Flare Up by Shannon Stacey

I wish I had read this book closer to the time I had read the others in the series because I had forgotten most of Wren and Grant's back story (some of which was seen in other books) and I couldn't remember most of the rest of the characters which made me feel slightly disconnected. I think it would have been different if I just hadn't read the series at all but knowing that I had read about these people but just couldn't remember their stories frustrated me a little. I also didn't realize that there were two or three chapters at the end of the book from another of Stacey's series and was sort of startled at how quickly the ending wrapped up when I was expecting so many more pages.

Grant Cutter was well on his way to the HEA that all of his other friends were experiencing. Then Wren Everett just disappeared, breaking his heart. He is therefore fairly shocked to see her again when he is called to a fire in a not-so-great part of Boston. 

Wren is also surprised to see Grant again. She ran to protect him when she feared that her abusive ex had found her again. But now that Grant is back in her life, she isn't sure she can walk away again.

I liked that Grant didn't immediately try to swoop in and rescue Wren when she lost almost everything in the fire. Instead, he was respectful of what she needed. He was a little less understanding about why she ran in the first place but I was actually more shocked that some of the women in his life were less understanding as well. 

Three stars

This book came out 

Follows Under Control

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Falling for Max by Shannon Stacey

Tori Burns loves her life. She's a part-time waitress which lets work with people and also work her first love, graphic design. When Max Crawford walks into her diner one day, she is confounded and bemused. The man who half the town believes to be an ax murderer is there to try and meet a woman. Well, it's true it is the only game in town for meeting people but Max is adorably awkward. That's why she agrees to help him practice date. If only they can keep it to practicing...

Four stars
Follows Taken with You
This book came out July 29th, 2014
March 25th, 2014
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

Taken with You by Shannon Stacey

Reading the Kowalski stories made me an instant Shannon Stacey fan. She does not disappoint with a book about Hailey (who's been introduced in other books), the Whitford librarian and Matt, the new game warden.
Matt's a scarred hero (because, what else?). One of his exes not only objected to his erratic hours and coming home muddy and smelling of animal urine, she absolutely tried to change him. I didn't really get where the deep scars were coming from just based on these descriptions, but then again, I live in Montana where stuff like this is the norm, so... It seemed more like he was being super-rigid about women having to appreciate him and his lifestyle and even went out of his way to try and scare subsequent girlfriends.
Hailey is looking for a man who will appreciate opera and five-star restaurants. When she meets a bewhiskered man who hasn't showered in several days while lost in the woods, she's not immediately attracted to him. But when he cleans up so nice and seems like a rational human being... he might actually might make a good companion. For awhile. But not forever, of course!
I did not like that Matt was being such a baby about the outdoors thing and I very much liked that Hailey was willing to be more compromising about how they spent their time. She was right to be pissed when he acted like a child in the French restaurant. I had to appreciate the end of the book when it looked like they were going to create a better balance of what they both loved. Just because they didn't have the exact same tastes didn't mean they couldn't be together.
I absolutely loved that there was a five year age gap (she's 40, he's 35) and there were no mentions of cougars, no argument over "she's too old", or any of the things that you might expect from an older female-younger male-type relationship. Instead, it's simply Matt and Hailey falling in love.

Kowalski Family #8

Four stars
Follows Love a Little Sideways
Followed by Falling for Max
This book came out March 25th, 2014
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy of mine March 2024

Love a Little Sideways by Shannon Stacey

I read the first six Kowalski books practically in one sitting and had to wait a couple of months to get this one. I couldn't wait to find out about Liz and Drew. Unfortunately, this just wasn't as good as the other books in the series. Better than most contemporary romances though so still got three stars.
Why Liz and Drew can't tell Mitch (her brother, his best friend) about their relationship is a mystery to me. Hiding a one-night stand? Yes. But a full-blown relationship? It took half the book to get over that plotline and Stacey is usually much faster at getting past tired tropes.

