Holly‘s review of Breakfast in Bed (Domestic Gods, Book 3) by Robin Kaye

Rich, the epitome of “anti-domestic,” can’t cook to save his life, and his idea of cleaning his apartment is to invite his mother over. But he’s ready to settle down, and he can’t stop thinking about the ex-girlfriend who got away. When he notices that his soon-to-be-married friends cooked and cleaned their way into their women’s hearts, he asks his friend Becca to help transform him into a nurturing man to win back his ex.

Rich is the only guy who’s taken the time to know Becca for herself. She decides she’ll give him the makeover he’s asking for, though she’ll be damned if she’s going to turn him into a domestic god for another woman. She wants Rich for herself, but how can she convince him that her kitchen and her bedroom are the only domestic locales he desires?

I really loved Kaye’s debut novel, Romeo Romeo. Her second release, Too Hot To Handle, didn’t work for me at all. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. I’m glad to report it was much better than THTH, though I don’t think it worked as well as RR.

I was surprised to see that Rich’s heroine wasn’t going to be Gina. In Romeo Romeo Gina seems very much in love with Rich, and at the end it seemed like they were going to try to work it out. I figured when Kaye did write Rich’s book Gina would be his heroine. Instead, it’s Becca, Mike’s long lost sister from Too Hot To Handle.

Rich is in a bind. He’d like to be secure in his position teaching at Columbia and be on the fast track to tenure, but his Dean has hinted that things would go better if perhaps he was settled in his personal life. Rich has been dating Gina for several months, so he figures that’s settled enough. When the Dean suggests he bring Gina to an upcoming Charity event, Rich agrees. The problem? Gina dumps him later that same night.

Concerned about his job, he asks Becca, his new brother-in-law’s sister to help him out. Gina said Rich wasn’t domesticated enough for her, so he wants to learn to cook and clean so he can win her back. Not so much because he’s in love with her, but because he needs a date to the function.

Becca wants nothing to do with Rich, but she’s also in a bind. She’s in the process of renovating her new apartment and has no where to live until it’s done. Annabelle, her best friend and sister-in-law, sublet her old apartment to Becca. Unfortunately, Rosalie, Annabelle’s sister, and the owner of the apartment, leased it to Rich. Because she has a feral cat, she really doesn’t have many options. When Rich suggests she help him win Gina back by showing him how to become a Domestic God, she reluctantly agrees.

Of course, neither of them planned on the attraction they feel for each other. Despite her best efforts, Becca can’t seem to continue hating Rich. He isn’t the pompous ass she originally thought him, but is sweet, kind, funny and sexy-as-hell. Rich never really disliked Becca, but he’s surprised at the depth of his feelings for her the longer they’re together.

I think the best part about this book is Rich. His antics as he tries to learn to be more domesticated often had me laughing out loud. Part of me was a little skeptical that a man of 34 didn’t know how to do anything for himself, but I was able to set that aside and enjoy this aspect of the book. Yes, it’s a little unbelievable, but it was also kind of cute watching him figure things out.

Besides his antics being hilarious, Rich showed himself to be a strong, caring, compassionate person. Though he let his mom and aunt take care of him and wasn’t much for serious relationships, he wasn’t a jerk or irresponsible. He just hasn’t fully grown up yet. Watching him do so with the help of Becca was really great.

Becca I loved for the first half of the book. She was strong, independent, witty and caring. Though she’s reluctant to get involved with Rich – even in a platonic way – she wasn’t over-the-top rude about it. She was just a woman who’d erected strong barriers around herself.

The problem for me came toward the second half of the novel. Rich is ready to accept his feelings for Becca much sooner than she, which is fine. Honestly it was the same way with me and my husband. Unfortunately Becca took things a bit too far. Not only did the idea of something more permanent with Rich freak her out, but she pushed him away because of it.

While I understand that Becca had been hurt in the past and had trust issues stemming from her childhood, it drove me insane that she still pushed Rich away. Even that wasn’t too bad, though, because she was trying to work it out. What pushed me over the edge with her was the way she jumped to conclusions about Rich and grasped at one small thing to completely push him out of her life.

Not only was that a ridiculous thing for her to do, but I saw it coming a mile away. She’d been leading up to it, sure, but it’s the same thing Kaye used in both her previous novels. Even the amount of time they were separated was the same in all three books. Up until the last 1/4 of the book, I was really enjoying it. I might have even said it was better than Romeo, Romeo. But the predictability and TSTL actions of the heroine at the end ruined it for me.

Especially since the issue had nothing to do with Rich at all, but with Becca’s trust issues. She latched onto any excuse she could to push him away. If Kaye had used this as a way to show growth on Becca’s part, I would have been ok with it. Instead Becca spends the last quarter of the novel blaming Rich and being angry with him.

Not only do I think Becca needed to grovel more, but I was annoyed with the way Rich reacted. Instead of getting pissed off at Becca he blamed himself.

I was also annoyed by the stereotypical way Rich’s Italian family was portrayed. I remember thinking they were kind of charming and very similar to my own family in the first book, but they’ve become more over the top with each subsequent book. His Aunt Rose’s dialect was even written with a cheesy Italian accent this time around (if that was the case in with previous books I don’t recall). For example:

“[..] It’sa shame. You’re a good’a girl. Richie, he’s a good’a man with you.”

Since I come from a big Italian family, I found that to be too much. It was a bit insulting the way his mother was portrayed (though she didn’t play a large roll in this book).

Although I enjoyed the first half of the book, the actions of the hero and heroine during the second half marred my enjoyment considerably.

3 out of 5

The series:

This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can buy it here.

Holly‘s review of Too Hot To Handle (Domestic Gods, Book 2) by Robin Kaye

He sure would love to have someone to take care of…

Dr. Mike Flynn’s single mom taught him early how to cook and clean, and there’s nothing like vacuuming or doing dishes to help a guy relax. Annabelle Ronaldi is an artist without a domestic bone in her body. Since her fiance’s death, she can’t paint, and life looks hopeless.

Until the day after her sister’s wedding, when she wakes up with Mike next to her in bed, and then she’s really beside herself – because the handsome stranger is a dead ringer for her dead fiance.

After their mind-blowing one night stand, Mike is sure this is the woman he wants to take care of forever, but she acts like she’s seen a ghost. While Mike sets to work wooing Annabelle, she sets to work sniffing out the truth of the convoluted family secret that turns everybody’s lives upside down.

I had reservations going into this book because I didn’t care for Annabelle’s character in the first book Romeo, Romeo. It turns out I was right to be wary. Casee disagreed, however. You can read her review here.

Annabelle and Mike hook at up her sister’s wedding. She doesn’t remember what happened the night before but is totally freaked out when she realizes the stranger in bed with her is a dead ringer for her dead fiance. At first she’s convinced she’d dreaming – or his ghost is stalking her. Eventually she realizes she’s not dreaming and the man in her apartment is for real. But his resemblance to her dead fiance is uncanny.

Mike isn’t thrilled when he realizes the woman of his dreams doesn’t remember him or the night they spent together, but he’s determined to get to know her better. Though Annabelle is reluctant to start a relationship, and Mike isn’t in the best financial situation, he pursues her.

I really liked Mike in the beginning. He just graduated med school and has started work at a practice, but he hasn’t been offered a partnership yet, which means he’s pretty financially strapped. I actually really liked that, because too often romance novel heroes are already loaded, or at least well established in their careers and financially stable. Mike wasn’t. Unfortunately my feelings of good will only lasted until I realized he was turning a blind eye to some bad things in the practice because he’s afraid of making waves. At first I understood his reluctance to say anything, but the longer it went on the more frustrated I became.

Beyond that Mike is practically perfect. He likes to cook and clean, and he actually enjoys taking care of Annabelle. He’s kind and caring, and his pursuit of her is admirable, if somewhat misplaced.

I absolutely hated Annabelle. Right from the beginning she annoyed me, but it just got worse as the novel progressed. I understand needing to be independent, believe me. I also understand that she needed to break away from her family and stand on her own two feet. What I don’t understand is how she kept lying to Mike and keeping secrets from him. Especially the BIG secret. You see, Mike is really her dead fiance’s brother. Annabelle figures this out early in the book, but doesn’t tell Mike.

I didn’t understand the way she kept pushing Mike away and treating him like crap. Several times he called her on it, telling her flat out she needed to decide if she wanted to be with him. Then she’d be like, “Oh here, let me throw you a bone. Ok, I like you. Now stop asking questions about my life and trying to get to know me. Let’s just do the dirty already.”

I guess if this had been a chick-lit I would have been fine with that, but in the end I didn’t buy the romance. I didn’t believe for one second that she loved him. She was using him as a convenient lay. That she was lying to him the whole time was just icing on the cake.

Overall the heroine was beyond annoying and the circumstances behind the main conflict were contrived and dumb. The hero bugged, too. Very disappointing since I loved her debut release.

2 out of 5

The Series:

This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here.