Smooth Talking Stranger (Travises, #3) in Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group

Jun 21, 2010 Dina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, 1st-person-pov, to-blog

According to Wikipedia, "Chick lit is genre fiction within women's fiction which addresses issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly. (...) Although sometimes it includes romantic elements, women's fiction (including chick lit) is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because in chick lit the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be just as important as her romantic relationships."

So, Smooth Talking Stranger is chick lit, even According to Wikipedia, "Chick lit is genre fiction within women's fiction which addresses issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly. (...) Although sometimes it includes romantic elements, women's fiction (including chick lit) is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because in chick lit the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be just as important as her romantic relationships."

So, Smooth Talking Stranger is chick lit, even though my bookstore had shelved it under "Contemporary Romance". Why am I making a fuss about this distinction? Because I don't like chick lit... but I liked this book very much. Trust Ms. Kleypas to make me enjoy something I normally don't care about. :) This book made me smile, sigh, cry, laugh and curse in anger, because Ella (the heroine) pulled me into her story and didn't let me go. I didn't like her all the time - and I came close to hating her in one particular moment (just have a look at my status updates, if you're curious) - but I rooted for her and I wanted her to find her HEA with Jack and baby Luke.

Now Jack, oh Jack... He was gorgeous, wealthy beyond reason, caring, sensitive, protective, charming, amazing in bed... In one word, perfect. From beginning to end. That was a problem, believe it or not. He had no character development in the story, and I "blame" the 1st person POV narration for that. As I only saw him through Ella's eyes, I could only guess what he felt and what moved him. Even though he talked about some of that a little later, after he got together with Ella for good, it was too little, too late for me. That said, I wouldn't kick him out of my bed, though. ;)

All things considered, I really enjoyed this read - which was a surprise - but it didn't change my mind about my general dislike of chick lit and I won't be runing to read the previous books in this series. They're supposed to be even more focused on the heroine's story and have less romance than this book, and that isn't appealing to me.
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Mar 27, 2011 Lynsey A rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hardcover, part-of-a-series, contemporary-romance, 2013-reads, reading-again, baby, books-i-own, first-person-pov, child-children-involved

This was my second read of this book. Apparently I rated it 4 stars last read but I upped it to 5 this time. I just love Jack Travis. He is the perfect hero. This was such a sweet love story. Romantic love and maternal love. Beautifully told.

Now just counting down the days to Joe's book. ...more

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Mar 05, 2010 Darcy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015, 2010, romance, audio-book, listened-to-at-work

This one is very likable from the start a large part is due to Ella. Like a lot of people Ella had a not so good childhood, but she doesn't let that bog her down, she has taken steps to deal with it, even to go so far as to isolate herself from her family in order to save her own sanity. All of this changes when on out of the blue phone call from her mother that she needs to come back to Houston to take care of her sister's baby that she just dropped off when no one even knew she was pregnant.

B ...more

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May 08, 2010 Arch rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, book-bought-in-2010, first-person-book

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was my first book by Lisa Kleypas. I don't usually care for first person books, but this one held my attention, especially, when the sexy laid back billionaire Jack appeared in this book. He was known to be a womanizer, but in this book, he was a gentlemen. He had eyes only for the heroine - Ella. This is book three, so that means that he did his womanizing in the other books or one of the previous books.

Lets see how Ella and Jack came about meeting one another. Ella is an advice columinist ...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Aimee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-romance, i-need-a-cold-shower, made-me-cry, made-me-laugh-out-loud, own-it, absolute-faves, chick-lit, addictive-like-literary-heroine, lisa-kleypas, holy-hotness-hall-of-fame-hero

Oh yeah. This is one of the books you walk away from with a big goofy grin on your face. I loved it!

Ella Varner is a columnist in Austin who finds herself in the predicament of taking care of her sister's abandoned newborn. So she sets off to find the father and make him take on some of the responsibility.

Jack Travis ::sigh:: walks out of a meeting one day to find Ella in his waiting room, newborn in tow, insisting that he take a DNA test. He's never been more tempted than by this headstrong, ...more

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Feb 07, 2010 Teri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 6-stars

It is so wrong that I fell in love this hard with Jack Travis. How can people rate this book 3 or 4 stars? I don't get it.

Jack and Ella's relationship developed perfectly! The only problem with the book is that I didn't end up with Jack in the end ;) ...more

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