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Bad Boys With Expensive Toys
The Fourteen Million-Dollar Poodle - Nancy Warren
Labour dispute negotiator Vince Grange has a reputation for being a tough guy. Tough guys hammer out deals, drink beer, and keep their well-muscled, six-foot-four physiques in shape. What they do not do is inherit frou-frou toy poodles named Mimi who only understand French. Good thing Vince was a softy for his late eccentric aunt, and really good thing she left him fourteen million dollars so he can hire a French dog nanny.
The World is Too Darned Big - Mary Janice Davidson
The name's Dyson. Benjamin Dyson. Genius engineering geek by day and unfortunately, genius engineering geek by night. Ben may work for the CIA, but he's the mild-mannered brainy type who wouldn't know a gun from a gear shift. Enter Tara Marx. She's six feet of big, bad, booty-kicking fearlessness, and she needs Ben on her mission ASAP.
Guilty Pleasures - Karen Kelley
Computer entrepreneur Alex Cannedy loves women - the way they move, talk, smell...and other things. He'd love to get to show Kagen Yates a good time, but his sister has declared the wealthy designer off-limits. She even makes him pinkie-swear not to so much as wink at the hot babe who's had her heart broken by men just like Alex. But Alex has no idea how his resolve, will be tested. Kagen has plans of her own.
Labour dispute negotiator Vince Grange has a reputation for being a tough guy. Tough guys hammer out deals, drink beer, and keep their well-muscled, six-foot-four physiques in shape. What they do not do is inherit frou-frou toy poodles named Mimi who only understand French. Good thing Vince was a softy for his late eccentric aunt, and really good thing she left him fourteen million dollars so he can hire a French dog nanny.
The World is Too Darned Big - Mary Janice Davidson
The name's Dyson. Benjamin Dyson. Genius engineering geek by day and unfortunately, genius engineering geek by night. Ben may work for the CIA, but he's the mild-mannered brainy type who wouldn't know a gun from a gear shift. Enter Tara Marx. She's six feet of big, bad, booty-kicking fearlessness, and she needs Ben on her mission ASAP.
Guilty Pleasures - Karen Kelley
Computer entrepreneur Alex Cannedy loves women - the way they move, talk, smell...and other things. He'd love to get to show Kagen Yates a good time, but his sister has declared the wealthy designer off-limits. She even makes him pinkie-swear not to so much as wink at the hot babe who's had her heart broken by men just like Alex. But Alex has no idea how his resolve, will be tested. Kagen has plans of her own.
384 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
579 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Warren
365 books1,901 followersNancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 100 novels.
She’s known for writing funny, sexy and suspenseful tales. She’s an avid hiker, animal lover, wine drinker and chocolate fiend. Favorite moments in her career include being featured on the front page of the New York Times, being the answer to a crossword puzzle clue in Canada’s National Post newspaper and being a finalist three times in the Rita awards. She has won the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times magazine.
Get a free short story when you sign up for Nancy's newsletter at www.NancyWarrenAuthor.com or join Nancy in her private Facebook group to talk about books, knitting, pets & life.
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She’s known for writing funny, sexy and suspenseful tales. She’s an avid hiker, animal lover, wine drinker and chocolate fiend. Favorite moments in her career include being featured on the front page of the New York Times, being the answer to a crossword puzzle clue in Canada’s National Post newspaper and being a finalist three times in the Rita awards. She has won the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times magazine.
Get a free short story when you sign up for Nancy's newsletter at www.NancyWarrenAuthor.com or join Nancy in her private Facebook group to talk about books, knitting, pets & life.
www.facebook.com/groups/NancyWarrenKn...
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
May 13, 2021
DISCLAIMER: This Book is not 384 pages. It’s only 247.
This book contains three different short stories so I’ll talk about each one separately.
