You Don't Know Jack by Erin McCarthy

A meandering romantic story
3 stars

Jamie Peters is fed up of looking for true love when all she finds are liars, cheats and scumbags. But she can’t help but be a little intrigued when her cross dressing psychic tells her that an accident involving food will bring her a tall, dark and sexy man who is her soul mate.

And then it happens. Jack is the kind of man Jamie has been searching for her whole life – smart, sexy, normal and best of all, honest. But what Jack’s not telling her is that he is really her roommate’s brother, he’s investigating her for fraud and he’s actually a millionaire. But soon the pair are in too deep and the lies just keep piling up. Will they be able to make it work or is destiny ready to be proven wrong?


This book has been sitting on my 'to be read' pile for a long time so by the time I got round to it I was really looking forward to reading it. For some reason, it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

The first part of the book focuses solely on Jamie and Jack as they meet and then get naked. I’m all for sexiness is a story but the long, drawn out foreplay and initial sex scene got pretty tiresome after a while, especially since it drew on for chapter after chapter.

The rest of the book is basically about Jack trying to redeem himself for the lies that he has told. When we got to this bit the book definitely picked up and I enjoyed Jack’s cute little conversations with Jamie as he tried to win her back.

The whole book then took on this fashion of really slow bits punctuated by the more interesting so it did feel a bit disjointed. The story was okay but I did feel Jamie was a little immature and Jack was a little bit wet at times. I just wanted him to get a bit more spark and take charge of what he wanted.

Other than that this was a nice enough story that was okay for a meandering read. I wouldn’t recommend you rush out and buy it but if you’re a fan of Erin McCarthy then it’s probably worth a look. 3 stars.

3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys by Lucy Monroe

Readable and inoffensive set of stories
3 stars

This is a set of three stories about three brothers and the women that finally manage to tame them.

Rand
Rand Alexander always has a gorgeous woman on his arm but since his wife died 6 years ago, he’s never again given away his heart. Innocent Phoebe Garrison has always felt like the unnoticed wallflower on the edge of Rand’s life but now she has a plan – the deed for the property his company needs in exchange for a week in her bed.

This was an okay story but Rand never really came out of his shell and remained from beginning to end a little bit of an enigma. I also didn’t really like the fact that Phoebe was the ex-fiancée of Rand’s brother – it just made her seem a little fickle.


Carter
Carter Sloane needs a bride quickly to ensure he fulfils the terms of his late father’s will and he has just the girl in mind. Daisy Jackson works for his company and has always had a little crush on her boss but she is more than stunned when suddenly he’s proposing marriage. But does he want a bride of convenience or a wife in truth?

This was a sweet little story and would have worked well if the author hadn’t tried to convince the readers that this was rational behaviour and something that would happen in everyday life. That, for me, meant I couldn’t really enjoy it for a fun little escape from reality that it should have been.


Colton
When straight-laced Colton Denning wakes up in Vegas next to a showgirl after a scorching night of passion he’s shocked and high tails it out of town. When the lovely lady in question, Fayre Cranston, turns up in Mexico where he’s working, Colton is quite keen to pick up where they left off. Until he discovers that she’s his wife.

Again, a fairly standard story that suffers largely due to its short length. It’s not hugely believable and for some reason I had huge issues with the name ‘Fayre’ although both she and Colton were reasonable enough characters if nothing overly exceptional.


Overall, if you have this book then it’s worth a read but certainly not one that I would recommend you rush out and buy. As with many short stories, these suffer a lack of character development and believability due to the story length. They are readable, a little sexy and inoffensive. 3 stars.