and ahead with her life. She still does her lists – I love the chapter subheadings – and is a version of how she was in Vegas. Another thing I like is that in Vegas she didn’t fall immediately for Sam. She held something back for a while since this is part of her personality too. But Sam overwhelmed her in Vegas and made her fall for him then broke her heart. She hasn’t forgotten that even if she doesn’t dwell on it 24/7. Oh, I also appreciate that Autumn hasn’t sworn off all men – she’s still a romantic at heart.

After reading the blurb, I was expecting a hook up in Vegas followed by a falling out then some cool off time then a reconciliation – just like I’ve read many times in other books. But here, it starts in the present day and Sam and Autumn’s flash romance/marriage is long over. Even the residual hate is over and Autumn has not only got on with her life, she’s put what Sam did behind her and doesn’t hold a “I just can’t get on with my life” grudge. Heroes and heroines who can’t seem to move on AT ALL since the past relationship that went south make me question whether or not they’re ready for this new(er) relationship. Here Autumn isn’t stuck dwelling on the past. There are issues to be dealt with – some really painful ones – but she acts as if five years have passed.

Both were in a low point of their lives then, and in Vegas, and not acting as they normally would. Their marriage – at the time – was a mistake. Plain and simple. Feelings were there but these two didn’t know each other. And let’s face it, Sam did three shitty things – leaving Autumn the day after their marriage with no good-bye, filing for divorce and then requiring a paternity test. But he had some reasons – the anniversary of his sister’s death made him act out and get drunk, he did feel something for Autumn but felt that he’d made a mistake, he’d just signed a multi million contract and didn’t know if Autumn would take him to the cleaners. Okay he still acted like a shite but the reasons are more legit than some I’ve seen.

And now he sees where he went, and is going, wrong, he shapes up as a parent due to his memories of his own “out of touch” father. And it’s through his increased contact with their son Conner that Autumn comes back into his life. Neither one is looking for a relationship -Autumn even consciously avoids one – and time is taken to clear the air and clear the boards before any advancement is made in getting them back together. Because issues needed to be dealt with, forgiveness sought and given and the awful things that were said and done aren’t the sort of things swept away with a few hot kisses that lead to instant “I love yous.” I like that this time is allowed and that it isn’t instalust leading to twue lurve. One thing I don’t like about this aspect of the book is how clueless Sam is about Conner and why Autumn waited so long to jerk a knot in Sam for the way he was neglecting their son? She knew how much it was hurting Conner and, even though Sam should have known better, she should have told Sam he was being a putz.

Okay so do I believe Sam and Autumn’s growing relationship? Yes. It starts with them interacting over Conner – though with caution then proceeds to them beginning to talk about their lives, where they are now and broaching the past. They get to know who the other is now and then something of what drew them together six years ago then pulled them apart. Neither mistakes the sex they start to have with love and it’s Sam who caves first and admits to himself, then to Autumn, that he wants more – that he can feel the difference between simply great sex and expressing love through sex. While Autumn realizes that she’s fallen for the man Sam is now instead of clinging to what she felt for the man he was then. They are friends as well as lovers and now he’s man enough to own up to what he did and offer his apologies while Autumn has moved forward enough to forgive what he did.

The book has a slower feel – I guess partly due to the past being told as flashbacks rather then quickly touched upon or info dumped on us. Sam starts out living on the surface but has to dig deeper to uncover why Autumn is the one for him despite the past while Autumn has to drop the protective shield she’s built around her heart and take the risk to believe that Sam has changed. I enjoyed the slowly uncurling petals of the growing relationship and watching these two reach a stage where everything finally meets up and syncs together. And Conner, with his questions about life, is a darling, too. B

~Jayne

And now for a different point of view

Dear Ms. Gibson,

Oh, dear, where to start? I had a rather strong reaction to this book. To be fair, my reaction is probably partly rooted in some stuff that’s been bumping around my brain for a while about romance, sexism and gender roles. I’ve had some issues with several books I’ve read lately, so it may be that I was primed to take offense. Whatever the case, I find Any Man of Mine difficult to grade. I usually  grade mostly on how well a book entertains me, rather than on literary merit (though literary merit often, but not always, informs how well a book entertains me). But that becomes problematic when a book entertains me but also pisses me off. And this book pissed me off, a lot.

The story: pro hockey player Sam Leclaire and event planner Autumn Haven run into each other at the wedding of the Seattle Chinooks owner and the team’s manager (I believe their story was told in an earlier book). Sam is there because he plays for the Chinooks, while Autumn planned the wedding and is there overseeing all the details. Sam and Autumn have a history together. In fact, they have a child together, five-year-old Conner. But they haven’t actually seen each other for a couple of years; apparently their relationship was so bad that after a particularly nasty fight witnessed by Conner, they decided to have Sam’s assistant handle all of the pickups and drop-offs on the relatively rare occasions that Sam saw Conner.

After their semi-civilized encounter at the wedding, Sam decides that he wants to be a better father, and he not only begins spending more time with Conner, he begins to handle the custody exchange himself, thus reconnecting with Autumn. The story of how Sam and Autumn met is told in flashbacks sprinkled through the first half of the book. Sam was partying in Las Vegas with his hockey buddies when he came across Autumn, a small-town girl vacationing by herself. Autumn had been having a tough time; she had recently lost her mother after nursing her through colon cancer, and the trip to Vegas was a treat to herself. She ends up caught up in a whirlwind romance with Sam against her better judgment, and one drunken night they are married by an Elvis impersonator. They celebrate back in Autumn’s hotel room by having unprotected sex (they have already had sex, but had used protection). The next morning, Autumn wakes up, alone, and finds out that Sam has gotten cold feet and checked out of the hotel. She tracks him down months later to let him know he’s a father, and Sam, through his lawyer, demands a paternity test. Things don’t really improve any time in the next five years before the story starts; we’re not given explicit details but led to believe that Sam is an affectionate but neglectful and selfish parent.

So, what we have is a pretty simple story of two people who dislike each other (Autumn with good reason; Sam because Autumn makes him feel guilty) who slowly become closer when Sam (rather arbitrarily) decides to change. Autumn is understandably wary, but Sam becomes more and more determined to do right by his son, and also becomes increasingly intrigued by his ex-wife.

Sam and Autumn both have traumatic pasts. Autumn had a father who ran out on the family, and a mother who turned to religion for comfort. She has an older brother, Vince, who looks out for her (and consequently hates Sam, though he seems to share many characteristics with him). It’s indicated that Autumn and Vince were raised by their mother to be unforgiving – I guess this is supposed to explain why Autumn has trouble trusting Sam, thought the fact that he was a huge asshole also might have had something to do with it.

Sam’s backstory is even sadder – he grew up in Canada, the son of a local cop who was well-respected on the job but who ignored his kids and never went to Sam’s hockey games. He died when Sam was a teenager, and Sam felt responsible for his younger sister Ella. When she was 24, Ella was killed by an abusive boyfriend. I guess this tragedy is supposed to be at the heart of Sam’s commitment issues, but I never quite got the connection. It seemed more like Sam enjoying being a selfish, shallow, self-centered, egotistical jackass. The majority of the story takes place when Sam is 35 years old. In my opinion, that’s about 15 years past the age at which his behavior is at all acceptable or understandable.

So, there you have it: my first, last, major and minor objection (and everything in between) to this book is Sam. Well, to be fair, I have issues with how Autumn’s chastity is contrasted with Sam’s promiscuity, but it’s a detail that would’ve niggled less if Sam had not been so awful and sexist.

Some choice quotes from Sam:

She was a wedding planner or, as she always insisted, an “event organizer.” Although, really, what was the difference? Wedding or event, it was the same damn circus. But it was typical of Autumn to make a big deal out of something little.

Yes, there goes that stupid Autumn, wanting some respect for her profession. I wonder if Sam would mind being called a baseball player? Same thing, really – uniforms, teams, sticks, etc.

Sam sometimes worried that Autumn raised his son like a girl. Made him wimpy. Good to know that he thought like a boy.

Of course, Sam hasn’t heretofore worried enough to tear himself away from his own entertainment and spends more time with his son, or anything crazy like that. (He also at one point “jokes” to his son that men are smarter than women. So, men: smarter and stronger; women: dumber and wimpy. Good to know.)

The Ford F-250 was still running, and he thought about turning it off, but he figured he wouldn’t be much longer and left it on. A guy didn’t buy an F-250 because he worried about gas consumption. He drove it because of the payload and because it hauled serious ass. Although he never hauled anything heavier than his sports bag, it was good to know it had the power if he ever decided to tow twenty four thousand pounds.

Okay, now you’re just screwing with me. I’m not even that avid of any environmentalist, but do I have to have Sam’s selfish conspicuous consumption shoved in my face? It’s like an attempt is being made to make Sam as unlikable as humanly possible. He’s basically a hot Rush Limbaugh, and I don’t see Rush Limbaugh as appealing hero material, even if he were hot (actually, I’m making myself queasy here).

I have so many pages of this book dog-eared to note instances of Sam making an ass of himself. I feel like I have to limit myself to a few before I turn into the crazy lady ranting in the corner.

(Okay, just one more: Sam can’t be friends with Autumn because, “he didn’t have women friends.” Shocker.)

All of Sam’s troglodyte behavior is portrayed as somehow cute in the book, but he is simply a misogynst. He dates (well, sleeps with) skinny supermodels, though he doesn’t seem to like them much. One of these models is featured in a few scenes in the book. Sam internally criticizes her for being narcissistic and rude, for not eating enough, and for being superficial and shallow.  I am really quite sick of romance heroes who don’t appear to like women. There is no way I can respect a 35-year-old man who consistently seeks out unlikable women just for sex.

Autumn is an unobjectionable if uninspired character, for the most part. There were things about her that bugged me, but they mostly bugged me because of how uber-masculine Sam was set up to be. Of course Autumn works in a traditionally feminine profession. Of course she doesn’t dress sexy like the other women in Sam’s life. (A detail that is dwelt on far too much in the book – Autumn doesn’t wear sexy pajamas, she wears cutesy ones; Autumn doesn’t wear sexy Halloween costumes, she wears wholesome ones. Why not just put a burqua on her and be done with it?) Of course she’s been without any sexual partners (or even casual romantic interests) since parting from Sam. She’s a mother, you know. No time for dating or men (who aren’t Sam). I respect single mothers who protect their children from attachments to men who may not remain in their lives. But that’s not a reason not to make any attempt to have a relationship. Not that I even judge that, in real life – it just drives me nuts in the context of the story, when we’re told repeatedly that Sam humps anything that stands still long enough. I guess it bothers me in general in contemporary romances, because in real life, women, even women who’ve been hurt and who have children they need to consider first, do date. They have relationships. This has become sort of a corollary to the virgin heroine in contemporary romance – it’s not reading about any single one that is problematic, it’s that when there are so many that it seems that authors are trying to make a point about what makes a character heroine material. I know that romance novel tropes about “true love” dictate that the hero and heroine in contemporary romance usually do not have serious romantic relationships before meeting each other (or re-encountering each other, in reunion romances such as this one). I understand the reason for this, though I wish the community would be more open to the idea that a person can love more than one person in a lifetime, and that even if the first love doesn’t work out, the HEA for the h/h aren’t necessarily compromised. And I wholeheartedly object to the double standard that allows the hero to have casual sex while the heroine just makes do with her vibrator (though I guess the heroine even having a vibrator represents a step forward?).

Another reason this scenario bugs me is because it puts the heroine in a state of suspended animation, waiting for the hero to notice her, or in Sam’s case, get his act together. What if it had taken another five years? Another 10? What if it never happened? Well, then I guess the heroine would just stay chaste and throw herself into her work and her child. Again, I’m not criticizing those choices IRL, but in the context of a romance novel they bother me, because they require a heroine to be so passive. I read Linda Howard’s Sarah’s Child years ago and that aspect of the story still bugs me.

For the longest time, I really thought Sam wasn’t going to apologize at all for what he’d done to Autumn in Las Vegas. He really shows very few signs (aside from a little guilt that he mostly turns back on Autumn) that he knows he did something wrong. He does, very late in the story, express a tepid apology, but even then he’s mostly of the opinion that Autumn should just get over it. He’s changed! It’s been three months and look how well he’s behaving himself! How is it possible that she still doesn’t trust him?! It must be because she’s insecure and uptight and neurotic. He never does express any remorse over his crappy parenting to date. Early in the story, Autumn tells Sam of the times Conner cried himself to sleep after Sam cancelled on him, something we’re given to understand happened pretty often. Conner has obviously not been a priority for Sam for the past five years, yet we see no evidence of resentment or uncertainty on Conner’s part, no regret on Sam’s part, and Autumn’s misgivings about her son’s relationship with his father are portrayed as being the same as her concerns regarding her own relationship with Sam. In other words, she needs to get over it, he’s changed, etc.

We never see any epiphany on Sam’s part that explains the change. It’s more about what he wants. He’s decided that he wants a family, that he wants to be a parent, that he wants Autumn. Forgive me for not caring so much about what Sam wants – Sam seems to have that pretty much taken care of.

Often, even if a book is cliched or boring or problematic in some other way, by the end I am convinced of the HEA and that fact along makes me bump the grade up a bit. That wasn’t the case in this book – maybe Autumn loves Sam, though I don’t know why she would. Sam’s feelings about Autumn seem to be evenly divided between lust (musings on how he “didn’t get enough of her” in Las Vegas all those years ago) and contrasts between her purity and the sluttiness of all the other women he knows. Not really the basis for a long and happy marriage, IMO.

Any Man of Mine was one of those books that makes me examine what I expect out of a romance. I can’t claim to be terribly consistent, because with really good writing and characterization, most of the rules fly out the window for me. That said, most of the time, I like heroes and heroines who are flawed, and who need to overcome some obstacles (preferably internal v. external) before they are ready to be together. I don’t really want to read about a hero or heroine who is perfect to start with, and I don’t require them to become perfect in the course of the story. Nor do I want love to be the thing that heals them or makes them whole – at least not entirely. I like it when the h/h are catalysts for change in each other’s lives, not necessarily the entire impetus.

In Any Man of Mine we have a hero that really needs to change, and to make amends for his past mistakes. And it just doesn’t happen. His path changes – he becomes,  if you believe the HEA, a one-woman man and a responsible parent – but it doesn’t seem to be connected to any increase in maturity. Again, it’s simply because Sam decides it’s what he wants.

My grade for Any Man of Mine is a D.

Regards,

Jennie

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Nothing But Trouble by Rachel Gibson
2. REVIEW: Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
3. REVIEW: Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

• Nothing But Trouble by Rachel Gibson, recommended by Jayne
• All or Nothing by James Buchanan, recommended by Sarah F
• Double Blind by Heidi Cullinan. (The Kindle edition is far cheaper), recommended by Sarah F
• Wicked Becomes You by Meredith Duran, recommended by Jennie and Janine
• Vampire Mistress (Vampire Queen) by Joey W. Hill, recommended by Shuzluva
• Beyond the Shadowsby Jess Granger, recommended by Shuzluva
• Mistress By Mistake by Maggie Robinson, recommended by Jane
• Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris, recommended by Janet aka Robin
• Just Like Me, Only Better by Carol Snow, recommended by Jayne

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1. Dear Author Recommends for August
2. Dear Author Recommends for February
3. Dear Author Recommends for April

I am a slut for your hockey theme books. You can give me improbable plots and unlikeable characters but it you throw hockey into the mix, I will give up for your stories. Why? I like to watch big, strong macho guys fall for women who initially drive them nuts and I like to see woman who are horrified at the thought of falling for hockey players fall anyway.

