Ready by Lucy Monroe

While Lucy Monroe's Come Up and See Me Sometime was released a couple of months earlier than her trade-sized release, Ready, I ended up reading the latter, which features a suspense sub-plot, first.  Ready is her most The Real Deal-esque book I've come across.  Although the hero is all alpha, he's not Harlequin Presents-like, and just about every other book I've read by her, whether published by HP or otherwise, has been very much in the mold of HP heroes.

Ready is the first in a trilogy of romances featuring three mercenaries who work together.  The second book of this trilogy is set up in the final couple of chapters, and it looks more hero/heroine at odds than certainly either The Real Deal or Ready were.  Here's the back cover blurb of Ready:

They're the good guys fighting the bad guys.  They'll get the job done -- if the price is right and so is the cause.  And what cause could be nobler than the heart's desire?  Rough and ready, tough and tender -- when it comes to love and security, these hunks are definitely for hire....

As a writer, Lise Barton is used to coming up with wild scenarios for her characters, but the one that's playing out for her right now is no fiction -- it's frighteningly real.  Someone is stalking her, someone who knows where she lives and what she does.  Someone who has even threatened her family -- her brother, his wife, and their precious baby girl.  Lise isn't about to let someone hurt them, so she packs up and leaves Texas for the anonymity of Seattle.  And then the threats start again....

Joshua Watt's mission is simple:  Go to Seattle and bring Lise home for Thanksgiving or he'll never hear the end of it from his sister.  It's not like "Aunt Lise" to stay away from their adorable niece, and Joshua's pretty sure he's the reason for it.  He's spent months trying to forget the taste of her lips, the feel of her soft hair in his fingers.  Yeah, okay, he wants her -- badly -- but family comes first.  But the minute he sees the fear in Lise's eyes, his survival instincts kick in.  The former Army Ranger isn't about to let some creep terrorize an innocent woman -- not on his watch.  He's going to do what it takes to protect Lise and try to keep his personal feelings out of it.  Because if there's one thing he's learned, it's that sex and work don't mix.  Not ever.  So far....

Joshua and Lise met when his sister and her brother (their romance can be found in Monroe's Silver Bella, from the anthology Merry Christmas, Baby met at Bella and Jake's baby was christened.  There was an immediate physical reaction between the two, which scared Lise, who never felt particularly sexual during her first marriage, and fears the emotions and physical feelings she knows getting involved with Joshua might arouse in her.  But that's not the reason she refuses to come back to Texas for the holidays...she moved to Seattle because she's being stalked, and her stalker has threatened her family. 

Joshua doesn't know about the stalker, just that his baby sister is upset that Lise isn't coming to visit, and thinks she might be to blame.  Joshua thinks he may be the reason Lise won't come home, but the moment he arrives at her apartment and she nearly hits him over the head with a blunt instrument, he realizes there's something else going on.  Joshua is a good guy to have around...he immediately takes charge of the situation, calls in his two merc budies, Nitro and Hotwire (Joshua's nickname is Wolf), and hies Lise away to safety. 

Monroe does a good job of introducing Josh's friends, and of providing strong backstories for her leads.  The love scenes are wonderful, but somewhat strange in that she'll refer to a body part by it's flowery name in one scene, and by its slang term in another.  Then too there are the same repeats in language and description I've mentioned as disconcerting in the past, but regardless of these flaws, when this author creates a strong hero who's not over the top, she sucks me right in.  Joshua was confident and strong, but never a prick.

And something else I particularly enjoyed was Lise's sexual awakening.  Having been married, she's no virgin, but she's as asexual as Amanda from The Real Deal. While some readers may find this annoying and unrealistic - and it seemed pretty unbelievable to me - what worked far better was Lise's discovery that she liked, really, really liked, being as sexually aggressive as a man as the story progressed.

This book ended up as a straight B for me.  If you liked The Real Deal, I think you'll like this, albeit somewhat less.  If you didn't enjoy The Real Deal, I see no reason why you'd like this one.  As for the suspense sub-plot, since the romance is built around the "woman in peril" storyline, it wasn't a negative for me even though I don't generally go for R.S.    

I'm glad I enjoyed this as much as I did...it gives me hope that Monroe will come up with some other heroes like Simon, and now Joshua.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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