Drawn Together (Brown Family, #5)

by Lauren Dane

[Cocktails and Books]

Raven often had me either wanting to throttle her or to make her my best friend. She is harsh, course and a lot of times, someone who was really hard to like. So I was intrigue to find out just how Lauren Dane was going to turn her into someone I loved just as much as Erin, despite everything she had done previously. Well, I'm happy to say, I'm a convert.

Raven has a very good reason for being the way she is. It's mostly a protection mechanism caused by years of neglect from her family and being bounced around from foster home to foster home. She believes she's unwanted and she acts out the way she does to keep people away. We see where the rough Raven we met in Laid Bare is now a bit softer, especially when the Brown Family children (along with their extended family's) love on their Auntie. She knows their love is unconditional and they accept her as she is, letting her walls fall a little. Even with Erin and Brody she opens up to them, but you can tell she still holds back just a bit. But that all changes when she meets Jonah Warner.

Jonah is a very dominant male who goes after what he wants. Whether it's in the courtroom, ballroom or at a small gathering of friends, if he sees what he wants, he's determined to have it. When he sees Raven, he uses his desire for a large scale tattoo as his in with her. Jonah sees a woman who sparks all the dominant male traits in him that his ex-wife never did. He wants, but for more than just entertainment in bed. She calls him on his crap and makes him want to be her knight in shining armor.

I loved Raven and Jonah together. Jonah knew when to push Raven and when to give her her space. That not only made Raven fall hard for him, but myself as well. He may have screamed, cursed and vowed to avenge Raven for all the bad things that happened to her, but his did that to himself because he knew, without Raven having to say it ,that she could not handle his pity. His internal struggle to give Raven what she needed proved that he was the man for Raven.

These two are very hot together. Jonah helps Raven discover that there is one place that she's willing to hand over control and he very graciously commands her. He may be a softy when it comes to other areas of his relationship with Raven, but in the bedroom he's all about control.

A very fitting story for Raven. She's a woman who overcame horrible circumstances and proved to herself and (at the end) her family that you can overcome adversity. She's grown quite a bit from when we first met her and I have new respect and love for her as a character. My only wish for Raven (and Jonah) is that she has a baby of her own one day, because the woman has a hell of a lot of love to give.