*The Million Dollar Poodle*
This story was crazy. This lady who is a multimillionaire pampers her toy poodle, she even has a diamond studded collar. Well, she passes away and wills her multimillion dollars to her poodle, who is willed to her Nephew, Vince. The will also stated that if Mimi, the poodle, dies of natural causes, the money will go to Vince’s two cousins. Vince really does not care much for this dog, especially because she only understands French, but Vince only speaks English. One day, Vince meets this lady, Sophie. She spoke fluent French & English. She was originally a babysitter, until Vince hired her to dog sit while he works. When Vince brings Sophie home for the first time, she’s wondering around his apartment and stumbles into one room: “She blinked. Inside, there was a double bed with a bright pink bedspread and headboard shaped like a tiara. On it, in silver script, was the word Princess. There were rhinestones dotted here and there. ‘...and this is?’ ‘Mimi’s room’ Vince said sharply. ‘Oh I’m so relived.’ (23) That was Hilarious! Continue on to reading, and Sophie was wearing some sort of lace or something I can’t exactly remember, but she yanked the lace off with her teeth and at the moment, I completely cringed because I thought that was gross. On the other hand, talking about Vince, he was very selfish and only appeared to care about getting laid, even though the love scenes between Vince & Sophie were HOT. 🥵 There were just two minor things that bothered me in this story. One, was that Warren used ‘Mind YOU,’ at one point, meaning the reader, while she wrote a fiction story in THIRD PERSON, and the other thing that bugged me was that there were a lot of words in French, and while it flowed with the story, I don’t speak French, so I had no idea what was being said and it made this story my least favorite out of all three. There was no dictionary at the beginning or end to translate either. I didn’t want to look the words up myself because that would have taken the fun out of reading the whole book away.
*The World Is Too Darned Big*
I liked this story a lot. It immediately starts out with a bang. There are two main characters, Ben & Tara. They work for the CIA or something but it’s the first day they met. They’re on a mission to get a key back that opens any building in the world ever. They are both attracted to each other, and mention a lot times being ‘horny’ but never tell each other and just act like nothing has happened and that they don’t feel some type of way. Something that was kind of weird though was that Tara lugged around a pet rat. Once they finally got into the building they needed too, some random guy just appeared. Jo? Who the hell is he and why is he here and where did he come from? There was no character building for him. After a long fight or something, Ben is a hospital bed and Tara is right by his side and THEY. FINALLY. GET. TOGETHER. that’s right, they have sex....IN A HOSPITAL BED. That’s literally one of my dreams. How spontaneous!!
*Anything You Can Do*
This story was my favorite. It was so detailed in everything, right from the beginning. It starts out at a wedding for Alex’s sister, and he’s eyeing Kagen, and vise versa. Kagen is Alex’s sister’s husband’s best friend, and they were both warned about each other. When Alex’s sister & her new husband go on their honeymoon, Lisa (Alex’s Sister), tells Alex he can stay in their apartment to work on a project, and Lisa’s Husband tells Kagen she can stay in their apartment because she’s an interior designer and they were working on a surprise for Lisa. They had no idea the both of them would be staying in the apartment together, (and if I’m being honest, neither did I) so Alex made a promise to Lisa that he’d leave Kegan alone. Weeeellll....being alone for a week in an apartment with an attractive girl didn’t play to well for Alex in the end. They tried to dislike each other, but then they made a bet about who would crack first, and of course, it was Alex, also breaking his promise to his sister. They were in love. I loved them. They literally were perfect for each other. Alex made computer programs that showed holograms of house rooms, and it was the coolest thing ever. Kegan didn’t want to be in love so she tries to catch a flight back home, but Alex meets her at the airport and proposes a business plan with him, stating that she didn’t want to pursue a relationship, and that Alex can have any woman he wants, so what does he do? Kisses Kegan. What a gorgeous love story!
Overall, these stories were good. The last two were better than the first one but they all had good potential, and HEATED LOVE SCENES. 🥵🥵 a quick little read if you’re into romance and are craving some short stories.
This book contains three different short stories so I’ll talk about each one separately.
