BOOK REVIEW - LAID BARE by LAUREN DANE - BROWN SIBLINGS # 1 - BERKLEY - ADULT - EROTIC - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Lauren Dane
Published By : Berkley
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from Library, 291 Pages

RATING: 4.5 TODD, BEN, BRODY & ADRIAN STARS! 

Blurb: Goodreads 

Unexpected Desire...

It's been ten years since clean-cut, sexy-as-hell police officer Todd Keenan had a white-hot fling with Erin Brown, the provocative, wild rocker chick next door. Their power exchange in the bedroom got under his skin. But love wasn't in the cards just yet...

Now, life has thrown the pair back together. But picking up where they left off is tough, in light of a painful event from Erin's past. As Todd struggles to earn her trust, their relationship takes an unexpected and exciting turn when Todd's best friend, Ben, ends up in their bed--and all three are quite satisfied in this relationship without a name. As the passion they share transforms Erin, will it be enough to help her face the evil she thought she had left behind?

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

Officer Keenan let ten years go by before he would admit to himself what really turned him on in a relationship.

Dreadlocked Erin was there for him ten years prior and he couldn’t let himself go where he knew Erin wanted to go...where he wanted to go. He was a cop. His family are all cops. What would his family think if they knew what Todd really wanted in a relationship?

He slammed a hand against the wall next to her and then grabbed her around the waist, pulling her flush against his body. “Damn it Erin, I don’t lose control. I’m a controlled man. I make good choices. I don’t fuck women against alley walls. It’s off-putting.”

“Really now? So who fucked me in that alley, Todd? Your doppelganger? “

Ten years later, Erin may have lost her dreadlocks and traded them in for pink hair but she hadn’t lost her desires. Erin has lost much more than her dreadlocks. She has lost too much in her life and her brothers Adrian and Brody are very protective of Erin.

Brody owns the tattoo shop next to Erin’s cafe. Brody is gorgeous and he won’t let anybody hurt Erin ever again.

At last he faced her, holding both her hands. “Baby girl, I love you so much. Let me help you. It’s not necessary to be superwoman, you know? Why don’t you call me? I’m just next door. You know I’ll come with you. I don’t judge you, because there’s nothing to judge. You’re not a burden. I like to do things for you.”


“I’m leaving the connecting door open. If you want to sing, you know I’d love you for it.” He kissed her forehead and looked her over. He knew the storm had passed and so backed away.

She worked as Dry played. Played until “Fountain” came on and she stood near the door and sang part of the lyrics, ending with the line about what to do when everything’s left you.

The noise from the room next door had stilled to utter silence until Brody cleared his throat.

“Thanks, baby girl. You know I love that one.”


Adrian, her younger brother is the Rockstar. Erin has taken a back seat to that world. The world she loved and never feared. Now she has every right to fear fame.

Todd is pulling out all the stops to prove that he is ready for Erin and he won’t waste another minute of his life not accepting his own desires.

His lips hovered just barely above hers. “Because sharing is what’s on my mind. What do you think about that?”

She blinked. Ben had moved so she rested, her back to his chest. His broad, muscley chest. Todd couldn’t possibly mean what she thought he meant.

“What do I think about sharing what?” Her voice was breathless.

Ben laughed but didn’t touch her any more than his chest to her back.

“Sharing our bed with Ben.”

The title of this book is very apt. Lauren has really laid herself out bare as a writer to bring this story of a great traumatic loss for Erin and a new love found in a triad relationship.

As a writer if you are going to write something like this you have to go deeper than the sex of a relationship. I think Lauren did this very well. You have to check your inhibitions at the door and totally write from your heart. As a reader who isn’t into this type of relationship, I was made to feel totally invested in it working out for them all.

I was won over how it could work. Lauren laid it all out bare with her characters and they showed their families that love comes in all forms.

Ben is a gorgeous character who you can feel a bit sorry for. He isn’t a third wheel but in the eyes of the law there is only so much on paper that he can be included in.

I’m not saying this isn’t a complicated relationship that would have to be revisited when it came to children because there is a whole can of worms there to be opened. Lauren showed me as the reader that it is complicated but love is love.

Cope is Ben’s brother and he is a funny, loveable character with a side order of cheeky. I think I would love an Andy Copeland book too.

If Ben Copeland had been overwhelmingly large and very handsome, his little brother was downright sinfully gorgeous. He was Todd’s size, with black hair and striking blue eyes. She also knew him.

“So Cope is actually Andy Copeland, huh?” She put the plates on the table and moved toward them.

“Oh my god! You’re the cafe hottie! Your brother has done my inkwork.” Cope turned to Todd, whose eyebrows had slashed down , his face darkening into a scowl. Cope laughed. “I sneak into your girlfriend’s cafe at least once a month to drink coffee and to check out what colour her hair might be next. Back with Mud Bay you had dreads, and then your hair was very short and black. Hot.”He waggled his eyebrows. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you. I should have recognized your voice though. You should have sung more often. That smoky sex voice thing you do on ‘Lashed’ is hot stuff.”

I am really looking forward to reading Adrian and Brody’s books. These are really great brothers. They are there for their sister and don’t bat an eyelid at her loves.

Erin is a very talented creative soul who just isn’t the norm. She beats to her own drum and this story beats to its own drum too.

I really loved it. You can’t help but feel connected to the characters and feel their loss and feel their love.

It goes without saying the smexi is very YOWZER!

Michelle

NEXT UP - BRODY'S BOOK ...YAY!

A new novel of "toe-curling" erotic romance from the national bestselling author of Laid Bare.

After his parents' death, Brody gave up a promising career to care for his family. Now, with his siblings grown, Brody owns his own business, and for the first time in years he's alone. Elise has come to Seattle with her daughter to find peace. After years as a world-famous ballerina-and trapped in a marriage gone bad-she's looking for neither love nor attention. But she finds both in the handsome, honest man who befriends her with no strings attached.

Brody and Elise discover in each other the wild, physical passion they need. But it'll take a shadow from Elise's past to make them look beyond what they need-to what they truly desire.