Take a Chance: Series Bundle

by Diane Alberts

[Angie]

Try Me

Try Me was a very frustrating, but quick read. Despite not usually being into military romances, I was actually enjoying this one until the issues arrived. It was all very circular and repetitive, wasting a lot of this novella's few pages. Try Me starts with Jeremy on the side of the road, after coming out of the desert sunburned, dehydrated, and hung over. He's a Marine on leave, but his trip to Las Vegas isn't the relaxing vacation he had hoped for. Getting drunk and into a fight ends with him abandoned in the middle of nowhere, but luckily someone comes along and finds him. Coincidentally, it's Erica, the girl he's been in love with his whole life and whom he hasn't seen in seven years after he told her he loved her and she literally ran away from him. It looks like he's getting a second chance at love, if only she'd stop pushing him away.

Jeremy and Erica are both are incredibly stubborn people. He keeps pushing her to give their relationship a try, but she's adamant to keep him in the friend zone. It's obvious that he still loves her, and she actually does love him back, but she can't be with him because of...reasons! I absolutely cannot stand when people tell other people how they feel and use that as an excuse rather than owning up to their own issues. This is essentially the heart of Try Me, since Erica constantly tells Jeremy that they can't have a relationship but she won't tell him why. She has a secret, that I won't spoil, but she tries to convince Jeremy (and herself) that he can't possibly love her because of it, even though it's something totally out of her control and really nothing to be ashamed of. But of course, her secret comes out, Jeremy seems to love her even more because of it, they do the sexy thing, and live happily ever after.

Love Me

We met Thomas, aka Tommy, in Try Me, and now Love Me follows him on his own journey to a second chance at love. Thomas came across as kind of a jerk in the previous book, and he came across as an even bigger jerk in this one. He has a business meeting with Brianna, where he turns up the charm. He's so cocky that it's ridiculous. I think she just agreed to a date with him to shut him up. Brianna is a widow and she doesn't feel like it's a good idea for her to date, especially since she has three kids to worry about. However, she and Thomas share some really hot sex in the opening chapters, and then decide to try out a real relationship. Then the story gets super boring.

Real life, grown up problems are not interesting. I couldn't care less about Brianna's three kids, and her insistence on being alone to remain faithful to her dead husband's memory, or whatever. Thomas magically goes from cocky businessman, to amazing stepfather wannabe in like ten seconds and it was way cheesy. Also, meeting the kids, and hanging out at home means no sex, which is also boring. A story can't just go from great, spontaneous sex, to hand holding. It's not right. Love Me also seemed to drag on quite a bit, since Thomas and Brianna have a few misunderstands which caused one of them to run off without letting the other even finish what they were going to say. Shouldn't people in their thirties know better?

Play Me

I knew I wasn't going to like Play Me before I even started it. Not just because I didn't enjoy the previous two books, but because of the accidental pregnancy plot. However, I don't skip series books, so here I am. I did try to like it, but there were other problems I found with it aside from the pregnancy story. This time we're following Garrett and Kiersten, who is Brianna's sister from Love Me. It's the day that Kiersten should have been getting married, except that her fiance left her for his secretary. Now, she's out for revenge, so what better way to get it than by sleeping with her best friend whom her ex-fiance hated? Good plan, right? WRONG! Kiersten and Garrett share a night of passion and he think it's because she's finally ready for a relationship, but she admits it was for revenge. He gets upset, they don't talk for a few months, but when they finally do it's because she has to announce her pregnancy. She tries to give him an out, but Garrett wants this baby (and Kiersten) so he steps up. What follows is a lot of drama, naturally.

Play Me is chock full of high school-ish drama, which is normally entertaining. But when the participants are nearly thirty (or in their thirties, I don't even know) it's quite ridiculous. Garrett moves in with Kiersten with the understanding that they are not a couple, nor will they be. He's there for the baby and to be a father figure to her teenage son. Well, that seems like an okay plan on the surface, but it's even more stupid than her revenge sex plan. Garrett can't get into another serious relationship, because he can't leave her and the kids, and he's not allowed to have women over. He's going to be alone forever. Then of course she has the audacity to get pissed at him for being polite to other women, who he has no intention of being with, just because she's jealous, even though he has repeatedly told her he wants to be with her! Then she seduces him because her teenage son thinks this whole set up is dumb and wants them together, and she tells Garrett this. Is he happy? Hell no, because she's stupid! Of course, they get their happily ever after in the end, after she pisses him off some more by being crazy.

I also confused as heck about Kiersten, her pregnancy, and her teenage son, Chris. From the very beginning it's clear that Garrett knows more about pregnancy than she does. In fact, she knows nothing, and yet she has a son already? There's also many mentions of her ex and how he was suppose to be a father figure, but he left, so I assume he's not Chris's father. But there was no mention of who his father may be. Then finally there's some vague mention of a woman named Sue, who died, leaving Chris motherless. Okay, I suppose Kiersten adopted him, or took him in. But that would have been useful to know earlier on, since I was flabbergasted that Kiersten would know nothing about pregnancy despite being pregnant before. Clearly she has never been pregnant before, but I still had to wonder how she ended up with Chris. We find out in the next book that Chris is actually her nephew, and Sue was a sister who died.

Play Me was just frustrating and annoying on several levels. The supposed adults act like teenagers, and the only character who makes any sense is the teenager. Pregnancy plots are not for me at all, so keep that in mind. Also pregnancy sex is gross. I do not want to read about it, so I had to skim that chapter. I was just expecting something really steamy from this series, but that is not what's being served.

Take Me

Finally one of these novellas took advantage of the getting drunk and married in Vegas cliche! Take Me focuses on Mike, the brother of Brianna and Kiersten. He's the stereotypical perpetual bachelor, who thinks marriage is for chumps. Then he meets the female version of himself. Morgan is a dancer who refuses to be tied down and give up her dream like her mother did. Of course, they hook up, but then part ways. Fate shoves them back together, they go out, get plastered, and wake up with wedding rings. Instead of immediately getting it annulled, they have more sex, and agree to give their marriage a week to see what happens. Morgan is hesitant, but Mike is convinced this all must have happened for a reason.

I actually really liked Take Me. Morgan and Mike are great together! Their chemistry is through the roof, and I loved that they weren't even looking for love, but found it anyway. I'm also a sucker for Elvis weddings. Everything was going great, if predictably, but then that epilogue happened. I could totally buy into their falling in love and staying married, but the pregnancy? No way. Morgan made it very clear that there would be no kids for her until after her dancing career is through, if ever. And yet, there they are expecting a baby. It was played off as an accident, but it was totally unbelievable given the circumstances. I wish the author had left it as just Morgan and Mike, since not every couple has to have kids, especially ones that didn't even want them in the first place.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.