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

Dec 07, 2011 Ruth rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-romance, series, library_hardcopy

This was another good story in this series, although I have to be honest and admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two. The first two felt like incredibly strong stand-out stories, different from other contemporaries both in the stories themselves and how they were written. The story for this one was also pretty good, with some nice twists, but (apart from the first person narrative again) the writing wasn't as good.

Now, don't get me wrong, as contemporaries go, this was far superior to p This was another good story in this series, although I have to be honest and admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two. The first two felt like incredibly strong stand-out stories, different from other contemporaries both in the stories themselves and how they were written. The story for this one was also pretty good, with some nice twists, but (apart from the first person narrative again) the writing wasn't as good.

Now, don't get me wrong, as contemporaries go, this was far superior to pretty much anything else I've read. But it relied too much on some things that I personally can't stand. First off, there is too much girrrlfriend stuff going on. You know what I mean, the heroine has girlfriends that she phones or speaks to in a running stream of advice, and they always give great (perfect) advice. Nope. I don't like that. Grown women might bounce ideas of friends, or have fun with them, but I think they pretty much make their own choices. Also, this heroine is definitely an introvert, and introverts probably wouldn't open up as much as this heroine does to people that she doesn't know. It just felt wrong. Also, friends are not perfect, and half the time they don't give you advice, they're just as clueless as you.

Also, the heroine apparently has a full-time paying job, but I really only got the sense that it's something she does for 10 minutes a day. She spent so much time hanging out with the Travis family and Jack and looking after the baby that I'm surprised she even had time to boot up her laptop. If she were an agony-aunt/journalist, she'd be churning the stuff out.

Also, there was too much with the other characters from the Travis family. The other two books didn't fall into this trap - they used them when they were needed, but other than that the stories were really nice and clean. This one included way too much family stuff, and the heroine found it far too easy to be surrounded by the wealth and luxury. Having said that, it was intriguing to see Haven outside of her first person narrative from Blue-Eyed Devil.

One problem I really had was that we never really find out why the hero falls for the heroine. It's like wham! she walks through the door and he's smitten. We get no real explanation, and that made me feel uncomfortable.

So, what did I like? I really liked the banter between the heroine and the hero. It was excellent stuff. Not pointless, but effortless, fun and they weren't trying to get one over each other, but just have a fun time talking. It really worked, and it fitted the heroine perfectly. It also fitted the hero to let the heroine win these exchanges - he seemed a pretty complacent, nice guy, even though he thought that a good rogering was the answer to everything, but is pretty pathetic.

I also loved the story. We could have done with a bit more background to the heroine's childhood, since this was clearly instrumental in everything that came later, but the baby turning up out of the blue and the heroine being the uncomplaining go-to girl, just felt totally right. Sometimes, you don't rationalize, you just get on with it. It worked incredibly well. Also, I loved how together the heroine was, except when things got too much. We didn't need to be told she was smart - you could tell she was by the way she'd worked through stuff, how she'd learned who she was, and how she accepted that sometimes you can't really be in control.

So, 3 stars. Not as good as the first two, but still better than most. ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Peaches rated it it was ok

Shelves: dnf

Sorry I didn't like this book at all. It heard so many great things about this book but it was highly disappointing.

I don't know if I and the other reviewer's read the same book. Jack Travis is the most boring and one dimensional romance novel hero I've ever read. Lisa Kleypas was trying to make him into one of those alpha-jealous-possessive heroes, which she failed to do unfortunately. There are too many sex scenes with tacky details. Don't get me wrong, I love sex scenes but most of them in t ...more

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