Title: Covered by Bubbles
Series: Heels for Hire, #1
Author: Gracie Meadows
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Genre: contemporary
Content: MFM
Stand Alone: YES
Re-issued /Re-edited: NO
Date published: Aug 18, 2016
Published by: Vinvatar
ISBN: 9781945012884
Word count: 52,797
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As a person who does believe in love at first sight, it was easy to find romance where ever I went. I myself have fallen into fate’s hand when I met my husband and married eleven days later. Now, we just celebrated our ten year anniversary with four children. I never regret a single day, and love him more and more with each passing hour.
I was never much of a writer in school. I enjoyed mostly poems, but anything longer never held my interest. When a friend challenged me to actually write a book better than the one she was reading. I toyed with the idea, and now here I am today. I have found a hidden passion that allows my wild side to come out while keeping the romance together. I would love to hear from all of you.
You can find Gracie Meadows on Facebook
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Brandie ‘Bubbles’ Anderson is ready and willing to tackle any case thrown at her. As an investigator for Heels for Hire, Inc. she’s independent, strong, perky, blonde, and slightly trigger happy, especially when it involves men who can’t accept the word ‘no.’ However, her newest case will take her out of her comfort zone and will have her working with two of Ridgeville’s finest- and she does mean F.I.N.E.
Chance and Dylan have been friends since their academy days and partners on the Ridgeville Police Department for years. They’ve been trained to anticipate every move and every possible outcome, but how do you prepare for getting partnered with a perky, blonde bombshell? One that, not only, has skills and is smart, but she’s also the woman that both men want badly.
What should have been a simple car theft case turns into something much bigger than any of them ever expected, and when family, friends, and loved ones are in danger it will be time to put everything on the line and hold nothing back to save them.
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I am going to be honest here. At times I truly enjoyed the story and at times I struggled a little bit. But overall it is a book I recommend!
So the parts I had some issues are mainly one character and credibility at times. I do not include sex because I am extremely picky regarding sex scenes in erotic romances.
I loved Dylan. I liked Bubbles/Brandie. I disliked Chance.
I have some problems when a male characters is 1. crude 2. caveman. To be crude can be fun but only if partners know each other enough. Here, they had sex after 2 days and it was a bit short for me to call the heroine names during the act, even for foreplay. But Chance had a possessive macho attitude that I did not like much as well and totally over the top after only 2 days of knowing her. So his character ruined a little bit the romance for me. However, Dylan was a big teddy bear sweetheart. He was as much protective but acted like a gentleman.
The heroine, Bubbles aka Brandie, is a Brat. Please notice the B in Brat. She is independent to the extreme and knows what she wants. I like those heroine. I can relate to them. However, the author wanted her classy, a non one night kinda girl, when in fact everything pointed to this direction: a girl who did not want a leash, knew what she wanted, when she wanted with who. She definitely acted like a woman who just picked men at bars for a night and left without leaving a phone number. But the author wanted her a lady. When Dylan thought she may be a virgin, it was a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit over the top when she acted everything but a virgin.
But overall, I like them all together. Still a bit too stereotyped about the best friends raised in the street with drunk father and such to justify the sharing part but I will not fault Gracie Meadows for that, 99% of the menage authors have no idea how to justify the menage. Sharing sex, yes. Menage forever, no.
Regarding sex scenes, I will not detail one but everyone will know which one I am talking about once they read it. I find this sex scene again exaggerated after only 2 days of knowing the heroine. And I thought both males should have grovel a lot more on this. The heroine acted like a doormat and I did not like it.
The other issue is credibility.
Not that it was major but characters and plot were sometimes over the top. Both heroes are police officers. And even though the chief was a bit too tolerant and this was a small town, I found their behavior way too soft. The contract with the detective company (Heels For Hire) was a bit exaggerated. The heroine showed up and took charge of pretty much of every action. It was a little bit too much. The plot at times was too romanced.
The good and great parts now.
The romance is equally shared with the plot. It is nice to read a plot with action. It was nicely developed and gave us clues, without them being to obvious, for a sequel with new and same characters. I definitely liked that the clues were not introduced at the epilogue. They were subtle. Covered by Bubbles is book #1 of this series. I liked very much the humor.
HUGE kudos to Vinvatar, the publisher. They did not add #1 next to the series. This always confuses me and I always wonder if the series is a “must read in order”, a false stand alone or a true stand alone. Why false? Because some series use the main characters for second characters and everyone is just part of the plot one way or another. So if we do not read the series in order, it can be confusing, even more when no lexicon is provided for help. Here, no number. Excellent decision!
My conclusion?
I enjoyed this story and I recommend it. It was fun and the plot was interesting. If I had to choose one thing about it, it would be I liked the book because of the Brat heroine. But yet, I like Dylan and the humor always so rare in romance.
Great story, Mrs Gracie Meadows! Keep going, I will keep an eye on this series for sure 🙂
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