Search - Smooth Talking Stranger (Travis, Bk 3)

I was pleasantly surprised by how great Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil were, so I was really looking forward to reading this one. After reading some of the reviews, it seems like there's a bit of disappointment with it, because the first two books set the bar so high.

I have to say, though, that I really enjoyed Smooth Talking Stranger. Yes, it was predictable, and Ella didn't really confront the issues of her past even though they weighed heavily on her throughout the book; but Jack and Ella (along with the adorable baby) and their relationship made this a very good read.

I bought the chemistry between them, and how they were drawn to one another. Their mutual longing and passion (there were some pretty intense and hot scenes) were well-written and seemed believable, and Kleypas ramped up the emotions enough that I found it easy to become invested in their relationship.

So, this book doesn't charter any new territory, and it may fall a little bit short of meeting the high expectations set by the other two books, but even so, Smooth Talking Stranger was a great book. There is a lot of chemistry between the hero and heroine that I found to be believable, as well as some great, fun banter, and a real deep emotional connection between them. All in all, once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.

I was very disappointed with this one. I really loved the previous two books from the series but I just wasn’t feeling this one. I think my main problem was I didn’t feel any real chemistry between Jack and Ella. And I really couldn’t understand why Jack fell head over heel in love with Ella. *spoiler* Also, I figure right way that Mark wasn’t the father but the Noah guy was *end spoiler*. The only good thing about the book was Luke and how cute he was. Oh well, I’m really looking forward to Joe's story and hopeful that one will be better.

I'm not too fond of books written in the first person, having said that the first two books in this series were fairly decent, altho there were several parts of "Sugar Daddy" that I skipped over with too much info that wasn't necessary in the overall scheme of the book."Blue Eyed Devil" a fairly decent read slo. "Smooth Talking Stranger" less so than the previous two, not quite so believable, but still an overall good easy read. Maybe brother Joe's story will be better, one can hope.

This was the first time I read this author. The book was and predicable. It was however keeping my interest until I readthe prior review which gave away a key part of the book. After that I returned the book unfinished.

A review should be an opion not a story line. Oh well on to the next book.

Rating: B

Ella Varner has carved out a niche for herself after cutting off family ties from her mother and sister. After two years of not speaking to either of them, Ella gets a call from her mother that changes her life. Her sister Tara has abandoned her one week old baby and her mother wants Ella to come and get it or she is taking it to social services. Ella doesn't want to lose the the baby so she takes responsibility for him on her shoulders. She is determined to get the baby's father involved, as well. Once she suspects that Jack Travis is the father, she confronts him about it.

After reading Blue-Eyed Devil and Sugar Daddy and loving both of those books to pieces, I was really looking forward to Smooth Talking Stranger. I'll admit that my expectations were pretty high. Let's be honest here, they were tremendously high! I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like Smooth Talking Stranger, because I did, very much so. I started reading it at 11:30 at night and next thing I knew it was 2:00 in the morning! But, I didn't think it was as good as Blue-Eyed Devil or Sugar Daddy.

Jack Travis is just the type of hero that I love in my romance books. He is strong and smart and confident enough to know what he wants and go after it. He doesn't let a smart woman scare him away. After taking one look at Ella, he knows she is exactly the right woman for him. In no uncertain terms he bulldozes his way into her life, whether she likes it or not. Oh yeah, baby! *waggles eyebrows*

Where the book stumbled a tiny bit for me is with Ella and her problems with her family. In Blue-Eyed Devil and Sugar Daddy, much of the focus of the book is centered on the heroine and her growth throughout the story. As a matter of fact, Blue-Eyed Devil dealt with spousal abuse very heavily. With Ella, she too suffered from a tramatic childhood. She never really confronts these problems head on and they get pushed to the side as an after thought. Even the resolution of the book was very quickly done and not very satisfactorily at that.