Susan Mallery : Buchanan 4 Part I
Looking over Susan Mallery's back list, it seems she has a thing for sheiks and virgin brides, neither of which I would ever read. But my friend brought the second book in this series to me and it wasn't bad, so I went and read the other 2 that are out. There is a fourth coming soon.
I'm not knocking the authors of the sheik and virgin bride books. I am a fairly good writer and I know I couldn't stick through writing a book. BUT, they are very formulaic and do not seem as though they would be a huge stretch to the ol' writing muscles. I wrote that so that I could write this. This series has really good characters and relationships and plots, BUT I really wonder how much better those characters and relationships and plot lines would be if they had been written by a better author, like Jennifer Crusie, who rocks my socks.
The series is about 4 siblings who were raised by their rich, entrepreneur grandmother, who is written in the first 2 books as a raging, irreparable bitch. There are 3 brothers and a sister, who we find out is illegitimate. The sister's book is coming out later.
The first of the series is called Delicious. The oldest brother is Reid and owns his own string of businesses that do well. He comes back under blackmail from gma to rehab their flagship restaurant after it sinks. He hires the best chef around, who happens to be his ex-wife. Who happens to be pregnant from a sperm bank, which of course she leaves out during their initial contract negotiations. Blah, blah blah. It's not a great book. I didn't get why they were apart and stayed apart. He had a secret that wouldn't have been that bad for her to know - a daughter from HS he had given up. They had a miscarriage and he was relieved for (what I felt to be) a stupid reason - since he couldn't be a father to the first daughter, he didn't want to be a father at all. He withdrew, Penny left, he didn't go after her, and they're apart for several years. They're hot for each other, they're not going to act on it, blah blah blah. They have dinner when she gets past her miscarriage date, bond over the restaurant, fight over misunderstandings, blah blah, blah. Reid was too much of a whiner for me, but I liked Penny. She was doing her thing and cocky about being the best with every reason to be. But even she irritated me by the end.
I liked the behind the scenes in a restaurant, but that might be it.
I'm not knocking the authors of the sheik and virgin bride books. I am a fairly good writer and I know I couldn't stick through writing a book. BUT, they are very formulaic and do not seem as though they would be a huge stretch to the ol' writing muscles. I wrote that so that I could write this. This series has really good characters and relationships and plots, BUT I really wonder how much better those characters and relationships and plot lines would be if they had been written by a better author, like Jennifer Crusie, who rocks my socks.
The series is about 4 siblings who were raised by their rich, entrepreneur grandmother, who is written in the first 2 books as a raging, irreparable bitch. There are 3 brothers and a sister, who we find out is illegitimate. The sister's book is coming out later.
The first of the series is called Delicious. The oldest brother is Reid and owns his own string of businesses that do well. He comes back under blackmail from gma to rehab their flagship restaurant after it sinks. He hires the best chef around, who happens to be his ex-wife. Who happens to be pregnant from a sperm bank, which of course she leaves out during their initial contract negotiations. Blah, blah blah. It's not a great book. I didn't get why they were apart and stayed apart. He had a secret that wouldn't have been that bad for her to know - a daughter from HS he had given up. They had a miscarriage and he was relieved for (what I felt to be) a stupid reason - since he couldn't be a father to the first daughter, he didn't want to be a father at all. He withdrew, Penny left, he didn't go after her, and they're apart for several years. They're hot for each other, they're not going to act on it, blah blah blah. They have dinner when she gets past her miscarriage date, bond over the restaurant, fight over misunderstandings, blah blah, blah. Reid was too much of a whiner for me, but I liked Penny. She was doing her thing and cocky about being the best with every reason to be. But even she irritated me by the end.
I liked the behind the scenes in a restaurant, but that might be it.