Kristie J’s Duckies Do Series review of Gentry Brothers Series by Cora Brent
Contemporary Romance published by Cora Brent July 2014 – January 2015

I had barely started the first book in this series when I knew I wanted to read about all of them. I checked out Amazon and low and behold, there was a four book bundle set available. I’ve finished the whole set now and thought I’d do a shorter review of all four since it was just the one book I read – squeal of a deal it was! The series is about a set of triplets – guys – who have had a horrific upbringing and how each one of them overcomes their beginning and falls in love with just the right woman. The fourth one is their cousin who figures in several of the books, and while his upbringing wasn’t quite so horrific, he does have his own ghosts who haunt him.

Draw, Book 1
29 Jul 14

This is the story of Cord Gentry. Cord and his two brothers, Creed and Chase, have escaped their hometown where everyone considered them nothing but trash and they were earning money doing underground fighting. Cord had done something almost unforgivable to Saylor, our heroine, when they went to the same high school. It’s now a number of years later, and Saylor has just gotten out of an abusive relationship and is trying to find and stay with her cousin, who is more of a big brother. Instead she runs into Cord Gentry, the boy who had hurt her so much years previously. Right away she sees changes in him when he helps her out. He’s long felt bad for what he did and wants to try to make things right with her.  He wants to become a better person and be worthy of her.

I quite liked this book. Cord is rough around the edges, very rough, but I really enjoyed how gone and protective he becomes over Saylor. His is not an instant transformation, but rather he’s a work in progress. And Saylor makes for a fine heroine. She’s a little slow in the beginning, staying in a situation that she should have escaped much sooner, but, once she does leave, she doesn’t look back. And I like that she forgave Cord. Yes, he did something very mean, but she could see his remorse and is willing to give him another chance.  As I said above, I knew very soon into this book that I’d be wanting to read the rest.

Grade: A

Summary:

“All my life I’d always known what the Gentry boys were. A set of fraternal triplets born to a depraved family, they were rough, sexy and wild as wolves.”

Saylor…
I don’t even know if love is real. After running from the bastard who brutalized me, I limped back to Arizona, choosing a vibrant college town in the hopes of starting over. I never expected to find him there.
Cord Gentry.
He and his brothers were tough, lusty forces of nature I’d known since childhood. Years ago, Cord seduced me as a sick game. I’ve hated him ever since. Now here he is again, a man who beats other men bloody for money.
Cord has always been heartless, dangerous, not to be trusted.
And I want him so much I can’t think.
Cord…
They called us ‘those white trash Gentry boys’ until we believed that’s what we were. Our people squatted at the edge of a hellhole prison town for generations. The childhood we endured was the stuff of nightmares. I’d learned early on that my brothers, Chase and Creed, were the only people on earth worth my time.
They all told us we were bad, that we’d always be bad.
The horrors of the past have scarred my soul.
But now I need to be better.
For her.

No excerpt available.

Risk, Book 2
28 Sep 14

This is Creed’s story. He’s the biggest and the strongest of the three brothers. His heroine is Truly, a coworker of Saylor’s. Creed hides his demons with drinking. And with music. He’s a wonderful singer, but up until now, he hasn’t done anything with this talent. He’s also quite a womanizer, but once he falls for Truly, he becomes a one-woman man.

The main storyline in this book is a follow-up to Book 1. Cord and Creed made a ‘deal with a devil’ and now it’s time to pay up. But by paying the price, it could cost Creed his life.

I didn’t care for this one quite as much as Draw, but still enjoyed it and wanted to read the other two in the series. I didn’t feel the connection quite as much between Creed and Truly, but certainly enough to keep going.

Grade: B

Summary:

“I’d seen enough of Creedence Gentry to know he might be the worst thing I could do. Yet one lustful glance from him scrambled all my sanity.”

TRULY…
My life hasn’t been uneventful and a few things should have sunk in by now. I’m a tired age twenty one with a laundry list of heartbreaks. Most of all, I know what carnage comes from carelessly risking the heart. So what drives me to jump into bed with a brooding player who can barely carry a conversation?
It was supposed to be just one night.
One night of weakness, of passion, of every impulse I’d struggled to contain.
Yet I can’t stop myself from going back for more.

