Review - Tall Tales and Wedding Veils

Title: Tall Tales and Wedding Veils
Author: Jane Graves
Publishing Date: June 2008
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Warm

Tall Tales and Wedding Veils is loosely connected to Hot Wheels and High Heels. When I say loosely, I mean very loosely. The reader does not need to have read Hot Wheel and High Heels at all to enjoy the story. I only mention it because I was surprised to learn that the hero of this book Tony, was the employee of the hero in Hot Wheels. Tony recently quit his job as a repo man to buy his own local sports bar, something he has always dreamed of doing for a long time now. The only problem he is as he is about to close on the loan he learns that his friend Dave can’t loan him the twenty thousand he needs. On a crazy whim, Tony flies to Las Vegas to win what he needs by gambling. In Vegas he meets Heather, sweet sensible, CPA Heather. To make a long story short, she wins him the twenty thousand he needs and they end up married to one another after a drunken night of celebration.

This was a fun quick read, yet surprisingly it had some depth to it. Both characters do a lot of growing throughout the story and Graves develops their relationship very believably. Tony at the beginning seems very shallow and irresponsible. Heather seems judgmental with a stick up her butt. Over the course of the book, they learn about each other and come to appreciate their differences. There are a lot of secondary characters that could have come across as caricatures, but because of Grave’s talent they don’t. There are some funny moments and there are some tender touching moments. There were moments when I wanted to cry for both characters. I really enjoyed this story.

If I had to say one thing that I didn’t like about this story, I would say that in the beginning I didn’t really like Tony all that much. I thought he was taking advantage of Heather and he didn’t truly deserve her. That opinion changed over the course of the book and that is a true testament to Grave’s talent. I think that was exactly what she was aiming for and I gobbled it up hook, line and sinker. This is the second book by Graves I have read and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first one. I think it is time for me to look into her back list.

Here is what others had to say:

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Review - Hot Wheels and High Heels

Title: Hot Wheels and High Heels
Author: Jane Graves
Publishing Date: July 2007
Genre: Contemporary
Sensuality: Warm
Rating: B+

Darcy McDaniels comes home from a posh resort in Cancun to find that there is a new family living in her house. It turns out that her husband of fourteen years has sold their home, maxed out all their credit cards and cleared out their bank accounts while she was on vacation; leaving her with just her clothes from the trip and her car. Actually, she doesn’t even have her car for long because here comes John Stark, the repo man, who has come to take her beloved Mercedes away. Darcy is used to the good life, designer clothes, expensive meals at only the nicest restaurants, a big fancy home filled with big fancy things. So what is Darcy going to do now that life, as she has always known, it has been turned upside down? She does what anybody would do, run home to Mom and Dad (who, by the way, live in a trailer park) and gets a job as a receptionist for Stark.

This book has a lot going for it. First of all, Graves does a wonderful job of getting us to relate and really feel for Darcy. It would be very easy not to like this woman, because basically, she is a vain and materialistic trophy wife. But as we get to know Darcy, we realize that she is so much more that what she seems. This brings me to my second point. I really like the character development. It is a lot of fun to watch Darcy and John grow throughout the story. From the first time they meet, to the first time they are physically intimate; they are constantly pushing and challenging one another. The conversations between them are so brutally honest. That makes this book so much more than just a bit of fluff.

Another thing that really made this book enjoyable for me was the witty and clever writing style that Graves uses to tell her story. There were many times I laughed out loud. Here is just one of the many passages that had me rolling. It takes place at the beginning of the book between Darcy and her parents:

“No. I mean, what did you do to make him leave you?”
Darcy drew back. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Of course you did. It’s not hard to hang on to a man once you’ve hooked him, even a rich one. You had to have done something.”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t do anything! Everything was fine when I left, and then when I came home--“
“Oh, God. It was the sex, wasn’t it? You stopped giving him sex.”
Darcy groaned. “Mom--“
“Haven’t I told you how dangerous that is? If you don’t give a man sex, he’s out the door. Haven’t I told you that?”
“If it’s so damned dangerous,” Clayton muttered from the living room, “how come I don’t get any?”
Lyla hurled a look of disgust over her shoulder. “Because I’m hoping you’ll leave.”

The only little quip I had with the book was the whole issue that Darcy is still technically married to Warren. Should I let this one tiny detail detract or ruin my enjoyment of the story? I don’t think so, but it would have been nice to have that pesky, little problem resolved. All in all, this one gets a B+ from me.