Customer Reviews

Baddest Bad Boys

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book contains the following three stories.

4 stars for AFTER THE LOVIN' by E.C. Sheedy.
Very enjoyable. Nice story. I liked the characters and plot.
Tommi (heroine) has evidence against Reid who stole money from her employer. Reid threatens her. Her best friend suggests she stay with his brother Mac for a while, which she does. Mac had a crush on her all through high school and is 5 years younger than Tommi.

Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: three. Setting: current day Seattle and Vancouver Island. Copyright: 2008. Genre: romantic suspense.


3 stars for ANYTIME, ANYWHERE by Shannon McKenna.
I enjoyed it. Good characters. Pretty good plot. Very erotic.
Robin has had a crush on Jon who has been her big brother's best friend for 14 years. Jon is 9 years older than Robin. She learns that Jon is going to a cabin in the mountains for some recuperation time after a tough case. Jon is a cop who just got a serial killer sent to prison. Without his knowledge, Robin goes to the cabin to be with him and hopefully lose her virginity.

CAUTION SPOILER:
I did not like one part of the plot. After Robin and Jon get together, Jon runs out of condoms. Robin tells him that's ok since she's on the pill, and he doesn't need to use condoms with her. He gets mad saying she should never have unprotected sex, not even with him. She should never trust any man, including him. She is hurt from his yelling and leaves him. This was not a reasonable reason for a fight. If the author needed a way to separate them, I wish she would have used something different, for example: a power outage, a fire started by lightening, other damage from a storm, a wild animal causing a problem.

Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: ten. Setting: current day Portland, Oregon, Oregon mountains and San Francisco. Copyright: 2008. Genre: romantic suspense.

For a list of my reviews of other Shannon McKenna books, see my 5 star review of "Ultimate Weapon" posted 11/15/08.


3 stars for DEAL WITH THE DEVIL by Cate Noble.
Better than average. Good story. I liked it.
Ellie, the heroine, was a little too wimpy and fearful for me. I didn't like that she would run away from situations rather than stay, get the facts and make rational decisions.

Ellie and Max had a brief romance when Ellie was 19, but they were separated by relatives' deaths and circumstances. Ellie later marries Max's brother Stefan who dies. Stefan and Max owned equal shares in a shipping company. Ellie offers control of her voting stock to Max in return for one night of sex. He counters the offer saying he'd like one week of being together, not just one night. Max's ex girlfriend shows up and causes trouble.

Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: four. Setting: current day Boston and a private island. Copyright: 2008. Genre: romantic suspense.

For a list of my reviews of other Cate Noble books, see my 2 ½ star review of "Deadly Seduction" posted 2-9-10.

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE by Shannon McKenna
Jon Amendola finally has some downtime following a particularly difficult case. His buddy Danny's cabin is just the type of retreat he requires. No demands, just peace and quiet for at least two weeks. He's been friends with the MacNamara family for a long time and never seen Robin as anything other than a little pseudo sister

Robin MacNamara has been accepted into a training program for the Circo della Luna Rosa. It's her dream to become a professional clown. She doesn't regret going after her dreams and leave behind her receptionist job working for her brothers in the hotel industry. Her only regret is that she's never had the opportunity to clue Jon into her very grown up feelings for him.

After eavesdropping on Danny and Jon's conversation, Robin knows that Jon is going to be using the fishing cabin for a while. She refuses to let this chance to capture his attention pass her by. What she doesn't expect is to have to seduce him. Bad boy Jon isn't about to risk his friendship with Robin's brothers for a little harmless sex. Can Robin seduce him to her way of thinking? As things heat up between them, an unforeseen complication from his last case threatens to destroy everything.

Shannon McKenna is one of the reigning queens of romantic suspense. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE is a prime example of why she's so beloved by her faithful readers. The characters are a delightful mixture of boldness and vulnerability and I loved the tension between them. Throw in a bit of suspense and this is a story well worth buying this anthology for all by itself.


AFTER THE LOVIN' by E.C. Sheedy
Tommi Smith has never had the best of luck with men and her latest predicament is a real doozie. She's uncovered evidence of embezzlement at the company where she works and now she's afraid her life is in danger. Hiding out seems to be the best bet and her good friend Hugh knows the ideal place. She'll be staying at a fishing cabin with Hugh's younger brother Mac.

