#TBRChallenge 2019: Saved by the CEO

The Book: Saved by the CEO by Barbara Wallace

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4507, 2016, Eighth (and final) book in The Vineyards of Calanetti continuity series, out of print, available digitally.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: 1) I'm a sucker for the Harlequin Romance line 2) I tend to enjoy Wallace's books and 3) I picked this up at an RWA conference...because of course I did.  It was a Harlequin and not tied down.

The Review: Never let it be said that Wendy half-assed the "Series" prompt for this month's challenge.  The eighth and final book in a multi-author continuity series when, you guessed it, I haven't read a single entry preceding this one.  I'm happy to report that while, yes, it's glaringly obviously that this part of a series, Wallace did a good job of keeping an ignorant newcomer engaged, and there's enough past characters here that I think those already familiar with the series will be happy.

Louisa Harrison went through a publicly humiliating divorce.  As a naive 21-year-old she fell for her older, rich boss.  She thought she was Cinderella, finding her Prince Charming.  Turns out the Prince was emotionally abusive, isolated her from everybody she loved, and in his spare time was running a Ponzi scheme.  Never mind that Louisa was the one who unearthed the evidence against him and hustled it straight to the authorities - as they say, never let the truth get in the way of good gossip.  After a messy divorce, where the tabloids crowned her "Luscious Louisa," she runs off to Tuscany, where it just so happens she inherited a distant relative's falling down palazzo.

Nico Amatucci is the successful vintner who grew up in the shadow of the palazzo, watched it succumb to neglect until the American heiress could be bothered to show up, and keeps the vineyards operational.  Well, more than that, he's turned them into a raging success - in no small part to his wine being the talk of the recent royal wedding that was hosted at the palazzo.  Sparks have been flying since he met Louisa, with tension aplenty, and it spilled over during the wedding when they shared a steamy kiss.  Then she got spooked and ran.

He finds out why she ran over the course of this story.  Thanks to the royal wedding Louisa has been found by the tabloid press and her reputation as a gold-digging hussy who led her "poor husband" to ruin is coming back to haunt her.  Nico, with his take-charge attitude, along with the fact that he's smitten, wants to protect her - not realizing that his "take-charge attitude," coupled with her ex's isolating, emotionally abusive ways, is going to send Louisa running as far and as fast as she can.

As already mentioned, this is the final book in a long-running continuity, but it doesn't take a genius to realize that the chemistry between Louisa and Nico has been simmering for a long time (especially since two previous books featured his siblings as main protagonists...).  So fans would be more than primed to finally get this romance.  As a newcomer, Wallace did a great job of introducing past couples without them sucking the energy out of THIS romance and I never felt like they were unnecessary filler to keep fans happy.  Every past character who shows up serves a purpose in this story.

I also really liked the world-building.  Wallace made me believe in this small, romantic Tuscany village that was seeing an uptick in tourist traffic thanks to a royal wedding.  The atmosphere was really lovely, to the point where I'm half tempted to run away from home.

What didn't work?  Well, this is one of those books where I felt like the characters needed a good therapist before a romance. Nico, bless his heart, is only doing what well-meaning Alpha heroes have done since the dawn of time. As the reader I knew he was only doing what he thought best because he cared for Louisa.  But to Louisa, who has lived through her nightmare of a first marriage?  She sees it as Nico wanting to control her.  She's wrong, of course, but you can see why she would jump to those conclusions. Which signals to me that she's still unpacking the majority of the baggage from her Evil Ex and yes....she needs a therapist.  She's got friends, but nobody she's felt comfortable enough to confide in until the paparazzi ferret her out.  And then she, naturally, confides in Nico.

For his part, Nico has baggage from his parents who had a love/hate/make-up/break-up relationship and he has vowed to never let "passion" rule his good sense.  He found a nice, steady, low-drama girl, got engaged, but when she got tired of being treated like a potted plant, she broke their engagement.  And Nico?  Well, he didn't love her, was mostly with her because there wasn't any of that messy ol' passion, and has pretty much resigned himself to being alone...because he doesn't see it being any other way.  Honestly?  I get it - but damn, I felt sorry for his ex.  I mean, she never shows up on the page, but she sounds like a positively lovely, low-drama kind of gal.  I hope she's somewhere in Italy getting her groove thang on.

I enjoyed the setting, the world-building is very good, and I loved spending a few hours getting swept off my feet.  I poked a few holes in the romance, but this was still very much a Calgon Take Me Away sort of read.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2018: The Courage To Say Yes

The Book: The Courage To Say Yes by Barbara Wallace

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4390, 2013, Available Digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Wallace is basically an autobuy in the Romance line.  But an added mystery with this book - I had both a print copy and a digital copy in my TBR.  Because apparently one copy wasn't enough?  My guess is I snagged the print at a conference without realizing I already owned it in e.

The Review: This is an interesting book and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how "successful" I think it is.  But I enjoyed this, and I thought the author does a wonderful job of juxtaposing the emotional baggage between the romantic couple, so I'm counting this one largely as a win.

Hunter Smith is a photographer who travels the globe documenting political hot spots.  He's home in New York City, in between assignments, eating breakfast at the same greasy spoon diner every day and should be working to hire a new assistant.  Instead, this man who spends his entire life not inserting himself into "the story," who instead chooses to stand outside to document "the story," finds himself playing white knight to a damsel in distress.

Abby Gray left her abusive POS boyfriend 6 months ago.  She's living in a women's shelter and is working the only job she could find - as a waitress in a crappy diner.  And she's not a very good waitress.  She thought Warren was gone for good, but instead he turns up at the diner, grabs her wrist hard enough to leave bruises, and before she can diffuse the situation, her hunky regular customer intervenes.  Much to her horror. Abby doesn't need or want pity.  She got herself into her current mess, she's going to figure out a way to get out of it.

The trajectory that follows is pretty straight-forward.  Hunter can't leave well enough alone, feels guilty when Abby's asshole boss fires her, and offers her the vacant position of being his assistant.  His last assistant basically said that what Hunter really wanted was a housekeeper, and Abby, with no marketable skills (she hitched her wagon to the abusive ex at a young age) can't say no.  She needs the job - and cleaning house for Hunter, helping him organize his life, is something she is qualified to do.

The abusive ex angle is the conflict in the story that I'm not entirely sure the author pulls off to satisfaction, and a lot of this has to do with timing.  Gun violence and the domestic violence history of men who perpetuate gun violence are in the news a lot right now - it's hard to set that aside, especially since Warren is portrayed as "a bully."  Once Abby stands up to him, he basically slinks off into the sunset once he realizes she cannot be pushed around anymore.  This is a nice idea, but one that rarely plays out in real life.  I don't want to say Wallace writes this as "easy" - but the reality is that women escaping these types of situations aren't always so lucky.  I don't think the author minimizes the conflict, but I also think it's a conflict that's hard to do justice in the category format.

Now, that being said, where this book really shines is in the character growth and development.  You have a hero who has spent his life always on the outside, putting a barrier between himself and anything resembling feelings.  The camera serves as a wall between him and the outside world.  Getting close is not an option.  Then you have a heroine escaping an abusive relationship, who has been beat down and belittled her entire life - first by a stepfather, then by a boyfriend.  She, too, is closed off emotionally in many ways, distant and scared - and really?  Who could blame her?  But that's not even the best part - this isn't a traditional Rescue Fantasy.  Not really.  The heroine realizes fairly quickly she's "safe" with Hunter - so there's this great push-pull dynamic to their interactions, right from the get-go.

It's how these two characters bounce off each other that makes for interesting reading.  They're not really that different, have more in common than they first realize, and help each other grow over the course of the story.  Even better?  Wallace doesn't try to do too much with the ending.  It's a bit more than "happy for now" - but it's also not a "let's get married and start working on getting you pregnant with triplets" ending either.  Thank the sweet baby Jeebus.

I've read a number of books by Wallace and while this isn't a favorite, it's still pretty darn good.  There's some interesting things on the page here and it was time well spent on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2017: Swept Away By the Tycoon

The Book: Swept Away by the Tycoon by Barbara Wallace

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4426, 2014, Out of Print, Available Digitally, Book #2 in Best Friends trilogy

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: True story: I take just about any category romance that isn't tied down and offered to me at conferences - and this was one I picked up at RWA either 2014 or 2015.  The longer answer is that Wallace is pretty much an auto-buy these days - having liked more of her books than disliked.  I loved the first book in this series and enjoyed the third book.  Which means in true Wendy fashion...I'm finally getting around to reading the second book.  So typical.

The Review: It's hard to explain if you just don't "get" the format - but category romance is my equivalent to literary comfort food.  Not to say it can't be emotional and challenging and all the things that detractors like to claim it isn't - but, for me, when an author hits all the right emotional beats in a category it's basically macaroni and cheese.  I love it beyond all reason and immediately suspect anybody who tries to tell me it's not good for me.  Dude.  Macaroni and cheese is just flat-out good for the soul.

Chloe Abrams has terrible taste in men - look no further than the barista at her favorite coffee shop. Certainly they have been casually dating, but flirting with a customer and handing her his phone number while Chloe is standing right there?  Oh hells no.  To make matters more humiliating the scruffy customer who she has taken to mentally calling "The Slacker" is providing a running commentary during the whole episode.  Really, she has no choice.  She pours her freshly made peppermint latte over the now-ex's head and struts out of the coffee shop like a Queen.

"The Slacker" is Ian Black, a now disgraced tycoon - ousted from his own company and working his way through Step 8.  Yep, Ian is in recovery for his alcohol addiction and is working to make amends with all the people he's done wrong...and it's a long list.  He spends the majority of his day sitting in the coffee shop, which he happens to conveniently own, writing letters of apology.  Chloe, with her high heeled boots (and she's a former college basketball star - so the girl ain't short to begin with), curly hair and take no prisoners attitude pushes all of Ian's buttons right from the start.  But he's a mess and has bigger fish to fry.  Namely reconnecting with his now college-age son.

What I so enjoyed about this story was the slow build and the light touch to the conflict.  Wallace kept it all humming along without drowning the reader in a sea of angst.  The relationship between Chloe and Ian gets started through a series of conversations.  He owns the coffee shop and she loves coffee.  It's a relationship that starts out of habit and daily routine and kicks into gear through banter and mild flirtation.  Chloe is stung by a series of poor relationship decisions and an absent father.  Ian is working on his recovery with the same single-minded focus that led him to "show up" his own father by joining the military then building his own company from the ground up.  These are two driven people haunted by their pasts and various regrets.

The focus and theme of this romance is entirely wrapped up in forgiveness and Wallace tackles the topic in a way I'm not sure I've seen before in a romance.  Namely forgiveness only works when the person you want to forgive you agrees.  Forgiveness is going to happen on the wronged parties' timeline. Period. This is the stumbling block for Ian - and the lesson he ultimately has to learn over the course of this story.  He's driven, focused, and thinks he can tackle his 12 steps in the same way he built his company - and hello?  He can't. Because sometimes we don't always get what we want - no matter our drive or ambition or how badly WE want it.  Chloe has to learn that pushing people away before they can push you away isn't a healthy way to deal with rejection.

The romance moves along on a short timeline (seriously, like a week) but these are characters that talk to each other and find themselves thrown together by circumstance (thank you terrible weather!). The I-love-yous do seem quick, but Wallace avoids a marriage proposal or pregnancy in the final chapter, so that makes things a bit more palatable.  I could have done without Ian's nickname for Chloe (Curlilocks) but then I'm the sort that loathes nicknames in romances, being the cranky fusspot that I am. This one didn't surpass the other two books in the trilogy on my rating scale but it was still a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon and Wallace tugged my heart-strings at all the right moments.  And given my cranky fusspot nature?  That's a win.

Final Grade = B

Comfort Read Alert: The Unexpected Honeymoon

Struggling to find my blogging and reading mojo, I knew it was time to call in the "big guns."  Yep, I needed a "comfort read."  A story I knew I would be able to fall into.  I basically needed the romance genre version of "turn on, tune in, drop out."  Not that the genre should be confused with psychedelic drugs - but you get my drift.

The Unexpected Honeymoon by Barbara Wallace has been languishing on my Kindle for a while and I thought it would fit the bill nicely.  The first book in this trilogy is going to make my Best of 2014 list, I obviously like Wallace's writing and it's a Harlequin Romance.  That line is the very definition of "comfort" for me. I started reading and fell right in.

Larissa Boyd was supposed to get married.  Then her groom left her for another woman.  On his way out the door he made sure to get in a parting shot.  He accused her of caring more about the wedding than him.  A truth that stings since Larissa's own friends had "jokingly" referred to her as a "bridezilla."  Raised by a seamstress grandmother, surrounded by wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, prom dresses, and growing up the "pudgy" girl in straight teeth, big-hair blonde Texas cheerleader country - Larissa has dreamed of having her one moment.  That fairy tale wedding moment.  She wants a perfect memory.  That doesn't make her bridezilla, does it?

Now she's in Mexico, at the exclusive resort where she was supposed to get married.  And instead of a groom, she's got a bottle of pricey champagne thanks to her well-meaning friends who talked her into making the trip anyway.  A whole bottle of champagne and a healthy dose of self-pity.  Oh boy.

Meeting her while she's three-sheets to the wind is hotel general manager Carlos Chavez.  Not only does his family own La Joya del Mayan, but a whole string of hotels.  Think of them as Mexico's version of the Hiltons - just without blonde daughters who carry tiny dogs in their oversized purses.  He's new to this particular location thanks to the former general manager making a muck of things and running off with their on-site wedding coordinator / events planner.  Adding insult to injury, they left a mess in their wake, and it's up to Carlos to clean it up without bad press (and bad reviews) falling back on the resort.  Which is how he comes into contact Larissa. 

We've all read versions of this story before.  The honeymoon for one, the unexpected chemistry, the brooding, haunted hero and the heroine who is making lemonade out the bag of lemons.  However as any romance reader worth her salt will tell you, it's not the familiarity of the story, it's how the author puts their own spin on it.  Wallace does some very interesting things with her characters.  For one, Larissa has to face some hard truths.  She's not a heroine who chalks this experience up to 1) I'm right 2) he just didn't "get" me.  No, she really looks at herself and faces the music, as it were.  Her wedding obsession, her need for her fairy tale moment, all that stuff.  Larissa looks at herself and realizes that just maybe she's been chasing all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.

Carlos is your typical brooding romance hero with a tragic past - in this case, a dead first wife.  A wife he was crazy in love with but whom he failed to make "happy."  It's hardly a spoiler (assuming you can read between some pretty broad lines), that the first wife had mental health issues, specifically depression.  There will be some readers who may feel that this woman is demonized.  And to a certain extent, she is - by Carlos.  There's a couple of moments in the story where he muses that she bled him dry and you realize just how angry he is.  Loving someone with depression can hardly be categorized as "easy."  Readers see Carlos dealing with that aftermath.  You accept that her depression is not her "fault" - but you also can understand how Carlos came to be so angry.  But hey, consider this long paragraph your trigger warning.

What you're waiting for in this book is the Pay Off.  That tipping point when the emotional blood, sweat and tears start staining the pages.  And let me tell you, it's a doozy in this book.  You know that saying about hurting the ones you love?  You know how it's always the people you love most who can say the things that will hurt you the most?  Oh man, this.  As the conflict comes to a head, those scenes between Carlos and Larissa, the words they say to each other - they rip the reader's guts out.  I'm pretty sure I could actually see Larissa's heart breaking right on my Kindle screen.  It's that emotionally gut-punching.

I could have done without the syrupy epilogue at the end, but given that this is the final book in a trilogy that was probably inevitable.  Still, it's a good solid read by an author who consistently delivers for me.  It may look, feel and seem like the "same old story," but it's the author's emotional spin on it that makes it her own.

Final Grade = B+

The Man Behind the Mask

There was some "unpleasantness" in the Bat Cave last week, and I called in sick to work one day.  I always feel guilty calling in sick to work.  When you work in public service and you have "good" coworkers, well I always feel like I'm abandoning them.  Silly, I know.  However if I could spend all my days away from the office reading stories like The Man Behind the Mask, the first in a new trilogy from Barbara Wallace?  Yeah, I'd get over my guilt pretty darn quick.  I'd also start pouring over medical texts to find various "ailments" that could befall me at a moment's notice.

Delilah St. Germaine knows it's stupid, but she's got a horrible crush on her suave, sexy boss, Simon Cartwright.  A mover and shaker at his family's advertising agency, Simon is the kind of guy who attends various and sundry charity events in New York City with beautiful women who are either 1) models 2) actresses 3) aspiring models or 4) aspiring actresses.  He's way out of her league.  Sure, she's a great PA but she knows who and what she is.  She's a girl from Kansas that men like Simon Cartwright look right through.  And now she finds herself having to spend the weekend with him in Boston working to land a big, key new account.  Gee, that's not going to be torturous at all!

Simon is all flash and no substance - so it would seem.  In reality he's a guy who is play-acting his way through life.  Yes he's handsome, wears the right clothes, pours on the charm, and keeps his romantic entanglements strictly superficial.  However that's not who he is.  The real Simon is a man hiding a lot of pain, running away from a traumatic past that he's swept under the rug instead of confronting head-on.  That traumatic past happened in Boston, and now he's on this business trip, back in the city that irrevocably changed him15 years ago.  He's not handling his return all that well, and into this mix, when he's already off balance?  Delilah.  His attractive personal assistant whose mere presence seems to be the only thing keeping him from slipping right over the edge.

Explaining what makes a really good category romance is often an intangible thing.  The simplest explanation, for me, is that you'll know it when you read it.  This story has that indefinable "magic" that all really good category romances do.  It's a perfect tasty morsel, a candy-coated confection wrapped around an emotionally gutting story.  Two characters, perfectly matched, seemingly with nothing in common, but in truth they have everything in common.  They can only belong with each other.  One doesn't make sense without the other.  Which is exactly what happens with Simon and Delilah.  Two characters both hiding secret pain, both characters who have had to "act" their way through life because of pasts that were traumatic and trying. 

So often when it comes to emotional baggage in this vein, events that happened to the characters when they were children or teenagers, it can be easy to dismiss.  It's never fun to read about a character's endless pity party, and the trick for the author is to write it in a manner where the characters don't come off as sad sacks.  Delilah found herself having to tap-dance, put on a brave face, when her father died and her mother fell apart in her grief.  She's "fine."  Everything is "great."  Because in reality?  It's not great.  Her mother has fallen apart and someone needs to keep the ship sailing.  That's an easy act to keep up even after Mom crawls out of her hole.  She can't very well tell Mom when she's "not fine" because what if that sends Mom back into a tailspin? 

