Any Way You Want it [Paperback]

Kathy Love (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2007

Is That A Treble Clef In Your Pocket-- Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

Maggie Gallagher spends her nights with lots of men. Of course, they're all dead composers, but why nitpick? Her love life is just like the musical compositions she researches--undiscovered. It's time for Maggie to let loose and go wild. In a dive bar on Bourbon Street, Maggie makes a real find in the house band's keyboard player. He's hot. Sexy. Flirtatious. Soulful. And she could swear he's playing an unknown piece she's been researching, which is impossible, unless he's dead...

Centuries before he was a badass vampire with a rock-star wardrobe and Big Easy charm, Ren was Renauldo D'Antoni, a composer on the verge of great success until he was betrayed. No one could ever know that, but tonight, the shy strawberry blonde with the big eyes and obviously borrowed outfit actually seemed to recognize his long-lost composition. Now, she wants to know about the composition, and Ren wants to know her...intimately. But what starts as attraction--and distraction--just might lead to the biggest discovery of their lives...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Musicologist Maggie Gallagher and friends arrive in New Orleans from Washington, D.C., for a much needed vacation. On the grave of a legendary voodoo priestess, Maggie makes a wish for a hot fling. Later that night, she hears strains of the mysterious sonata she's been hired to authenticate coming from a Bourbon Street bar. Ren Anthony, the man behind the keyboard, is the leader of the Impalers, a bar band specializing in drippy '80s pop. He's also a vampire, or rather, a lampir (an immortal energy sucker rather than a blood guzzler), and in mortal life was Renauldo D'Antoni, a composer born in 1785. Ren, believing all the women he loves are doomed, tries to avoid relationships, but sparks fly when Maggie walks into the bar. Whether or not Maggie can change Ren's mind about getting involved is pretty much all the plot there is, but Love (I Only Have Fangs for You) lets the good times roll while they find out. (Jan.)
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About the Author

Kathy Love writes for both Zebra (her Stepp Sisters trilogy—Getting What You Want, Wanting What You Get, and Wanting Something More) and Brava (Fangs for the Memories, Fangs but No Fangs, I Only Have Fangs for You, and My Sister is a Werewolf.) Kathy lives in Maryland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Brava (December 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758218567
• ISBN-13: 978-0758218568
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #767,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining lighthearted paranormal romantic romp, December 30, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Any Way You Want it (Paperback)

Washington DC based Maggie Gallagher is an expert on the lives of dead composers; her love life is as dead as those musicians she studies. Her current work is to authenticate a recently found sonata allegedly written by early nineteenth century composer Renauldo D'Antoni. Meanwhile she takes a break from her beloved yet tedious work as she and some friends go to New Orleans on a vacation. While visiting the grave of a voodoo priestess, Maggie quietly wishes for a heated encounter.

Later that same night, Maggie hears the last thing she expected coming from some French Quarter dive. Someone is playing the sonata she is investigating, which makes no sense as her preliminary information is that this is a lost treasure just recently rediscovered. Normally quite reticent, Maggie meets keyboardist Ren Anthony, who is the leader of the `80s style band the Impalers. She interrogates him about the sonata and he remains elusive in his responses. However, neither can ignore the attraction, but he knows that relationships don't survive as the women he has loved since being born as Renauldo D'Antoni in 1785 die; immortals like him live forever in loneliness.

ANYWAY YOU WANT IT is an entertaining lighthearted paranormal romantic romp. The story line centers on whether Maggie can persuade Ren that he only has fangs for her. Vampire romance fans will enjoy the romance between the immortal composer and the human musicologist.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More sexy brothers! Very steamy start to a new paranormal series., January 22, 2008

By 

melindeeloo (sb,ca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Any Way You Want it (Paperback)

I loved the hook to Anyway You Want It. A recently jilted-at-the-altar Maggie Gallager goes to New Orleans on vacation and her two best friends talk Maggie into making an offering at the tomb of the VooDoo Queen and making a wish for a hot fling. That evening Maggie finds herself drawn to a bar by a hauntingly familiar lost sonata played by a gorgeous sexy musician, Ren. The awareness between Maggie and Ren is magnetic and they are drawn to each other. Thus begins the dance, as the two move toward each other only to back away, both afraid to connect. Maggie initially, because of leftover insecurities from her failed relationship and not being a one-night-stand kind of girl and Ren, from keeping his heart locked up to avoid invoking his curse. But neither can fight the attraction and though they back away, the connection is so powerful that time and time again they can't help but come back for more.

The relationship between Ren and Maggie is very hot -- there is such desperation to their lovemaking, the one area in their relationship where they don't hold back. It is lucky that we get so much of Ren's point of view in the story. Seeing all his angst, his desire for love he can't attain or can't hold stirs our sympathy for him. If we had seen him only from Maggie's point of view, we would have found him far less appealing, because from the view standing in Maggie's shoes, the relationship which supposedly builds back up Maggie's shattered self-esteem seems much less healthy. Ren runs hot and cold with Maggie and then tries to 'protect' her in a pretty hurtful way. Looking at Ren's actions this way it is pretty hard to understand how Maggie could be so forgiving no matter the haunted look in his eyes, as she does not know the motivations and twisted logic behind Ren's actions.

While I liked the romance, the paranormal window dressing on this story was really thin. It was almost like the lampiric part of the story was added in later because there was really nothing about his eating energy and sleeping during the day that effected the story, there didn't seem to be any worry about taking too much energy and draining Maggie. So I guess lampirs are just kinder gentler vampires, no stress for them they don't have to hunt they can feed just walking down a crowded street. I am confused though as to whether they are undead or just immortals, so I have to agree with other reviewers that if Love was going to make Ren a Lampir instead of a vampire, it would have been nice for Love to explain her mythos a bit more. But the story would have worked just as well had her hero been any kind of cursed immortal, so I still enjoyed Any Way You Want It. Maybe she'll fill us in more when we get Ren's brother Victorrio's story.

If you can't wait for Ren's angelicly beautiful, mysterious and sexy brother try Love's Fang series it has a bit more 'bite':
Fangs for the Memories (The Young Brothers, Book 1)
Fangs But No Fangs (The Young Brothers, Book 2)
I Only Have Fangs for You (The Young Brothers, Book 3)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot! Hot! Hot!, February 2, 2008

By 

Kitty "Hopeless Romantic" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Any Way You Want it (Paperback)

If you think New Orleans is hot and steamy now, the temperature has just gone up... way up. Maggie Gallagher heads to the Big Easy with her friends, but finds one man is about to radically change her life. He's mysterious and sexy and she just really can't keep her hands off him. Of course, Ren has no problem with that. He's wanting Maggie in the worst possible way. Which is saying something, since he's been around for a few hundred years. With that kind of determined lust, the sparks start flying and ultimately explode. The best part, besides all the extraordinarily hot sex, is the heartwrenching moment when Ren hurts Maggie to save her. He nearly destroys her in the process but never fear, love will prevail.