Six months ago, hockey superstar Mark Bressler’s life was turned upside down by a horrific car accident. Now forced into early retirement and struggling with his new physical reality, he’s made a new career out of getting rid of the nurses and “minders” that the Seattle Chinooks team keeps trying to foist on him.

Chelsea Ross is to be his latest victim but she’s got an incentive he doesn’t know about: the $10,000 bonus promised to her if she can stick out three months with him. Chelsea might be little but she’s tough, having lived in the dog-eat-dog world of aspiring LA actors for almost 10 years as well as being the personal assistant to innumerable Hollywood assholes along the way. Bressler and his insults are nothing new to her.

But the passion they find together after finally giving into their attraction to each other is. The sex is great – no, better than great – but the emotional feelings that begin to develop just might be even better. If they can trust this potential love.

Long time fans of the Chinooks books will be happy to see a few familiar faces throughout the story but the book focuses mainly on Mark and Chelsea with a subplot for Chelsea’s twin sister, known to, and feared by, the team as the Mini Pit.

Even though Chelsea is short and Mark is brawny, I like the way that their relationship is balanced. I never got the feeling that he is overpowering her either physical or verbally. Chelsea more than holds her own here and proves her background of dealing with demanding people. And Mark, insulting as he can be, never slips over the edge into jerkwad territory. He does criticize Chelsea’s driving but then after surviving the kind of car accident he did, that’s reasonable. He comments on her fashion style but not on her body, despite what he thinks are her surgically enhanced breasts. Plus he makes sure that his former teammates behave themselves around her.

The physical attraction isn’t immediate, even though both admire each other’s bodies and they each manage to restrain themselves once desire starts kicking in. Chelsea is determined not to give into Mark sexually during work hours since this is something she’s never done. Even though it drives him nuts, Mark respects her boundaries. I appreciate that both can act professionally and not be reduced to puddles of drool.

Mark’s life was hockey and now that’s gone. There will be no coming back from these injuries and it does affect him. He does feel resentment at not being able to play for the Cup, he hates that his body won’t always obey him now and there is a dark pool of anger in him that takes a while to dissipate. All this felt natural and to be expected. His transition from player to “life after hockey” takes time and I’m glad you allowed us to see that time elapse.

Chelsea’s got a plan for life post-Mark and, just as she falls for him because he supports her, so did I. Hey, he doesn’t see anything wrong with her but he’s not her and if she wants this, then he’s onboard with it. The fact that Chelsea is able to reveal her secrets to Mark, and vice-versa, shows me how they are coming together.

Which makes the Big Misunderstanding all the harder to take. The only thing about it that keeps me from completely losing it is that Mark does have experience with woman who just want him for money. But, I still think his reaction is overreaction and it’s not like the money is coming from him, after all. Then the reconciliation happens on his sudden about-face which is fast enough to cause whiplash.

Up until the end, this book was cruising for me. And I still think that readers will enjoy most, if not all, of it. I love the hockey, I love most of the relationship, I love the big honkin’ ring Mark gives Chelsea but oh, that Big Mis. B

~Jayne

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This is a trade paperback published by NAL but pre-Agency pricing.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Haiku Moment: True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson
2. REVIEW: Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
3. REVIEW: Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

Sadly, this was not
The read I was looking for.
Almost, but not quite.

Faith is ex-Playboy
Bunny and stripper who wed
A millionaire

Sound familiar?
Yep. It’s a romance spin of
Anna Nicole Smith.

But Faith is ‘special’.
Because she loved the geezer
Not just his money.

The geezer bumps off
And leaves Faith his hockey team.
(Sounds like SEP)

Team Captain Hero
You saw this coming a mile
away, didn’t you?

They bicker, smolder
And eventually land
in bed together

Predictable plot.
I’ll spare you all the rehash.
Carebear ending too.

My main problem? Faith.
Kept waiting for her to grow
A spine. Still waiting.

The story conflict?
‘Evil’ son of tycoon who
Bullies heroine.

Faith is also very
Nonchalant about stripping
But in a weird way.

Players would treat her
Like a ho, but she was fine
With it…why? Oh wait.

Her thought? She DESERVES
The lewd comments. She took off
her clothes for money.

She is fine with her
Sexuality…but dresses
Like a dowdy nun.

Her fogey husband
Wanted a lady, you see!
Not a stripper ho.

So to recap Faith:
No spine. Gold digger. Moral
Stripper. Nun Wardrobe.

Don’t get me started
On Layla, Faith’s ‘bad’ stripper
alter-ego. Ugh.

Your writing style? Cute.
Could have been a great story.
But I am unmoved.

C

This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Related posts:

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3. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan

After Jennie did a review of “Not Another Bad Date,” I saw her grade and mentally wilted a little. In fact, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read it at that point. But after starting, and stopping, a horrible historical – asshole hero plus virgin martyr widow! – I thought, “why not?” It can’t be any worse, right? Ouch, I think I’ll stop that line of thinking at this point. Anyway, I picked it up ::shrugged:: and dove in.