*The Million Dollar Poodle*
This story was crazy. This lady who is a multimillionaire pampers her toy poodle, she even has a diamond studded collar. Well, she passes away and wills her multimillion dollars to her poodle, who is willed to her Nephew, Vince. The will also stated that if Mimi, the poodle, dies of natural causes, the money will go to Vince’s two cousins. Vince really does not care much for this dog, especially because she only understands French, but Vince only speaks English. One day, Vince meets this lady, Sophie. She spoke fluent French & English. She was originally a babysitter, until Vince hired her to dog sit while he works. When Vince brings Sophie home for the first time, she’s wondering around his apartment and stumbles into one room: “She blinked. Inside, there was a double bed with a bright pink bedspread and headboard shaped like a tiara. On it, in silver script, was the word Princess. There were rhinestones dotted here and there. ‘...and this is?’ ‘Mimi’s room’ Vince said sharply. ‘Oh I’m so relived.’ (23) That was Hilarious! Continue on to reading, and Sophie was wearing some sort of lace or something I can’t exactly remember, but she yanked the lace off with her teeth and at the moment, I completely cringed because I thought that was gross. On the other hand, talking about Vince, he was very selfish and only appeared to care about getting laid, even though the love scenes between Vince & Sophie were HOT. 🥵 There were just two minor things that bothered me in this story. One, was that Warren used ‘Mind YOU,’ at one point, meaning the reader, while she wrote a fiction story in THIRD PERSON, and the other thing that bugged me was that there were a lot of words in French, and while it flowed with the story, I don’t speak French, so I had no idea what was being said and it made this story my least favorite out of all three. There was no dictionary at the beginning or end to translate either. I didn’t want to look the words up myself because that would have taken the fun out of reading the whole book away.
*The World Is Too Darned Big*
I liked this story a lot. It immediately starts out with a bang. There are two main characters, Ben & Tara. They work for the CIA or something but it’s the first day they met. They’re on a mission to get a key back that opens any building in the world ever. They are both attracted to each other, and mention a lot times being ‘horny’ but never tell each other and just act like nothing has happened and that they don’t feel some type of way. Something that was kind of weird though was that Tara lugged around a pet rat. Once they finally got into the building they needed too, some random guy just appeared. Jo? Who the hell is he and why is he here and where did he come from? There was no character building for him. After a long fight or something, Ben is a hospital bed and Tara is right by his side and THEY. FINALLY. GET. TOGETHER. that’s right, they have sex....IN A HOSPITAL BED. That’s literally one of my dreams. How spontaneous!!
*Anything You Can Do*
This story was my favorite. It was so detailed in everything, right from the beginning. It starts out at a wedding for Alex’s sister, and he’s eyeing Kagen, and vise versa. Kagen is Alex’s sister’s husband’s best friend, and they were both warned about each other. When Alex’s sister & her new husband go on their honeymoon, Lisa (Alex’s Sister), tells Alex he can stay in their apartment to work on a project, and Lisa’s Husband tells Kagen she can stay in their apartment because she’s an interior designer and they were working on a surprise for Lisa. They had no idea the both of them would be staying in the apartment together, (and if I’m being honest, neither did I) so Alex made a promise to Lisa that he’d leave Kegan alone. Weeeellll....being alone for a week in an apartment with an attractive girl didn’t play to well for Alex in the end. They tried to dislike each other, but then they made a bet about who would crack first, and of course, it was Alex, also breaking his promise to his sister. They were in love. I loved them. They literally were perfect for each other. Alex made computer programs that showed holograms of house rooms, and it was the coolest thing ever. Kegan didn’t want to be in love so she tries to catch a flight back home, but Alex meets her at the airport and proposes a business plan with him, stating that she didn’t want to pursue a relationship, and that Alex can have any woman he wants, so what does he do? Kisses Kegan. What a gorgeous love story!
Overall, these stories were good. The last two were better than the first one but they all had good potential, and HEATED LOVE SCENES. 🥵🥵 a quick little read if you’re into romance and are craving some short stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2020
First story was fun and kinda hot. Second story was a snooze and I skimmed it. Third was ok ✅
September 8, 2023
It was ok.
November 12, 2023
There are reasons I don’t love short story collections, and I think this one exemplifies the reasons why. There’s just not enough build up. The relationships are so rushed and instantaneous. I don’t love a super slow burn, but these made me realize that I do need something more than just physical attraction. This book in its entirety was a quick read. I did think there were some funny moments (especially in the second story), but there was also a lot left to be desired. I didn’t think the theme of bad boys with expensive toys was well developed at all. Nancy Warren’s story may have had the wealthy bad boy, but the other two didn’t at all and that was a let down.
February 27, 2024
Out of the three stories, the first one was my favorite. I liked the third one as well. The second one was just too fast-paced for my liking.
