Reviewer: Holly and Rowena No Strings Attached by Susan Andersen
Series: Razor Bay #3
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: August 1st 2014
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 384
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Series Rating:
Some mistakes are worth repeating…
Tasha Riordan's one night with Luc Bradshaw was the best of her life. The following two—when he left her to be thrown into a Bahamian jail on bogus charges—were her worst. Now, seven years later, the undercover DEA agent is back. Invading her town. Her restaurant. Her fantasies. She can't trust a man who lied to her. Yet neither can she trust herself—not when their chemistry burns even hotter than before.
Learning he has two half brothers shocks Luc. Discovering they live in the same town as Tasha—that's a different kind of thrill. Their mutual lust is still off the charts, but he can't get her to listen to his side of what happened on that long-ago night. Good thing he's got powers of persuasion that go deeper than words. Because nothing has ever felt this right….
H: The blurb is pretty accurate, so no recap. I didn’t read the two previous books in the series, but I didn’t feel like I missed anything major. The main characters from those books play a large part in this one, only as they related to the hero and heroine of this book.
Holly: Can I just say, I was all sorts of pissed at Diego/Luc on Tasha’s behalf. Even after we found out there were extenuating circumstances, I still held a grudge.
Rowena: I hear you. Can I just say that I’m glad that Tasha held a grudge against Luc? I mean, how often have we seen the heroine betrayed by the hero only to forgive him within two minutes of being together again? I’m glad that Tasha held that grudge and kept Lucas at arm’s length. It took me a while to forgive Lucas too. I wasn’t happy with him at first. I think it took him too long to look into what happened back then. If I found out that the girl I spent a spectacular couple of days with went to jail after being caught with stuff the authorities found in MY hotel room, I would have found something out within the hour. I felt like he sat on it too long. His answers came far too long.
Holly: I’m glad Tasha held the grudge too. His betrayal was too big for her to give in too easily.
I wasn’t as bothered as you about how long it took him to get that information. He asked for it right away, which won him some points with me. I really hate it in romantic suspense (which this isn’t, but still) when dude has answers within the hour, especially in a situation like this. It isn’t realistic for an agent to get answers like that immediately.
He called the agent in charge right away and asked for the information, but he was out of town. It was even explained later why his boss didn’t get back to him right away. Once he had the information he acted on it immediately.
Rowena: Yeah, I guess I can see that. I just wish that he had been more adamant about the answers since he had that hinky feeling. I wish he would have stormed his boss’s office to find out what really happened since ultimately, Tasha was in that jail because of him. I wanted him to be more proactive about his answers, I wanted more than just a phone call for some answers.
Holly: Well have to agree to disagree about that. I liked the realism of it. Sure, the fantasy of him hopping on a plane and demanding answers RIGHT NOW is great, but that isn’t something that would likely ever happen. Just like a murder investigation being solved in an hour on TV.
Rowena: It’s a romance novel, not someone’s real life story. I can let a little non-realism slide…especially something like that.
Holly: Romance novel or not, I prefer the realism in situations like this.
I did like Luc, though. After everything is explained I was rooting for him. Just, you know, I didn’t want it to be too easy for him.
Rowena: I liked Luc too and I think it was because I liked him, I had higher expectations for him. But still, I liked the chemistry between him and Tasha and overall, really liked their romance.
Holly: I liked the family dynamic. I appreciated that Luc felt unsure of his place in the family. That felt more real to me than if he’d just felt immediately settled into the fold.
Rowena: I’m right there with you about Luc’s insecurity of his place in the family. I liked seeing him unsure of himself as a person in the family, I liked seeing the difference between his father’s betrayal to him (the son that had nothing but good memories of his Dad) and his betrayal to the other brothers, Max and Jake. I liked seeing Luc come into his own where his new found family was concerned.
I thought Tasha was pretty kick ass. To be so young and doing what she’s always wanted to do, not letting anything come between her plans was pretty great. I didn’t like Tasha nearly as much in the other books as I did in this book but man, I think she’s my favorite heroine in the series.
Holly: I, too, thought Tash was pretty kickass. I loved her honesty and how hard she worked to achieve her goals. I thought it was great that all the kids thought she was the bomb, and how surprised she was about it.
What did you think of the secondary story of Jeremy and Peyton, the teenagers who worked for Tasha? I thought they were really cute. At times I was more interested in them.
Rowena: I think I liked Jeremy and Peyton’s romance more…mostly because I’ve been a Jeremy fan since the last book. He’s from the wrong side of the tracks and is trying to build a future for himself. It’s not easy and you see that. People didn’t trust him. Hell, even Tasha wasn’t really big on hiring him on because of his past. She took a chance on him for Max and Harper’s benefit and I liked that he was making good for himself. He was learning about himself and he was learning to rise above the shit card he’d been handed. From the last book to this one, you really see him grow as a person. Seeing him get the girl in the end was a treat for me. I heart him and Peyton!
Holly: I don’t know that I liked the romance more, since the romance aspect was pretty light, but I definitely enjoyed their individual stories. I wouldn’t mind a novella about them in the future.
I didn’t love the wedding epilogue. That’s a personal preference. I really hate it when we get head hopping/scenes from characters from past books. I may have felt differently if I’d read the other books.
Rowena: As for the wedding epilogue, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. I didn’t feel it was needed and I did read the other books.
Other than that, I thought this book was good. It was my favorite book of the three Razor Bay books. I almost didn’t read it because I just wasn’t blown away by the other books in this series but I’m glad that I did. I enjoyed Tasha and Luc grew on me. I really liked him in the end.
What would you grade this book? I think I’d give it a solid 4. I really enjoyed this book and while I had some minor gripes with Luc’s handling of the Tasha in jail because of him thing, I still really liked this one.
Holly: I’d probably grade it a 4 as well. I liked both Luc and Tash, plus the secondary romance. I did have a few gripes, but nothing too serious.
Final Grade
Holly: 4 out of 5
Rowena: 4 out of 5
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