~ NOTE AT ALL WHAT I EXPECTED; A DELIGHTFUL AND SWEET CHARACTER / RELATIONSHIP DRIVE ROMANCE (4 stars) ~
This is my first book by Lauren Dane and it was not at all what I had expected. Since most of her books are very racy, I wasn't really sure how story-driven this would be, but to my great surprise it was almost all focused on the hero and heroine's character and relationship development and read like a regular contemporary romance. Tate was a wonderful heroine - strong yet vulnerable and one of the wallflower-types that I love. Matt was such a sweet and absolutely delicious hero - this is one of those romances where the man is all too ready to admit his feelings and for them to be committed to one another, while the woman is the one who is having to be chased and is scared of getting involved.
OUR LEADING COUPLE:
I loved both Tate Murphy and Matt Chase. I'm a huge lover of the wallflower/plain-jane romances and we definitely have that here. Tate has a lot of insecurities to overcome: her "wrong side of the tracks" background, having abusive and neglectful parents, growing up poor, and being short and curvy and not at all the drop-dead-gorgeous type that Matt normally dates. While her insecurities are a HUGE element of the story, Dane is able to stay clear from taking it to the point where you want to slap her upside the head. She does this by rounding out Tate's character and giving her plenty of other attributes. She has sass, she's sweet and unbelievably caring and generous, is able to laugh at herself, is smart and driven, and while she has a lot of internal things she's dealing with, in many ways she still has a very strong sense of self.
Matt is ADORABLE!! Oh lord. He was just so, so, SO cute and sweet with her. He's Mr. Laid Back and Good Looking who has always had everything come to him very easily. He's not arrogant, which I really liked. He's self-aware and he knows what he has going for him - and he has definitely played the field - but compared to a lot of the HRs I read he was definitely not like the rake/rogues we see in those. Matt is so tender and loving with Tate and tries so hard to be there for her and to be understanding that the entire thing becomes almost too sappy to read, HA. In all seriousness though, he really is a great hero and seems very well-matched to Tate.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
It was a very enjoyable story because the characters were so great, including the secondary ones.. Both the Murphy and Chase family seem amazing and too good to be true. All of the characters stand on their own and after I got down the names and could remember who was who and which family they belonged to, I was able to just enjoy them. Some of the mean people in the town who were so (repeatedly) spiteful to Tate and the Murphy family took me aback and I felt like it was a little exaggerated. I know people like that exist, but to have it be so widespread and people acting like the entire town was just one big high school campus seemed a bit of a stretch to me. It fit in with the story and showed the characters to advantage - it's great to watch Tate stand up for herself and Matt defend her - but didn't seem wholly realistic.
CRITICISM:
My complaints revolve solely around how the story was crafted. I almost felt like we had arrived at our HEA 1/3 of the way through the book and was kind of wondering where this was all going. Sure, they still had issues to work out because Tate was still dealing with her insecurities and they were still having to manage people's negative reactions to their relationship, but ... a whole book from that? I mean they say their ILYs I think even before the halfway point - and Matt even far earlier.
In a way, it was nice to read a romance where there wasn't some crazy FBI-CIA battling terrorist plot or a crazed serial killer or stalker on the loose. There were also no Big Misunderstandings or Things Left Unsaid - another huge plus. The book focuses on these two people's relationship and how they come together, learn to trust and love one another, and how their families merge.
However, because Tate and Matt don't know each other at the beginning of the book - they live in a relatively small town so of one another and/or one another's families, but aren't even really passing acquaintances - I feel like Dane could have really made this book amazing had she spent more time on the earlier stages of their relationship. I loved how it started and how we get to see Matt begin to realize he really likes this girl - as in like likes (he uses that phrase, so cute! ;-) - and Tate begin to see the real man behind (underneath?) her daily "visual donut." That first impromptu lunch on the park bench was so lovely to read and Matt's beginning awareness of his feelings as he watches Tate interact with his brothers and his nephew was just too cute (how many times have I used that word now in this review?!?!).
The chemistry between them is so well-written in those sections - you can sense those crush-related-tingles they're starting to get for one another - and as they interact more, you can start to see their defenses and masks crumble. That beginning part of the book was so enjoyable that I wish there had been more of that. Weeks are kind of passed over and had more time been spent on that period of their relationship as opposed to about 2/3 being spent on after they've gotten together (while still having to work through the aforementioned issues), I think it would have been a better read and made their relationship seem stronger and more intense for the reader.
Completely minor, but always an annoyance: what is up with almost all romance covers showing a couple that does not at all resemble the main characters?!?! One of the big issues here is that Tate is a short and full-figured woman (with white-blond hair, btw!) ... ummm, that arm looks pretty skinny to me.
CHASE BROTHERS SERIES:
This is the last book in the series but the only one I've read and I did not have any problem following, so can definitely be read as a stand-alone.
Book 1 - Giving Chase (Kyle and Maggie)
Book 2 - Taking Chase (Shane and Cassie)
Book 3 - Chased (Marc and Liv)
Book 4 - Making Chase (Matt and Tate)
BOTTOM LINE:
I'm very glad I decided to read this book and would definitely recommend it. It was not at all what I was expecting, but in many ways that ended up being a good thing. Am really looking forward to exploring Lauren Dane's backlist.
