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Review posted: Happily Ever After - Reads His hand slid up to grip her hip as if he were afraid he’d float right off the earth if he didn’t hold on. She loved that she was his anchor, if only for this one brief moment. A series centered around siblings. Stop right there, SOLD. I love all kinds of romance in all different types of sub genres, but I have a huge soft spot for series that are centered around families, especially when each sibling gets their own book. I love this element in the Rough Riders series by Lorelei James, the Brown Siblings series by Lauren Dane and my most reread favorite family series, the Travis family series by Lisa Kleypas. If book 1 of Victoria Dahl’s new Donovan Brothers Brewery series is any indication, it’s well on its way to being at the top of my favorites list. First up, Tessa Donovan. Youngest of three siblings, her two older brothers Eric and Jamie, couldn’t be more different but they’re both protective of Tessa and love her fiercely. They lost their parents years ago to an accident, Eric being the oldest moved back home to take care of Jamie and Tessa and start running the family brewery. All the siblings now work at the brewery and tension is high between Jamie – a lovable guy who finds himself messing up when he really does try to avoid it and Eric – the strong, oldest sibling, shouldering the bulk of the responsibilities by his own choice and fighting with Jamie over pretty much everything. Tessa feels like she’s the glue that holds her family together and after losing so much already, she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her brothers right where they are, in the family business and in her life. After a break-in at the brewery, Luke Asher is on the case. Luke’s old friends with Jamie and after spending time at the brewery gathering evidence, he notices Tessa and when she calls him up asking to meet for dinner, of course he says yes! Jamie and Eric are irate that she’s seeing Luke, they’ve heard some unfavorable rumors about his past and his work situation. Tessa has a few moments of doubt, but that doesn’t keep her from getting to know Luke and after spending time with him she realizes what a caring, nice guy he really is and she wants to get to know him…a lot. He had that bad-boy aura she found appealing, and yet he was a polite police detective who had no problem working with women. In other words, the guy was smoking hot. She might have to break her third-base rule for him. Though it’d always been more of a gentle suggestion than a hard-and-fast rule. A girl had to keep her options open. The mystery regarding the brewery break-in goes throughout the story, with Luke tracking down clues and the thief ends up being a lot closer than anyone realized. There’s also the business deal Eric’s trying to finalize with Roland Kendall that would help expand their business. The deal gets thrown off track by Jamie and Kendall’s daughter when they’re caught…the morning after by Daddy Roland. Tessa starts telling little white lies, first asking Jamie to keep the incident from Eric, then by trying to salvage the deal with Roland on her own, behind Eric’s back. Her little lies turn into crazy, out of control lies and everything eventually comes to a head in a big family fight. Tessa is a vibrant, loving person who just wants her brothers to be happy and get along and she didn’t realize how much she also wanted to find love, in the form of Luke. Having lost her parents at a young age, it’s hard for Tessa to open up and risk herself again, but Luke doesn’t make it easy for her to let him go. Luke’s also dealing with past hurt and anger, and while they’re two stubborn people who refuse to open up about anything painful, they quickly realize that it’s talk it out, or be alone. It probably goes without saying that their scenes together were all over the chart: passionate, sweet, tender, hilarious. “Sorry,” he said. “I just need one second.” “Carry on. You’re hot in detective mode.” “Oh, yeah? Maybe I’ll show you my handcuffs later.” She knew it was just a slightly distracted joke, but Tessa felt a shiver of nervous delight at the thought. Maybe indeed. I really loved all the little details that Victoria Dahl writes in that gives the story that extra charm, from the brewmaster Wallace (who I can’t wait to see again), Tessa twittering, Jamie’s kilt, to the brewery’s kickball team and Tessa’s muttered cursing. Also Simone, who showed Tessa who the true Luke really is. Simone is Luke’s pregnant work partner and it kills him that she won’t share any details with him, won’t talk about the baby or who the father is, she’s shut him out of that part of her life. It bothers Luke that she won’t let him be a friend to her and help her through this and it just shows Tessa another side of Luke, and what a truly nice guy he is. Victoria Dahl wrote about a family that I instantly fell in love with and created characters that I wanted to know. Luke and Tessa are such a fun couple, their scenes had me laughing one minute and *sighing* the next. I can’t wait to see where Victoria takes us with Jamie and Eric.

2022-11-14 18:05