• Home
    • Contact Me
  • Reading Challenges
    • 2022 Ripped Bodice Summer Romance Bingo
    • Completed Challenges
      • Pondathon II
      • CannonballRead 13 Bingo
      • SpringIntoLove Bingo
      • SnowInLove Bingo
      • JingleBooks Bingo
      • FallIntoRomBingo 2020
      • 2020 Ripped Bodice Summer Read Along Bingo
      • 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge
      • Read Harder 2018
      • January – March 2018 Quarterly Challenge
      • Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January – March 2018
      • Cover Hunt Quarterly Challenge: October – December 2017
      • October – December 2017 Quarterly Challenge
      • Ripped Bodice Summer Read Along Bingo
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Series
    • Reviews by Year
      • 2017 Reviews
      • 2018 Reviews
    • Reviews by Rating
  • Rating System

Llama Reads Books

This llama reads - mostly romance, fantasy and science fiction

Reviews

Review: Want You – Stacy Finz

February 27, 2018 Comment : 1

Review: Want You – Stacy FinzWant You
by Stacy Finz
Series: The Garner Brothers #2
Also in this series: Love You, Santa's on His Way
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: February 27, 2018
Genres: Romance
Pages: 320
Reading Challenges: 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge, January - March 2018 Quarterly Challenge, Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January - March 2018
Source: NetGalley

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

The smart and sexy Garner brothers have turned Glory Junction into California's hottest extreme sports town--and a thrilling adventure of the heart is always part of the deal . . .

The savvy CEO behind his family's outdoor sporting empire, TJ Garner has his choice of women. But the only one he wants is way out of bounds. Deb Bennett has been his brother Win's on and off girl since they were teenagers. And Deb's still waiting for Win to quit fooling around and realize she's The One . . .

Deb carves the ski slopes and rides the rapids like a champion--it's getting her every day life in order that's the real challenge. When she turns to Win's big brother for financial advice, TJ spontaneously offers the hard-working waitress an executive job at Garner Adventure. To Deb's surprise, the job is a blast--and so is working for TJ. She always knew he was a heartthrob, just like all the Garners, but he's charming and attentive too. Of course, given the choice between him and Win there's no contest--or is there? . . .

Amazon  Apple  Barnes & Noble  Kobo  Indiebound

Goodreads

4 stars icon contemporary icon romance icon sports icon


This is the second in the Garner Brothers series, and while I think it could work as a standalone, I think you’d miss a lot of the background flavor.

Both TJ and Deb have grown up in Glory Junction, and both are outdoorsy people.  On the surface, though, that’s where the similarities end.  TJ is the workaholic, business-oriented Garner brother, at the expense of his own personal life.  He has a certain vision for the company, and while he’s helped make it wildly successful, he’s not satisfied.  Deb, on the other hand, works as a waitress at the local diner.  Though they’ve each secretly had crushes on each other since they were kids, Deb believes TJ is too good for her, and TJ has avoided Deb because of her on-again-off-again relationship with his brother Win.  When Deb confesses her money issues to TJ, he resolves to help her, but the main solution to her problem is that she needs to make more money.  So, naturally, he offers her the management position for his family’s company’s new retail division – something she has no experience in.

“The entire business world operates under the premise that it’s who you know, not what you know. No one passes on an opportunity because they have too much dignity to take a hand up. But if you want to live over a diner, drive a busted car, and eat ramen the rest of your life, suit yourself. The rest of us will happily use our connections to get ahead and prove ourselves.”

Deb is, understandably, shocked (as is the rest of TJ’s family), but eventually takes the position, and then works her butt off trying to learn on the job.  Luckily, she has a network of small business-owning friends (oh, and Delaney, the fashion designer from the previous book), so she’s not going in completely blind.  I was initially a bit skeptical of the whole premise, but Deb was an amazingly hard worker and had the advantage of being the type of person they wanted to advertise to.  I was also a bit uncomfortable with the power dynamic – not only does TJ hire her for a job that’s she desperately unqualified for, but he’s also her direct boss.  Partly because of this, by the time Deb and TJ finally get together, it’s more than halfway through the book.  They have several other external obstacles, as well, like pretty much everyone in town’s assumption that Deb and Win will eventually end up together, and various characters shoving random women at TJ.  Internally, Deb feels unworthy of TJ – I mean, her parents used to clean the company’s office when she was a kid, so there’s definitely a class divide.  TJ, for his part, desperately wants to succeed but is also terrified of losing, to the point where he’s either unwilling to try something for fear of failing or, if he does try something, gives up the minute it becomes too hard.