I’m just going to recap what I liked and, unfortunately, what I didn’t like. I love Zach’s interactions with Tiff. Bra shopping, make-up, boys! oh noes. He’s trying – and floundering – but trying. I found it totally understandable that Tiff doesn’t want another woman in Zach’s life. She didn’t have him in hers for years and now he’s her only parent. Any other woman would be The Other Woman to her.

As well, Adele’s interactions with Kendra make sense. They’ve not spent a great deal of time together so they’re not immediately best buds or totally in synch about what Kendra wants for breakfast. Kendra and Tiff are typical 13 year olds. They want to grow up far faster than their parents would like. Boys, makeup, periods, still having slightly immature fallings out and falling apart if you don’t make whatever team you’re trying out for. They like things one day and hate them the next.

In fact I liked most of the interactions between the characters. Adele loves her sister and would do anything for her but those endless ‘to do’ lists might just drive her crazy. Zach gets along great with his coaching staff but Joe needs to calm the locker room tirades to get the best effort from the players. Zach issues orders to the dance team at the cookout like they’re football players at drill time. I can see all of this.

Then there’s Football (intentionally capitalized) and Texas. Oh Lord, yes. Here’s your Amen! Everything I’ve ever heard or seen or been told about the combination of the two seems accurate here. The game is next to religion and any coach who can deliver a winning season – high school, college or pro – is elevated to a higher plane than most mortals.

Zach and Devon – okay it’s not great that he had affairs but she knew, didn’t care and I could hardly expect him to go for years with no sex. I don’t disagree with Jennie’s assessment here. I’m tired of the fact that this seems to occur often in contemporaries. However, it’s not a deal breaker for me. Having seen first hand the effect that a bad marriage can have on children, I think these two made the best choice to live apart. I guess you could say I’m lukewarm about this aspect of the story.

I LOVE that Adele doesn’t initially give into lust for Zach. She knows it’s bad to start a relationship and she actually manages to walk away. To turn and talk to someone else. To keep from standing like and idiot with drool running down her chin while she thinks how hawt he is. Praise Jesus and thank you Ms. Gibson. But…while Zach restrains himself initially, once he started going for Adele, he intensely pushed past her definite ‘noes’ maybe a little too much for my comfort. Bonus points for the crotchless gift that Zach gives Adele. Every woman should have one.

So, we’ve got some pluses and minuses but things were balancing out on the positive side until you had to do it. You had to have Adele get preggers despite two forms of birth control. And twins! Well, why not go all the way? < /sarcasm > One broken condom, one time and Zach’s super swimmers defeat an IUD that might or might not have suddenly dislocated. When Zach goes ballistic I can understand it. When he does a quick turn around in thoughts from ‘hell-no, no way do I want to become involved with babies and marriage’ to ‘can’t live without her’ after Adele is gone for two days I don’t believe it. That quick a change? Nope, not buying it.

As for the paranormal aspect? Well, it could have been worse. Like Jennie I ended up not hating it and actually chuckling a few times. But thanks for not dragging us back to scenes at Walmart too often.

One thing I think you do well overall and well here is dialogue. I love the funny exchanges between Zach and Adele.

Instead, he moved toward her, grabbed her hand, and pressed the glass into her palm.

“What’s this?” she asked, and glanced up from the wine and into his face.

“Wine,” he answered. “I thought you could use it.”

“I don’t supposed telling you I don’t want wine will make a difference.”

“Sure it will.” He shrugged one big shoulder. “Are you an alcoholic?”

“No.”

“Allergic?”

“No,” she answered, as the girls began to drag themselves out of the water and move toward the far end of the pool, where Tiffany handed out thick white towels.

“Cheap drunk?”

“No.”

“Mormon?”

“No.”

“One of those girls who gets drunk and wants to get naked?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a shame.”

She smiled despite herself.

“When I looked up into the bleachers and saw you, I couldn’t believe you were there.” He pressed his thumbs into her arch and massaged little circles. “I’m glad I didn’t see you until the second half.”

“Why?”

“Seeing you added about ten times more pressure to the game.” He lifted her foot and kissed her instep. “I didn’t want to screw it up and lose in front of you.”

Soap bubbles slid down the side of her foot and ankle. She looked at him, sitting across from her and kissing her foot, and something warm and bubbly slid next to her heart. “You mean, you didn’t want to lose in front of the whole town.”

“That too, but mostly I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of you.” His thumbs moved over her heel and he pressed his lips to her arch. He turned his head to one side, and said, “When I used to play football, I didn’t have to worry about impressing women. Hell, I think you’re the only woman I’ve ever tried to impress,” He softly bit her instep. “First at UT, and now here.”

Her eye lids suddenly felt heavy. “Are you trying to impress me right now?”

“Why else do you think I’m sitting here, smelling like a rose garden and surrounded by girly bubbles.”

Stuff like this went a long way to bringing my final grade back up. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson
2. REVIEW: Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
3. REVIEW: I’m in No Mood for Love by Rachel Gibson

Link here if the embedded video doesn’t work.

