ZERO TO SIXTY (Body Shop Bad Boys #3) by Marie Harte-Review and Book Tour

ZERO TO SIXTY
Body Shop Bad Boys 33
by Marie Harte
Release Date: February 7, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary,erotic,romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 7,2017

Bad boy Sam + Good girl Ivy + Stray puppy = Damaged hearts learning to love again

After her last relationship bombed, Ivy Stephens is doing her best to put her life back together. She’s enjoying her job, her apartment-and the cute little puppy she’s seen hanging around. When she goes looking for him, she finds the stray in the arms of a big, burly, devastatingly handsome man.

Sam Hamilton is lonelier than he’s ever been after his best friend’s engagement. To give himself a sense of purpose, he takes in a puppy that keeps showing up around the garage where he works. The puppy has another suitor though-one who happens to be blond and beautiful.

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REVIEW: ZERO TO SIXTY is the third installment in Marie Harte’s contemporary, adult BODY SHOP BAD BOYS erotic, romance series focusing on the men and woman who work at Webster’s Garage. This is mechanic Sam Hamilton, and massage therapist Ivy Stephens’s story line. ZERO TO SIXTY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. BODY SHOP BAD BOYS is a spin off from Harte’s McCauley Brothers series but you do not have to have read the original series to follow the current time line. A number of the characters cross-over between the two series.

Told from several third person perspectives including Sam and Ivy, ZERO TO SIXTY follows the building relationship between bad boy mechanic Sam Hamilton and massage therapist Ivy Stephens. Sam has a bit of a soft spot where orphaned animals are involved but the disappearance of a stray puppy finds our hero face to face with Ivy Stephens, a woman who hopes to keep the puppy for her own. What ensues is the slow building relationship between Sam and Ivy, and Sam’s struggle to keep secret his past.

Sam Hamilton grew up in an abusive home to a single mother who all but ignored the son she should have loved but Sam found love and acceptance with his best friend Foley and his mother Eileen Sanders- a woman who took in the broken Sam as though he were one of her own. But Sam’s life has never been easy and when the demons begin to push, he is a man looking to fight his way out of the abyss. Ivy is an independent woman whose own family history is heartbreaking and emotional. She is a woman determined to show Sam that he is worthy of love including the love she offers.

The relationship between Sam and Ivy is slow to develop. Sam is afraid to overwhelm Ivy if he moves too fast. Throughout most of the storyline our couple ‘play’ around one another without taking the next step in their growing love. The $ex scenes are intimate and intense.

There are a large number of secondary and supporting characters including several from Harte’s McCauley Brothers series. Foley and Cyn (Roadside Assistance #2) Johnny and Lara ( Test Drive #1) as well as Mike and Delilah (What To Do With a Bad Boy) whose own relationship enters the next phase. There are plenty of lighthearted moments when the friends get together to tease one another about the lives and their loves.

The world building continues to look at family and friendship, betrayal, romance and love. The strength of the friendships throughout both of the series is emotional and tight. Everyone protects one another’s backs; no one is left alone.

ZERO TO SIXTY is an emotional story line about one man’s struggle to climb out of the depths of poverty and abuse; and one woman’s battle to prove that he is worthy of affection and love. The premise is realistic and moving; the characters are spirited and inspiring; the romance is seduction and emotional.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Reading Cafe
Roadside Assistance
Zero to Sixty

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

 

GUEST POST: researching the story line: developing the hero/heroine

Writing ZERO TO SIXTY, the third book in the Body Shop Bad Boys series, was a challenge, but one I very much looked forward to. The book had to stand alone but also be rewarding to continuing readers of the series. Sam, the hero, had already been introduced in book one and made more central to the story in book two, where he’s best friends with the hero.

Sam has issues. Oh, so many.

He’s a mechanic working in a garage with other guys (and one gal) who feel like family. And that’s a good thing, because Sam comes from an abusive background. His mother would never win mother of the year, but she’s not a horrible person for no reason. (I think her history makes for a much more interesting read than just having a “bad guy” be bad for no reason.)

Sam deals with his aggression with underground—illegal—fighting. He wants and needs to be loved but doesn’t feel worthy of it, and so he holds onto his best friend too tightly when he needs to let go. It’s while learning to stand on his own that he meets the heroine, Ivy.

Ivy is a massage therapist and current rescuer of a loveable little puppy—who ran away. She meets Sam by accident, when he spotted the dog in the back of her shop. Ivy’s intimidated by the huge, hulking, tattooed Sam. But when she gets to know him, she finds they have similar stories.

She too comes from a sorry background. While her parents weren’t verbally or physically abusive, they just didn’t care. Like Sam, she wants love but wonders what’s so wrong with her that no one, not even her family, loved her.

And then you have Cookie. The puppy who brings the two together. Cookie is a stray—like Sam—who just needs to find the right person to love him. Enter Sam and Ivy, who both see something in the tiny puppy, and in each other, to fill that void inside them needing a connection.

Writing perfect characters is boring. Writing stereotypes gets old. So though Sam is a “tortured hero,” he’s not too dark. He has a sense of humor and an ability to love. Ivy isn’t weak or pitiful. She’s strong, but she becomes stronger knowing and loving Sam (and Cookie).

~~Marie~~

 

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Caffeine addict, boy referee, and romance aficionado, USA Today bestselling author Marie Harte has over 100 books published with more constantly on the way. She’s a confessed bibliophile and devotee of action movies. Whether hiking in Central Oregon, biking around town, or hanging at the local tea shop, she’s constantly plotting to give everyone a happily ever after. Visit http://marieharte.com and fall in love.

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