 

“Which reminds me, what are we doing for your birthday?” he asked.
“Getting drunk and then setting my car on fire.”
“I’ll bring the gin and marshmallows.”

We’re told that a lot of Deb’s financial situation is a result of her constantly bailing out her parents, and we do see it twice in the book – once at the beginning, where she ends up “loaning” them most of her tips so they can buy firewood, and again in the middle when they need help with a plumbing emergency.  While having a much better paying job that includes benefits is sure to be a big help with dealing with that expense, I know from experience that that kind of responsibility is a mental as well as monetary burden.  I would’ve liked to see that covered more.  Instead, there seems to be a lot of time spent maneuvering other characters into possible relationships for further books in the series, including a pretty substantial subplot with Win.  While I understood why some of this would need to be covered since everyone assumed that Deb and Win would eventually end up together, for me, it took too much time away from Deb and TJ.  To be contrary, though, I did enjoy Deb’s relationships with her friends.  Her conversations with Hannah, Foster, and Delaney were some of my favorite parts of the book.

Overall, while I had some issues with the book, I did enjoy it, and I’ll most likely be picking up the next book in the series!  Recommended for fans of small-town, outdoorsy romances!

 

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge
  • January - March 2018 Quarterly Challenge
  • Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January - March 2018

Related Posts

  • The Garner Brothers Series
  • By Stacy Finz
  • Same Genre
Santa's on His Way
Review: Santa’s on His Way anthology
Love You
Review: Love You – Stacy Finz
Santa's on His Way
Review: Santa’s on His Way anthology
Tempting Fate
Review: Tempting Fate – Stacy Finz
Love You
Review: Love You – Stacy Finz
What We May Be
Review: What We May Be – Layla Reyne
A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby
Review: A Duke, the Lady and a Baby – Vanessa Riley
At the Heart of Christmas
Review: At the Heart of Christmas – Jill Monroe
Illegally Yours
Review: Illegally Yours – Kate Meader

You might also enjoy

Review: Under Fortunate Stars – Ren Hutchings
Review: Echo – Thomas Olde Heuvelt
The Takeover EffectReview: The Takeover Effect – Nisha Sharma
Previous:
Review: Worth Searching For – Wendy Qualls
Next:
Review: Penric’s Fox – Lois McMaster Bujold

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Me


READING LLAMA

Hi, my name is Lauren, and I’m the Reading Llama! I love reading books. My favorites usually include a female protagonist with at least a little bit of romance.

Twitter    Goodreads    RSS    email

Follow

Currently Reading

June Reviews

Oaths of Legacy  by Emily SkrutskieThe Dawnhounds by Sascha StronachSweet Berries by C.M. NascostaDead Draw by Layla ReynePartners in Crime by Rachel BowdlerThe Merciless Ones by Namina FornaAll Signs Point to Yes by Cam Montgomery, Adrianne White, g. haron davis, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Mark Oshiro, Eric Smith, Emery Lee, Byron Graves, Karuna Riazi, Roselle Lim, Alexandra Villasante, Lily Anderson, Kiana Nguyen

Recently Read

Goodreads Challenge

2022 Reading Challenge

2022 Reading Challenge
Lauren has
read 7 books toward
her goal of
250 books.
hide

7 of 250 (2%)
view books

Reading Challenges

Ripped Bodice Summer Romance Bingo 2022

RB Summer Romance Bingo 2022
June 1 - August 31

hide
3 of 25 (12%)

Badges

25 Book Reviews Reviews Published Professional Reader Frequently Auto-Approved Romanceopoly 2019 Participant

Latest Tweets

Tweets by llamareadsbooks

Currently Reading

  • Ghosts, a secret library and magic collide in a dystopian Edinburgh. Highly recommended!
  • This month’s sticker from the #RomStickerClub is super cute and SHINY!
  • Finished up my ARC of Jackie Lau’s His Grumpy Childhood Friend (out this Tuesday) and I loved this quote! “Practice”
  • Starting off with a quote from one of my favorite books, Charlie Adhara’s The Wolf at Bay, second in Big

Categories

  • Book Tour
  • Challenge
  • Cover Reveal
  • Excerpt
  • lol
  • Most Anticipated
  • PondathonII
  • Reviews
  • Sunday Update
  • TBR
  • Uncategorized
  • Wrap-Up

Copyright © 2022 · Dreams Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in