Mac Fleming's nice quiet retreat may be the perfect hiding spot for Tommi but he's not entirely comfortable with her being there. Her reputation for breaking hearts is legendary and he has no intention of falling for her charms. Of course there's nothing wrong with a little mutual pleasure while they're sharing the cabin, is there?

Tommi's concerns and fears follow her to the cabin and even though she doesn't want to involve anyone else in her troubles, she can't resist Mac's gentle persuasion. It's been a long while since they last saw each other and neither of them is prepared for the sexual tension that's quickly building between them. Mac's aware that Tommi's not a forever kind of girl so he proposes a short term affair. Is strictly sex between them possible and what are they going to do about the embezzlement?

E.C. Sheedy creates the perfect blend of sexual tension, emotional attachment, and suspense to pull readers into the storyline and ensure you stay hooked. I adore Tommi simply because she's so honest and trusting. Mac is more cynical but even he can't resist Tommi - no matter how hard he tries. AFTER THE LOVIN' captured my attention on a more primitive level, there's something so endearing about Tommi and Mac that you just can't help but love them and want everything to work out in their favor.


DEAL WITH THE DEVIL by Cate Noble
Since the death of her husband Ellie has accepted her brother-in-law Max's control over her stock holdings in DeLuca Shipping, but Stefan's will specified a period of time and that time has run out. Max wants to continue to oversea her stock holdings but the battling between their lawyers has been tedious. Ellie has an idea for a proposition so that they can both get what they want.

Max DeLuca, dubbed Il Diavolo by the press, has worked hard to restore his family honor and save the shipping company from bankruptcy. The only way to ensure that it stays lucrative is by continuing to be in control of as many of the stock holdings as possible. The last thing he expects is for Ellie to offer an irresistible proposition that will effectively allow him to get his hands on everything he desires - the shares and Ellie.

Ellie's proposal of `one night - no commitments, no strings, just sex' in exchange for extending their contract has Max's loins on fire. Unfortunately there's the little issue of his ex-girlfriend's schemes and lies and Ellie's cyber stalker to contend with, but Max is certain he can handle them both. He's not prepared to accept Ellie's offer as it is though, he wants a full seven days to indulge their carnal desires. Will a week be enough?

Cate Noble is a newcomer to the romance genre and it looks like she's an author who will quickly work her way up `must read' lists everywhere. With believable characters readers can care about and villains you love to hate DEAL WITH THE DEVIL had me engrossed from start to finish. Ellie's innocent persona and Max's worldly demeanor played off each other beautifully.


I've had a fondness for the Brava Bad Boys line since the very beginning but this book seems to go the extra mile and really earns itself a place on the keeper shelf. It provides readers with all the sexual tension, kick butt bad boys and the women brave enough to conquer them that has made the Brava line so popular. BADDEST BAD BOYS brings to life three stories which will capture readers imaginations and hearts as they read about men who risk it all for the women they love. Beautifully done ladies!

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

As another romance anthology from Brava, it was fairly predictable what this book would be like - and it was. However I was surprised to find the three stories were surprisingly similar in execution to each other in this anthology. Each features hero and heroine who have known each other for a long time but haven't got together for various reasons and the woman is in danger who ends up somewhere remote with the hero. Sex follows, of course, and despite the initial agreement that it's just scratching an itch rather than a prelude to something longer term, our hero and heroine can't deny the special nature of their relationship. In each story there a short scene where the heroine is in danger but it's all sorted very quickly. I've checked the information on the back of the book and various marketing pieces but nowhere does it say that the overall plots are similar; I wonder if this was just an unexpected coincidence. However it did make this book feel rather samey.

ANY TIME, ANYWHERE by Shannon McKenna.
'Any time, Anywhere' had a very interesting hero and heroine. The hero, Jon Amendola, is a cop who grew up in foster homes. He's a tough man who lives for his job but needs a break, having closed the case of the awful serial killer, the Egg Man. Robin MacNamara has always loved Jon although he barely noticed her; she's nine years younger than him and is still trying to emerge from the shadows of her very protective older brothers. When she hears that Jon is staying at her brother's cabin she decides to go there to seduce him. Jon is surprisingly resistant but she manages to wear him down. However neither Jon nor Robin realise that the Egg Man had an accomplice and that woman is out to get revenge on Jon and those he loves, and Robin might just be more important to Jon than he realises.

