Hello everyone!
Hands up from everyone who feels the same way!
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of us.
For me, there are a few authors who will make me squeal with excitement and then dance around the room once I get my hand on a copy of the book in question. The top of that list has to be Tolkien, but he's sadly deceased, so I have to make do.
Among these, and right around the top, is J. R. Ward. Now, if you've been following this blog, you'll know I'm a sucker for her Black Dagger Brotherhood novels (hot vampires who kick ass? UHM YES!), and when news broke that she'd be trying her hand at a different, contemporary story, I was all for it. The Bourbon Kings certainly did not disappoint, and its sequel even less!
Ladies and gentlemen, the love child of Santa Barbara and Dynasty, married to Dallas, and parent to CSI: Kentucky is BACK!
In other words, allow me to introduce you to my review of The Angels' Share.
Now, before we go on, the definition for the title is basically the amount of whiskey that evaporates during the aging process in oak barrels. When the whole thing began, people believed angels were the ones sipping their liquor and having a party in the distilleries.
There has to be a whole lot of drunk winged dudes around, is all I'll say!
Back to the topic at hand: to briefly recap the first book, we are introduced to the world of Kentucky and its old money families, namely the Bradfords who are ruled with an iron fist by their patriarch. This all goes to hell when said patriarch is found dead, and it turns out it might be murder, not to mention that they are pretty much bankrupt, the trust funds depleted, and the money nowhere to be found.
So in the second book, we return to Easterly, the family seat, where Lane, the prodigal son returned home, is desperately trying to save his family, his fortune, and his future.
The only thing he kind of has a grasp on is the future, though, considering he asks Lizzie, the head gardener, to marry him in this installment. But at least he takes the helm of this tottering boat, and starts trying to figure things out.
Namely, where the money went, how to get enough of it to pay impending debts that are being called in, and how the heck to keep the company running because you need grain to keep the whiskey rollin' - and he can't get grain without money.
Long story short, this is what happens: enlisting the help of his New York buddy, Jeff, Lane discovers that the amount of money the family lost is HUGE. Like, that black hole doesn't seem to have any kind of depth meter anywhere. And the bills are rolling in, staff have to be let go, and not the least of this all is the murder investigation.
Because his father's ring (attached to the finger, natch) was found under his mother's bedroom window, this means there's foul play involved.
So, as Jeff the Master Number Chef works his magic (after being blackmailed, and then bribed, but hey, what are friends for?) with the accounts, Lane is dealing with suspicion that his oldest brother, Edward, is the one who killed their sire.
See, Edward got kidnapped in South America and tortured, so now he's a shell of his former self. He's in love with the family's greatest rival, and she loves him back, but he kind of has nothing to offer her (in his mind). He's the most likely suspect in all this, though Lane is suspicious of both him and brother Max, who makes an unexpected appearance for the funeral, and looks like a lumberjack.
No, seriously.
That aside, Lane eventually does some very smart things: these include, but are not limited to, firing senior management and hiring Jeff as interim CEO to turn the company around.
What also happens is a high-stakes poker game with the Grain God, as their chief supplier is dubbed, playing for money and a priceless painting of Jesus, which Lane wins (the money, not the painting), and ends up gifting the painting to the man who is the closest thing he now has to a father.
So, the company is sort of safe at the moment.
The other interesting things which happen are Chantal's reappearance, and her swift departure as her stuff is packed into the waiting limo, and Tiphanii (yep, two Is at the end) seducing Jeff only to leak his work to the press.
And then there's Gin.
Gin is a glutton for punishment and she's marrying a sadistic bastard because he has the money; her daughter, Amelia, comes home on pretense that she got kicked from school for sleeping with a professor, when in reality she just wants to be closer to home. Samuel T., Amelia's father (not that he knows this), offers help to Gin because he loves her, and because she deserves more, and by the end of the book we see a different side of the woman emerge. A Bradford woman who will survive, with her spine of steel intact (as in, she sold her engagement diamond for gold to set aside for her baby girl just in case).
The book ends with Edward's admission and arrest for the murder of William Baldwine, his father, and the head cook and momma to the kids, Miss Aurora, being taken to the hospital because she's in a coma due to cancer.
At least there was a high note of dinner with everyone left at Easterly, though, all of them pitching together like a true family.
I LOVED THIS BOOK.
Okay, it was a bit slower than the first, a build up for the third one which comes out next year, but who cares? Because it's so wildly different than the BDB ones, some people are complaining that it's not Ward's style, but I honestly love it and enjoy it. There's so much good stuff in there that it's impossible to ignore.
My one comment, though? The language. The thing I like about the BDB books is that the characters speak pretty much the way they would in real life. So here, I'm kind of expecting the same thing, but it's a bit jarring to hear people who were born and raised in the Deep South to speak proper, British English. I guess I expected more of a drawl in there, ya know? Like Hollis Doyle on Scandal, the man can't be mistaken for anything but a Texan!
Aside from that, though, this is another gold nugget in Ward's collection, and I CANNOT wait for the third novel of the saga!
xx
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