Rate this book

Black Ties And Lullabies (2011)

by Jane Graves(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0446568473 (ISBN13: 9780446568470)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Forever

series

Playboys

review 1: Jane Graves' Black Ties and Lullabies doesn't work out side the predictable confines and popular tropes of romance novels in general. That's not a bad thing, if you're in the mood for it and don't mind a sketchy outline of the emotional aspects of their budding love story.Bernadette ('Bernie' for short, a rather unfortunate nickname) Hogan as a hard-nosed, extremely independent and tough ex-military turned bodyguard isn't too hard of a sell but since we see so little of that side of her and is the pivotal reason she and billionaire (a shallow, 38-year-old professional womanizer, little boy in man's body and emotionally constipated) Jeremy Bridges, it gave the start of the relationship a weak foundation. The setup of the first chapter is like being thrown in the middle of a... moren already established relationship, which added this sense of distance I felt as I continued with their story. Plus, when Bernie gets pregnant by a man she clearly doesn't respect and doesn't want in her life wasn't satisfactorily amended in my mind. The relationship always felt awkward and strained and lacking heat, chemistry or a good enough reason for these two to be together.There was nothing inherently bad with this book but I was not impressed overall and have read far better fluffy popcorn reads that's sexy, fun and still chick-lit light. Instead, I found myself rather bored throughout as there was no real power, relevance or depth behind the plot or the characters. If the emotions are thin, generic sketches, then the scenes and the characters themselves have to compensate by being lively, energetic, hot, sizzling, anything to just get the pulse above sleepy. That didn't happen. It's just your run of the mill, typical plot devices and standard characters you've read before, lacking any distinctness or texture to their personality that's relatable or believable. The pacing was slow and the various, flimsy secondary threads were also distracting and rather useless. Bernie's personal background is nonexistent, even with her forgetful mother to give our main female lead a sense of feminism and just *something* not so wooden and stiff. Jeremy's minimal background story sort of helped to not make him so bland, boring and cardboard cutout that the rest of characters were like but not by much.The only thing I liked about was the dialogue, which was at times amusing but that's not enough to make a book a good read. This is my first book by this author and I will give it another go, most likely.
review 2: I actually liked this book and the characters. Jeremy was real whorish in the beginning and when he was at Bernie job picking up woman i was like please dont do it. I glad he didnt let this get out of hand and corrected his mistake right away. They both had some insecurites Bernie with her self image and Jeremy with his lack of affections. He turned out to be a great person and stepped up to the plate. less

Download links for: Black Ties and Lullabies

Advertising