Kathleen K. (katydid597) - , reviewed on 9/29/2016 + 48 more book reviews

I love J. R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and I was fortunate enough to win the 2nd book in this series - The Angels' Share - from Goodreads, so I had to read this first. It's fairly slow going, but I attribute that to the need to set up the characters and the settings, but it seems pretty draggy for this author. I'm used to lots of action and this didn't deliver from the start like I'm used to.

Major dysfunctional family, made me really feel sorry for the poor rich kids and I've never felt that way before. If this is even close to true, I'm really glad I'm middle class. Their childhood with their father left way to much to be desired, and the one truly saving grace was their cook and "real" mother Aurora. She raised them as she would have if they had been her children, and they never lacked for love or discipline when she was around. I have read that many of the Southern wealthy families had their black maids (think The Help) and servants raise the children, and that was the case here. Both parents were pathetic, the father as an abuser and the mother as a doormat, and love was a lost cause in the long run.

None of the kids, 3 boys and a girl, had a good grasp on how to live in the real world, it seems that money is a great padding to keep the world at arm's length, and, when the reality of eminent bankruptcy hits, everyone has a different reaction. Gin, the daughter, can't foresee a life that doesn't include a massive fortune, so she is willing to marry someone who really does resemble her father, especially in the abuse department. Edward, the eldest, has already parted ways with the family. He was to become the leader in the family's bourbon business, but after having been kidnapped and tortured nearly to death on a South American business trip, he purchased Red and Black, the family's stables and is now breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. Maxwell, the 2nd son, isn't well characterized in this book, and hopefully we will learn more about him as the series continues. Lane, the youngest son, has supported himself by playing poker in New York, staying with a college friend.

When Lane received a call that Mama Aurora was in very poor health and in the hospital, he headed for home and all heck breaks loose. He had been involved with their master gardener Lizzie King before he left and the affair had ended when he married his pregnant, but unloved, college girlfriend. Now he was returning to a house that had both women and to a family that was unbelievably screwed up. Somehow he finds himself delegated the savior of the business and the family and his solutions are rather eye-opening to say the least.

I did enjoy the book, but I wasn't blown away by it. It was slow reading at times, but when an author has to set up so much, it does take time and pages. I found it hard to relate to the protagonists, and I don't think it was so much due to their financial status as it was to the fact that I had a hard time believing that they were worth saving. At least by the end of the book I liked them a bit better. It's worth the read though, as the second book is much better. It was a good thing I had it on hand since this one ends in a cliff-hanger.

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