I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Brazen
by
Maya Banks
erotic romance in Paperback edition that was published by Samhain Publishing on July 1, 2008 and has 260 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Sweet Surrender, Colters' Woman, Sweet Persuasion, Sweet Seduction, In Bed with a Highlander, Darkest Hour, Seduction of a Highland Lass, Colters' Lady, No Place to Run, Men Out of Uniform, Red-Hot Summer, Never Love a Highlander, Sweet Temptation, Whispers in the Dark, "Colters' Wife", Colters' Promise, Echoes at Dawn, Undone By Her Tender Touch, Four Play, Cherished, The Tycoon's Pregnant Mistress, Never Seduce a Scot, Highlander Most Wanted, "Softly at Sunrise", Shades of Gray, Rush, Fever, Forged in Steele, Burn, Colters' Daughter, Colters' Gift, Be With Me, When Day Breaks, After the Storm, Taking It All, Keep Me Safe, Darkest Before Dawn, Enticed by His Forgotten Lover, Sweet Possession, Sweet Addiction
First in the Brazen erotic romance series set in Texas. The couple, er, threesome focus is on Jasmine Quinn and Zane and Seth Morgan on the Sweetwater Ranch.
My Take
This wasn’t very good. It’s more as if Banks was going through the motions and forgot that a love story should include a lot more emotion than was here. There were some lovely tense bits with Zane wanting Jaz and Seth thinking that made the two of them a couple and Jaz off-limits to him. Feeling outside. Then when Jaz propositions him, it’s another set of emotions. When the brothers finally find her blood brother, that leads to yet more emotion. All of which would have created a great story if only Banks had gone somewhere with it. Instead it was all surface.
There is a bit in the story where we learn that Jaz is afraid of water in baths and swimming pools due to the incentive process her would-be pimp put her through; we also go through Jaz’s form of therapy to rid herself of her fears.
The Story
This is it. She’s reached her conclusion about where she wants her life to go. It’s not a choice of Zane or Seth. It’s Zane and Seth together. She knows they’ve shared a woman before why should it be so different if that woman is her?
This past year in Paris has helped Jaz mature and gain some perspective on irregular partnerships. Her skills as a photographer have grown and she’s done some good work. And she is missing her men. Determined to force a confrontation on them and settle the question once and forever.
The Characters
Jasmine Quinn is sort of adopted and sort of a foster child for the Morgan brothers. They rescued her off the streets the night she attempted to proposition them in a bar. Upon bringing her home to their ranch, Zane and Seth ensured that she got her GED and attended college, pursued the photography that interested her. Now the brothers are conflicted. They both want her and neither believes she would be interested in a threesome. Worse, Seth still sees her as a child in his care.
Carmen is the brothers’ housekeeper/chaperone/mother figure, hired on when they brought Jasmine home with them some six years earlier. Cody Quinn is her brother and has been looking for Jaz since he learned of their mother’s death but got leave from his unit too late to find Jasmine.
J.T. is the sheriff and friends with the Morgans and Jaz. Kyle Richards and Toby March are also friends.
The Cover and Title
The cover is quite patriotic in its distressed wooden sign flag, the cartoonish middle of two muscled men in tank tops, each with a tattooed bicep flanking a flirtatious woman in the middle, repeating the red, blue, and white theme song, and ending with the deep blue border at the bottom.
The title is accurate enough for Jasmine is quite Brazen in her pursuit of what she wants from the brothers.
