Back to You (The Hurley Boys #3) by Lauren Dane-a review

BACK TO YOU (The Hurley Boys #3) by Lauren Dane-a review

Back to You

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 26, 2015

Former model Kelly Hurley has finally put the ashes of the past behind her. After a passionate but turbulent marriage to rock star Vaughan Hurley that ended in heartbreak and divorce, Kelly rebuilt her life in Portland, where she settled so their two young daughters could be close to their father. Just not so close Kelly couldn’t truly make her own way without interference from the man who shattered her heart. Now Kelly’s finally ready to move on, and she’s planning to marry another man.

But not if Vaughan has anything to say about it.

Vaughan knows he was a fool all those years ago. A young, selfish—and prideful—fool. Even as he buried himself in the fast, decadent rock star lifestyle, he could never drown out the memory of Kelly’s beauty and love. Or the sweet, searing heat whenever they touched. For years, he’s had to deal with the pain of seeing her only because of their daughters, but it was never enough. Now Vaughan must prove that he’s the only man Kelly needs, before he loses her for good. And there’s only one way to do it….

•••••••••••••••

REVIEW: BACK TO YOU is the third and final installment in Lauren Dane’s adult, contemporary Hurley Boys romance series focusing on the Hurley brothers and their rock band Sweet Hollow Ranch. This is former model Kelly Hurley and rock star Vaughan Hurley’s second chance storyline. Divorced eight years earlier Vaughan and Kelly have been dancing around one another throughout the series. BACK TO YOU can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Kelly and Vaughan) BACK TO YOU follows the rekindling of the relationship between our leading couple. Eight years earlier Kelly handed Vaughan his walking papers after finding her husband in a compromising position with a band groupie. Fast forward eight long years wherein Kelly had to give up her life as a runway model, and raise two daughters all by herself. Although Vaughan has continued to be a part of his daughters’s lives throughout the years, he wants his family back together, and begging his ex-wife’s forgiveness is only the start. When the eldest daughter is hospitalized, Vaughan offers to help in her recovery, in the hopes of getting closer to the family he wants back in his life.

The prior relationship between our couple has already been established but BACK TO YOU reveals the events leading up to Vaughan and Kelly’s marriage breakdown and how years of lies have placed Kelly in the role of heartbreaker and villain. Vaughan hadn’t told the truth about what happened between him and his wife, and in this, Vaughan’s family detested everything about our heroine.

Kelly is reluctant to have Vaughan back in her life: they married young, and the seduction of the rock and roll lifestyle claimed the man with whom she had fallen in love. Our heroine also has issues with self-esteem and a stage-mother who has yet to relinquish control. Before Kelly gives her heart back to Vaughan, she insists that he understands the errors of his way. The $ex scenes are intimate, provocative and hot without the erotic nature and content. Vaughan and Kelly never had a problem when it came to $ex. But saying that, I didn’t quite feel the heat or attraction. There was something almost too sterile about the couple’s reconnection.

The colorful secondary and supporting characters include Vaughan’s older brothers and members of the band Ezra and Paddy, as well as their girlfriends Tuesday and Natalie. Sharon and Michael Hurley, Vaughan’s parents, struggle with their son’s marriage and eventual divorce, and Sharon continued to spout poison throughout most of the story.

Reading BACK TO YOU I struggled slightly with the timeline as some of the events appeared to run parallel to events in book two BROKEN OPEN and therefore there was some confusion as it pertained to action in both books. I tried to get confirmation from the author, but I did not get a response. So, for all intents and purposes, I will say that books 2 and 3 run parallel to one another until I hear otherwise.

BACK TO YOU is a storyline that focuses on the destruction of a marriage and the fall out between family and in-laws when the truth is kept hidden for far too long. Kelly and Vaughan had never stopped loving one another but past transgressions destroyed any hope for Kelly’s trust. Lauren Dane blends betrayal with heartbreak; forgiveness and letting go; there was very little conflict and no additional anxious moments that required resolution.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Series Spotlight pink

The Best Kind of TroubleTHE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE
The Hurley Boys #1
by Lauren Dane
Release Date:August 26, 2014

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / KOBO / The Book Depository

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 26, 2014

She has complete control… and he’s determined to take it away

A librarian in the small town of Hood River, Natalie Clayton’s world is very nearly perfect. After a turbulent childhood and her once-wild ways, life is now under control. But trouble has a way of turning up unexpectedly—especially in the tall, charismatically sexy form of Paddy Hurley….

And Paddy is the kind of trouble that Natalie has a taste for.

Even after years of the rock and roll lifestyle, Paddy never forgot the two wickedly hot weeks he once shared with Natalie. Now he wants more… even if it means tempting Natalie and her iron-grip control. But there’s a fine line between well-behaved and misbehaved—and the only compromise is between the sheets!

_________________

Broken OpenBROKEN OPEN
The Hurley Boys #2
by Lauren Dane
Release Date: November 25, 2014

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Click HERE for Sandy’s review of BROKEN OPEN

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 25, 2014

Beyond passion. And beyond their control…

Five years ago, Tuesday Eastwood’s life collapsed and left her devastated. After an empty, nomadic existence, she’s finally pieced her life back together in the small Oregon town of Hood River. Now Tuesday has everything sorted out. Just so long as men are kept for sex, and only sex…

Then she met him.

Musician and rancher Ezra Hurley isn’t the man of Tuesday’s dreams. He’s a verboten fantasy—a man tortured by past addictions, whose dark charisma and long, lean body promise delicious carnality. But this craving goes far beyond chemistry. It’s primal. It’s insatiable. And it won’t be satisfied until they’re both consumed, body and soul…

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Broken Open (The Hurley Boys #2) by Lauren Dane-a review

BROKEN OPEN (The Hurley Boys #2) by Lauren Dane-a review

Broken Open

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / KOBO / The Book Depository

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 25, 2014

Beyond passion. And beyond their control…

Five years ago, Tuesday Eastwood’s life collapsed and left her devastated. After an empty, nomadic existence, she’s finally pieced her life back together in the small Oregon town of Hood River. Now Tuesday has everything sorted out. Just so long as men are kept for sex, and only sex…

Then she met him.

Musician and rancher Ezra Hurley isn’t the man of Tuesday’s dreams. He’s a verboten fantasy—a man tortured by past addictions, whose dark charisma and long, lean body promise delicious carnality. But this craving goes far beyond chemistry. It’s primal. It’s insatiable. And it won’t be satisfied until they’re both consumed, body and soul…

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: BROKEN OPEN is the second installment in Lauren Dane’s contemporary, adult The Hurley Boys romance series focusing on the members of the rock band Sweet Hollow Ranch. This is eldest brother, guitarist and song writer Ezra Hurley, and Natalie’s (book one) best friend/ jewelry designer Tuesday Eastwood’s storyline. Our couple previously met in book one- The Best Kind of Troubleand their attraction to one another heats up in Broken Open.

Told from third person point of view, the focus of the storyline follows the building relationship between Ezra and Tuesday-two people whose pasts are riddled with heartbreak and pain. Ezra is a recovering heroin addict, whose addiction all but destroyed Sweet Hollow Ranch and the people that he loved. Heroin is a powerful drug and Ezra’s attraction and need for Tuesday has him believing he is replacing one addiction with another. While Sweet Hollow Ranch is on tour, Ezra works the family ranch back home in Hood River.

Tuesday is a strong woman who refuses to stand down; a young widow whose former in laws continue to tear away at the grief that surrounds her daily existence. Five years have passed and Tuesday is ready to move on with her life and Ezra is the man to bring her out of the past.

The relationship between Ezra and Tuesday is one of immediate attraction. Their connection and desire for one another is palpable. While neither one is expecting a permanent relationship, there is a definite spark that does not go unnoticed. The sex scenes are frequent, seductive and passionate. Ezra is a man who knows what he wants in the bedroom and Tuesday is the woman who is willing to give him what he wants.

The secondary characters include all of the Hurley brothers, both Ezra and Tuesday’s immediate and extended families as well as Tuesday’s former in-laws whose mission is to destroy Tuesday’s new found happiness –at any cost.

The world building reflects on Ezra’s addiction and the heartache that follows for the band. Both Ezra and Tuesday’s families are supportive, nurturing and protective of one another. There are some issues of bigotry and stereotyping. Tuesday is a woman of African-American descent and Hood River is a small town with some small town mentality and beliefs.

My only concern is the actions of Tuesday’s former in-laws. Although we can understand grief and loss, their behavior is unbelievable; their emotional instability is over the top; and their need for revenge is psychotic in action. The delivery felt displaced in the storyline.

BROKEN OPEN is a provocative storyline of family, friendship, learning to love again and letting go of the past. There are moments of humor, pain, romance and drama but in the end, there is a happily ever after for two people who have endured so much loss in their lives.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Best Kind of Trouble (The Hurley Boys #1) by Lauren Dane-a review

THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE (The Hurley Boys #1) by Lauren Dane-a review

The Best Kind of Trouble

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / KOBO / The Book Depository

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 26, 2014

She has complete control… and he’s determined to take it away

A librarian in the small town of Hood River, Natalie Clayton’s world is very nearly perfect. After a turbulent childhood and her once-wild ways, life is now under control. But trouble has a way of turning up unexpectedly—especially in the tall, charismatically sexy form of Paddy Hurley….

And Paddy is the kind of trouble that Natalie has a taste for.

Even after years of the rock and roll lifestyle, Paddy never forgot the two wickedly hot weeks he once shared with Natalie. Now he wants more… even if it means tempting Natalie and her iron-grip control. But there’s a fine line between well-behaved and misbehaved—and the only compromise is between the sheets!

•••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE is the first book in Lauren Dane’s new, adult, contemporary The Hurley Boys erotic romance series focusing the members (and brothers) of the rock group Sweet Hollow Ranch. This is Patrick “Paddy” Hurley and Natalie Clayton’s storyline-a somewhat second chance at love storyline for two people who have reconnected over coffee and home town life in Hood River.

Told from third person POV the premise focuses on the building relationship between Natalie –the Hood River librarian- and bad boy rocker and lead singer of Sweet Hollow Ranch, and home town phenom Paddy Hurley. Paddy and Natalie had spent two sex filled weeks together before the band made it big and reconnecting years later with Natalie (back in his home town) rekindles all kinds of emotions and needs in Paddy. He is a man possessed to claim Natalie as his own but Natalie has many reasons to not accept and refuse Paddy in her life.

Natalie is a product of her past. Destroyed by the actions of her parents, Natalie is not very forthcoming with Paddy. She is a woman with a history that continues to control her present and in this her actions and responses to Paddy were questionable on many levels. Natalie is quick to judge; quick to assume; and quick to run when the going gets tough-not that Paddy didn’t have some demons of his own.

Paddy lived the rock and roll life style-drugs, alcohol and women-but he has left that all behind. As he and his brothers prepare for their upcoming tour, he will begin to fall in love with a woman whose past will eventually come crashing back and into Sweet Hollow Ranch’s path. Paddy is a man who believes he should be the one to rescue and save the woman that he loves-but when he believes someone has interfered his reactions are so out of character I wondered what I had missed early in the storyline.

The secondary characters include the Hurley Boys-Damien, Ezra and Vaughan, as well as their parents-Michael and Sharon Hurley. We get a glimpse into a loving family unit that has weathered a few dark times throughout the band’s rise to fame. We are also introduced to Natalie’s former college friends and besties, including her room mate Tuesday whose story will be told when Ezra finds the woman that saves his soul.

The world building takes the reader from the past to the present; from family dysfunction to family unity; from friendship to love. We are pulled into a story where four brothers have made it big in the world of rock and roll but with it comes all of the perks and problems that one could imagine.

Lauren Dane writes a story of family love, troubled pasts and moving on. I did have a few issues with the jumpy feel of the story; the focus seem to scatter on occasion as though there something was missing. I also had a difficult time with some of the reasoning and issues our leading couple allowed to bleed into their lives. Small things seem to set them off, yet bigger issues were brushed aside as though they were expected and not unforeseen which added to the already uneasy feel of the story.

THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE introduces four brothers whose lives have changed and are about to change once again. It is a story that reveals some of the seedier side of rock and roll, as well as the promise of greater things to come. Everyone needs a rock; an anchor; a soul mate; and The Hurley Boys series will find each of the members of Sweet Hollow Ranch find their Happily Ever After.I am looking forward to Ezra and Tuesday’s story-Broken Open (November 2014)

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

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