BROWN-EYED GIRL – THE TRAVIS FAMILY #4 by LISA KLEYPAS

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Reviewed by Jenny

4 Swoony stars!

‘When you fell for a man like this, it would be an all-consuming bonfire.
And afterward, your heart would resemble the contents of an ashtray.’

Well I’ve been itching for this book!! There is something so comforting in a Lisa Kleypas book. This author manages to highlight the emotional issues reflected by subtlety dealing with it between the romance, the passion and the humour of her stories with the emphasis on family closeness, loyalty and love being beautifully woven through and I can’t help but become entranced by her words.

‘From what I’d observed, the kind of love that flared brightest also burned out the fastest.’

In Brown Eyed-Girl, we meet Avery Crosslin, a young woman who is making a name for herself running her  Event Planning business, mostly arranging weddings for Houston’s society. Avery excels at the technical side of the big day but is adverse to the emotional side.  Avery has learnt to guard her heart and believes  love is for other people, not for her. And after learning Avery’s reasons for her stance, I can’t say I blame her. Learning to give yourself to another would take a lot of trust.

‘What good was a heart that had been grudgingly used?’

Enter one Joe ‘be still my beating heart’ Travis. Despite swooning over him, little did Avery know the effect this tall, handsome and sexy Texan would have on her. Joe Travis had it all. Wow! What a guy.  Successful in his own right, witty, extremely wealthy yet very grounded, kind and sincere, yet possessing an alpha assertiveness that left me weak at the knees. And don’t even get me started on that Texan drawl……..swooooooon……Avery explained it best.

‘He had a lazy, easy way of talking, as if every word had been simmered for hours over a low flame.”

There’s no denying the instant chemistry between Avery and Joe, they had it in spades. Can the closed off Avery open her heart for the dynamic Joe Travis? Let’s face it, Joe is under no illusion what he wants from life. He’s seen his brothers find love and he wants that. But is Avery that woman?

“I’ll make you forget every man you ever knew before me. The catch is, you have to trust me. “

I did get a little frustrated at times with the way Avery pushed Joe away. As I said, whilst I understood her hesitancy to some degree, she did put poor Joe through the wringer at times despite him wooing her with gusto! This guy had me swooning and thinking that Avery was one lucky lady!

“There was more pleasure in that kiss than in any act of physical intimacy I had ever known.”

There was quite a lot going on in this book. We had a sweet budding romance between two secondary characters, we had the emotional baggage of Avery’s past, the fun and giggle worthy and very sweet relationship between sisters Sofia and Avery and we even got to spend quite a bit of time with the Travis’s who I’ve missed terribly, and it was all a lot of fun and very, very sweet.

“Uncle Joe, is that your girlfriend?”
“Not Yet, you have to work a little harder to get one of the good ones.”

Now I loved catching up with the Travis Family and I really did enjoy all that was going on, however I couldn’t help but feel some of this  detracted from Joe and Avery romance, of Joe and Avery as a couple, especially in regards to the build up of their relationship. It really is a doubled edged sword because on the one hand I savoured the time spent catching up with old friends and my romantic heart was in overdrive with two romance stories on the go but as far as Joe and Avery went, it did feel as though a little something was missing with these two. I do wish the book had been longer to accommodate everything that was going on and we could have had more everything and especially more Joe and Avery.

With that said, this was a fun, sexy, passionate and swoony and very enjoyable read and it’s one Travis fans won’t want to miss! I really could read about these character ’til the cows come home. And don’t even get me started on the Golden Retrievers in this story…MELTED!!! 

**Reviewed from an ARC copy provided by St Martin’s Press, with thanks**

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

THE TRAVIS FAMILY SERIES by LISA KLEYPAS
**brown Each book can be read as a standalone however there is an interconnecting storyline in Smooth Talking Stranger that is discussed in this story, therefore it’s recommended this at least be read before Brown Eyed  Girl, though they’re all fabulous stories and characters you really shouldn’t miss a single one!

SUGAR DADDY – BOOK ONE
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BLUE-EYED DEVIL  – BOOK TWO
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SMOOTH TALKING STRANGER – BOOK THREE
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BROWN-EYED GIRL – BOOK FOUR
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