Getting What You Want (Stepp Sisters, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathy Love (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Not only are the three Stepp sisters dirt-poor, reason enough to suffer taunting and rejection at their high school in the small Maine town of Millbrook, each has her own mockery-inducing peculiarity: one is a super-intelligent geek, another is on the wrong side of chubby, and the third is six feet tall. In the first installment in a planned trilogy about the sisters, Love focuses on the brainiac, Abby, who leaves Millbrook as quickly as her college scholarship allows. She becomes a well-respected researcher, leads a respectable life, and has a dull but respectable boyfriend. Then a choice research position opens up in Millbrook. Ignoring the conventional warning that you can't go home again, Abby returns, only to face the same crowd that made her life hell in high school. Worse yet, she's attracted to former high-school bad boy Chase Jordan. With an enjoyable blend of humor and pathos, Love transforms her heroine from someone emotionally trapped in her past to someone embracing her present. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

KNOWING WHO YOU LIKE...
"What are you thinking about?" he asked, amusement softening the words.
"You."
"And what are you thinking about me?"
"That I like the way you kiss."
"Really? Well, I'm pretty partial to the way you kiss, too."
The bubbles swirled in her belly. She licked her lips. "Are you?"
"Oh yeah," he said with conviction.
Abby felt wonderful. Powerful. Attractive. And the night still held so many possibilities.
She glanced over at Chase. The faint blue light of the dashboard lit his face enough that she could see the straight line of his nose and the shape of his sculpted lips.
She swiveled on the bench seat. "Are you planning to take me home now?"
Chase cast her a quick look. "Do you want to go home now?"
Abby thought for a moment. She shook her head. "No, I think I'd rather go home with you."
"Well, sweetheart, I would love you to come home with me," Chase said, and Abby fell against the back of the seat as the car suddenly accelerated.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821776126
• ISBN-13: 978-0821776124
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Abby's Story, October 11, 2004

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Getting What You Want (Stepp Sisters, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Getting What You want by Kathy Love
October 11, 2004

Courtesy of WWW.LOVEROMANCES.COM

GETTING WHAT YOU WANT by Kathy Love is part of a trilogy of books centering on the Stepp sisters. In this novel, Abby is the main character, returning home to Millbrook, Maine, for a temporary job assignment with Rand Corporation. Her sister, Ellie, the local librarian, still lives in Millbrook in the home that belonged to their grandmother, the woman who raised the three sisters, while Abby left town years ago and had been working in Boston as a scientist.

Abby has dreaded coming home. She has bitter memories of their childhood and the classmates who constantly made fun of the three sisters. Abby left home never expecting to return, and now she is about to face her hometown once more for the sake of a job. It is only for a few months, and she loves her career so much that it was worth returning home.

Barely back in town, Abby and Ellie are about to order a meal at the Afternoon Delight when someone from the past recognizes Abby. It's Chase Jordan, whom Abby had such a crush on back in high school, but being the class nerd, no one had paid any attention to her back then, except to taunt and tease. She didn't think Chase would even remember her.

When Chase sees Abby, he is astounded at how beautiful she has become. But he still views her as the stuck up girl he remembers from high school. Abby, on the other hand, is so choked up she can barely speak. She still has feelings for Chase, but thinks he would never feel the same way for her. She still sees herself as the insecure girl from the past. Besides, she has a boyfriend back home, Nelson, who she feels is her perfect life partner. She will not betray Nelson and decides that she can never act upon this crush she has for Chase.

Later that week, Abby attends a party at her boss's home, and finds that many of her old classmates are there as well. It's not a very comfortable situation for her, thinking they will ridicule her as they did when they were kids. While her former classmates welcome her back to town, Abby finds it difficult to feel the same friendly feelings towards them. Chase again notices her rude behavior, and gets the impression that she feels she's better than the rest of them.

After an embarrassing altercation with one of her former classmates, Abby cannot wait to leave the party, and as she finds her way to her car, she hears Chase trying to start up his old truck. Abby seeks him out. This chance encounter allows Chase to see a different side of Abby, and he wants to get to know her better. He asks her out on a date, but Abby tells him she has a significant other, and says she can only be a friend to Chase, nothing more.

As the two get to know each other as "friends", both have a hard time holding back their feelings. Abby questions whether she should be loyal to Nelson, or move on with Chase. And Chase finds that the more he gets to know Abby, the more he likes her as a person.

This reviewer was pleasantly surprised with GETTING WHAT YOU WANT. It was more than just a romance, and while a lot of romances only touch on the "relationship" aspect and "getting there", this novel went into the dynamics of the relationship, comparing Abby's feelings of isolation and loneliness as a child, to Chase's feelings of insecurity as a man. Many romances often only explore the here and now, but in GETTING WHAT YOU WANT, the romance novel becomes a little bit more complex. It was interesting how the author worked this part of the story into the romance, and it worked out quite well. Along those same lines, it's the characters that make a romance work, not necessarily the situation, and the author did a good job developing not only the protagonist and the leading man, but also the minor characters were developed into three dimensional people that "felt real". GETTING WHAT YOU WANT comes highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I feel like I have a high school crush again!, June 27, 2008

By 

Krista Lyn (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Getting What You Want (Stepp Sisters, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Most romance novel heroes have a bit of everything....looks, charm, bad boy tendencies, and a bit of reformation in store for them. Chase Jordan has all that and more. He is the best hero that I've read for sometime. I kinda have a crush on him (a fictional character no less!)

This is one of those books that everyone who's ever been to high school can relate to. High school is such a difficult time. Clicks, out of place teens, popular students, geeks, athletes, labels...yuck. This book dives right into these tough memories as the smart, geeky, valedectorian Abby Stepp returns to Millbrook, Maine to do some research and is living next to her high school crush (the popular badboy)!

Abby has a lot of forgiving to do. She was poorly treated in high school and has many hard and hurt feelings surrounding her treatment. Chase also has difficult memories and regrets his behavior from high school. The question is "can he get Abby to forgive and forget".

I loved this book. It was deeply sensual but emotional as well. Both Abby and Chase have work to do...accepting themselves for who they are and learning how to love each other and themselves. I found myself devouring this book with a silly grin on my face the whole time. Chase is such a gentleman and a GENTLE MAN. He is the stuff dreams are made of, and when Abby's dream comes true, I for one was cheering on the sidelines.

Read this one!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who knows what it feels like not to fit in..., June 25, 2004

By 

Gypsi Hart - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting What You Want (Stepp Sisters, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the book for you. But this book is just an all around great book. I couldn't put it down. Read it in two days. I loved Abby. She was a nice woman who could not get over the hurt in the her past. Chase was a dream guy. He was willing to stay with Abby and help her open up to him and the other people in town. I really can't wait to read Kathy Love's next book in this series. This is a first for me because I usually read one or two books from a series, but I want to read all of them. All of the sisters are people I can relate to. More books should be like this. I am so sick of reading books where the heroine and hero are perfect or one of the main characters are. Nobody is perfect and that should always be reflected in books,esp. romance novels.