Review: No Strings Attached by Susan Andersen

Title: No Strings Attached by Susan Andersen
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: C+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Some mistakes are worth repeating…

Tasha Riordan’s one night with Luc Bradshaw was the best of her life. The following two—when he left her to be thrown into a Bahamian jail on bogus charges—were her worst. Now, seven years later, the undercover DEA agent is back. Invading her town. Her restaurant. Her fantasies. She can’t trust a man who lied to her. Yet neither can she trust herself—not when their chemistry burns even hotter than before.

Learning he has two half brothers shocks Luc. Discovering they live in the same town as Tasha—that’s a different kind of thrill. Their mutual lust is still off the charts, but he can’t get her to listen to his side of what happened on that long-ago night. Good thing he’s got powers of persuasion that go deeper than words. Because nothing has ever felt this right….

The Review:

Susan Andersen’s No Strings Attached is the last of the Bradshaw brothers’ romances and in this outing (which is also set in Razor Bay), half brother Luc gets the surprise of his life when he meets Tasha Riordan, the woman he spent one glorious night with seven years earlier. Equally astonishing is her animosity towards him and her inexplicable belief that he is a low-life scumbag criminal. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Tasha clings to her mistaken belief in an effort to protect her heart but will their smoking hot attraction convince her to give Luc another chance?

Tasha and Luc have very different memories of their passionate encounter and Luc would like nothing more than to pick up where they left off. His confusion over her hostility towards him is quickly cleared up when she tells him the real story about what happened to her, but she stubbornly refuses to believe he is actually a DEA agent who works deep undercover. Tasha tries to avoid him as much as possible but her best friends are Luc’s brothers’ girlfriends and she is further dismayed to learn that he is her new renter. Confronted with irrefutable proof that Luc has been telling the truth about his identity, Tasha gives in to their desire but she is determined to keep their relationship casual.

I have been looking forward to Luc’s story since his introduction in Some Like It Hot and I love his character as much as I do his half-brothers Jake and Max. Luc grew up an only child who did not learn about Max and Jake until after their father’s death and he is very eager to get to know them. Although he likes both of his brothers, Luc is envious of Jake and Max’s close bond but he never lets his feelings get in the way of his burgeoning relationship with them. Luc’s career has kept him from romantic entanglements, but when it comes to Tasha, he soon realizes that keeping his distance is going to be impossible. Once he gets to the bottom of what really happened to her seven years ago, Luc has some important decisions to make about his future but will his future include Tasha?

I liked the glimpses of Tasha from the previous novels, but in No Strings Attached, I found it difficult to like her. Her stubbornness about Luc’s identity quickly becomes irritating and once she does believe him, she uses someone else to prove that Luc does not mean anything to her. Her indecisiveness is also very frustrating and she is constantly changing her mind about whether she wants him in her life or not. She also leaps to conclusions and lack of communication on her part leads to unnecessary misunderstandings between them. Although I dislike how Tasha handled her complicated relationship with Luc, she is quick to offer help to troubled teens Jeremy and Peyton and she has great friendships with her best friends Jenny and Harper.

Overall, No Strings Attached is an enjoyable read and it is a lovely addition to Susan Andersen’s trilogy starring the Bradshaw brothers. It can be read as a standalone story, but I highly recommend the previous novels as well.