This was a bunch of people making terrible choices that sadly affected other people, and they could have solved a bunch of their problems if they’d just told someone about the problems instead of suffering in silence.įor those wondering if fans of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series will like this, Amanda says: Lizzie is sort of likable, but like, show some backbone, girl. Lane is sort of likable, but mostly he’s a self-centered ass. There’s a lot that happens! But the weakness in the book is that no one is likable. I do think the current trend in romance is lacking in crazysauce.

As a novel where there’s a bunch of crazysauce, I appreciated it. There’s corporate espionage, star-crossed lovers in several directions, embezzlement, forced marriage, and a bunch of dysfunctional people. Or taking care of the rich fuckers who do those two things). Lane has a brother that got kidnapped that one time and tortured, and is now a husk of a man who trains racehorses (I guess if you’re not making bourbon in Kentucky, you’re training racehorses.

We also have Lane’s sister, Gin, who has a secret daughter and no life skills Lane’s mother, who is essentially institutionalized in her own home and Lane’s father, who is evil and I kept imagining him as one of the Lesser Baldwins. Things ended badly because these two crossed class lines, and Lizzy’s been doing the “I shall not think upon him (as long as I never see him)” thing, but he’s back, so things go to shit pretty quickly. Still working at the named estate (“Easterly.” Rich people, man) is Lizzie, the gardner and a former flame of Lane’s. The A plot is about Lane, the prodigal son who left two years ago and is called back due to a medical emergency.

Part of being an entitled asshole is never speaking to the help, so there’s a whole Downton Abbey upstairs/downstairs thing going on. They are stupid rich, and in the grand tradition of stupid rich people who have been stupid rich for a long time, they’re a family of entitled assholes. It’s the story of the Bradford family, the people who run Kentucky’s largest bourbon distillery. This is not a paranormal, and it’s not really a romance it’s a Southern soap opera with a bunch of horrible people making horrible choices. When we were given this ARC at RT, people in the room squealed, and a few (who shall remain nameless) cried a little, and I was like, “…okay, that looks interesting.”Īnd that’s kind of where I am with the whole book.

The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward