Rowena’s review of Bad Boys Do by Victoria Dahl.
Hero: Jamie Donovan
Heroine: Olivia Bishop
Olivia Bishop is no fun. That’s what her ex-husband said. That’s what her smart bob and glasses imply. And with her trademark determination, Olivia sets out to remake her life. She’s going to spend time with her girlfriends and not throw it all away for some man. But when an outing with her book club leads her to a brewery taproom, the dark-haired beauty realizes that trouble – in the form of sexy Jamie Donovan – may be too tempting to avoid.
Jamie Donovan doesn’t mean to be bad. Sure, the wild streak in his wicked green eyes has lured the ladies before. But it’s time to grow up. He’s even ready for a serious romance. But how can that be when Olivia, the only right woman he has ever met, already has him pegged as wrong.
This is the second book in the Donovan Brothers Brewery series and I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the first book. This book is Jamie Donovan’s book, the middle child and the trouble maker. I wouldn’t call him the black sheep of the family because he wasn’t on the outs with his family, they just misunderstood who he was and he let them believe it about him. He never explained his side (not that Eric made it easy for him to explain) and instead of explaining himself, he thought that his actions would clear his name but it wasn’t always easy for him.
Jamie Donovan is part owner of the Donovan Brothers Brewery in Boulder, Colorado and he wants to be more hands on in the family business. He’s got ideas to expand the local brewery by adding on a restaurant and because he knows that his family won’t take him seriously if he threw his ideas around so his plan is to take some restaurant development classes and really work out the kinks of his proposal before bringing it to his family to make it a reality.
Olivia Bishop is a teacher who is teaching the class that Jamie enrolls in and she’s surprised when she comes across the handsome stranger from her book club meeting the other night. She’s newly divorced and is trying to find herself in this new life she’s making for herself. A life that belongs to her and only her, without a husband to hold her back from going after what she really wants out of life. She’s still smarting from the split because her ex-husband, Victor the douche told her she’s not fun and she takes it to heart.
Jamie needs Olivia to help him with his plan for the restaurant and Olivia needs Jamie to help her learn how to relax more, learn to be more fun and this book follows them as they try to give each other the help they need and find so much more in return.
While I enjoyed this book, there were quite a few things about the book that got on my hot damn nerves. First off, there’s Eric. Eric is such a dick! He’s not the asshole brother because he’s the more responsible brother, he’s the asshole brother because he jumps to conclusions about his family and he’s got that my way or the highway mentality that irritates the shit out of me. And then, AND THEN he yaps his mouth and totally ruins shit for Jamie because he’s an arrogant asshole but when he finally realizes it, I was so glad because I would have hated going into his book, hating him.
Tessa got on my nerves too. It’s funny how in Tessa’s book, Jamie and Eric annoyed the snot out of me and in this book, it was Tessa and Eric that got on my hot damn nerves. It wasn’t an annoyance that would turn me off from the books because that wasn’t it at all, they were annoying in that family kind of way where you needed to vent because they were driving you crazy but not because you wanted them to disappear and never come back.
My favorite thing outside of the romance between Jamie and Olivia was the friendship that blossomed between Olivia and Gwen. I really liked them two, their friendship was nice to read about. It was normal and it felt real and I appreciated Dahl’s efforts in making their friendship pop because it totally did.
When I was first introduced to Jamie in Good Girls Don’t, he annoyed me in the sense that his overprotecting nature of his younger sister made me roll my eyes down the street. I understood his reservations but some of the things he thought about Tessa and all of his he said she said crap where Luke was concerned made me want to kick him in the nuts but Dahl did a great job of redeeming him in my eyes because going into this book, I wanted to like him but I had my doubts. In the beginning of the book, I wanted to bang Jamie and by the middle of the book, I was sold on whatever he was selling. I wanted it all, forever and ever. I liked him that much. It didn’t hurt that he was sexy as all get out.
I was expecting Olivia to be one kind of heroine and was glad that Dahl didn’t go that route. I was expecting her to be this uptight, virginal heroine that jumped to conclusions about the kind of guy Jamie was and blah blah blah, I thought she would be too stuffy but she wasn’t that at all. She was fun, normal and I enjoyed getting to know. I thought she was the perfect heroine for Jamie and I liked her a lot.
Overall, this was another great addition to a series that is totally living up to the hype that I was building around it when I talked to Victoria Dahl about it at RT this year. She has definitely written two very entertaining and totally steaming contemporary romances that I thoroughly enjoyed and I’m eager for more. I have every faith that I won’t hate Eric in his book. I want it so bad, I’m thirsty for it.
I can’t help but wonder if Victoria Dahl watches Fringe because hello, the heroine’s name is Olivia Bishop and that is exactly what I’m hoping Olivia Dunnam’s name will be after she marries Peter Bishop, but that’s just my weird curiosity.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
Reading Order:
This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
The siblings annoyed the crap out of me. They acted like teenagers rather than adults. My heart did go out to Jamie, though. The way he fought to find his place in the brewery really touched me.
It’s always the siblings that get on my hot damn nerves in these books. That cracks me up. Jamie got on my nerves in Tessa’s book but I adored him in this one. I agree with you on the way he fought for his place in the brewery. I loved that he stuck to his guns. He was so smexy. I can’t wait to read Eric’s book though remind me that I have to read the short story in that anthology first, yeah?
I liked this one too. My heart really pulled for Jamie – he’s so misunderstood!
@Rowena – I didn’t realize the novella was part of this series until I’d already started reading Eric’s book. I’ll have to go back and read it now.