CREED…
Violence had always found us Gentrys but this time I’d put the price on my own head. It was my cross to bear. No flinching allowed.
There was only room for me, my brothers, and the resolve to survive. That’s all there ever had been.
There was certainly no reason for more than than a quick and dirty time with any girl, no matter how much she turned my head around.
I shouldn’t hold on to her for more than a few hours. I shouldn’t even think about it. This thing could finish us both.
It doesn’t matter. She’s all I want.

No excerpt available.

Game, Book 3
10 Nov 14

With this one we come to Chase’s story.  Chase is the real charmer of the three.  He can get a woman anytime, anywhere he wants them.  He’s the smartest of the brothers, though he does his best to hide it.  He’s in college part time but not really into anything in particular.

His heroine of choice is Stephanie, the rather secretive roommate of Truly from Risk.  Because of her privateness and the fact she seems rather immune to his charm, this is the woman who Chase wants.  He senses that she’s in trouble and wants to help her.

Though some find Stephanie rather prickly, I quite like her, and it goes without saying that I love Chase just as much as his brothers.

Grade: B+

Summary:

This time it’s Chase Gentry who has met his match in the latest story filled with gritty realism, steamy bedroom antics and the unbreakable bonds of love and brotherhood. May be read as a stand alone.

Stephanie…
As a bookie, I know more about money lines, pay sheets and point spreads than any six men. I always thought I was in control until a terrible betrayal taught me otherwise. The price was my dignity and I can’t bear to make any more mistakes.
Chase Gentry figured it would be easy to get to me. He thought I was like every other girl, just dying to spread wide for him. I knew it was a rotten gamble to get mixed up with a guy too smart and too hot for his own good. Chase is destined to be as much trouble to those around him as he is to himself. But it’s too late. He’s already won my heart.
Everyone around us insists that we’re wrong for each other; too intense, too explosive. Everyone might be right.

Chase…
Gentry men aren’t supposed to be very bright. We’re big. We’re brutal. Women can’t wait to invite us inside. I know I can have any one of them I want any time I want.
It seems unlikely that some bad-tempered chick and her snotty attitude would keep my interest but here it is. Stephanie has no idea what she does to me. I want that girl in more ways than I can even talk about.
It should have been enough to have her and be done with it. But no matter how volatile we are together, it’s never enough. To hell with anyone who objects. I’m not letting her go.

No excerpt available.

Fall, Book 4
2 Jan 15

This story is about Declan, another Gentry and the cousin of Cord, Creed, and Chase. He’s appeared in the previous books, and I was delighted to see his story included in this bundle.

He’s always been more of big protective brother to the other three. While his home life growing up wasn’t that great, it was a hell of a lot better than his younger cousins and he did a lot of watching out for them, until they were old enough to handle things more on their own. Though he comes across as tough on the outside, on the inside he’s very sweet and caring, as evidenced by his attempt to help their mother.

He meets his love at a bar. Jenny is spending the holidays with a friend, only while they are spending the evening at a bar, her friend deserts her. Dec ends up saving her. Jenny is quite different from most heroines in that she was a child bride in a very FLDS-like community. Thankfully she was saved when her much older husband died before the wedding night.

The two of them are wonderful together, and this is my second favourite book of the quartet, only very slightly behind Draw, the first book.

Grade: A-

Summary:

JENNY…
I was a lost girl, a child bride.
Now, to most people I appear to be just an average college student. They would never guess my strange history. But secretly I’m still held down by my past. I cannot bring myself to trust men.
So why do I find myself drawn to the most dangerous one of all?
Oversexed, foul-mouthed and ten years my senior, he should have been my nightmare.
Instead, he’s my fantasy….

DECK…
How many women have I ruined?
Hell if there’s any point in counting. Only once did I ever do something unforgivable and the consequence crushed my soul. Maybe that’s why I remain here, in the barren desert wasteland occupied by the worst of my degenerate family.
This is a prison I’ve inflicted on myself.
Into my purgatory walks Jenny; feisty, beautiful, but little more than a girl.
No one decent should want a thing to do with me.
I told her that.
She didn’t listen.

No excerpt available.

Overall Grade: A