Rowena’s review of Real Men Will (Donovan Brothers Brewery, Book 3) by Victoria Dahl.
Hero: Eric Donovan
Heroine: Beth Cantrell
It was meant to be a one-night stand. One night of passion. Scorching-hot. Then Beth Cantrell and Eric Donovan were supposed to go their separate ways. That’s the only reason he lied about his name, telling her he was really his wild younger brother. Hiding his identity as the conservative Donovan. The “good one.”
But passion has its own logic, and Eric finds he can’t forget the sable-haired beauty with whom he shared a night of love. When Beth discovers that Eric has lied, however, she knows he can’t be trusted. Her mind tells her to forget the blue-eyed charmer. If only every fiber of her being didn’t burn to call him back.
In Tessa’s book I hated Jamie and Eric then in Jamie’s book, I hated Eric and Tessa, now in Eric’s book I hate Jamie again. It’s a vicious circle. These Donovan siblings get on my hot damn nerves if they’re not starring in the story.
The jist of the story is this, Eric meets Beth at a business expo. She thinks he’s Jamie and he doesn’t correct her. They agree on one night of well, you know, and then they go on their merry way. That’s it, one night. Then she finds out that his name isn’t Jamie and she gets all butt hurt and Jamie finds out that Eric let Beth believe his name was Jamie and gets all butt hurt (and acts like a straight up bitch about it too) and Eric feels like shit.
Ugh, Jamie turned into straight bitch boy in this book and it frustrated me because I loved him so much in his book. It was too easy for me to remember how much I hated him in Tessa’s book too. It’s like everything that Jamie went through in his book, all of the misunderstandings and the shit he took from everyone, went right out of his brain because he didn’t remember wanting them to give him the benefit of the doubt. He just shot off at the mouth without even letting Eric explain anything and I wanted to punch him in his stupid mouth so much and the book had just started.
My issue with the book is this. Eric and Beth agreed to a one night stand. They were never going to start a relationship, it was supposed to be pure fantasy- read that as NOT REAL, so who cares that he didn’t come clean about his name. Yeah, it’s a little creepy that he let her think he was his brother, but it’s not like he proposed marriage to her and was going to let her put Jamie’s name on the wedding invitations. Beth’s so pissed off that Eric didn’t tell her his real name but why? Why does it matter if you were never going to see each other again? He could have told you his name was David freaking Beckham and it wouldn’t change the fact that you were only going to be together that one night. You guys weren’t going to be friends after that. You guys weren’t going to be pen pals and your relationship wasn’t going to leave the freaking bedroom of the damn hotel you were banging at so why is it such a big freaking deal? I just didn’t get it.
Tessa was no less irritating too. The whole crybaby act that she puts on made me want to punch her in the face. I get it, you’re the baby of the family, but your whole deal in your book was that your brothers didn’t treat you like an adult. Is it any wonder they didn’t treat you like an adult when all you do is nag and cry when they get into a fight. All of the setting them up, forcing them to talk to each other after they fought made me roll my eyes because she acted like such a baby about everything in this book and it was annoying.
Aside from those things that annoyed me, the book wasn’t bad. Did you laugh? Yeah, sorry about that but really, the book wasn’t bad. I actually did enjoy the romance between Eric and Beth once I got past how dumb the whole using Jamie’s name thing was. I did get mad at Beth a few times throughout the book, the same with Eric but I think between Jamie and Eric, I enjoyed getting to know Eric more. He was so different from Jamie and I dug it. I thought he was sexy and how steamy were those sex scenes? The steamboats were off the charts. The steaminess of the romance between Eric and Beth went a long way toward making me enjoy this book. I usually don’t pay too much attention to the love scenes in books but in this book, I couldn’t look away. Victoria Dahl sure does know how to write a love scene that makes the reader pay attention.
Overall, this story wasn’t my favorite of the three (as annoying as Jamie was in this book, his book was my favorite) but I did enjoy the parts of the book that didn’t annoy the ever living crap out of me. I really enjoyed getting to know Eric and Beth grew on me as the story wore on and by the end, I liked her for Eric. I’m glad that I finished the series out because it was worth the frustration I had with the other siblings.
Grade: 3 out of 5.
This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Leave a Reply