Trust Me if You Dare by LB Gregg

9574343Title: Trust Me if You Dare
Series: Romano and Albright, #2
Author: LB Gregg
Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Comedy
Length: 158 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (21 Dec 2010)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5 Hearts
Blurb: Hard help can be good to find.

Romano and Albright, Book 2

Feisty New Yorker Caesar Romano has a knack for getting into a jam, and this week is no exception. When his pregnancy-hormone-buzzed business partner sweet talks him into working a solo gig for his famous ex, Caesar attracts the worst kind of attention.

It’s only the beginning. Hit on by a lusty German, stalked by the paparazzi, victim of an unexpected airbag attack—and desperate for some part-time help—Ce’s running out of time, staff and patience. But what’s really got him poised to run? A looming brunch with his sexy lover’s esteemed family.

PI Dan Albright is a man of many gifts: investigation, security, sex talk and driving Caesar nuts in and out of the bedroom. Hired to protect an outrageous soap star from a deranged personal assistant, Dan’s got his hands full refereeing rival actors, locating one four-foot-eleven woman…and convincing Ce that he’s playing for keeps.

Hey, nobody ever said taking a relationship to the next level was a waltz in the park.

ISBN: 9781609282684

Product Link: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/3775/trust-me-if-you-dare

Reviewer: Prime

Review: Trust Me If You Dare is the second book in LB Gregg’s Romano and Albright series. You really do need to read the first one to get a feel for things, particularly since this where our titular couple, Caesar Romano and Dan Albright, actually meet and get together.

The guys are back in another adventure and Caesar is just as accident prone and just as prone to melodrama and histrionics as he was in Catch Me if You Can.

The great thing about this book is that it is natural flow off from book one, it certainly helps that the story picks up immediately after book one has ended (you can tell this by keeping track of Caesar’s cousin, Joey, and Caesar’s BFF, Poppy. In fact we meet up with most of the minor characters we met in the first book with a few additions, like Gunter, who is a soap star and is hiding in Shep’s (Ce’s ex) apartment.

There is a lot more charm and chemistry between Dan and Caesar too, which, for me, made for a much more enjoyable book as we go through danger and other sorts of hijinks with the couple. I’m also relieved to add that Dan actually felt like a major character, too, which I hadn’t felt in the first book. I think throwing some jealousy into plot certainly helped bring the relationship to a higher level.
Just as funny and just as crazy as the first.

This is a sitcom style cop/thriller/mystery, enjoyable from start to finish.

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *

Catch Me If You Can by LB Gregg

41d92glCo-L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Catch Me if You Can
Series: Romano and Albright, #1
Author: LB Gregg
Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Comedy
Length: 128 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (2 March 2010)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Blurb: The fear of getting caught is half the fun.

Lowly art gallery assistant Caesar Romano is freely out of the closet. Now he’d just like to get out of his Nana’s guest room. Everything—his reputation and his financial freedom—is riding on the success of tonight’s gallery opening. If only he could shake free of the past so easily.

A mysterious gatecrasher, Dan Green, looks like a promising addition to his pending new life—until Caesar’s ex shows up and suddenly the opening disintegrates into a half-naked dance melee. When the glitter settles, a missing sculpture of Justin Timberlake has Caesar up to his eyebrows in extortion, intrigue and a wild sexual adventure underneath, inside, and on top of a variety of furnishings.

As the cast of suspects pile up, so do the questions. Like who’s really blackmailing whom? And what does a stolen paint-by-numbers clown matter when Dan is so outrageously capable of blowing Caesar’s resistance to smithereens?

This book contains graphic language, sex, lies, intrigue, clowns, kleptomania, anal sex, oral sex, mutual masturbation, bad driving, good cooking, and the missing head of a Justin Timberlake statue. Not for the sour of disposition.

ISBN: 9781605049502

Product Link: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/2825/catch-me-if-you-can

Reviewer: Prime

Review: Catch Me If You Can is the first book in LB Gregg’s Romano and Albright series.

While I enjoyed it immensely – this hilarious comedy of errors and the most accident prone person who has the weirdest stuff happen to – there were a few things in the story which bugged me.

All the comedy really comes from Caesar, also known as Ce, and the story is being told from his POV. With all the good intentions he is really trying to make his work at an art gallery work – but things just tend to happen to him.

OK, fair enough, he should have called the cops the in the beginning rather than worry about his boss blowing a gasket for doing just that. However, Caesar is completely adorable (both cute and hot, if that makes sense) and when he meets Dan Albright, ex-detective and now a PI, things heat up in a big, bad way between the guys.

So this is one thing that leaves me confused, I was fully invested into Caesar and his never-ending histrionics. But – and this is big – I just didn’t and couldn’t become fully invested into Dan as a main character. Despite being Caesar’s love interest (there could have been more chemistry between them), Dan felt like he was a slightly more important minor character.

The annoying part is that Dan is a fantastic character, it was just that he was used to interpret Caesar’s melodrama to make the story more coherent (though it is easy to follow regardless of melodrama).

Another thing to add, only because I was reading this book soon after listening to a Cracked podcast which discussed this very thing, I became very aware to reaction the other character had with one of the transgender minor characters.

As I heard on the podcast, it felt like the reaction the group of cops had in Ace Venture: Pet Detective had when Ace revealed one of the villains as trans. Speaking about it with a friend, she was deeply offended, but I won’t go into the lengthy explanation she gave me.

Beyond those flaws, in my view, this is funny and zany and convoluted in a pretty pleasing way. It is easy to get lost in the histrionics and melodrama, which for a while allowed me to over look anything that annoyed me in the plot. It’s a fun ride and I’m interested to see what happens next.

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *