Something To Talk About by Dakota Cassidy (Plum Orchard #2)
Contemporary Romance
Released: May 27, 2014
Harlequin

Reviewed by May

Favorite quote: “I was sexually festive!”

Em is a single mom and manager of a phone sex company. Her life may be rough right now, and her ex-husband may have caused a whirlwind of gossip when he was discovered to enjoy cross-dressing (something Em had never known about), but she’s on a new path and wants to shake things up. She has a job that pays well (that she’s good at!) and she has the support of some great friends.

“You make me sound like an onion. And where were all those boys who like onions at, I ask you I can tell you they sure weren’t out tonight.”

Cat sighed. “Oh, honey, they just weren’t the right men. Nobody said dippin’ your toes back into the dating pool would be easy.”

LaDawn bobbed her head. “Peelin’ onions isn’t for the faint of heart, Miss Em. When the right one comes along, he’ll peel you raw.”

Em’s cheeks went hot. “Why is it so easy for you to say things like that and when I try, I sound like a bad actress in one of those dirty movies?”

Oh there’s a man who wants to peel her raw – and the tension between the two was immediate and heated! Jax is a single dad who is now also a co-worker doing computer freelance for the company she manages. How will she manage to not jump him at the office?

He was like Texas weather. Stormin’ and ragin’ one minute, sunny and blue skied the next.

There is a lot to like about this book. The author does a great job of incorporating interesting children and single parent dynamics without having the kids take over or make them feel like props. This isn’t easy to do and I was very impressed with that aspect of the characters.

She also had some great humor and dialogue that had me smiling, and absolutely kept me interested in the story.

“Did we just have angry sex?” she asked, her lips against his neck.

Jax’s head popped up to see her smiling. “Yeah, but I wasn’t angry with you. I shouldn’t have-“

Em’s fingers went to his lips and she shook her head. “No. Don’t explain, please. Now I can check another thing off my list.”

“Your list?”

“Uh huh. I’ve never had angry sex before. That was incredible.”

However, the story was lacking. Right from page one things were jumbled, confusing, and it took me a bit to even figure out who the heroine would be. Everyone is talking in a way that is intended to be giving me the reader background, but instead read like an incredibly sloppy info-dump.

This small town is full of secrets, we’ve got a phone sex business that barely gets attention, the leading characters both have bad break ups and (refreshingly) neither has had a sexual partner in a long time. There are really great supporting characters left hanging in the wind with not much to do, and there are characters that simply waste page space.

Then we’re given all of these glimpses and teases of secrets and “past” for both characters but neither has a truly developed resolution or satisfying outcome. In short, this story would have benefited from a lot of things being left out and re-worked, or even better if it had taken the problems and issues given to the characters and treated them more seriously. Em has some major issues with worrying about what others think and living her life to this small town’s standards. She held on to this for far too long , so when she finally comes around it was too little too late.

Overall it didn’t all come together as it should – but as you may be able to tell from the quotes I’ve shared there was quite a bit of the story that I enjoyed and that was memorable as well.

 Grade: C-

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