Simon's baggage is a doozy.  Readers who love their heroes really damaged?  Yeah, this is your guy.  The best part of it is that not only is it horrifying and gut-wrenching, but it's also sadly believable.  Simon believes himself a coward, traumatized by an event that wasn't his fault, but unable to move forward from it because his method of "dealing with it" was to shut down.  In other words, it happened 15 years ago.  The past is dead.  Well, until the past comes back to bite you in the ass in the form of a key business trip and an assistant who looks at you with all-knowing and all-seeing eyes.  It's a very tough subject for the author to address though a character, but she does it exceedingly well with Simon, an emotional brick wall at the start of this story.  The author also, wisely, gives just enough back story on this event so that the reader is crystal clear on what happened, but we don't find ourselves wading through awful, horrible details.

It's a deceptively simple story, with zero in the way of external conflict (yeah, yeah - there's the mission of the business trip, but it's very minor).  This is all about the characters, their internal conflict, and them somehow getting to the point where they realize that they cannot live without the other one.  Not anymore.  Because that business trip in Boston shows them both that how they have been living?  Is not living at all.  Simon's past isn't something that will magically go away now that he's admitted to himself and Delilah how he truly feels about her - but you know what?  He's taken the first step.  These two kids, I think they're going to make it.

Grade = A-

The Heart Of A Hero

Not every book I read is a winner, but sometimes there's enough on the page to entice me to add an author to my "try again" list.  Earlier this year I reviewed Beauty And The Brooding Boss by Barbara Wallace over at The Good, The Bad And The Unread.  I had a mixed reaction.  I had my issues with it, but it wasn't an outright stinker.  So when I was approached about reviewing the author's next book, The Heart of a Hero - I jumped all over it.  I'm glad I did.

Zoe Hamilton has moved into her family's rundown island cottage off the coast of Massachusetts to get over a nasty divorce.  She learned the hard way that her wannabe golf pro ex was only interested in her money.  A syndicated advice columnist, to say Zoe's doubting her judgment is an understatement.  The tiny island community holds fond childhood memories for her, so escaping there seems the perfect solution.  Well, until she meets her surly next door neighbor at any rate.

Jake Meyers is ex-military and has hidden himself away on the island out of guilt.  Suffering from combat trauma and PTSD, living in a cottage next to a rental property was the ideal situation for him.  Vacationers tend to offer a wave and a smile, and then leave you the heck alone.  So having Zoe and her obnoxious dachshund next door (why won't that dog stay in his own freakin' yard?), is not welcome at all.  But dang it all if she doesn't worm her way under his skin.  Especially when she comes sniffing around looking for a handyman, and wouldn't you know he's the only one (literally) on the island?

There were so many elements to this story that really worked for me.  Admittedly, I'm a sucker for a wounded hero, and Jake's trauma leapt off the page for me.  I know PTSD ex-military heroes aren't exactly rare in Romance Novel Land, but what I really liked here is that the author doesn't give the reader pat solutions to Jake's issues.  In other words, the love of a good woman does not miraculously "cure" him.  Meeting Zoe, and later developing a relationship with her, does not stop his nightmares.  His flashbacks don't suddenly evaporate into thin air. 

I liked that Zoe was unsure of herself after her divorce, but also that she was tenacious.  Her main stumbling block is that she loves to be "needed."  And because of this, she married a man who took advantage of her, who was only interested in what she could do for him.  Jake is a puzzle she's intrigued by, and dang if she doesn't want to solve him.  Is she pushy?  Yes.  Is that exactly what Jake needs?  Yes.  I loved that she didn't tap-dance around him.  I loved that she didn't let him wallow.  I loved that she confronted him.  Oh man, does she ever confront him! 

The author does a very lovely job with the setting and even offers up a secondary character in the form of Zoe's canine companion Reynaldo.  I would have liked more of a mention of Jake's family, and even with this being the "just kisses" Harlequin Romance line - I think I would have liked a love scene here, even a PG-rated one, to illustrate Jake being ready to take that plunge into emotional investment.  But still, it's a lovely read, with some lovely, quiet moments punctuated with emotional intensity.

Final Grade = B+