This is my first book by Lauren Dane and it was not at all what I had expected. Since most of her books are very racy, I wasn't really sure how story-driven this would be, but to my great surprise it was almost all focused on the hero and heroine's character and relationship development and read like a regular contemporary romance. Tate was a wonderful heroine - strong yet vulnerable and one of the wallflower-types that I love. Matt was such a sweet and absolutely delicious hero - this is one of those romances where the man is all too ready to admit his feelings and for them to be committed to one another, while the woman is the one who is having to be chased and is scared of getting involved.
OUR LEADING COUPLE:
I loved both Tate Murphy and Matt Chase. I'm a huge lover of the wallflower/plain-jane romances and we definitely have that here. Tate has a lot of insecurities to overcome: her "wrong side of the tracks" background, having abusive and neglectful parents, growing up poor, and being short and curvy and not at all the drop-dead-gorgeous type that Matt normally dates. While her insecurities are a HUGE element of the story, Dane is able to stay clear from taking it to the point where you want to slap her upside the head. She does this by rounding out Tate's character and giving her plenty of other attributes. She has sass, she's sweet and unbelievably caring and generous, is able to laugh at herself, is smart and driven, and while she has a lot of internal things she's dealing with, in many ways she still has a very strong sense of self.
Matt is ADORABLE!! Oh lord. He was just so, so, SO cute and sweet with her. He's Mr. Laid Back and Good Looking who has always had everything come to him very easily. He's not arrogant, which I really liked. He's self-aware and he knows what he has going for him - and he has definitely played the field - but compared to a lot of the HRs I read he was definitely not like the rake/rogues we see in those. Matt is so tender and loving with Tate and tries so hard to be there for her and to be understanding that the entire thing becomes almost too sappy to read, HA. In all seriousness though, he really is a great hero and seems very well-matched to Tate.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
It was a very enjoyable story because the characters were so great, including the secondary ones.. Both the Murphy and Chase family seem amazing and too good to be true. All of the characters stand on their own and after I got down the names and could remember who was who and which family they belonged to, I was able to just enjoy them. Some of the mean people in the town who were so (repeatedly) spiteful to Tate and the Murphy family took me aback and I felt like it was a little exaggerated. I know people like that exist, but to have it be so widespread and people acting like the entire town was just one big high school campus seemed a bit of a stretch to me. It fit in with the story and showed the characters to advantage - it's great to watch Tate stand up for herself and Matt defend her - but didn't seem wholly realistic.
CRITICISM:
My complaints revolve solely around how the story was crafted. I almost felt like we had arrived at our HEA 1/3 of the way through the book and was kind of wondering where this was all going. Sure, they still had issues to work out because Tate was still dealing with her insecurities and they were still having to manage people's negative reactions to their relationship, but ... a whole book from that? I mean they say their ILYs I think even before the halfway point - and Matt even far earlier.
In a way, it was nice to read a romance where there wasn't some crazy FBI-CIA battling terrorist plot or a crazed serial killer or stalker on the loose. There were also no Big Misunderstandings or Things Left Unsaid - another huge plus. The book focuses on these two people's relationship and how they come together, learn to trust and love one another, and how their families merge.
However, because Tate and Matt don't know each other at the beginning of the book - they live in a relatively small town so of one another and/or one another's families, but aren't even really passing acquaintances - I feel like Dane could have really made this book amazing had she spent more time on the earlier stages of their relationship. I loved how it started and how we get to see Matt begin to realize he really likes this girl - as in like likes (he uses that phrase, so cute! ;-) - and Tate begin to see the real man behind (underneath?) her daily "visual donut." That first impromptu lunch on the park bench was so lovely to read and Matt's beginning awareness of his feelings as he watches Tate interact with his brothers and his nephew was just too cute (how many times have I used that word now in this review?!?!).
The chemistry between them is so well-written in those sections - you can sense those crush-related-tingles they're starting to get for one another - and as they interact more, you can start to see their defenses and masks crumble. That beginning part of the book was so enjoyable that I wish there had been more of that. Weeks are kind of passed over and had more time been spent on that period of their relationship as opposed to about 2/3 being spent on after they've gotten together (while still having to work through the aforementioned issues), I think it would have been a better read and made their relationship seem stronger and more intense for the reader.
Completely minor, but always an annoyance: what is up with almost all romance covers showing a couple that does not at all resemble the main characters?!?! One of the big issues here is that Tate is a short and full-figured woman (with white-blond hair, btw!) ... ummm, that arm looks pretty skinny to me.
CHASE BROTHERS SERIES:
This is the last book in the series but the only one I've read and I did not have any problem following, so can definitely be read as a stand-alone.
Book 1 - Giving Chase (Kyle and Maggie)
Book 2 - Taking Chase (Shane and Cassie)
Book 3 - Chased (Marc and Liv)
Book 4 - Making Chase (Matt and Tate)
BOTTOM LINE:
I'm very glad I decided to read this book and would definitely recommend it. It was not at all what I was expecting, but in many ways that ended up being a good thing. Am really looking forward to exploring Lauren Dane's backlist.
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