Holly‘s review of Real Men Will (Donovan Brother’s Brewery, Book 3) by Victoria Dahl.

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 own identity as the conservative Donovan. The “good” one.

But passion has its own logic, and Eric finds he cannot forget the sable-haired beauty with whom he shared one night of passion. When Beth discovers that Eric has lied, however, she knows he cannot be trusted. Her mind tells her to forget the blue-eyed charmer. If only every fiber of her being did not burn to call him back.

I was rather frustrated with Eric in the previous two books. I have to give Dahl a lot if credit for making unlikeable characters sympathetic. Although I didn’t expect to, I came to like Eric in the end..and even to champion him.

Eric and Beth had a one night stand several months ago. Only Beth mistook Eric for his brother Jamie..and he didn’t bother to correct her. They haven’t stopped thinking about the other since, but they agreed it would be one night only. When Beth runs into Eric at the brewery and realizes he lied about his identity, she’s humiliated. She jumps to the worst possible conclusions – and Eric does nothing to make it better.

Eric didn’t meant to let things go so far, but he felt free for once. Free of the responsibility of raising his siblings and free of the brewery. The time he spent with Beth was a much needed respite and he’s sad that it’s become tainted. He apologizes to Beth and finds he’s even more drawn to her than before.

There were parts of this romance I really enjoyed, but many of Beth’s actions bothered me. In the beginning I was really rooting for her. She got a really raw deal with Eric and deserved to get a little of her own back. I also understood that she was traumatized in high school and carried around a lot of baggage from it. But as the novel wore on her back-and-forthing really began to bother me. Without spoiling it, I have to say toward the end she makes a bad decision and I have to be honest, it really lowered my opinion of her. Her reasons for doing so were immature and ridiculous, which made it hard for me to forgive her.

I really disliked Eric in the first two books. He was condescending and rude and went out of his way to antagonize his brother. It’s here that Dahl excelled the most with this novel. Not only did I come to love Eric, but I was firmly on his side when it came to both his siblings. This has been a recurring theme throughout the series and the main reason I continued reading it, despite the fact that I had issues along the way. Surprisingly, I was also on Eric’s side when it came to Beth. Not at first, but over the course of the novel he won me over completely.

Dahl kept me coming back to see if each sibling could be redeemed. Eric and Jamie had a lot of tension in Jamie’s book, but I thought they’d moved past that. I expected to see more harmony between them in this book, despite Eric’s actions. I guess I thought Jamie had grown up more in his book. The same with Tessa. At the end of her book I was impressed by how much she’d grown over the course of the novel. And yet here she is, acting like a teenager again, the same as she did in the last book.

While I think Dahl did an excellent job of turning the siblings into likeable characters in their own books, they made it hard to enjoy the other books.

3.25 out of 5.

The series:

This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.