Recent Read

Also known as 2 down, 3 to go

Gotcha by Christie Craig

Why this one: I had an ARC and thought it about time I started reading some of them. This one is a June release and one to keep an eye out for.

Steam Level: This one takes a long time to boil – but once it does – hmmm – nice and hot.

Website Blurb: Macy Tucker was five years old when her beloved grandfather dropped dead in his spaghetti. At twelve, her father left his family in the dust. At twenty-five, her husband gave his secretary a pre-Christmas bonus in bed, and Macy gave him the boot. To put things lightly, men have been undependable.

That's why dating's off the menu. Macy is focused on law school, and putting herself through—which means being the delivery girl for Papa's Pizza. But cheesier than her job is her pie-eyed brother, who just recently escaped from prison to protect his new girlfriend. And hotter than Texas toast is the investigating detective. Proud, sexy…inflexible—he's a man who would kiss her just to shut her up. But Jake Baldwin's a protector as much as a dish. And when he gets his man—or his woman—Macy knows it's for life.

My Thoughts: Darn, Darn, Darn!! I love it when a review I do has others wanting to read the book I’ve loved, but I hate it when they pass on a book and I’m afeered they might think this after reading this. I hope they don’t because check out the grade at the end - it's a good one. I think the best way to do this is in a letter:

Dear Macy: I liked you, I really did. But at the same time you drove me bonkers! I understand your skittishness about men. Your grandfather died, your father ran off, your brother is a screw up and your ex-husband cheated on you. Goodness knows with that kind of history, I wouldn’t be trusting a guy either! So when you didn’t immediately fall for Jake Baldwin even though we, the readers, will think him lip-smackingly scrumptious right from the get go, I could understand you. But – hello – he did everything he could do to prove to you he was a stand-up guy. A cop who was approached by your brother Billy’s girlfriend who wanted to report a threat to both you and Billy who somehow managed to land himself in jail, Jake got pulled into the case almost against his will. But once he realized that you weren’t in any way involved in the prison break-out when Billy escaped and that there was a Very Bad Man after you, you should have at least trusted him as a cop, if not as a man.

And I did appreciate some of the things you put him through such as kneeing him – hard – in a place guys don’t like to get kneed – when he first snuck up on you. But he forgave you that – even admired you for it despite his pain. And then there was that classic scene when he was being a tad overprotective and tried to keep you from going to the pharmacy for those feminine necessities. Your telling him exactly, in a loud voice, what you needed was laugh out loud funny. And the nun thing – very well done! Kept him guessing it did.

But girl – I had issues with you. When a physco killer who has beheaded someone and slashed someone else is after you; when he has broken into your house and has already made two attempts on your life, when he has threatened to rape you, you trust The Cop. Not trusting the man with your heart is one thing, but not trusting the cop is another. When you lie to said cop, when the killer knows where you live and where you work, you do NOT refuse to leave your home because you are stubborn and you do not go back to your part time job delivering pizza while you go to school, you are making a big mista-ake. We readers have a name for a heroine like you. We call them To Stupid To Live and we do not like them. You walked the fine line a number of times and crossed over a couple of them. This is not a good thing. Your author maybe should not have done this to you. I know you did many of the things you did to try and save your brother, but you showed no sense on some of them. Instead you should have trusted The Cop, Jake.

Your author is a good one. The story was interesting and I found it hard to put down – always a plus when reading a book! I really enjoyed most of it and I can I say I loved Jake to pieces and pieces. Who wouldn’t love a guy who pretends he’s your love interest when cheating ex shows up, who paints the nasty graffiti off your walls, who feeds your nasty cat, who makes you tomato soup and gets caught buck naked by his mama? I’d love a Jake of my own please. And when he screwed up big time near the end as heroes often do, his groveling was Prime! I loved it. I loved his nickname for you even though your author mentioned a time too many about the pizza smell in your car, but then that could be because I’m not a big fan of pizza. I have a few other books by your author that I haven’t read and now I will go searching for them. I’m always happy to find a new author and I’m happy I found yours.

As for your brother Billy’s secondary romance – it was nicely done though he was no Jake and I wasn’t all that impressed with his love interest to be honest and I could tell he had the same set of genes as you did with some of his ideas on how to protect those he loved.

But ultimately, Macy, I’m sorry to say that you, yes you, brought down the grade of the book somewhat. Not to worry; there have been some books where a heroine like you would have made the story a DNF and this wasn’t the case here. But if your author has more stories up her sleeve – and I’m sure she does – I hope she doesn’t make the next heroines quite as stubborn bordering on stupid as she made you at times because on the whole you had great potential. You were excellent at the quick comebacks and any heroine who can do that is thumbs up for me.

So – for you, a 3, for Jake a 5 which averages out to a……..

Grade: 4 out of 5