LynneC’s review of Shameless Playboy (Bad Blood Collection, Book 2) by Caitlin Crews
Contemporary Romance eBook published by Mills and Boon Modern Romance 6 May 11
Read this one. This is easily one of my favorite books of the year so far.
This is the second of the new Mills and Boon series Bad Blood. Lucas Wolfe is the louche brother, the one left to carry the can after his brother Sebastian left. Basically the series is of the children of a wealthy bully, a man who had enough money to circumvent the law and so he committed adultery, bullied his children, and did as he pleased until he died.
I read the first book in the series and wondered how an author could turn the character of Lucas, who briefly appears in it, around. Crews did it, and how.
The backstories of the characters may sound familiar. Lucas has survived by hiding in plain sight, something I’ve written about too, and a trope that fascinates me. To the world, Lucas is a playboy, a philanderer, a useless member of fashionable society, catting around and unrepentant. Only his refusal to make excuses makes him at all interesting. Within a few pages, Crews changes that, turns it around. Lucas becomes a man with a secret, a fascinating, seductive male fully aware of his power, but he doesn’t despise it or himself. Lucas is too busy surviving.
The heroine, Grace, is a Southern belle, or she would have been had she the money to fulfill that. But she hasn’t. Instead, she suppresses her accent a little, modifies her name and becomes a successful businesswoman, running the PR department at the most successful department store in London, England. She wears businesslike suits, disguises her figure because of a trauma in her past, and is happy with her lot. Until she meets Lucas, who challenges all of that.
I told you that you’d have come across the tropes before. And I am so tired of the playboy hero, I can’t tell you. But Crews doesn’t just tell you about Lucas’s disillusionment and inner turmoil, she shows it. Not that Grace is going to put up with his nonsense. Although helplessly attracted to him, she has enough self-respect to tell him where to go when his antics get too much for her. Go, Grace.
What makes this book special is that Crews brings Luke and Grace alive. She makes you believe in these characters with these problems. She concentrates on the characters and their reactions to each other and makes you care. In the romance genre, that’s the surest way to make the reader turn the page.
Crews writes convincingly in both the English (Lucas) and the American (Grace) modes. She gets right into the heads of these characters, makes the reader believe and identify with their dilemmas. She also stretches the sexual tension out to an unbelievable level. When Luke first kisses Grace, it’s both memorable and devastating.
The characters’ arcs are played out beautifully, as is the balance of power. First Luke has the upper hand, then Grace, then Luke, and so on. They discover slowly the facts about each other, so that physical “chemistry” becomes a true interest in the other, what makes the person tick and why. And so you are drawn with them, to find out what and how and why.
I should have been doing much needed edits on a book of mine. I should have been resting, getting over the dreaded jet lag. I should have been doing any number of things, but what I ended up doing was reading this book.
Highly recommended. Crews is improving with each book. I want to read a longer book by her, one where she can do what she wants with the characters, just to see where she goes. Good one, Caitlin. Keep it up.
Just a note on the covers for this series – so far, appalling for accuracy. The first book only shows the hero, so okay. This second book features a blonde Southern Belle heroine – the picture shows a brunette. The third book, Restless Billionaire, is the worst of all. It has a blonde heroine on the cover, whereas the heroine is a Bollywood star. Indian. That’s worse than inaccurate, that’s terrible. I get the feeling that Shameless Playboy’s cover should have been for Restless Billionaire and vice versa.
Grade: A+
Summary:
Lucas… Playboy. Rebel. Rogue. No one denies Lucas anything. Women fall at his feet and into his bed at the click of his fingers. His life is charmed, reckless and carefree. He is definitely a bad boy. Grace Carter knows uncontrollable Lucas could ruin her career and she won’t tolerate his wayward behaviour, despite their chemistry. But working with Lucas is thrilling, and after just a small dose of his magic, even Grace’s prim and proper shell begins to shatter.
Read an excerpt.
