TITLE: Chasing Bliss, (Nights in Bliss, Colorado #7)
AUTHOR: Sophie Oak
GENRE: Romance, Erotic, BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois, Western/Cowboys
PUBLISHED: September 2012
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
WORD COUNT: 96,575
ISBN: 978-1-62241-503-8
PURCHASE LINKS: Siren Bookstrand
MOBILISM LINK: Chasing Bliss
Review: Bliss is a mythical close-knit community filled with odd-balls, eccentrics, naturists, and the occasional alien abduction. Gemma moves to Bliss to look after her mother when she loses everything to betrayal and scandal.
The Book opens with Gemma being arrested for assaulting one of her more eccentric customers at the diner for insulting her boss. Part of a series of events orchestrated by the Sheriff to gain her as his office manager, a job with a short life expectancy due to the prevalence of serial killers and stalkers.
Since arriving, Gemma has now gained her own stalker issues, the usual kind who sends hate mail and presents; and Bliss resident Nell, an environmental activist who aims to bribe Gemma to her cause with home made muffins and photo’s ‘humanising’ their plight.
Her first meeting with Jesse and Cade does not go well when she overhears Cade talking to her in a derogatory fashion:
“We’ll find someone, Jess. It’s just not going to be a ball-busting, big-city girl.”
“You forgot to mention that I’m a soul-sucking lawyer,” a throaty voice said from the front door. “Oh, and cold-hearted bitch, vampire bitch, cast-iron bitch, really everything goes with bitch.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“And I didn’t bust Max Harper’s balls. Those are still on his body. Now, Bare-Chested Ape Man, if you could be bothered to look past my boobs, maybe we could have a conversation.”
Just when they manage to overcome their differences, Gemma’s ex-fiancee comes to town bring trouble, mayhem and an attempted murder, it becomes a race to solve the mystery of who means Gemma harm, and Cade must decide if he can beat his past or walk away from the two people he loves the most.
Gemma doesn‘t have any trouble expressing herself, she’s always considered herself ‘difficult’, and finally feels like she might have found somewhere to fit in, even as a child she stood out while living in a commune of free living hippies.
The closeness between Jesse and Cade was obvious, having grown up together as foster brothers with Nancy their foster mother. They were introduced in the previous book, Pure Bliss.
I loved the sparks between the three of them and their confrontations. Lynne Gemma’s mother catch a naked Cade sneeking out was hilarious as she puts him on the spot.
Cade’s carries a lot of misplaced guilt from the deaths first of his family when he was 8 years old, then later Nancy his foster mother, blaming himself for not being there for her and feels he doesn’t deserve Gemma.
A near death experience causes Gemma to realise she misunderstood her father’s dying message ‘Live, live, live’, thinking he was too far gone to understand what he was saying. With Nell the activist she finds she could have a future in Bliss instead of regaining her former life.
I thought Cade’s battle with his guilt and Gemma’s eventual revelation were a bit too drawn out, I wanted to shake them and tell them to get over it already and stop torturing Jesse the reasonable one in the relationship. Gemma’s focus is on regaining her career and not seeing the good things under her nose.
The Nights in Bliss series is an excellent example of this genre, Sophie Oaks has has an amazing way of painting a picture with her words and pulling you into the story, dealing with an unusual lifestyle with amazing sensitivity and empathy.
Although this book wasn’t my favourite in the series it was still enjoyable and entertaining despite some of the ‘issues’ the characters had, and I’ll still be waiting impatiently for the next book to find out what happens next.
