Review: Eye Candy by Various Authors
Note: This ARC was provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Put together five bestselling and well-loved romance authors who made the mark in the world of indie publishing and have now broken into traditional publishing and you've got yourself a Halloween anthology that's worth its weight in tricks AND treats. Eye Candy gives readers five novellas, one each from Tijan, J. Daniels, Helena Hunting, Bella Jewel, and Tara Sivec. Four of the novellas take place in their respective authors' already existing series--Fallen Crest Nightmare for Tijan's Fallen Crest series, So Much More for J. Daniels's Alabama Summer series, Getting Down, which features characters from Helena Hunting's Shacking Up novel, and The Pumpkin Was Stuffed from Tara Sivec's The Holidays series. Bella Jewel's Unsafe Haven is a standalone novella. For the purpose of this review, I'm only covering the novella I was able to read in time for the anthology's release: Hunting's Getting Down.
Ruby Scott and Amalie Whitfield have shared a great deal with each other in the more than ten years that they've best friends, even to the point of knowing just how much Ruby's boyfriend Bancroft Mills is packing and how much Amie's fiancé...isn't. While Ruby's life is going on all cylinders (especially considering Bane's jealousy has its unexpected benefits), Amie's is stuttering in certain areas, particularly when it comes to her sex life with Armstrong as well as her frosty relationship with her soon-to-be mother-in-law. That competitiveness between her fiancé and Bane's brother Lexington seems to be as present as ever. While Lex's brothers, Bancroft and Griffin, have girlfriends by their side, Lex isn't exactly into relationships, especially since his reputation as a ladies' man precedes him. Who would have thought Ruby's boyfriend and Amalie's fiancé would be jealous of the same guy?
Helena Hunting's humor is very much present in this novella and there's just something about her heroines that never fail to get me snickering like a kid. Ruby is that combination of irreverent and effervescent, but don't you dare think she's some clueless chick. Like Hunting's other heroines, Ruby is as smart as she is smart alecky, and let's not forget Amie. Methinks Anarchy Amie is itching to let loose, especially after being kept locked up and hidden away for far longer than can be good for Amie's sanity. I also happen to think that Lexington could help her out in that aspect. Armstrong isn't a bad guy; he just seems to be rather...umm...sedate. I think this novella serves as an epilogue of sorts for Shacking Up and a kinda-sorta-maybe prologue for the author's upcoming November full-length release, Hooking Up. Based on Getting Down alone, I'm giving the Eye Candy anthology five out of five stars. ♥
Release Date: 05 September 2017
Date Read: 04 September 2017
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