There’s something wonderful about these homegrown videos. My vote for the Contemporary Rita would be Holmquist Holquist but I admit to actually not having read any of the other finalists so my vote is pretty invalid but, hey, we should have a poll for the RITAs. Will start that tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. RITA Reader Ballot
2. Interim RITA Reader Ballot Winner ** Updated **
3. RITA Reader Ballot contest

***

The day I got that first sale call is still very clear in my memory. It was the morning of February the 10th, 1996. Geraldo was on television, and I was wearing my pink sweats and getting reading for my three minute workout on my treadmill.

I had been writing and submitting my work for over six years. I’d completed four full manuscripts and a partial of three chapters and a synopsis. I’d racked up around twenty-five rejections from every major publisher in New York and Canada. I’d won the Golden Heart award in 1994 for the best contemporary manuscript. Back in those days, winning the Golden Heart was pretty much a guarantee that you’d publish. It was kind of expected, and it seemed that everyone else who’d won that year was getting published. Everyone but me. By the time 1996 rolled around, I’d gotten so discouraged by rejection that I’d stopped writing. I’d buried my Golden Heart necklace in the back of my sock drawer so I wouldn’t have to see it and be reminded of my failure. I knew I’d get back to writing someday, but I needed a little time and distance from it.

So, when the phone rang that February 10th, the last thing on my mind was writing. I was just relieved to put off the grueling workout for a few more minutes. When my agent told me that she’d sold my book to Avon, I was first shocked and then confused. I’d thought all my manuscripts had been thoroughly rejected with a big red "Hell No" stamp. I’d forgotten about that little three chapter proposal I’d written and sent to my agent. The editors at Avon loved my voice in those chapters and wanted to buy the book despite the synopsis being "the worst synopsis they’d ever read."

I don’t have the best memory. Sadly, my brain is kind of a sieve, but I will never forget what it was like to see the faces of my children for the first time or how it felt to sit there in my pink sweats and feel my heart pound as if I’d just completed my three minutes on the treadmill.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: I’m in No Mood for Love by Rachel Gibson
2. REVIEW: Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
3. Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

Though I have read all of your books, in all honesty I’m not sure why. I liked your first book, Simply Irresistible, quite a bit, and loved your second, Truly, Madly Yours. Since then, your books have ranged from mediocre (I show five B- grades in my book log, which goes back to 2002) to something less than mediocre (Daisy’s Back in Town and last year’s Tangled Up in You barely eked out C range grades from me).

Your latest book is the last in a quartet about four female friends finding love. The series is based on a rather contrived conceit: each of the women writes in a different genre: mystery, romance, true crime, fantasy (the heroine of Not Another Bad Date, Adele Harris, is the fantasy writer). It’s not actually the conceit itself that has felt contrived in the series, but the way that each author mirrors rather stereotypical views of the genre she writes in. This was particularly aggravating in Tangled Up in You, with the true crime-writing heroine; she constantly wanted to pepper-spray everyone. That may explain in part why I disliked that book so much. Thankfully, Adele in Not Another Bad Date is not portrayed as being too obsessed with fairies, unicorns and the like.

Adele Harris returns to the small Texas town where she grew up to help her pregnant sister, whose husband has just run off with his assistant. She is not there long before she encounters the erstwhile love of her life, her college boyfriend Zach Zemaitis. Zach, a former NFL star who is now coaching high school football, is not so much the one that got away as the one that was stolen away by the mean girl who made Adele’s high school years hell. Adele has, of course, never quite gotten over Zach, and he is now a widower.

What worked for me: your books are very readable, and Not Another Bad Date is no exception. I read relatively few contemporaries, but for some reason when I do read them I find them easier, quicker reads than historicals, generally speaking. I’m not sure why – it’s not like the historicals that I read are that taxing. Perhaps it’s just that the more familiar setting makes the reading a little easier. Anyway, I appreciate it because it means that I don’t tend to get bogged down in even sub-par contemporaries the way I sometimes do with historical novels.

So, Not Another Bad Date was very readable. I didn’t hate the characters or their behavior (with one exception, which I’ll get to in a moment); their HEA was pleasant.

My lack of enthusiasm is, I think, reflective of a certain thinness of characterization found in both the hero and heroine. As I said, I’ve read all your books, and if you strip away a few superficial traits, Zach and Adele are not noticeably different from most of the couples in your other novels.

This may be what some romance readers prefer – predictable characters meeting (or re-meeting in this case), feeling attraction, having conflict, breaking up, making up, HEA. Some minor trust issues on each side, fear of commitment yadda yadda yadda. Though it can be comforting to pick up a book knowing what you’re going to get, I usually prefer a little more variety in my reading.

There is a small paranormal element in this book that I found cheesy at first but actually ended up liking. The aforementioned mean girl – Devon Hamilton-Zemaitis, Zach’s dead wife and Adele’s high school tormenter, is stuck in purgatory (for her, it takes the form of endlessly stocking shoes at Wal-Mart). Her machinations in the afterlife are directly responsible for Adele’s bad dates. This element of the story was hokey, but it at least gave some context to Adele’s bizarre bad luck with men, and ultimately I thought it was kind of a cute touch.