This was a reasonable story with likeable characters. In the usual Brava tradition there was a great deal of sex and the actual plot could have been bolstered a little more. I found the final scene where Robin is kidnapped a bit unlikely as I'm sure the perpetrator would have planned it out rather more efficiently. Still, it wasn't a bad read and the dialogue between the characters worked fairly well.

AFTER THE LOVIN' by E C Sheedy
Tommi Smith, the heroine of this story, wasn't particularly likeable to me. She has always been rather a siren to men and her close friendship with Hugh Fleming caused his younger brother some emotional pain; Mac, the brother, is five years younger than Tommi and has had a crush on her since he was 13 years old. However, when Tommi is sent to stay with Mac at his remote house in order to avoid a dangerous man, she realises Mac has grown up rather impressively. She's being stalked by a killer, of course, although this side of the plot seemed pretty unlikely to me - as did the final denouement.

This was a reasonable read but it felt like almost all the attention was paid to the sex scenes and very little to enhancing the plot or providing a little more characterisation, another Mac fell short of the depth of characterisation that we found with Jon in the previous story.

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL by Cate Noble
Presumably the title of this short story was a nod to the overall book title, 'Baddest Bad Boys', which was probably wise as Mac in the previous story wasn't 'bad' in the slightest (although Jon could be seen as such in the first). However Max DeLuca, the eponymous 'Devil', didn't feel very Devilish to me, just another work-obsessed successful rich businessman who we find very often in this kind of story. He's carried a torch for Ellie McMann DeLuca, his brother's widow, for many years. Now his brother is dead Ellie owns some shares that are important to his company and he would like to do a deal with her for them - the deal is for seven nights of sensual pleasure. Ellie agrees to this and is whisked away to his private island but some baddies are after her and the remote island might not be entirely a place of safety.

This story felt rather like a rehash of the plots of the previous two, but with less attention to characterisation. Rather unusually it was told from the point of view of Max rather than Ellie most of the time but I wasn't quite convinced by his thoughts. His tendency to answer his phone or dash off some work at vital moments was also rather unattractive, although couldn't really be classed as devilish.

These three similar stories all had something else in common - they were nothing special. This line of books focuses strongly on the sex side of the story but I can't help feeling that they would repay closer attention to the plots and the characters. For those who like reading these stories, however, this is a reasonable collection.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

"Anytime, Anywhere" by Shannon McKenna. Robin MacNamara has decided her brother's friend Jon Amendola is the man to make her a woman. She goes to his lake house to lose her virginity to him, but he has enemies from his current case as a cop who want him dead and collateral damage is not problem to them.

"After the Lovin'" by E.C. Sheedy. Mac Fleming is assigned to protect Tommi Smith from a nasty adversary. They were attracted before, but now their respective hearts have totally taken charge of their heads.

"Deal With the Devil" by Cate Noble. Max "Devil" DeLuca wants to keep Ellie DeLuca safe from a stalker so he offers her a week of sex at a private island retreat. The sex part of the scheme works perfectly, but the outcome fails when Ellie learns some information and flees from him into danger.

Though the well written heated interludes with danger nearby is hard to grab, these three passionate romantic suspense novellas are fun to read as the BADDEST BAD BOYS shield the women they cherish from deadly adversaries, but no one protects their hearts from each other.

Harriet Klausner

I have to admit, I picked up this book because I am a huge Shannon McKenna fan and it delivered.

Anytime, Anywhere (Shannon McKenna)

Robin has been after Jon (Her older brothers best friend) for years but has never had the courage to go after what she wants. She decides to take what she wants and propositions him while he's staying at her family's cabin.

You can guess how it plays out and the end product is a steamy romance between an inexperienced love-struck girl and a very experienced, uber sexy, alpha male. Jon, like all other McKenna males is a little on the controlling side and very set in his ways, but it works.

After the Lovin' (E.C Sheedy)

Tommi needs a place to stay while hiding from danger and when her best friend offers his family's cabin, she takes it. There is one condition, his younger brother Mac, who hates Tommi, is there. What Tommi doesn't know is that Mac has secretly wanted her for years and is about to get what he wants.

