All He Ever Needed appears to be the title.

The story features the eldest Kowalski brother Mitch who is one of the premiere demolitions experts in the country (maybe the world) which made me think of Chase in Victoria Dahl's Lead Me On. Maybe the two can go on a reality tv summer special and see who blows things up the best. I think all the romance readers would tune in for something like that. (and yes, I know these are fictional characters). Mitch is back in his hometown to help his youngest brother Joe out with the family lodge after Joe breaks his leg. He plans to be home for 6 weeks which is about all he can handle of Whitford, Maine where everyone remembers every one of his youthful peccadillos and can't stop repeating them ad nauseum.

Paige Sullivan is the owner of one of the town's restaurants. Her car broke down and two years later, she calls Whitford home.

I loved the contrast between Mitch's sour outlook on small towns and Paige's embrace of it. Mitch has had too much of small town closeness and for a girl who hasn't had many connections in her life, Paige is thrilled to be enfolded in the town's warm embrace. She loves her roots and Mitch loves the freedom of living from city to city and project to project.

I've been reading Stacey for six years now and her writing skills have really grown. She's a comfort read for me now. I feel safe that every time I pick up a Stacey book I'm going to read something funny, sexy, and loving. That's exactly what I got in All He Ever Needed.

However.

There were things that did not work for me. I've become decreasingly enamored with the guy who pursues a chick for temporary fun and games when the girl is clearly not a good time girl and frankly I don't know what type of girl looks like a good time girl. Mitch does this. He's unrelenting in his pursuit even after Paige brushes him off, telling him that she is not interested. Mitch promises Paige a good time and that he'll not hurt her.

I think it's a bit arrogant and selfish and myopic. How does he know that he's never hurt anyone or left anyone behind? But the other thing I wished that had been brought out earlier was that Mitch wasn't ready now for a relationship and why. Toward the end he acknowledges someday he might want to settle down but he's not ready for that now but that was a character issue that would have made more sense to present toward the beginning rather than the end.

It really got my back up when Mitch felt that he could invade Paige's space, both metaphorically and physically, yet was irritated when Paige even approached his own self-designated-but-not-outwardly-communicated-to-Paige space. I wished Paige had asserted more limits with Mitch. Their physical relationship felt awfully one sided and Mitch sent out any number of mixed signals. It would have been nice if Paige had called him on that.

My issues with Mitch were why I graded the book down one star. I thought the set up for the other brothers' books was excellent. Can't wait for the rest of the books. We are in for a treat this fall.