Customer Reviews

Perfect Partners (Zebra Bouquet Romances)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first book I've read by Ms. Drogin, but it won't be the last. In fact, her subsequent Zebra Bouquet, The Right Choice, is in my To Be Read stack.

Perfect Partners takes two people, both lawyers, who have each suffered the loss of a sibling and thrusts them together for the good of their little niece. Neither hero nor heroine comes into the arrangement without baggage. In order to help the little girl deal with the loss of her mother and father, her aunt and uncle agree to set aside their differences for her welfare. How they work things out and arrive at the final solution is heart wrenching at times.

The author did a wonderful job of creating two 'real people' leads whom I bonded with immediately. Their interactions with each other, their individual emotonal scars and the healing process involved in getting past them were all well-written.

Although this book is out-of-print, it's well worth the reader's time and effort to find it.

Attorneys Chelsie Russell and Griff Stuart need niece Alix in their lives. Chelsie is determined not to lose her dead sister's little girl, but she fears the emotional loss when her help is no longer needed.

Griff is determined to be the parent Alix needs, but he soon find out he needs Chelsie, too.

Karen Drogin has penned a multi-layered tale of internal conflict and spousal abuse--relevant topics in today's world--but she hasn't shortchanged her readers in the romance department. Perfect Partners sizzles with sexual tension as this story tumbles to its happy conclusion.

Lawyers Chelsie Russell and Griffin Stuart deal with career obligations and lots of personal baggage as their lives get enmeshed with their precious two-year-old orphan niece Alix. Heartbreaking moments of Alix's night terrors and confusion become the catalyst for major adjustments in both Chelsie's and Griffin's lives. The sub-story of spousal abuse and its effect on victims even after they escape the abusive situation adds a special poignancy to the story.

Chelsie, a busy lawyer, regrets that her sense of duty has put her at odds with the high-powered lawyer Griffin Stuart. Since two-year-old Alix is her niece and his niece also, she would like to have an amiable relationship with him, which isn't likely after the stunt her parents had pulled in a custody battle.

Griffin gets custody of Alix and makes drastic changes in his law career and personal life to make a home for his much-loved niece, daughter of his dead brother. Alix, too young to understand the disappearance of her parents from her life, acts out during the day and suffers night terrors that have her, Griffin, and Mrs. Baxter worn to a frazzle. So the day Griffin hears Alix laughing and sees her happily cuddled up close to her Aunt Chelsie as they read a book, he knows he has to rethink his attitude toward her.

Griffin's experience with women is that they are takers not givers. But if Chelsie can make Alix happy then he needs to broker a deal with her--and what a deal it turns out to be. As he takes on some of her caseload to free up some of her time and to expand his private law practice, he finds there is at least one woman in the world that is a giver. Chelsie's pro bono workload is a shock to him.

The secondary characters stay in the background for the most part. Of course, little Alix rules supreme and already knows how to manipulate in her charming and humorous way. Ryan, Griffin's private investigator friend, really sets the fox among the chickens with his unsolicited research report about Chelsie, but he is a godsend at other times and is always an unfailing friend. Chelsie's parents, while miles away, still must be dealt with for Chelsie to move on with her life--as does the despicable Jeff Sutton, her former husband.

Carly Phillips creates a love story that has humor and heartache as she ties Chelsie and Griffin to each other with a breathtaking love that grows and glows even though they have some tough problems to solve along the way. The easy flow of Ms. Phillips writing style makes Perfect Partners a joy to read and her characters seem real and struggling with modern day problems that engender empathy. Good entertainment!

Originally posted at the Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

I read Perfect Partners by Carly Phillips in one afternoon. Perfect Partners was a heart-warming romance story between Chelsie Russell and Griffin Stuart. While they know each other through family ties, the story begins in the courtroom where they are fighting over custody of their niece Alix. Chelsie and Griffin both lost their siblings, which left Alix without guardians. After Griffin wins custody of Alix, Chelsie and Griffin bond over the little girl. Griffin asks Chelsie for help with caring for Alix as she is having trouble adjusting to her parents not being around and being in a new living situation. As they spend more time together, Chelsie and Griff become closer as friends and then as lovers.

Two people who are related through marriage are forced to work together to tackle parenthood. They work together to take care of their niece, all the while juggling their busy schedules as lawyers.

Both Chelsie and Griff come from rough childhoods and backgrounds. Chelsie isn't close with her parents and she eventually pulled away from her sister. She was also married to a man who abused her and left her emotional scarred and unable to have a baby. When Griff was 12 years old, his mother walked out on the family wanting more material things. His father was working full time and having a hard time adjusting to being a single father. In turn, Griff took over to help raise his younger brother. Griff's last girlfriend left him because she wanted the material things just like his mother left him.

With Chelsie's abusive background and Griff's background with the women in his life leaving him, they both had issues with the opposite sex. Chelsie and Griff discover their love and devotion for each other and their niece. Could their love make the instant family they both want?

I loved reading Perfect Partners. It's about two very different people who happen to be in the same profession and make it work for their niece. Two people who work together to make a steady home for the little girl that captured their hearts.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Clever, imaginative and excellent describe this Zebra Bouquet launch book. Karen Drogin steps to the cutting edge to investigate some of the hard issues surrounding spousal abuse, and in doing so she gifts her fans with a novel of extreme insight and daring romance. Written with empathy and insight, PERFECT PARTNERS sizzles, crackes and snaps with taut suspense and sexual tension - a novel that fulfills on every level.

Rising star, Karen Drogin, will make you smile, laugh and cry as she pens an emotionally intense romance with wonderful characters and compelling conflict! 4 1/2 STARS and RT TOP PICK!!!!!

Karen Drogin weaves a touching story of two wounded souls who learn about love and forgiveness from the three year old niece they share.

The only thing you can say about Carly is sizzling! Once you start her books you can't put them down. This one is no exception.

TO HEAL A LITTLE GIRL'S HEART...

For the first time in her career, attorney Chelsie Russell wants to lose a case. Representing her parents in the custody battle over their two-year-old granddaughter, Alix, has been a mistake, and only added to her sarrow over her sister and brother-in-law's tragic death. So when custody is awarded to Alix's bachelor uncle, Griffin Stuart, Chelsie is relieved, and determined not to let her beloved niece slip out of her life.

THE MUST OPEN THEIR OWN.

When Griff Stuartwins the right to raise his late brother's child, the last thing he want is an offer of help from the woman who spearheaded the bitter courtroom battle. But when he discovers that Alix's Aunt Chelsie is the onle one who can soothe the little girl's night terrors, he's forced to admit he needs her.

PERFECT PARTNERS

What begins as an uneasy alliance between Chelsie and Griff grows into an emotional connection neither can deny. For in bringing tenderness into a little girl's life, they will find they have turned suspicion into trust, anger into longing, and an awkward agreement between adversaries into an awakening of the heart...