What I Love About You (Military Men, 2) Mass Market Paperback – August 26, 2014

I actively look forward to the new books of about four or five authors, and when those books finally do come out, I weirdly make myself wait to read them until the perfect time when I know I won’t be interrupted or distracted. Most times, this ends up being a really difficult practice, and one I should probably rethink, but it’s kind of like that thing where you don’t eat the food you like best until last. So in this case, Rachel Gibson is my probably something with a lot of cheese. She’s just one of those authors who can get away with phrases like “magnum wang,” create a town where the high school is called “Truly High,” and still create rich and emotionally fulfilling relationships. And so this weekend was the time I finally got to indulge.The story here is that Natalie Cooper is a blond-haired blue-eyed ex-cheerleader whose ex-quarterback ex-husband is an ex-convict. (I liked this character, but in most ways, I did actually hate her.) She has a little girl named Charlotte, who I didn’t find too annoying. I have been known to not finish books that have children in them because there’s always baby-talking and lisping and they’re always little more than vomitously obvious plot devices. However, Charlotte wasn’t too bad. Anyway, Blake Junger is a retired Navy SEAL who is battling some PTSD and alcoholism and moves to Truly after rehab to further cope with his addiction. Natalie and Blake meet after he’s “puppy bombed” and tries to pawn his new puppy off on Natalie’s little girl. They end up sharing the dog and forming a relationship, and there’s sex, and Thanksgiving, and fainting, and other stuff, and then they fall in love.So like I said, I think Rachel Gibson is awesome, but this book was just not my favorite. I don’t know, it hit all the right notes, but it just lacked magic for me. While Blake was one of my favorite of her guys, Natalie was just bleh. I get that we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because she married an *sshole and raised a kid on her own, all while opening up her own business. But her only personality traits were that she was a responsible parent who didn’t easily trust people anymore. And that’s pretty boring. I didn’t know why they loved each other, since they didn’t have actual conversations about things, just sexual innuendo and arguments about the dog. I get they both had scars, but I was unsure how they helped each other at all, and so their relationship felt disconnected. The only thing that really grabbed me was when Blake went to AA to finally get real help and support, and I was so with him that I just kind of accepted his words that he was in love with Natalie.Regardless, I enjoyed reading it. There were some laugh out loud moments for me, and while I’m a fake-laugh whore, I rarely think things are truly funny and not just recycled jokes. I loved Blake’s tattoo about the whirlwind, I dug the whole Navy SEAL thing, and thought Blake’s forthright nature was enough to make the book better than most romance novels. At one point he tells a photo customer to stop taking pictures of their c*ck. Then one of the supporting characters talks about having a conversation on the “bone phone.” I mean, it’s great stuff. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

As with all of the books I read by Rachel Gibson, I really enjoyed this one. Both of the main characters, Blake and Natalie, are dealing with very real and emotional issues. Natalie's daughter Charlotte is a great addition to the story and the little dog Sparky adds a lot of laughs too. I did not give this book 5 stars because I felt that Blake and Natalie's relationship needed a bit more development. They don't spend a lot of time together and I can only think of two serious conversations they had and they were very short and to the point so it's hard to get completely invested in their relationship. I won't give away the ending but I will say that it was wrapped up pretty quickly and the ending felt very abrupt. This might have been solved with an epilogue, or just an extension of the last chapter but either way there was just a little something missing for me.Overall I enjoyed this book and don't regret purchasing it. It will be put in my quick, fun read category.

This is the story of Natalie, a single mom raising her 5 year old daughter in the small town of Truly, Idaho. Natalie was horribly betrayed by her ex-husband and has avoided any romantic entanglements since her divorce. But there’s no avoiding her new next door neighbor, a smokin’ hot retired Navy SEAL named Blake Junger. Lust? No problem. Relationship? That’s where things get a little tricky…My thoughts:*Repeatedly telling me how “hot” someone is doesn’t count as character development.After nearly 400 pages I knew about as much about Blake as I did after reading Chapter One. He’s got a magnificent body, a “package” that Natalie can’t tear her eyes away from and a tattoo pointing out the way to the “Promised Land”. I know he’s got a boatload of medals (these are catalogued multiple times lest we forget that he is the manliest of all manly men), and he’s an alcoholic with symptoms of PTSD. Since he’s barely come to terms with either one of those issues they don’t play much of a role in the story (and certainly Natalie barely gives them a second thought). C’mon – the man is almost 40 years old, he’s lived half a lifetime; surely there’s more to him than a nice bod…isn’t there?*I sure wasn’t feeling the love here.At the point in the book where Natalie acknowledges to herself that she’s falling in love with Blake, I was sure that I had somehow skipped ahead a few chapters on my kindle. I actually checked and nope, I hadn’t missed a thing. After a few awkward conversations and a drunken make-out session Natalie was “in love”. Huh. At that point these two have spent almost no time together. Lust? OK, I can buy that. But love? No way.*I don’t usually like kids in my Romance reading, but it totally worked in this story.The absolute best scenes in the book take place between Natalie’s daughter, Charlotte, and Blake. She’s a typical 5 year old, chattering away without realizing that he’s not interested and just wants her to go away. Their first scene together is just adorable.*Can we talk about the “love scenes” for a minute? **Possible Spoilers**Awkward. That’s the best word to describe the sex scenes in this book. Unprotected sex with a man whose “package” has been delivered to a whole lot of women over the past 25 years? Yes, I know it happens in real life, but people usually give it some thought; they worry about the risk. Not these two. He assures her that he’s “clean” and assumes she is also. Whatever, let’s just pretend it’s the 1960’s and move on. The next time they have sex it’s at Blake’s house while he has Thanksgiving guests. Yes, it’s a big house, but wouldn’t you just go next door to Natalie’s empty house? It just seemed so odd to me.**End Spoilers**In the end I thought this was just an ‘OK’ read. Rachel Gibson has been writing Romance for a long time now and she’s a professional, and technically the writing reflects that. The characters just really didn’t come alive for me and I never felt invested in their relationship. Their story evoked no emotion in me whatsoever, and their HEA was about as convincing as Natalie’s insta-love. Three stars.Frequent strong language (Blake drops the ‘F-Bomb’ a lot) and explicit sexual content.

This was a story about a young single mum who ex husband cheated stole and is just getting released from prison. Her neighbour is an ex SEAL who doesn't want to be involved with children or single mums. However, throw in a cute dog share, persistent young child and you have these two getting their groove on. It's good read and touches upon PTSD, single parent situations.

A really good/easy/light read. I do enjoy the fact that the characters are some of those that we have already met in previous RG books.

Another excellent story from Rachel Gibson would definitely recommend to all romance fans.

I would recommend this book

wonderful