We go together like champagne and whiskey. Now we're married! Olivia Gage Carter is the poster boy for rude, rugged, and obnoxious. He’s the town’s mechanic. When he’s not giving me a hard time about my car, he’s mocking my city girl ways. He's a small town roughneck with a dirty reputation and a mouth to match. I'm a city girl. We go together like champagne and whiskey. People told me he was trouble. But that didn’t stop me from craving his filthy promises that make my blood pound for hours. Or having full body shivers whenever he says my name. This joy ride’s gone too far. Now we’re married—by accident—no less. The town’s most ineligible bachelor is my husband. Oh, and I’m pregnant. —— Gage The last thing I need is a wife… Especially a high-maintenance one like Olivia Stewart. I’ve got no patience for a demanding, feisty city girl who thinks she can walk into my business and order me around. But now that I’ve tasted her, I can’t get her out of my mind. She may be a burr in my side but she’s as sweet as honey. When she’s not driving me crazy, she’s driving me wild. One Some puffed-up rich boy from San Francisco thinks she’s his, and he’ll make my life hell if I don’t give her up. Good luck with that. I can’t be bought, and I’m not giving up my wife and baby. He wants a fight? This means war.
Vanessa Waltz is an author of Dark Bad Boy Romance and lives in Seattle with her two ill-behaved cats.
Before she settled in Seattle, she lived in Northern California where she studied English Literature at San Jose State University. She pursued a career in medicine before making an about-face to write full-time. She also pens psychological thrillers as Rachel Hargrove.
She enjoys beer tasting, live music venues, and singing her heart out at horrified bar patrons.
Vanessa is represented by Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
I noticed this book while looking around Amazon and since the reviews were really good it jumped straight to the top of my to-read list. And it started really well. After finding her fiancé Mark cheating Olivia leaves, only to have her car break down outside of Fair Oaks. It's here she comes across the town's only mechanic Gage.
God . He’s rugged and all man. And gorgeous. I must be dehydrated. Hallucinating. The ripples in the air from the heat somehow manifested into this mirage.
But while he might be handsome he's also rude and obnoxious. Gage looks at Olivia sees a high maintenance city girl yet while he has no time for entitled jerks he's struggling to fight his attraction to her.
I enjoyed the first half of this book it was both funny and cute, I do like small town books with quirky characters but then the second half was completely different, stupid, OTT and also manic in places. Mark and Evelyn became little more than cartoon villains and Olivia disappointed me as well.
This really is a book of two halves, the first half gets 3.5 - 4* which is unusual for me but that's how much I was enjoying it, the second gets only 1 - 2*.
When you've finished the book if you're interested there's also an extended epilogue available.
Olivia comes home early to find her fiancé having sex with another woman. Already packed for a road trip, she leaves town to head to a friend's wedding. On the way there her car breaks down and she is left to deal with Gage.
Gage is a small town mechanic. He sees his share of rich tourist and when he sees Olivia for the first time, he lumps her in with the snooty big city crowd. He thrives on flipping her shit and getting her riled up.
When her fiance tracks her down, Gage steps up and asks her to be his date for the wedding she is attending because he of course is also invited. By the end of the night, they are married and their wedding consummation leads to a baby.
-sexy hot mechanic -sassy heroine -neither are virgins but not much talk of previous sex life -hero had been engaged once also -some pushing away -a few hot sex scenes -no cheating -no ow drama -om drama in the form of the ex-fiancee trying to make their lives a living hell -some great secondary characters -a short epilogue that wasn't satisfying, however this is the first in a series so I'm hoping for more about them
I will check out future books in this series and if they are safe, I will read them as well.
”I’m no gentleman, but I’d give your body exactly what it needs.”
After catching her fiancéEx- fiancé cheating on her, city girl Olivia heads out to her friend’s wedding minus one. Being burned like that should have cured her of men in general but it only takes one smoldering look from Gage's sinful blue eyes and Olivia is throwing caution to the wind and grabbing on with two hands.
They’re different as night and day. But first time impressions aren’t always what they seem. One drunken marriage and a surprise baby later find them tied irrevocably. Throw in a vindictive ex and things get a bit heated.
What I liked: I was expecting a quickie but was surprised this was actually a decent amount of reading time. I liked the secondary characters and there is no question Olivia and Gage had OTT chemistry. It made for some pretty hot scenes. Thanks to the blurb, it wasn’t a surprise that there was a baby on the way or that the ex was going to cause drama so I went in with my eyes wide open.
This isn’t a love triangle, the Ex really is scum. Olivia has no feelings for him and vice versa. He is basically a spoiled man-child with some serious mental issues.
This is inst-lust that develops into love as Olivia and Gage get to know each other. It had some funny moments and some light hearted ones too.
What I didn't like: Although Olivia’s teasing and Gage’s cocky attitude were funny sometimes, it got kind of old after a while. I enjoy a dirty talking bad boy as much as the next girl but show me he’s more than just outrageous talk. Olivia was too fast to jump to conclusions about him. She also was too easy to go all in one minute and back pedal fast the next. It was a bit frustrating to read every time she did it.
I felt that Gage had potential to be great book-boyfriend material but it took too long for his softer side to shine through. Then when it decides to make an appearance, Olivia made it come to a screeching halt.
Gage teasing: “Good wives get made sweet love to. Bad wives get fucked hard.” Olivia: “I never liked love making.”
Gage’s inner thoughts right after: I have to fight the tightness in my heart not to fold her in my arms and make love to her. She doesn’t want it. And tonight’s not the time.
That was kind of a mood killer. I read erotica as much for the smut as I do the romance and I finally think I’m going to get that softer more meaningful manifestation of their love for each other only to have Olivia nip it in the bud! Needless to say I felt like I was left hanging. There is a lot of angry sex and a lot of lust induced sex but zero loving/cuddling sex, which to me cements the romance.
And finally
Memorable Moment(s): There was way too many OTT crazy moments involving the Ex, Mark. He’s supposed to be this spoiled rich guy with unlimited resources at his disposal along with a mother from hell. It just seemed weird to me that he was so blatant about throwing money at all his problems and how easy it was to manipulate people to do what he wanted.
In less than two weeks he gets the whole town of Fair Oaks evicted, re-zoned and gets approval from state officials to build a whole resort on the property?! Things don’t really work that fast in the real world do they? Then there’s the fact that he bribes city officials to close down Gage’s auto shop for supposed building code violations and everyone knows they’re trumped up charges but he still gets away with it?
It was all just so ridiculous. We’re supposed to believe that he is successful and from the upper crust of society but the author wrote him in a way that was whiny and stupid rather than ruthless and powerful. I get he was enabled by his psycho mom but even she was crazy OTT and again showed no proof of her intelligence or cunning. They were both very cartoon-y villains.
This was a decent romantic read. Here's my breakdown:
Pros: * Offered as a kindleunlimited * Some seriously steamy sex scenes
Cons: * I wanted more regarding the personalities of the main characters - they had a lot of sex, but it would have been nice had their relationship had more depth * I was a bit pissy when the book abruptly ended at the 43% mark and there was another book offered as a bonus. I don’t usually mind this if its disclosed in the synopsis, but at my time of purchase that wasn’t the case. I was hoping that the main characters would have time to develop as a couple, but it just ended. * When the heroine left the hero for that brief amount of time I felt that it was a pretty weak move - she thought that she had no other options, but she was just bailed too quickly at the first sign of trouble. * the bad guys in this read were overly villainized - it just didn’t feel realistic
Overall, it was an ok read. Nothing extraordinary and similar to several other books I've read but it did flow well. I'll likely give this writer another shot. Her writing style was pretty good, her specialty is definitely writing the sex scenes.
This book was a disjointed mess. It started out fine, but then the prolonged sex scenes started to pile up. About midway through it took a detour straight to Crazytown with the ex-fiance. Totally unrealistic and way over dramatic.
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this wonderful book from Vanessa Waltz and I loved it. Vanessa is one of my all time favorite authors, she is extremely talented and has a very vivid imagination and she's the first author who ever gave me an ARC and for that I'll be forever grateful. Olivia lives in San Francisco where she has a stressful job at an advertising agency. She is caught off guard when she leaves work early and goes home to find her fiancé, Mark screwing another woman in their bed. She already had a suitcase packed because she was going away for the weekend to the wedding of her friend from college. Shocked and angry she grabs her suitcase gets into her car and starts driving without ever saying a word to Mark. As soon as she gets to her destination, the small town of Fair Oaks her beloved 15 year old Toyota Scion breaks down. She takes it to the only garage in town, Carter & Sons Auto Repair where she is surprised to meet the gorgeous owner, Gage Carter. Gage grew up in Fair Oaks leaving briefly to go to college but while he was there his Father got very sick and Gage left school to come home and run the business. If there's one thing Gage can't tolerate it's a spoiled, stuck-up city girl because he was hurt by one in the past and that's what he sees as soon as he meets Olivia. She is furious when he tells her it will take several weeks to fix her car and she's going to be stuck in town while she waits. All the hotels in town were booked so she rented an in law suite through the AIRBNB, which was ten minutes from the auto shop. Imagine her surprise when she finds out the owner of the in law suite is none other than Gage Carter and he lives in the house across the backyard from her. The chemistry between them is palpable, will they be able to keep their hands off each other ? Will Gage realize she's not really a snobby bitch ? Will Olivia get over Mark's betrayal ? What happens when Mark arrives in town and doesn't want to let her go ?
I really did enjoy this semi short story. It was smokin' hot, and I didn't have a lot of time for reading so it worked for me. Sexy as hell Gage was a bit of an arrogant smart ass, when Olivia brought her dump of a car to him to get running again after it completely died on her, leaving her stranded miles away from home. Olivia had a hard time warming up to Gage, still hurting after unexpectedly walking in on her douche of a fiancée pounding away on some skank ho bag, then hopping in her car, running away and disappearing from everybody's radar. Despite her best efforts, Olivia eventually found herself unable to fully resist Gage's charms when he set his sights on her and gave her the full "Gage Treatment".
I thoroughly loved all the turmoil her rich ex douche and his mother created for these two, as well as the other sweet people in that tiny community. And I absolutely adored how those rich elitist shitheads got some well deserved karma at the ending. This story had quite a bit of humor in it and I found myself cracking up many times. All in all, this was a very enjoyable read.
OK, this cover is not a favorite of mine at all and it didn't match the actual character....thank goodness for me because he is not my "type", lol.
Gage and Olivia were a great couple together! It took me a bit to warm up to her BUT Gage from the get go was sexy, funny, he was a total swoon worthy character. My issue with the storyline and for my deduction of a star was the "baby" portion of the story..... The execution of that part of the storyline just didn't sit well with me but hey that's just me.
All in all a very good story! Author Vanessa Waltz is a go-to author for me but sometimes her stories can either hit or miss the mark for me. This was hit the mark for me minus the "baby" storyline. PS if you re going to play that s a part of their story I want and need conclusive "findings"....In my head I believed the baby to have been Gage's especially at the end BUT still....I wanted to know what was in that envelope, lol!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I liked most of this book. The first half was great but the second half really went off the rails. The romance between Gage and Olivia was great and I loved that they finally got together. But the villains in this story were so over the top they were caricatures. I expected to see some mustache twirling. And the plot just got out of control with all the drama. Apparently no one in this town has ever watched tv (or a movie, or read a newspaper or a book) because the solution to their problem was so glaringly obvious that they actually figured it out themselves after several pages of unnecessary angst and drama. (Not to mention the extremely quick turn around the villains have on their dastardly deeds. They can make the wheels of government and change move amazingly fast. Like 2 weeks fast.)
I give this book 2 stars and I'll throw in another because I liked the writing and the premise. Total 3 stars.
Olivia is going on friends wedding but just before that she catches her boyfriend/fiance cheating on her so she goes alone to small town Fair Oaks and then even worse happens - her car break in the middle of town and this is where Gabe comes up because he owns car repair shop. I did not expect to like this book but OMG I LOVE IT!! I really enjoyed this story so much... and I recommend it to my friends :)
Sorry, but I'm gonna be a little bit spoilery and ranty on this one.
Gage and Olivia meet. Sparks fly. Hate develops along with insta-lust.
Ok, I'm onboard so far.
They get rip-roaring drunk at a wedding and decide that it's a good idea to get married, too, right then.
Alright, sure. Its not Vegas, but whatever.
They have unprotected sex.
Well, not the most responsible behavior from consenting adults, but sure. I'm still with you.
Meanwhile, Olivia's cheating ex-fiancé comes to town and says he wants Olivia back. When she refuses and Gage pulls an Alpha male possessive display, cheater flexes his money muscles and starts making trouble.
Um.
I had to remind myself, "Fiction. It's just fiction, Kristen."
Then, Olivia turns up pregnant. Yup, irresponsible behavior automatically results in consequences. She decides she's going to keep it, no matter what. She states that even though the relationship with cheater ex had been unsatisfactory for awhile, that there is a chance that he is the father. Cheater ex finds out about the pregnancy, becomes more irrational and erratic, throws even more money around, gets his mommy involved, and together the two of them decide to destroy the town unless Olivia goes back to him, submits to a paternity test, and divorce Gage.
Hold up. What?! If y'all have read any of my reviews, you know I'm not a fan of the 'every sperm is sacred' trope.
I get it. I do. The author thought she needed a hook to justify cheater ex's OTT behavior.
The thing is, I would have been fine with his OTT behavior if he had only wanted Olivia back. It would have been OTT, but it would still be sorta believable.
But, no, the author had to throw that baby into the mix. Let me enumerate the ways this didn't work for me:
1. High strung, high maintenance woman with a high-stress job, works way too many hours, and yet can't even afford her own apartment decides she'll be a fine mother. She can just sleep on her friend's couches and have them watch the baby while she works.
2. Cranky, isolationist mechanic doesn't even believe in relationships, much less fathering children.
3. You take two people who really, really, really shouldn't be parents, and force them to be parents, because...
4. There are absolutely no other options! Olivia couldn't possibly have gotten a Plan B pill the next day, she couldn't have an abortion, or put the child up for adoption, or find a family member to care for the child. Nope. She had to keep the child. It absolutely had to be her and nobody else. Because, you know, every sperm is sacred.
5. The tiny chance that the father was the cheater ex. I call bullshit. After having been in a committed relationship for any length of time, they had birth control sorted. As a modern single woman living in San Francisco, she would have her sexual health sorted, including birth control. Given the clinical description Olivia gives of heir sexual encounters, the birth control sitch was definitely sorted. She also indicated the their sex life was sporadic, so the likelihood of cheater ex as the sperm donor is extremely low.
6. The likelihood of her getting pregnant from one night is also extremely unlikely. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to get pregnant. The stars have to align, the tides have to be low, the moon has to be full, and the roseate spoonbills have to be migrating south. Yeah, ok, I'm exaggerating, but my point is it's not easy.
I don't think the author needed to add the pregnancy to justify cheater ex's behavior. The simple fact that he is a rich, entitled @$$hole would have been 'nuff said.
'Nuff said.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This could have been much better but the story is at some points just a bit over the top ridiculous.But what I loved is the hero here.He is funny as hell I enjoyed his creepy jokes immensely and he's so so naughty I was really surprised.Then there are this hot and steamy sex scenes very well written by the author.And this mess the heroine and hero made Jesus ;-))) both got wasted and then one funny disaster leads to another.Im rally glad how the hero handled it all and laughter my ass off.Not a great read but the jokes and hotness in this book saved my three stars.I love hero's with a sense of humor.....oh and this book should have the title " Dirty Mechanic ";-)))
What the fuck was this?? I rolled my eyes one too many times but for some reason I needed to finish this and it still did not leave me with anything other than frustration!
I find this book really entertaining and fast paced.
Gage is a sexy mechanic with a dirty mouth and I enjoyed his blunt honesty. Olivia is a woman who is avoiding her cheating ex-fiance.
This book have two ploys that usually annoy the hell out of me, which is the drunken marriage and one-that-shall-not-be-mention. But in this case, it actually works. Maybe because it was handled in a refreshing way and I find it more entertaining rather than annoyed.
The ex-fiance who is the villain in this story is abit too much to handle. The things that he would do in order to get back Olivia is unbelievable. I think many people might find it too far fetch, but for me, I find it amusing. I think it might be due to the nature of this book that isn't taking itself too seriously.
Overall, I think The Mechanic to be quite an entertaining, hot, sexy, read about a small town mechanic trumping the rich asshole. My favorite scene... Gage stealing the asshole's Benz and had sex with Olivia in it. So childish, but too funny.
I picked this book up because it was free on Kindle Unlimited (I do love me some Kindle Unlimited) and because it’s about a blue-collar guy who’s good with his hands (I do love me some blue collar guys who are good with their hands). Sadly, this one was rant-inspiring. Here it goes (takes a deep breath):(continued on the blog:) http://www.knockinbooks.com/reviews/t...
True Story: All four of the windows in my car gave up and slid down into the doors within the same year. I had to go round and round with the dealership. I tried to be nice. Then I broke out the smart ass on them. Finally had to resort to going to the world wide interweb to find the problem. But none of the hordes of guys I talked to looked like Gage. I might have broken the windows myself if they had.
Olivia is having car trouble. After she has some major man trouble. As in cheating, lying fiance kind of trouble. And of course, when she is trying to make a get away, her cars dies. Lucky, there is an auto shop close by.
Gage is not a sweet, hot guy with a heart of gold. He is a smart ass, jerk kind of hot guy. But he does know how to fix cars. And talk dirty. And push everyone one of Olivia's buttons.
Sweetheart My cheeks burn. If somebody back home called me that I wouldn't give him a minute more of my time. Except that I'm not outraged right now. I'm interested.
But trouble follows Olivia. And Gage is as drawn into the fray as he is to Olivia. And he is waaaaaay drawn to Olivia.
Pink patches of fury rise to her cheeks. She looks like an angry goddess as her hands fall to her hips. She stands over me. I can practically see electricity shooting from her eyes. For some bizarre reason, i want to crush my lips against her mouth and steal that scowl. Fuck me, but I want her.
Gage and Olivia team up in more than one way. There are drunken marriages, bulldozers, conspiracy theories, sweet moms and very bitchy moms. And several pregnancy tests.
The Mechanic is a frustrating conversation to lovers story. With lots of arguments and some great make up time. Really great make up time. This is the first in the Fair Oaks series and I will be revisiting the California town and its quirky residents. Not to mention the sexy ones.
It was a short, sweet read. There were a few things I didn't like: a) Their wedding was fast and quite frankly surreal. A drunk priest who also happen to have another wedding certifiquate on a wedding? Yeah, I don't think so. b) Her ex was a total brat. Rich and very spoiled, also a huge momma's boy. He whined all the time. I didn't like him at all. c) His ex's mother? A bitch too. Really heartless and their theory "Divorce Gage and then make a paternity test" doesn't make sense. Why not do the last thing first? d) The story is set in this small town but it's not described very much about her family. Just once there's this call from her mother how she's angry at her because Olivia is not marrying Mark.
4 stars. Oh and remember when I said if a book wants me to subscribe to get an epilogue I'll rate it with one star? Well, I won't but I also won't subsribe. There is some sort of epilogue and it's fine by me.
Gage is the town's outrageous mechanic. He is rude and doesn't care what people say about him he is his own man. Olivia is a city girl with high expectations and when these two get together it is like high octane fuel they ignite. Can this city girl and the local mechanic who accidentally marry by the way make their marriage work before trouble from the city comes to interfere.
