Something's Gotta Give

Tempered Steel Series, Book 3

By: Maggie Adams

Narrated by: Leyna Baltimore

Chance Coalson loves women. And they love him. Young or old, no woman is immune to his charm. Except one.

Georgia Haines is the only female volunteer firefighter in Grafton. She’s had a crush on Chance Coalson since he offered her his handkerchief at her momma’s funeral. But she’s smart enough to know that it takes a special woman to tame a charmer like Chance, and there’s nothing particularly special about her.

When fire breaks out at the Coalson’s construction business and Chance is trapped inside, Georgia braves the flames to save him, only to discover her “crush” has morphed into love. And she’s helpless to hide her desire.

Chance awakens to find an angel breathing life into his lungs with a kiss. The woman he wanted more than any other was the one who paid the “Casanova of the County” no mind.

So how does a man with a bad reputation convince a shy firefighter that he’s worth taking a chance on love?

By fighting fire with fire....

©2015 Maggie Adams (P)2018 Maggie Adams

Holy hottness

Holy hell Hot hot hot. Maggie did it again with this book or should I say with the whole series

Georgia and Chance!

Due to the death of her mother, the fact that her father left before she was born and that she was bullied in school Georgia has never felt worthy. She has loved Chance for years but has never believed that he would return the feeling.

Chance has had feelings for Georgia for a long time so when she injures her ankle he decides that helping her out is the perfect opportunity to get close to her. His plan is working to perfection but when she allows her insecurities to drive a wedge between them will they be able to find their way back to each other?

This is the first story I have read by this author, but I will be going back to the beginning of the series. The secondary characters are a great addition to the story and the author has managed to combine suspense and romance into one delicious package. I voluntarily reviewed an Audio copy of this book.

Okay story with good chemistry

This is the 2nd book in this series I have reviewed and I have to say the narration is still spot on but the story was lacking this time. Easy listen but not a lot of anything to want you to keep listening. I kept hoping it would get better.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review. #tagsgiving and #sweepstakes #friendlovestory #seriesloving

Very hard to disprove beliefs of a lifetime.

A woman who has her fair share of grief, as well as encountering other children's horrors, whilst helping with foster kids, became ensconced in the idea that all men were evil.
Therefore, it is so very difficult for Chance, the Casanova of the county, to try and turn her ideas around.
However, he had a stubborn streak, that refused for him to give up, once he set his heart and soul on something.

There's a lot going on

This is the first book I've listened to in this series and although it's more or less a standalone I ended up very lost about 3/4 of the way through. the first half of the book was great. Then Chance and Georgia have a fight and Chance's brother says be the Dom you are. I had zero idea up to this point that this was a BDSM genre. Fine, I'm OK with it. the one scene wasn't even really a BDSM scene and now I'm confused. is this or isn't this? We're the previous books BDSM? The last part of the book was less about Chance and Georgia and more about continuing the series with plot elements and characters I'm not familiar with. That's what I get for picking up a book in the middle of a series. There are also elements just thrown in that came out of nowhere and never really get resolved well. Spoiler Alert: Georgia is almost stabbed by her rival's crony and nothing really happens after that. Later Chance hangs out with the rival? What?

The last book in this series I'm reading...

Content warning: only LGBTQ+ character is "psycho"

I had hope for this. Chance, while outwardly a player, seemed the most thoughtful in previous books.

And really, all was going well. Georgia was a sweet woman who ran a daycare centre with her adopted mother, while also doing a host of other things, like being a volunteer firefighter. Chance had a past, but once he set his sights on Georgia, he was totally devoted to her, striving to prove himself by helping her at her daycare while she was recuperating from a sprained ankle. All lovely and pleasant and heart-warming…

But then he accidentally walks in on Georgia topless, and instead of being a decent person and turning away quickly to give her privacy, he tells her to stop covering herself, then kisses her without consent and tells her how he’s going to touch her. He makes her suck his finger while telling her that one day, she will have his dick in her mouth.

As expected, Sam was a douchebag, just making things worse. He tells Chance to treat Georgia like a submissive, despite having no clue about being a dom. You can’t engage in BDSM without open discussion and trust. To be clear, I do enjoy BDSM stories when written well, when they depict true respect. (I have to say this because I previously didn’t like a BDSM story, and the author found my review and said I only didn’t like it because I don’t like BDSM.) But this…this was just more macho alpha BS.

“I am not talking about playing. I am talking about you being a damn dom. You go in there. You take care of her. You tell her what she needs to know. You hold her. You make love to her. You don’t give her any choice in the matter.”

So what does Chance do? Chance goes over there, demands that Georgia takes off her clothes, SHE SAYS NO and to BACK OFF, but he pushes her. How was I supposed to enjoy otherwise good sexy times when it was initiated without consent? Nope.

Let’s not even get started on the Crazy Lesbian. Yup. There was a “crazy lady” who loved her best friend and decided to act out in revenge, mumbling nonsense the whole time. Of course, the only LGBTQ+ character in this series (so far) has to be a “psycho”. Nope again.

The narration was… dull. I feel terrible saying this about someone’s voice, but it really did not help this book’s case. The voice could put me to sleep. In fact, I did actually listen one night with a sleep timer on for 8 minutes, and I was out in half that time. The narrator’s “man voice” was pretty cringeworthy, too, detracting from Chance’s appeal.

There wasn’t much about the secondary plot running through the series in this one, aside from actual repetition of scenes from book 2. That is, until getting to the epilogue. Instead of an epilogue about the couple, a random scene is thrown in about some new characters and Sam’s own investigations into the mystery. It completely threw me. And honestly, this is it. I’m done. I’ve now read the first three books, and I’m just… finished.

I voluntarily listened to this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.