Three stars
Follows All He Ever Dreamed
Followed by Taken with You
November 26th, 2013
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

All He Ever Desired by Shannon Stacey

We've met both Ryan Kowalski and Lauren Carpenter in earlier Kowalski books and we also know that there is some "mystery" in their past that causes Ryan to avoid Lauren as much as he can whenever he returns to their hometown.
Well, it turns out that Ryan has always loved Lauren, even when she was married to his best friend. And he betrayed his best friend by asking Lauren to run away with him (it's in the first part of the book, not exactly a spoiler).
So... awkward. Right? And it's worked out for the two to avoid each other. But they can't now because Lauren's teenage son has caused some major damage at Ryan's family home and now he needs to work it off. Which mean the Lauren and Ryan will be seeing a lot more of each other. (heh)
I loved that conflicts were solved so fast because the damn characters talked to each other. Does that happen in romance novels? Not often. And Stacey made it work! Love it. That was what really bumped this book from a three to a four for me.


Four stars
Follows All He Ever Needed 
Followed by All He Ever Dreamed
November 19th, 2012
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey

Another common romance trope (friends-to-lovers) with another common theme (Wha-huh? My best friend is a girl?) that Stacey manages to breathe some new life into.
Josh Kowalski is anxious to get out of town. He was the default caretaker for his family's lodge and finally admitted to them that he wants his own life, not the one that was left to him.
Katie Davis grew up alongside the Kowalskis. Her mother was their longtime housekeeper and default mother when their own died. She's been in love with Josh since they were kids. And everyone knows it. Except, of course, for Josh. But when Katie's mom falls ill and she moves back to the lodge, it might finally be time for Josh to open up his eyes and see what's been right in front of him all along.

Four stars
Follows All He Ever Desired
Followed by Love a Little Sideways
November 19th, 2012
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

All He Ever Needed by Shannon Stacey

I was on quite a Shannon Stacey roll and this book really helped to keep it going.
Mitch Kowalski is in town to help out at the family lodge while his brother recuperates from a broken leg. He left town to evade the gossip and the past that everyone thinks they know about him. But, as long as he's back, he might as well scout out the fresh meat (my terms, Stacey's words are much classier.)
Paige Sullivan has been in town for two years and has finally set down the roots that were missing during her nomadic youth. She's not really interested in a fling with Mitch (though most of the rest of town thinks that she should definitely go for it, and they tell her).
I liked the secondary characters in this book. Yes, they're almost all sequel bait, but their stories are in the background with just enough setup to get a feeling for who they are without taking away from Paige and Mitch's story.
I love the Stacey's books avoid the Big Misunderstanding. When Mitch or Paige has the feels, they tell each other. There is no drawn out, "Oh, he'll change his mind and love me soon..."

Three and a half stars
Follows Yours to Keep
Followed by All He Ever Desired
September 10th, 2012
Listened to on Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey

In her first two books, Shannon Stacey took some of the regular romance tropes and straightened out many of the problems most authors have when using those tropes. This book presents the well-trod "Fake Fiance" path. Is she again successful? It's an okay book, but not as good as the first two.
Sean Kowalski is just back from the war. And it appears that he's acquired a fiancee in the form of a woman he's never met. Apparently, Emma Shaw was trying to convince her grandmother that she was doing-just-fine-thank-you-very-much and decided a fake fiance was the way to go. Of course, Emma had just been talking to her best friend earlier in the day and Sean's name had come up so she just blurted it out. Since then, she's had pictures photoshopped of the two of them together and expanded on the storyline. Now her grandmother's coming back up to visit and Emma needs a savior. Sean isn't cool with that. But then his family sort of guilts him into it so he goes along.
Neither is interested in a complete relationship, but the more they fake it, the more they wonder if this thing could really work...

Three stars
Follows Undeniably Yours
Followed by All He Ever Needed
This book came out June 6th, 2011

ould really work...

Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey

We met Kevin Kowalski in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/799823901">Exclusively Yours</a> as the brother of the hero. In this book, he gets his own HEA. Beth Hansen is a floater. She moves through life on her own terms, not setting down roots anywhere. Which is why it is a shock to come up pregnant after a one-night stand where protection was used. A one-night stand where she believed he was a player.
Kevin immediately jumps into protective mode. He just wants to make sure that Beth is taken care of. None of her jobs provide insurance and her apartment has... issues. So she moves in across from Kevin.
I loved that this story took place over a year. Kevin learned from his brother's mistake. Don't marry just because of the baby. Insurance wouldn't cover it anyway. But he thinks he's falling in love. It's sort of insta-love but we actually get to see that it sticks around.

Four stars
Follows Exclusively Yours
Followed by Yours to Keep
This book came out November 1st, 2010

Exclusively Yours by Shannon Stacey

I've read the excerpt for this book several times and thought, "I might like this." And I was right.
Keri Daniels had a forever-kind-of-love with her high school boyfriend Joe Kowalski. These days, she's a Hollywood gossip reporter and he's a famously reclusive horror/mystery writer. When her boss finds out that Keri knows Joe, like KNOWS Joe, she's given an ultimatum, get a story on Joe or else.
Joe pretty much figures out that Keri is doing this story under duress but he decides to screw with her anyway. Loved that there was no deception. He's just up front about the fact that he wants to mess with her and that's why she'll be spending two weeks with his family on their "Kowalski Vacation of Doom" (or something close to that) without electronics of any kind and, in return, she'll get one question a day which he will answer.
There are several subplots, most prominent is with Joe's twin sister, Terry, who is having some serious issues with her husband and taking them out on her former BFF, Keri.

Four stars
This book came out January 1st, 2012
Followed by Undeniably Yours
Borrowed this book from Audible Escape
Opinions are my own

One Christmas Eve by Shannon Stacey

Zoe Randall is divorced and doesn't need another disapproving man in her life. Especially not one she accidentally cut off and now is shooting LOOKS at her mildly provocative book display. But Preston Wheeler doesn't mean to be that disapproving. And he certainly doesn't mean to accidentally egg her on into making an even more provocative display about candy. The two finally can admit that they have an attraction to each other
Things that made me smile:
Book flirting (the catnip item I didn't know I needed in my life.)
A paragraph dedicated to Preston's forearms that got me quite warm)
Zoe's cousin telling her that she can only be treating Preston that way because Zoe is either projecting her ex on to Preston at him or is trying to create reasons to be mad at him because she is hot for him
Straitlaced and kooky discovering that they can be perfect for each other

At just under 100 pages, I really was surprised how much of Zoe and Preston's personalities we got as well as how much we got to see their relationship grow. Could have done without the last Big Misunderstanding because it didn't really fit but overall a delightful, bite-sized read.

Five stars
This book comes out November 11th
ARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Hot Response by Shannon Stacey

Gavin Boudreau isn't sure why Cait Tasker is so prickly around him. As a firefighter, he generally gets along pretty well with the EMTs he works with. But Cait stymies him. She doesn't seem susceptible to his usual charms.
Cait had toyed with asking Gavin out. But then he Ma'amed her. She assumed that it was his way of letting her know (rather rudely) that she was too old for him. But, after an intense call, the two bond and Cait takes Gavin to breakfast. And then she spends the night at his apartment (he's not there; she just needs to get away from her family for a little while). And then... well.
I liked that Gavin and Cait actually talked to each other (for the most part). I didn't like that Gavin was such a jerk but it was nice to see his family talk to him and tell him when he's stepping out of line.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out April 24
Follows Fully Ignited

Hold Her Again by Shannon Stacey

Five years ago, Ava Wright and Jace Morrow were in love and trying to make it in the music scene. When Jace got the chance to make it big, but without Ava, he took it. He's regretted it ever since. With his father's death, Jace has a chance to go back to the small town where he and Ava grew up.
Ava is still in town. She's working for her parents in the same cafe she worked in in high school. And the music, for her, is gone. She's not happy that Jace is back in town but she's... fair? or something? Stacey tries to paint her as a caring person who just can't stand Jace's suffering but she comes off a little... door mat-ish. It's not a horrible story but would have been a lot better as a full story.

Three stars
This novella comes out October 1

What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel by Shannon Stacey

Up front, in the subtitle in fact, we're told that this is a Kowalski Reunion novel and are thus forewarned that there will be a LOT of catch up with the Kowalski family. Normally this really bugs me in a story because that means that the main story will suffer. However, Ms. Stacey manages to make the "main story" about a new Kowalski employee and a local boy-returned-home feel like a fully formed novella in amongst a rather extended epilogue for almost every other of the nine previous Kowalski books. As long as you go in expecting that this will not be a fully developed story, you won't be disappointed.
Laney Caswell just got out of a marriage where she was deeply unhappy because she sublimated her own needs for those of her husband. Now, she's spending the summer at the Kowalski camp trying to figure out who she is without a man. She definitely is not interested in getting involved with anyone. When she sees Ben Rivers and electricity strikes but Laney wants to make sure that she finds herself before she gets involved with anyone else.
Ben Rivers is thirty-eight and ready to settle down. His work as a paramedic has been hard and so he played hard too. Now that he's moved home, he's realizing exactly how much he's missed. He is incredibly attracted to Laney but is willing to step back in order to give her room to make her own decisions.
And that's why this book is so good. Both Ben and Laney have adult conversations about what they want and each respects the other. I wish we had gotten some more background on both and the myriad updates about the Kowalskis and their friends got confusing, even to someone who read all the stories, but it was overall a very nice story for regular Kowalski readers.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 28

Holiday with a Twist by Shannon Stacey

Leigh Holloway is heading home for the holidays. Her parents are under a lot of stress, they're moving to a condo from their family farmhouse and her sister, who just had a baby, has left her cheating husband is living with them. So Leigh doesn't want to tell them that, not only did she and her boyfriend break up, she's out of a job. She's afraid that if two out of her parents three daughters are out of work and out of a relationship, they might try and make her stay on the east coast rather than going back to Texas.
Croy (short for Croydon and very hard to read as I kept seeing "Cory" and then having to correct) isn't stoked that Leigh is in town. They used to be good friends but when she convinced the third of their trio, his girlfriend, to move down to Florida with her, the girlfriend ended up finding a new guy. This led to a giant fight between Croy and Leigh. Of course, it has been eight years so he's mostly over it. And noticing how much Leigh has blossomed through the years. Soon they're involved in an undefined relationship that they're having to keep quiet so that Leigh's parents don't think that she's cheating on the ex.
I didn't love the ending and, like with most novellas, wish that we could have seen a little more growth with the characters but it was a nice short story that I think most Shannon Stacey readers will enjoy.
Major props for the note saying that the book will end with at about the 80% mark so we weren't expecting more. I was SO impressed that somebody finally put something like that in.

Three stars
This novella comes out November 21

Fully Ignited by Shannon Stacey

Jamie Rutherford is used to being the new girl on the block. Well, since she's in her mid-thirties, really she's used to being the new woman in the firehouse. Some times are easier than others, depending on how the crew feels about working with a female. Luckily, Engine 59 seems to be be very accepting. Even the crew's Romeo, Shawn Kincaid.
Shawn is super-attracted to Jamie the minute he sees her. Yes, she's a lieutenant and therefore outranks him but he doesn't see that as an issue, because why?
As someone who's experienced sexism in the past, Jamie knows that there will be repercussions if she and Shawn even start hooking up and she explains that part . But then she decides to go for it anyway. Well, they decide to go for it.
And... well, I didn't love the ending. But I did love that Jamie was older than Shawn and it was never mentioned as the issue.

Three stars
Book comes out February 23
Follows Controlled Burn
Followed by Hot Response

A Fighting Chance by Shannon Stacey

I'm not really an MMA fan but I did like this book. Even if I'm confused why a novella that ends at Christmas is coming out in February.
Seven years ago, Brendan Quinn loved Adeline Kendrick. But when her father pointed out the disparity in their positions (her family was white collar, his father owned a roofing company), he decided that the best thing would be for them to break up. But he didn't ever exactly explain it to Adeline. So when she goes to a casino resort for a bachelorette weekend with her two best friends and sees giant posters  of Brendan's face, she's not well pleased. Especially when Brendan himself walks off the elevator and sees her. And then they talk and reconnect. Well, not reconnect so much as fall back into bed. But over the whole weekend, they do take time to sit down and talk about their futures as well as what went wrong in the past (one person making decisions without really talking to the other...)
As usual, it's hard to really make you care about the characters in such a short story but this one does better than average.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out Feb. 1

Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey

When Jessica Broussard was contacted about her grandfather taking a fall, she was shocked. She knew her father hadn’t spoken to his parents in years. But he wasn’t dealing with the problem and she was curious about the family she’d never known so she hopped on the plane from San Diego, deciding along the way that she was going to help them however she could, even if that meant helping them move into a new home.

Rick Gulotti also thinks that Joe and Marie need to move out, but he doesn’t think they should do it just because some granddaughter they never even knew about is pushing them out. He has been renting their third floor for years and has been taking care of them the whole time. This long-legged blonde from California isn’t pushing them out before they want to go.

This is a romance, so of course they start to find some middle ground. And that does start with some great sex. It was a little… shallow. I never got the sense of a deep connection between the two but that didn’t destroy the book for me. Maybe not as good as the early Kowalskis but still good.

I didn’t finish the first book in the series before reading this one and was just fine with catching up. Quite frankly, I appreciated the light touch of bringing in some of the characters from the first book without being hit over the head with them.

Three and a half stars
Followed by Fully Ignited

Her Holiday Man by Shannon Stacey

Image linked from Goodreads

I hesitate to call this a novella; it feels more like a story taken out of a romance anthology. In it, we meet single-mother Christina and her hunky new neighbor, Will. Christina's husband cheated his friends out of a lot of money and left Christina with no money and no discernible skills. She was lucky to find a job at a convenience store and a neighbor kind enough to watch her son when he came home from school. Then, Gail's son comes home from his travels. He left after his wife and unborn child were hit by a drunk driver.
They both have their issues. Can they get beyond their pasts to find a new future together?

Taken with You by Shannon Stacey

Image linked from Goodreads

Reading the Kowalski stories made me an instant Shannon Stacey fan. She does not disappoint with a book about Hailey (who's been introduced in other bookds), the Whitford librarian and Matt, the new game warden.
Matt's a scarred hero (because, what else?). One of his exes not only objected to his erratic hours and coming home muddy and smelling of animal urine, she absolutely tried to change him. I didn't really get where the deep scars were coming from just based on these descriptions, but then again, I live in Montana where stuff like this is the norm, so... It seemed more like he was being super-rigid about women having to appreciate him and his lifestyle and even went out of his way to try and scare subsequent girlfriends.
Hailey is looking for a man who will appreciate opera and five-star restaurants. When she meets a bewhiskered man who hasn't showered in several days while lost in the woods, she's not immediately attracted to him. But when he cleans up so nice and seems like a rational human being... he might actually might make a good companion. For awhile.
Mild spoilers ahead:

I did not like that Matt was being such a baby about the outdoors thing and I very much liked that Hailey was willing to be more compromising about how they spent their time. She was right to be pissed when he acted like a child in the French restaurant. I had to appreciate the end of the book when it looked like they were going to create a better balance of what they both loved. Just because they didn't have the exact same tastes didn't mean they couldn't be together.

I absolutely loved that there was a five year age gap (she's 40, he's 35) and there were no mentions of cougars, no argument over "she's too old", or any of the things that you might expect from an older female-younger male-type relationship. Instead, it's simply Matt and Hailey falling in love.

This book goes on sale tomorrow and I definitely would recommend picking it up.