Oh, and my complaint – the one aspect that I found truly unlikable in your characterization, in this case, of the hero. Zach is a former NFL player who was in an unhappy marriage for a number of years. He lived away from his wife during the football season. Okay, I understand, intellectually, why in such a situation, the fact that he was routinely unfaithful is probably pretty realistic. But it still bugged me. Even though we know that his wife was indifferent to it (we’re told this in one of the sections where we are privy to Devon’s post-mortem thoughts).

But still. I’m just sick of it. I’m sick of the double-standard. Can you even imagine a romance where the heroine is in an unhappy marriage and routinely has affairs, even threesomes, with her husband’s tacit blessing? I could borrow the infinite number of monkeys working on typing up the complete works of Shakespeare, pull them off that project and give them an infinite amount of time to write a romance with such a heroine. When one of the monkeys finally presented me with her finished work, I’d find that the heroine wasn’t actually meeting all those men in hotel rooms to have sex with them; she was actually teaching them to read. Also, she was a virgin despite being married!

I said I didn’t hate Zach, and I didn’t. But I did dislike him when he had thoughts like this:

He’d been around women like Genevieve all of his career and most of his life. Women who offered up their bodies, and while he’d sometimes taken what they’d wanted to give, he’d never screwed around with married women nor women he didn’t even like. He wasn’t desperate enough to start now.

Oh, Mr. cheats-on-his-wife, has threesomes and random casual sex with women who "offer up their bodies", has standards. He’s not about to get with a tramp like Genevieve, who after all is married (doesn’t she know marriage is sacred?) and whom he doesn’t even like.

Ms. Gibson, I don’t want to place the burden of romance’s sexism all on your shoulders. But I’ve become increasingly intolerant of the way that female writers, writing for a female audience, continually reinforce sexist notions. Men who have sex with lots of women are heroes, even if they happen to be married while having it. Women who throw themselves at men (who don’t even like them!) are tarts and/or desperate and distasteful. Heroines are invariably unaware of their own appeal and semi-chaste. We have finally gotten somewhat away from the virgin heroine in contemporaries, thank goodness, but we have a ways to go before we get to heroines who actually own their own sexuality and aren’t just waiting for the hero to come along, flip the switch and finally give them an orgasm.

I will likely still continue reading your books; readability counts for something. But my grade for Not Another Bad Date is still a C.

Regards,

Jennie

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
2. REVIEW: I’m in No Mood for Love by Rachel Gibson
3. Rachel Gibson and Julia Quinn …

In my last letter to you, I said I wasn’t as happy with I’m In No Mood For Love as I have with lots of your previous books. I’m a much happier camper after reading this book. I like the heroine, I like the hero, I like the heroine’s maloccluded cat. Maddie and Mick have a good reason to get to know each other and a really good reason to break up. I just wish a few things had been different.

Maddie is the third author in the group of friends who live in Boise who, one by one, are finding love. Her specialty is true crime and generally she spends her time interviewing her subjects while they’re shackled and handcuffed to the tables between them and Maddie. She’s heard some true sickos tell her all about how and why they did what they did and also what they’d like to do to her. Fun stuff. But for her latest book, she’s decided to write about something closer to home and about people who can’t be interviewed. After finding some old notebooks at her now-deceased aunt’s house, she’s made the decision to write about the relationship her mother was in and about the night she was murdered when Maddie was only 5 years old.

Maddie knows only the bare facts about the murder and remembers almost nothing about it beyond being hauled off in the middle of the night by the police to the aunt who never wanted children to begin with. Her childhood wasn’t happy but she had the basics. Now she wants to know more about her young mother and the love triangle that lead to that fateful night.

Mick Hennessy and his sister Meg have their own memories of that night and of growing up in the small town of Truly. They remember both good and bad times with their parents, then the shock of losing them, then the continual whispers that surrounded them while growing up. Both would rather leave those times in the past. When Mick first sees Maddie in his bar then runs into her at the local hardware store, his carnal thoughts are unprintable. After finding out that Maddie’s as interested in a hot, brief fling as he is, he becomes a frequent visitor to her lakefront house. As the relationship progresses, he starts to think things he’d never imagined feeling for a woman — permanent things, homey things, white picket fence things. That is, until he finally finds out exactly who Maddie is and why she won’t give up the idea of writing about the night his mother killed his father, a bargirl and then herself.

This book has more of your trademark humor and guy thinking. I laughed a lot while reading it but I also felt the kick in the gut when Maddie reviewed the crime scene information and first visited the site where her mother had been murdered. We get enough of an update on the previous two couples to feel everything’s fine with them and enough of an update on Adele to set up her story but without taking over this book. Yeah. I liked that there’s not as much promo/ad spots as in past books but I noticed a lot of T-shirt descriptions. Like Maddie, I love fragranced lotions, soaps and scrubs but I would hate to go around smelling like a chocolate cake — seems like it would only make you hungry. Mick’s young nephew Travis acts like a seven year old. Mega thanks for that. I also like that we find out what happened that night at the same time that Maddie does.

I also adored Maddie’s hillbilly cat. Cats rule. You do know not to leave a pet in a car during the heat of summer, right? As Maddie learns, cats have no rules as they think rules do not apply to them. They remember when they were worshiped and expect you to do so as well. But the thing I really appreciated in this book is that you give Maddie and Mick time to get over the revelation of Maddie’s real identity. This doesn’t seem like the kind of thing someone could get over/come to terms with in two weeks. You give it about 3 months. Yeah again. I hate it when authors set up some conflict between two people, have a major blowup scene that threatens to ruin any future these two might have had together, then quickly resolves said major, life altering conflict in the span of three days after which everything’s sunshine and harmony forever, amen.

However, I do have a few problems with the story. There’s no real reason for Maddie not to tell Mick who she really is. Even she knows this as you show when she ruthlessly stomps down her conscience. I can see why you wait in order to get these two close enough so that 1) Maddie falls for Mick and 2) Mick falls for Maddie even though he doesn’t admit it at the time but at least he feels close enough to her that her revelation is devastating to him emotionally. Yet with Maddie knowing the whole time that she should tell Mick, then not doing it, it just made me think less of her. I’m not sure why you stuck in the mini-romance with Meg and Mick’s army buddy, Steve. It’s way short even for a secondary love story.

Readers who love your great guy thoughts will enjoy the book. This following passage had me choking back laughter while I secretly read it at work.

(edited for daytime TV) When it was through, she said, “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Let’s make it happen again. Only next time, I’m going to join you.” He brushed his wet fingers across the tip of her breast and lowered his mouth to her lips and fed her his need and greed and uncontrolled lust.

She pulled back from the kiss and gasped. “You have condoms? Right?”

“Yes.”

Bare from the waist up, she took his hand and led him into the house. “How many do you have on you?”

How many? How many? “Two. How many do you have?”

“None. I’ve been celibate.” She closed the door behind them, then turned to face him. “We’re going to have to make those two condoms last all night.”

“What do you have planned?”

“I’m going to use you for your body.” She sucked the side of his neck and shoved his pants and boxer briefs to his knees. “You don’t mind. Do you?”

“God, no.”

“You’re a beautiful man, Mick Hennessy.” She brushed her thumb over the head. “Hard.”

No shit.

“Big.”

Mick sucked in a breath. “You can handle it.”

“I know I can.” She bit the hollow of his throat, then slowly sank to her knees, kissing his belly and abdomen on the way down. “Can you?”

Oh, God. She was going to use her gorgeous mouth on him. His “Yes” came out on a rush of pent-up breath.

“You don’t mind if I use my tongue on you?” She knelt before him and looked up, a little smirk on her red lips. “Do you?”

“Christ, no.”

“Do you like my tongue here?”

“Yes.” God, was she going to talk the whole time?

Yep, there’s some great stuff in this one. Enough for a B grade.

~Jayne

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I’d have to say that most of your books have worked for me on some level and a few are favorites. But unfortunately while I enjoyed parts of this book, it doesn’t equal your past efforts.

On the day of her best friend’s wedding, Clare Wingate is shocked to find her metrosexual fiance playing cowboy with the Sears repairman. After drinking all day to drown her sorrows, she wakes up the next morning almost naked, in a hotel bed and discovers she spent the night with an old childhood acquaintance. Sebastian Vaughn just happened to be in town that night and was amused to find Clare slamming back drinks in a hotel bar. After she poured out her problems, he poured her into her hotel bed then realized he was too tipsy to drive home. Some demon makes him tease Clare about what they might have done and they part in anger. But since Sebastian’s father works for Clare’s mother, they don’t stay apart for long.

Neither is looking for a romantic relationship though each is attracted to the other. But while Clare’s romance book writing career keeps her in Boise, Sebastian’s investigative reporter job takes him all over the world. They part for weeks and months at a time before finally giving into temptation and lust and starting a strictly “sex with no strings attached” relationship. Though it works for a while, Clare suddenly realizes that she wants more and deserves more from a man. But will Sebastian be the one to give her a HEA?

Perhaps I’ve just read too many books featuring this type of heroine lately but I’m tired of the ultra controlled woman who needs a good screw to loosen her up. For the first third of the book, Clare is wound tighter than an eight day clock. And while I usually love your heroes, Sebastian does a few things I thought were cruel and a little heartless. And while I enjoy the fact that you spent time focusing on each character’s career and didn’t cram the book into a few short weeks, Clare and Sebastian spend much of the second third of the book apart. It’s not until the last third that the relationship and the book really take off. I wish there had been more of the following example of dialogue throughout the entire book, rather than just at the end.

“No tricks. I love you, Clare. I love you and I want to spend my life with you. I even watched Pretty in Pink.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and I hated every minute of it.” He took her hand. “But I love you, and if it makes you happy, I’ll watch teen flicks with you.”

“You don’t have to watch teen flicks with me.”

“Thank God.” He lifted his free hand and brushed her hair behind her ear. “I got you something, but it’s out in the car. I didn’t think Joyce would let it in the house.”

“What?”

“You said you wanted a husband and children and a dog. So, I’m here with one very carsick Yorkshire terrier puppy and a willingness to work on the kids part”

Once again he’d looked into her lonely heart and given her what she’d wanted. Plus a dog. “I don’t have anything to give you.”

“I just want you. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

That’s what I expect from a Gibson book and it’s not what I found in this one. I’m not sure if you’re trying something new but have gotten bored with your usual style but I can’t go higher than a C+ for this one.

~Jayne

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