The chemistry between these two is off the charts and the author does a great job of showing the reader. It's one of those "he pretends he's impervious to her allure" stories that ends up with scorching scenes when the characters finally succumb to their needs.

Deal With The Devil (Cate Noble)

Ellie and Max go way back, but she ends up getting swept off her feet by his brother who turns out to be a two-timing playboy. Now, with the brother out of the way, Ellie and Max agree to one week of passion to quench their thirst.

This story was my least favorite and reads like an old-fashioned harlequin romance. Nothing steamy, no chart topping chemistry or heat between the main characters. This is clearly a filler.

Language: Explicit (2 out of 3 stories)
Love Scenes: 10+
Romance/Heat Factor Between Two Main Characters: HOT for the first two stories, just okay for the last
Overall Rating: 4 Stars (Because of the first two stories)

I'm not going to recap any of the storylines as it's been done, and very well by previous reviewers. I found I enjoyed Shannon McKenna's story the most. I'm a sucker for the girl longing for the bad boy for all eternity to finally get her chance with him. As is the case in most of Shannon's story's the hero can really be a jerk, yet you're still endeared to him with the creative use of MS McKenna's writing skills. I did find it odd at first that Robin chose to be a clown of all things, but after all it didn't seem so unusual. Their lovemaking was incredible passionate and even though it seems unlikely an inexperienced novice like Robin would be so sexual, I found it easy to believe.
I did enjoy the other two stories as well, the only problem I had with Cate Noble's story was as much as I'm a sucker for girl longing for bad boy forever, I'm totally not a fan of now that my brother's dead I'd like to go after his widow. It didn't matter to me Max and Ellie had once had a relationship I'm just not a fan of inter-marriage mingling. It seems very unlikely and a bit creepy to me.
I can't even say this boys are the baddest as for the most part they were really wonderful men to the women they so obviously adored.
The most alpha male of the group was Shannon McKenna's Tom, but the other heroes were really great heroes. Another plus were the heroines, not shy timid women by far, but instead women who knew what they wanted and weren't afraid to express it. In the end everyone got to be a little bad, which ended up quite good!

This book contains three novellas, all of which have a situation in which a man and a woman have had some attraction but also problems that have kept them away from each other for a long time. When they finally get together, they do so in some remote cabin or on an island and a suspense element is added due to a criminal causing trouble and danger.

Shannon McKenna: Anytime, anywhere (5 stars)
Robin McNamara has been secretly in love with her brothers' friend Jon Amendola. He never had an interest in the much younger, shy little sister with the braces and glasses. But by now she's all grown up and pretty, and when she hears that the policeman wants to spend some time in her brother's cabin, she goes there to seduce him. But the case of a serial killer he wanted to get away from follows them to the remote cabin...
I enjoyed this story a lot. McKenna writes stories with an emotional edge and dark sensuality, and this novella doesn't disappoint. I also found Jon's problem dealing with his emotions very convincing, so in contrast to some other reviewers I don't find the arguments and tension contrived. That's just his way of dealing with his fear of affection. Sexy, with depth, intelligent and fun - I don't have any complaints about this story.

E. C. Sheedy:After the lovin' (5 stars)
When Tommi Smith confronts an embezzler in the company she's working for, she urgently needs a place to hide from the man who threatens to kill her. She ends up in the cabin of Mac Fleming, a friend's brother, who used to lust after the a few years older woman as a teenager, but who also dislikes her because he feels she used his brother. While the embezzler is preparing to kill her, the attraction between them rises. But can they learn to also trust and love each other?
This novella was also great, and I liked the fact that the writer dealt with a woman who has changed over time and a man who needs to overcome his dislike of who he thinks she is.

Cate Noble: Deal with the devil (3,5 points)
Ellie McMann und Max DeLuca were lovers for a short time, though - coming from a family with lots of divorces and affairs - he never found the courage to tell her he loved her. His half-brother used the estrangement between Ellie and Max to marry her instead. After an unpleasant marriage and her husband's death, Ellie wants to spend one last night with Max before starting a new life. He agrees - but he wants a week on an isolated island. While the two find out that they never stopped loving each other, a killer stalks Ellie...
This novella started well and has a good story, but a lot of it was rushed and too many things were left open. It's the weakest of the three.