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If You Dare The MacCarrick Brothers Book 1 Bk 1 Kresley Cole 9781416503590 Books

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If You Dare The MacCarrick Brothers Book 1 Bk 1 Kresley Cole 9781416503590 Books

4.5 stars

At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this. I didn't immediately warm to the two main characters. And there were times when I REALLY wished the villains would just kill Anna already - or that she would at least realize that the villains were actually out to kill her.

But then things got hot. Holy cow did they get hot. And by the end of it, I very much wanted them both to survive and get together and have all the happily ever after.

What I liked most about this is that stakes were higher than is typical for the historical romances I read. I liked the fast-paced and dangerous plot for this one.

And now I'm onto the next book because there was an excerpt at the end and I think it will be right up my alley.


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If You Dare The MacCarrick Brothers Book 1 Bk 1 Kresley Cole 9781416503590 Books Reviews

I bought this book because I love Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series. Naturally it's not much like the paranormal series because its set in the 1800's and is a historical romance, however the book was entertaining. I didn't find it to be page turner like her others, but it was good enough for me to want to read the other two.

Run Down of the Story

Court is a Scottish missionary from the highlands, he is in France doing what he does best - making war - when the evil Spanish warlord, "Pascal", who hired him betrays him. Court nearly dies and is washed ashore on the banks of a river where he is discovered by Anna, a French hooty-tooty, whose brother is running the defensive against Pascal.

Anna lives alone on her and her brothers estate, seeing how her brother is off fighting the Spanish. She decides to take mercy on the Scottish brute and bring him to her home so that she may nurse him back to health. This wouldn't be a historical romance novel if Anna was not clueless to the male physic and stuck up as all get out, of which she is both.

When Court comes around he is taken aback by Anna's beauty and not so much by her personality which borders on prejudice and cruel. Anna meanwhile thinks Court is an uneducated barbarian and once he is feeling better she attempts to get him out of her home. Court is not ready to leave; he has sent word to his mates and waits their arrival so that he can take his revenge on Pascal. Since Anna lives alone he takes advantage of her weakness and flat out tells her that he isn't going anywhere.

While Court becomes more intrigued with the moody Anna it comes to light that Anna's brother has been captured by Pascal and in order to secure his release Anna must marry the evil Spanish Warlord. Anna goes to Court to ask to hire him and his mercenary's so that they may rescue her brother and prevent her from marrying her enemy. Confusion ensues where she attempts to ask and Court doesn't fully understand her situation seeing how she never fully explains it and what do you know he finds out just in time to kidnap her from Pascal's home before the wedding. She's none too pleased because she believes that she has committed herself to the marriage and that this is the only way to save her brother.

Court decides to hold her against her will and take her to London where she will be safe. Her brother escapes after some help from Pascal's daughter (side line romance) and is to meet up with Anna in England. On the road Anna and Court become involved, but don't go too far (her virtue - blah blah) once in England though they confess their love to one another and seal the deal.

Okay that's it in a nut shell. Pretty cut in dry, no real twist, not that much action, mostly just a lot of dialogue between Court and Anna (she likes him, she hates him). Tons of sexual tension.
Wow. This book was an amazing read and came at just the time when I really needed an HR winner. I bought this book awhile ago, but just couldn't commit to reading it. I was convinced from some of the summaries that the heroine was a TSTL spoiled brat who would annoy me to no end and having never read Kresley Cole but knowing that she writes pretty sizzling stories, I was afraid it would be choc a bloc full of excessive lust and gratuitous sex (pardon my blunt-writing ;-).

It turns out that it was *very* good that I waited and I am SO unbelievably glad I decided to pick it up today of all days. I have been down about the recent romance duds that I've read and was really starting to despair, thinking I was going to be stuck from now on with having to reread my favorites, because nothing was left undiscovered and the new ones coming out had all been mostly horrible. After reading If You Dare though, I was reminded of why I became a romance book devotee ten years ago and why I love - no, adore! - the genre; nothing beats a good romance read. (Except probably having your own personal hero, which I don't currently, so book heroes have to do for now!)

MAIN CHARACTERS, COURTLAND (Court) AND ANNALIA (Anna)
This particular hero is to die for, *especially* in the second half somebody please tell me where I can find my own Courtland MacCarrick and I will give you everything I own! At first I was a little wary because he came off a little dictatorial, stubborn, and rough, but I quickly fell in love with him and in the second half of the book sigh ... well, just thinking about it makes me want to reread it. He becomes so romantic and possessive and sweet, though still retaining enough of his difficult, rough-around-the-edges, serious qualities - it's just delicious. Gotta love those tortured bad boys. He definitely made it on to my list of all-time favorite heroes, and I'm pretty picky about those - just because I give a book 4 or 5 stars does not mean the hero is necessarily going in that category.

My two biggest reservations were not for nothing, and though they obviously didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book, they do have to be mentioned. Court does almost immediately feel lust for Annalia - and it is lust, not just 'oh, wow, she's attractive. moving on.' However, because of his character and just how he is, it is almost expected and was not really off-putting. Most importantly, I felt that his attachment to Annalia quickly developed into something more. It's odd because this was not really a meeting of the minds - they don't have very many (if any) intellectual discussions, are completely different and come for vastly different experiences/histories, and are in many ways polar opposites, however here, for me, it just worked! Actually a little puzzling to me why I did feel it worked, but what can I say?

The second and main problem, which ended up knocking half a star off, was the part of the book where my fear about the heroine did come true for about the second quarter of the book, she completely becomes the spoiled, annoying, bratty TSTL heroine that I thought she was going to be. Honestly, I wanted to slap her upside the head several, several times. Anna does redeem herself - though the turnaround is very abrupt - and come around for the second half, but I do wish that transformation period of hers could have been left out altogether. Honestly, had I not loved the rest of the book so much, it would have brought the rating down far more than half a star.

EVERYTHING ELSE
I loved Court's crew and brothers - am interested to see how their stories turn out - and thought the side romance for Anna's brother was a nice addition, and I'm normally not one for secondary romances. I actually feel that that could have been its own interesting book, because their pairing is pretty rare in romances in that the hero had a lot of the qualities heroines often do and vice versa. Here, the man is the one who is trusting and nice/sweet and loyal and all that good stuff and the woman is the one who has had the difficult upbringing and the betrayal and has had to be tough and rough and duplicitous to protect herself.

It is an action-type romance, more because of battles and fighting than any mystery subplot. It set the story, so I thought was done well, didn't take away at all from the romance, and added just what it had to to give the plot shape.

And last, but by no means least ;-), the chemistry is sizzling off the charts and has some romance scenes where you will definitely be fanning yourself.

THE MACCARRICK BROTHERS TRILOGY
Book 1 - IF YOU DARE, Courtland's story
Book 2 - If You Desire, Hugh's story
Book 3 - If You Deceive, Ethan's Story

BOTTOM LINE
I'm glad I waited until now to read it. Really needed one of those amazing romance reads right now and it absolutely 100% delivered. Despite the seriousness of its backdrop and of some of the underlying themes, for me it did not read like a very heavy or serious romance. But I guess sometimes I don't need that - I just need enjoyment.
4.5 stars

At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this. I didn't immediately warm to the two main characters. And there were times when I REALLY wished the villains would just kill Anna already - or that she would at least realize that the villains were actually out to kill her.

But then things got hot. Holy cow did they get hot. And by the end of it, I very much wanted them both to survive and get together and have all the happily ever after.

What I liked most about this is that stakes were higher than is typical for the historical romances I read. I liked the fast-paced and dangerous plot for this one.

And now I'm onto the next book because there was an excerpt at the end and I think it will be right up my alley.