Olivia catches her fiancée Mark in the act with another woman on the day they were supposed to leave to attend a wedding in the small town of Fair Oaks. She leaves her fiancée behind, ends their relationship, and heads on to the wedding on her own, lost and feeling like she doesn’t know what just occurred in her life. On her way to the wedding, her car breaks down just as she arrives in Fair Oaks. Gage is a mechanic, and he is the sexy yet mysterious hero in this story, saves her by coming to her rescue . They had that instant chemistry, that immediate attraction though Gage and Olivia refused to admit it. Gage , as the story progresses, has been hurt in the past and doesn’t want to get hurt again and thinks if he gets involved with Olivia, he will. Olivia, has been hurt and believes Gage will be the type that will use her and throw her away. Thing is, Gage is set on having her in his bed at least because the chemistry is so electric. She resists, but not for lon g , not when her ex fiancée shows up and then they do give in to that insanely good chemistry and wow, things get crazy from there-- including their wedding (accidentally while drunk) and then an even bigger surprise. But Mark, the ex fiancée and his mother are in town causing hate and discontent to the couple—thing is the ex fiancée is a scumbag and he made me want to cause him bodily harm due to how he hurt Olivia all the times in the past-times she was aware and times she was unaware of—you have to read the story to know what I mean—grr that is how nasty he is. There are many twists and turns in this romantic story. I loved Gage who is very much an alpha male protecting his mate , Olivia. She is a sweet, independent woman who has been very hurt by the actions of her ex fiancée who is nuttier than a fruitcake. Gage and Olivia make sense as a couple and the sexual tensions in this story are off the chain. I enjoyed their romance, reading it as it unfolded was good reading. This is a somewhat different story than Ms. Waltz’s mafia type stories but still very good reading and I totally enjoyed myself. I cant wait to read what this author has next since this was fantastic. The MC will keep you entertained from start to finish.
My rating: 4.9 stars ***** **I was given an ARC by the author in exchange for an honest review***
This book started off with a bang not in the literal sense but in a funny way, you start off running with the awesome banter. You don't have a whole lot of description of stuff but you start off with the story the introductions, the Instalust. I really like that about this book.
Oh man Gage was a total man! I loved it. He wasn't scared to get his hands dirty and I totally swooned over him more then one time. He had the air around him with his confidence and arrogance that made him perfect. He was always a gruff man but with a huge heart.
Olivia had spirit. She wasn't to take things lying down type gal and she had this draw about her that she could pretty much make anything work and in the circumstances she's in right now, it's a good quality to have. She also had a huge heart and tired to do everything right.
In a way this is at opposites attract type romance but in a way it wasn't. You've got a mechanic that used to small towns and then you have a city girl that gets stranded longer then expected, in a small town, sparks fly, tempers raise, things happen, and the story flows perfectly. My heart breaks for the characters because of what they go thru, but they both handled it like champs!
Overall I really really enjoyed this book, the banter between the characters was amazing, the plot was different, and it was just a really fun read. It was mild on the angst, I was sad a few times but didn't cry. 4 stars. #2OCCJD
Hero(s) rating: 3 stars Heroine rating: 2.75 stars Sexual tension rating: 4 stars Sex scenes rating: 4.5 stars Sex scenes frequency: 4 stars Plot rating: 3.5 stars Dialogue rating: 3.5 stars Other woman/men drama: Cheating: Storytelling rating: 3.5 stars Story ending rating: 4 stars Cliffhanger: HEA: ********************************************** Overall rating: 2.5 to 3 stars
Maybe I could've liked this quick story a little better if there weren't so many "far-fetched" issues presented. One being that the
Still, a quick read which packs over the top drama, jealousy galore, lust and unexpected love. Be advised - the story ends at 43% in Kindle as there is another book that follows.
I really wanted to like this book. I love me a mechanic covered in grease.
So many things bothered me, the unrealistic plot points, the lack of emotion. The "bad guys" are totally ridiculous and silly. Even small things bothered me, it's so pitch black dark out the heroine can't see anything yet she sees the hero turn his head a few lines later.
I never got any sense at all that these two even liked each other much less fell in love.
Loved it. The thing I really liked about this book was there wasn't a lot of angst. The book really flowed. I highly recommend this book. Steam gets 10 stars. I received a free copy for an honest review.