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Citizen's Police Academy #3
Once a Cop
Putting herself in the line of fire is a dangerous way to make a living. But Roberta Meyers is proud of her job with the Lakewood P.D. No one's going to tell the dedicated police officer how to live her life. Including Holden Thomas, who thinks law enforcement is no career for a single mother.
Then why is Robbie finding the outspoken youth minister—a single dad himself—so hard to resist?
Holden's proud of the shelter he runs for troubled teens, and proud of the niece he's raising single-handedly. He can't let his attraction to Robbie get in the way of creating a stable home for his family. So why is Holden feeling as if he never wants to let her go?
Then why is Robbie finding the outspoken youth minister—a single dad himself—so hard to resist?
Holden's proud of the shelter he runs for troubled teens, and proud of the niece he's raising single-handedly. He can't let his attraction to Robbie get in the way of creating a stable home for his family. So why is Holden feeling as if he never wants to let her go?
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Childs
414 books993 followersBorn one dark and stormy Halloween night, Lisa Childs was predestined to write suspense novels. She loves spinning dark and twisty stories that keep readers awake because they’re either too busy turning pages or too scared to sleep. Lisa Childs is the prolific author of more than seventy published novels. In addition to romantic suspense, she also writes women’s fiction, paranormal and contemporary romance.
Lisa loves to hear from readers who can contact her on Facebook or through her website.
Lisa loves to hear from readers who can contact her on Facebook or through her website.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 22, 2017
She could not lose her heart to a man who wouldn't be able to love her as she was, who would only love her if she did what he wanted. She had lost her parents' love because she defied them, and she would not be manipulated or controlled that way again. She would only love someone who could love her unconditionally.
This is one of those books where you just cannot understand why the two leads get together.
Robbie is a cop, and she has a nine-year-old daughter. She was a pregnant 15-year-old runaway, but now she works hard to make the community safe.
Holden is a youth minister. Ugh, turn-off for me right there. I'm not attracted to youth ministers. ANYWAY, he is raising his nine-year-old niece. His sister ODed and he is raising the child.
They meet when Robbie mistakes him for a drug dealer, tackles him, and handcuffs him.
THE PROBLEMS
These two don't even like each other, much less love each other. They are VERY judgmental and critical of each other.
She runs a background check on him. She accuses him of being a drug dealer. She accuses him of being a child-abuser. She insults his parenting.
He insults her parenting. He insinuates that she loves her job more than her child. He orders, cajoles, and begs her to stop being a police officer (equivalent of asking someone to cut off their arm, policing is often a huge passion for those who do it). Even though he is not even Boyfriend, he thinks he can make demands like this. And there's no way she's going to allow him to be Boyfriend if he keeps demanding she quit her job. He even says shit like, "If you REALLY loved your daughter, you'd quit policing." I mean, the nerve of this guy!
He has a woman who he is dating semi-seriously but keeps kissing / trying to fuck Robbie. Cheater. Cheater, is what I'm saying.
He's secretly rich. Of course. Try finding a romance where a man is poor or even of average income.
I have NO IDEA why these two are attracted to each other.
Both are 'hot.'
OH-KAY, but even if someone is 'hot' - would you want to date them or sleep with them if they do shit like this? Think you're a bad parent? Accuse you of crimes? Try to badger you into quitting a job you love? I THINK NOT. This is supposed to be a romance novel. Key word here being romance. Nothing about this is romantic.
And it's hard for me to believe that they are being prickly and judgmental to each other - and wounding each other's feelings - and then the next thing you know they are having sex. o.O Just does not compute.
To be fair, they judge everyone a lot, not just each other. They are just unpleasant, judgmental people.
And they both act as if they have some right to each other's deep, dark secrets and pasts - even though they are not even Boyfriend/Girlfriend!!!! It's baffling. He basically demands that she tell him about her past, even though it CLEARLY makes her uncomfortable, AND he's demonstrated that he's not exactly a forgiving and understanding person. Not cool.
Sharing her past was sharing too much of herself; it was more intimate than making love with him.
"Tell me," he urged her.
She shook her head, unwilling to give any more of herself to a man who'd once vowed he would never love her.
She doesn't even ask, instead she just uses her cop-powers to find out everything about him.
So, to conclude, how do these people who are AWFUL to each other end up together? It beats me. I would want nothing to do with him/her if I were him/her. There's nothing appealing about either of them.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
Even though the sex is not particularly well-written, I was surprised to find that Holden is actually pretty good in bed. Not that Childs is going to get your engine revving with her sex scenes... this isn't that kind of book... but Holden actually has sex in a way that I like and approve of. So. That is good. At least he wasn't pissing me off when it came to bedroom activities.
Here's a sample if you are interested in the sex writing:
He continued to tease her, using just his tongue while his fingers skimmed along her sides to the curve of her hips. Finally he tugged her nipple fully into his mouth, scraping the sensitive tip with his teeth. While one hand cupped her other breast, the fingers of his free hand skimmed over her stomach to tangle in the curls between her legs. He stroked through them to slide first one finger inside her, then another, while his thumb teased the most sensitive part of her. The tension built inside her, making her muscles contract until finally she shuddered and came.
"Holden!"
"I have to taste you," he said, but instead of kissing her lips, he moved down her body and slipped his tongue inside her. He stroked it in and out, just as his fingers had done.
Like I was saying, not stuff I'm going to be getting worked up about, but points for
a.) describing stuff well enough that I can understand what's going on. This really grates my cheese - often in romance novels the author is too vague and flowery and I actually can't figure out what the hell the leads are doing in bed.
b.) Making me believe the hero actually knows what he's doing in bed.
c.) Makes her come at least once before coming himself. Seems like a generous and competent man in bed.
They have sex three times in this book and use condoms twice. I'm unsure why they didn't use a condom in the last sex scene. It could be because
Tl;dr - One of those baffling romance novels where you can't understand why two people who don't like each other - much less love each other - end up together. Not even like passionate hatred or 'hate fucking' or whatever is so 'in' and popular nowadays. Just simply people who don't get along and are awful to each other. o.O Him being good in bed (and not like 'I'm now in a coma' good, just regular good) isn't enough for me to believe she'd want to be with him. Especially once she finds out she's the 'other woman.' And who knows what he sees in her! She's very prickly, judgmental and confrontational. Sure, she's 'hot,' but I mean... who needs this shit? Hard for me to believe that no one else in this town will suit.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES
Contemporary Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
This is one of those books where you just cannot understand why the two leads get together.
Robbie is a cop, and she has a nine-year-old daughter. She was a pregnant 15-year-old runaway, but now she works hard to make the community safe.
Holden is a youth minister. Ugh, turn-off for me right there. I'm not attracted to youth ministers. ANYWAY, he is raising his nine-year-old niece. His sister ODed and he is raising the child.
They meet when Robbie mistakes him for a drug dealer, tackles him, and handcuffs him.
THE PROBLEMS
These two don't even like each other, much less love each other. They are VERY judgmental and critical of each other.
She runs a background check on him. She accuses him of being a drug dealer. She accuses him of being a child-abuser. She insults his parenting.
He insults her parenting. He insinuates that she loves her job more than her child. He orders, cajoles, and begs her to stop being a police officer (equivalent of asking someone to cut off their arm, policing is often a huge passion for those who do it). Even though he is not even Boyfriend, he thinks he can make demands like this. And there's no way she's going to allow him to be Boyfriend if he keeps demanding she quit her job. He even says shit like, "If you REALLY loved your daughter, you'd quit policing." I mean, the nerve of this guy!
He has a woman who he is dating semi-seriously but keeps kissing / trying to fuck Robbie. Cheater. Cheater, is what I'm saying.
He's secretly rich. Of course. Try finding a romance where a man is poor or even of average income.
I have NO IDEA why these two are attracted to each other.
Both are 'hot.'
OH-KAY, but even if someone is 'hot' - would you want to date them or sleep with them if they do shit like this? Think you're a bad parent? Accuse you of crimes? Try to badger you into quitting a job you love? I THINK NOT. This is supposed to be a romance novel. Key word here being romance. Nothing about this is romantic.
And it's hard for me to believe that they are being prickly and judgmental to each other - and wounding each other's feelings - and then the next thing you know they are having sex. o.O Just does not compute.
To be fair, they judge everyone a lot, not just each other. They are just unpleasant, judgmental people.
And they both act as if they have some right to each other's deep, dark secrets and pasts - even though they are not even Boyfriend/Girlfriend!!!! It's baffling. He basically demands that she tell him about her past, even though it CLEARLY makes her uncomfortable, AND he's demonstrated that he's not exactly a forgiving and understanding person. Not cool.
Sharing her past was sharing too much of herself; it was more intimate than making love with him.
"Tell me," he urged her.
She shook her head, unwilling to give any more of herself to a man who'd once vowed he would never love her.
She doesn't even ask, instead she just uses her cop-powers to find out everything about him.
So, to conclude, how do these people who are AWFUL to each other end up together? It beats me. I would want nothing to do with him/her if I were him/her. There's nothing appealing about either of them.
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
Even though the sex is not particularly well-written, I was surprised to find that Holden is actually pretty good in bed. Not that Childs is going to get your engine revving with her sex scenes... this isn't that kind of book... but Holden actually has sex in a way that I like and approve of. So. That is good. At least he wasn't pissing me off when it came to bedroom activities.
Here's a sample if you are interested in the sex writing:
He continued to tease her, using just his tongue while his fingers skimmed along her sides to the curve of her hips. Finally he tugged her nipple fully into his mouth, scraping the sensitive tip with his teeth. While one hand cupped her other breast, the fingers of his free hand skimmed over her stomach to tangle in the curls between her legs. He stroked through them to slide first one finger inside her, then another, while his thumb teased the most sensitive part of her. The tension built inside her, making her muscles contract until finally she shuddered and came.
"Holden!"
"I have to taste you," he said, but instead of kissing her lips, he moved down her body and slipped his tongue inside her. He stroked it in and out, just as his fingers had done.
Like I was saying, not stuff I'm going to be getting worked up about, but points for
a.) describing stuff well enough that I can understand what's going on. This really grates my cheese - often in romance novels the author is too vague and flowery and I actually can't figure out what the hell the leads are doing in bed.
b.) Making me believe the hero actually knows what he's doing in bed.
c.) Makes her come at least once before coming himself. Seems like a generous and competent man in bed.
They have sex three times in this book and use condoms twice. I'm unsure why they didn't use a condom in the last sex scene. It could be because
Tl;dr - One of those baffling romance novels where you can't understand why two people who don't like each other - much less love each other - end up together. Not even like passionate hatred or 'hate fucking' or whatever is so 'in' and popular nowadays. Just simply people who don't get along and are awful to each other. o.O Him being good in bed (and not like 'I'm now in a coma' good, just regular good) isn't enough for me to believe she'd want to be with him. Especially once she finds out she's the 'other woman.' And who knows what he sees in her! She's very prickly, judgmental and confrontational. Sure, she's 'hot,' but I mean... who needs this shit? Hard for me to believe that no one else in this town will suit.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES
Contemporary Romance
Non-Virgin Heroine
November 7, 2009
another good book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews