British Bad Boys (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: ninth earl, Nancy Warren, Hart House, Stag Cottage (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Warren presents three short and sweet romances about three hunky blokes in present-day England. First up, George Hartley, a newly titled earl. Duty demands that he save the family fortune, and he begins by allowing Maxine Larraby, an American filmmaker, to tell his family's story. Then comes Meg Stanton; her hope is to rejuvenate her writing muse. Handsome pub-owner Arthur Denby shows her to her cottage and helps her get settled in. Lastly, disgruntled former top chef Rachel shows up to visit her newly divorced sister, Maxine, intending to stay in the background and lick her wounds. But instead, she ends up catering a wedding and getting entangled with the alluring best man, Jack Flynt. In each tale, the couples end up in bed within pages, and emotional complications soon follow. Warren has a knack for writing bright, breezy tales. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

George Hartley is high on the list of England's most eligible bachelors: he's young, single, gorgeous - and, as the 19th Earl of Ponsford, lives in a castle. Granted, the castle has seen better days...but nights with the Earl are what LA TV producer Maxine Larraby keeps thinking about...Seattle thriller author Meg Stanton desperately needs a quiet place to work. Stag Cottage in the English countryside is perfect...until she meets local pub owner Arthur Denby. He's as dark and brooding as one of her imaginary villains, and Meg always falls for her villains. But there's nothing imaginary about the things Arthur does to her after last call...Former head chef and current love cynic Rachel Larraby can't believe she got dragged across the pond for a catering job. Weddings - ugh, she's had enough personal experience, thanks. And though recurring best man Jack Flynt is quite smashing, she can keep it to just a steamy fling. Until this very bad bloke starts looking at her with those forever eyes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Brava (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758210434
• ISBN-13: 978-0758210432
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #823,842 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars British Bad Boys, May 15, 2007

By	M. Nix "Joyfully Reviewed" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

England is a land rich in history, royalty, culture and some of the hottest men in the world.

George And The Dragon Lady

Architect George Hartley was called home when the unexpected death of his father left him the nineteenth Earl of Ponsford. Duty is a driving force in his life and although he'd like nothing better than to return to his old job in London, he's got to find a way to bring the estate back into the black and try holding it together. Getting a call from a film company based in the U.S.A. was a godsend. The fee that they were willing to pay to put Hart House into their film would help bring in some much needed revenue.

Maxine Larraby's life consists of a lot of traveling because of her job. Being a documentary film producer meant spending time on location shoots and not a great deal of time at home. The series she's working on now is Great Estates, Grand Titles, centered around English estates that have an American connection. Hart House is her first stop.

Irresistible attraction between George and Max turns into a passionate and temporary affair...but can they keep it temporary when feelings become much deeper than either of them expected?

Nights Round Arthur's Table

Meg Stanton has been going through a rough time. Her ex-boyfriend, who she thought was perfect for her, has ripped apart both her novels and self-esteem over time. Finally coming to the conclusion that he was jealous of her fame as a mystery writer, she left him and tried rebuilding everything he'd torn down. On a whim she's decided to head to England.

Arthur Denly started working at the Royal Oak Pub after he got out of the military, bought a house that he fell in love with, started fixing it up and settled down. He's the head bartender at the pub now and life is good, but it seems a bit empty at times.

When an attractive woman walked into the pub, he was attracted immediately, and after he started talking to her, he was hooked. From the moment that she walked into the old-fashioned pub, Meg felt that she had finally entered England. Unexpectedly, she found her next murder victim and her murderer. Although Meg was attracted to the gorgeous bartender, she was here to work not to get involved in an affair.

The woman that was renting the cottage on the Hart House estate fascinated him, but after Meg told him that she was here to work and only work, he wanted her bad, but decided to go slowly in his pursuit so as not to scare her off. Meg knew that a man would interrupt the flow of the story she finally had. Could she somehow have both the man and the story?

Union Jack

Rachel Larraby was more depressed than she'd ever been in her life. Her marriage was ended due to a cheating husband and the restaurant that she worked in, and felt that was hers, was closed. Although she's gotten numerous job offers, she doesn't want to work for anyone else, she wants her own place. Having a courier show up at her door with an envelope containing a letter from her sister asking for help and a plane ticket to England made it impossible to say no to going.

Jack Flynn travels a lot with his job and can be with any woman he wants. Being stuck going to Hart House for his spoiled sister was a mixed blessing. He could see his old friend George and hopefully get his sister's wedding plans straightened out for her so she'd stop bothering him with them. He expected to have a nice visit with George, what he didn't expect was getting hit in the groin with a potato by the temperamental chef that was to cater his sister's wedding.

Watching Rachel enjoy the food she prepared at dinner and listening to her talk claimed his attention more surely than her beauty did. He HAD to have her, but would he be able to get her out of his system afterwards? Rachel didn't want anything to do with men after the betrayal of her ex-husband, but playing around sounded good, and with Jack being a womanizer, she wouldn't have to worry about him wanting anything more than a night of passion.

British Bad Boys is a fantastic anthology that enthralled me completely from first page to last! I especially loved how all three of the stories in British Bad Boys are independent, yet entwined. All of the characters are wonderfully real with emotions clearly felt and the storylines so true to life that I easily slipped into the pages only to come out when British Bad Boys came to an end. British Bad Boys is so chock full of humor, passion and love that I was sorry to see it come to an end. British Bad Boys is a book that immediately goes on my keeper shelf to be read again and again!

Lyonene
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I give it 2 since I finished it, January 30, 2008

By	scotdog "KC" (Dallas) - See all my reviews

If you like the same story 3 times . . . you will like this book. I didn't . . . even though I did force myself to read all 3 novellas. Nothing new here!

4.0 out of 5 stars Warren gives each of her sexy shorts a different feel!, December 10, 2007

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

Here Warren gives us three wonderful Brits to fall in love with: George a proper English Lord who looses his cool and shows his steamy passionate side, Arthur the Irish pub owner who find a a lovely mystery writer who makes him want quit playing the field so that he can be her 'villian' for the rest of their lives, and Jack, who's always the best man but never the groom, a closet romantic who finally finds his bride.

For some reason I thought that this was one of the multi-author collections. I was surprised to discover that was not the case because each of the stories has a very different feel. While the language in the second story was much cruder than the first, Warren did a great job of avoiding the cookie cutter production line trap, where the only thing that changes is the names of the stars. Warren she managed to develop all six of the leads well enough so that when she gave us the treat of giving them cameos in the subsequent stories, they were still separate entities instead of a bunch of generic clones.

I am a sucker for these bad boys anthologies, I like these quick reads for days when I can't commit to a full novel. If you do too, Warren has more bad boys with a cool accents, check out her Aussies in Bad Boys Down Under.