Review: 3 out of 4 ain't bad
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
It drives me nuts when boxed sets don't include a description of the books involved, but the sample for the first book hooked me in enough that I went ahead and bought the set anyway, especially since it had pretty great reviews.  The thing is, I would have scored all four books VERY differently, which makes giving them an overall rating difficult."Here to Stay" - 4 1/2 stars... it definitely sucked me in right away.  Paige is taking care of her uncle's house when her former love, Nathan Blackrope, appears in the night.  Her uncle lives in a small town and seems to have given everyone in town a copy of his key for when he's away, including Nathan who helps with his horses.  Paige and Nathan haven't seen each other in ages, ever since she chose her strict, overbearing and racist father over her love for Nathan.  They both got their hearts broken, neither of them really understands why the other one feels they have even the right to feel hurt, and there's a whole lot of mystery swirling around why each of them feel hurt.  It's rather cathartic when everything comes to light.  Nathan was a great alpha male, although I wish that he and Paige had done a little more talking before they started really getting into things... but he was wonderful anyway.  Paige's father seemed almost caricaturish and unreal, but I think that might have just been wishful thinking on my part - as in, I WISH people like him didn't actually exist.  This was a great book to start off a set!"Up Close" - 1 star.  If this one had started off the box sex I probably wouldn't have bought it.  I couldn't stand the main characters Abby and Matt, especially Abby.  Pretty much everything about this book rubbed me the wrong way; the characters came off as shallow and kind of stupid, Abby was a complete caricature without a lot of depth, and there was very little connection between her and Matt other than the sexy stuff so I couldn't figure out how they "fell in love" when they rarely even had the chance to talk!  Abby has come to town to interview Matt, a local hero, for her magazine, but as soon as she gets to where she's supposed to be she's kidnapped at gunpoint and forced to put on some lingerie and dance for some men!  Even though she keeps thinking about how the guy who kidnapped her won't "listen" to her when she tells him that she doesn't know who Luke is (the guy he references as setting this up) and that she made a mistake, she actually only tries to tell him ONCE that we see.  And then starts dancing for the guys, without trying to tell any of THEM that a mistake has been made.  It's only when Luke shows up that everyone realizes it.  And I'm not sure what the point of the entire scene was except to get Matt - the birthday boy - and Abby off to a bad and awkward start.  It certainly didn't have any relevance to the rest of the story and it didn't do anything except make me wonder how Abby could be such an idiot when she was supposed to be so intelligent.  The rest of the book is Abby fretting about being able to do her interview as she tags along with Matt on all these things that he selflessly does for his town (and apparently not thinking about how she could write about everything that she sees him doing, because she's resentful of him doing those things rather than sitting and talking with her even though she's there for like, 2 weeks), Matt's incredibly undisciplined nephew and niece that are caricatures for the most misbehaved children ever (and never get punished), and both of them thinking about how they're so into the other... not that they've had a chance to talk at ALL.  Everything about this book just seemed overdramatic, unnecessary and left me wondering how the heck they fell for each other."Tempting Trace" - 3 1/2 stars.  After the last book, this one was a relief.  Trace is a country music star turned businessman who gets all riled up when Claire Carson, a tv personality, does a segment on his mysterious disappearance after the death of his parents and wife and then reappearance two years later as a business mogul rather than singer.  It's never really explained WHY her segment sticks in his guts, but the story gives the impression that it's because he's so attracted to Claire.  When she refuses to apologize for doing the story or to agree not to do the planned sequel, Trace buys out her station and gets his revenge by forcing her to work as his secretary whenever she's not on air.  Joke's on him though, because their mutual attraction is even harder to ignore when she's working beside him day after day.  Unfortunately he's kind of broken and even Claire's warm nature isn't enough to heal him right away.  The plot's a little Harlequin-y, but mostly enjoyable.  I felt for Trace even when I wanted to kick him and I loved how strong Claire was throughout the entire story; she's not going to back down from what she knows she deserves."Basic Instincts" - Three stars. Meredith is the author of a new hit seller, "Basic Instincts," which is about how men and women relate to each other and how they can have successful relationships; but of course it gets dubbed the "sex" book.  She hates the media attention but she'd already agreed to write a sequel; unfortunately now that she's so big it's going to be impossible to get volunteers for some of the research she needs so she decides to do it herself.  Her second book is about impulses, especially when it comes to singles meeting new people.  The first man she runs into is Jake, who is recently heartbroken but incredibly attracted to her... only for her to find that she can't lie and use the pseudonym that she came up with because she's clicked so immediately with him.  Almost a "love at first sight" kind of connection.  Of course, neither of them can stay away... but how's he going to react when he finds out that he's just research?  Honestly, the plot line didn't appeal that much to me (so much unnecessary drama!) but the characters did.  I'm still not sure whether or not I really LIKED the story.  But I liked the characters - and I definitely thought it was better done than "Up Close."Anyway.  At 99 cents this is a pretty darn good buy, especially if you want to check out Debra Webb and get a feel for her writing.  She's a little hit or miss for me, but I definitely think it was worth it.