Colters' Woman by
Maya Banks
Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren't looking for women. They're looking for a woman. One woman to share their lives and their beds. They don't want a casual romp in the hay, they want the woman who will complete them and they're losing hope of finding her. That is until Adam finds Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin. He knows shes different the minute he holds her in his arms. But before Adam gets his hopes up, he knows he has to gauge his brothers reactions. Soon its evident that shes the one. There are a few problems, however convincing her she belongs with them and keeping her safe from the man who wants her dead. Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, menage a quatre, violence.
Thougthts:
After reading this book, I can firmly say this book is not a good introduction into contemporary romance genre. Mind you I spent a lot of time in researching what titles I would read to take my first steps into this new and uncharted genre. (At least for me.)
Banks had fantastic reviews and many readers even stated that she had smooth and depth to her writing. Apparently something that hard to find in Contemporary Romance? Plus, the sheer thought of a book with more then one hot guy crushing on the girl, and they're all straight, just lead the way.
So first off. When I picked up this title I assumed that the book would build up the love. I've been reading nothing but PNR, so I figured that the contemporary genre would be more realistic. You know none of that at a glance hot lust and pants jumping. To my disappointment, within a few pages all three of the male leads are lusting after her, they've decided she's the one, and they will have her. All like that. No build up, no actual thoughts were taken during this process.
At least the leading lady, Holly, has some hesitations about the guys. She's pretty much on board with the idea after a really winning pep talk from the guys. She holds off for a bit because the last guy she “loved” and trusted killed a man on their wedding night. Now he wants her dead. So she's a little hard up for passing out the love. All of the boys at one point make comments about how much of life she's seen and how hard she's had it. For all of that, Holly is pretty dense. She doesn't think that her evil husband may have been targeting her because she has a vast inheritance. In fact, the majority of the time I felt like Holly's thoughts never really when deeper then artificial. There were times when she was trying to figure out handle being in a relationship with three guys. Those were the moments I loved this book, controversy.
The yummy brothers all fit the standard stereo type man candy of any book. Adam, the serious and poorly misunderstood guy. Even though he seems mean and angry and might kill you. If your one of the people he loves he's there for you. Ethan, is the funny jokster who holds the group together. No matter how much the other guys scare the shit out of Holly, he's there to smooth things out. Ryan is our tortured soul, who will only open up to his lady love. So there they all are. Personally I didn't find any thing else about them that really stuck out or made them different. They all live together and work a hunter's lodge.
The boys are raised in a family were they have three fathers and one mum. (Who we get to meet at the end of the book.) So I can see how they all expect to find the one woman for all of them. Personally I didn't feel it, no doubts or second thoughts plagued the lads. I wished that Banks would have fleshed it out a bit more. So it felt like it wasn't just some idea thought up for a foursome.
Banks got ambitious though, I loved the killer husband idea. Holly has to deal with basically a Mafia type guy and finally has to grow up and realize the problem won't go away. Becoming tougher, slightly more able to take care of herself. Plus I like the fact that the killer husband issue is solved legally instead of him buried in some backyard and a huge secret floating over their heads.
Another thing that constantly annoyed the heck out of me was pussy. Every love scene, really every page, seems to be trashed by the word. I've never really thought that it was erotic, and in general I'm just not fond of it. In general I didn't really think that the love scenes were very good, in fact it was hotter with just one brother at a time.
Bottom line:
This was probably not the best place to start in the contemporary side of romance, but it was fun. I enjoyed the three stereotypical brothers, and the dialogue was pretty witty. For the majority of the book I was giggling, which was the highest part of the entertainment value for me. The author tried to take it a step further and put in a nice suspense with a evil husband Holly is trying to run away from.
Sexual Content:
Foursomes and lots of different twists. Very explicate.
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out