March 3, 2015
The Fourteen Million Dollar Poodle - Nancy Warren
Manly man Vince Grange inherits a French speaking (hearing?) poodle named Mimi. He is rightly horrified and immediately hires a French speaking dog nanny who is a godsend until someone tries to kill her and kidnap Mimi. The antics of this crew are delightful. The romance is anything but sweet with our manly man but enjoyable anyway.
The World is Too Darned Big - Mary Janice Davidson
I immediately disliked her writing style - choppy, abrupt sentences. A total rip-off of James Bond and badly done at that. Techno geek Ben Dyson gets scammed by the bad guys to develop some nifty device to help their cause. When he realizes this, he immediately sets out to find them and get his device back. Gimme a break. I found this tedious, boring, the anti-hero was a joke, and the romance was ridiculous.
Anything you can do... - Karen Kelley
This is the best of the anthology. The mutual seduction of Alex and Kagen is an exciting one-up-manship of tease and retreat. Well written though rushed do to the length. I can imagine how good it would have been as a full length novel.
Manly man Vince Grange inherits a French speaking (hearing?) poodle named Mimi. He is rightly horrified and immediately hires a French speaking dog nanny who is a godsend until someone tries to kill her and kidnap Mimi. The antics of this crew are delightful. The romance is anything but sweet with our manly man but enjoyable anyway.
The World is Too Darned Big - Mary Janice Davidson
I immediately disliked her writing style - choppy, abrupt sentences. A total rip-off of James Bond and badly done at that. Techno geek Ben Dyson gets scammed by the bad guys to develop some nifty device to help their cause. When he realizes this, he immediately sets out to find them and get his device back. Gimme a break. I found this tedious, boring, the anti-hero was a joke, and the romance was ridiculous.
Anything you can do... - Karen Kelley
This is the best of the anthology. The mutual seduction of Alex and Kagen is an exciting one-up-manship of tease and retreat. Well written though rushed do to the length. I can imagine how good it would have been as a full length novel.
April 19, 2013
I kind of liked the middle story, "The World is Too Darned Big"...a James Bond knockoff story where the lab geek gets the girl. The one catch for me was the main character's description reminded me of "Beaker, the lab assistant on the Muppets and I kept giggling about it. I'm not sure the that's the mood the author was after. It just struck me as funny.
November 20, 2007
read 09.18.06
February 11, 2008
TOTAL FLUFF & A WASTE OF TIME.
She’s only good at the urban fantasy/romance/comedy books... any time she veers off that style, it is terrible.
She’s only good at the urban fantasy/romance/comedy books... any time she veers off that style, it is terrible.
May 13, 2008
This was another quick weekend read. The stories were entertaining enough and full o' smut! ; ) A fun quick read.
January 23, 2009
I thought the 1st story - the '$14 Million Dollar Poodle' - was laugh out loud funny in spots. Other two stories were good read-once stories.
July 14, 2010
Contemporary romance. Perfect beach read. Quick read. Easy way to pick up a new author or catch up on existing characters.
Read
November 7, 2010Not great but for light reading it was fun :)
November 9, 2010
Ah, back to straight fluff without the paranormal aspects.
December 3, 2010
The Fourteen Million Dollar Poodle :)
The World is Too Darned Big :/
Anything You Can Do... :/
The World is Too Darned Big :/
Anything You Can Do... :/
March 3, 2011
I only read the first story by Nancy Warren. It was short but good. I love the dogs, and the main couple were fun to read.
April 8, 2011
pretty good. i really enjoy the geeky guy in the second story, because he didn't think of himself as god's gift to women.
July 6, 2011
i like it
July 14, 2012
i enjoyed the first story, 'the poodle'. the second one, 'the world' was entertaining. the third story i couldn't get into at all.
April 26, 2013
This was another quick weekend read. The stories were entertaining enough and full of awesome smut! lol A fun quick read.
August 12, 2014
The Fourteen Million-Dollar Poodle - Nancy Warren
Fun and sexy!
Fun and sexy!
January 31, 2016
Three short stories, fun, light romances with a humorous twist. Beach read.
November 10, 2016
Nancy Warren - The fourteen million dollar poodle: 3*
MaryJanice Davidson - The world is too darned big: 2.5*
Karen Kelly - Anything you can do...: 2.5*
MaryJanice Davidson - The world is too darned big: 2.5*
Karen Kelly - Anything you can do...: 2.5*
Read
December 8, 2012I loved her story the best
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews